Tri-Cities teachers fear it’s not safe to return to schools yet, say new surveys

Tri-City teachers don’t feel it’s safe to return to the classroom.

Kennewick and Richland teacher unions released the details of recent surveys of their members. And union officials said the results from teachers throughout the Tri-Cities are remarkably similar.

“I had a meeting with the Pasco Association of Educators and Richland Education Association leadership last week and our results at that point were, unsurprisingly, very closely aligned,” Rob Woodford, president of the Kennewick Education Association, wrote in the union newsletter.

In Kennewick, more than 70 percent of the teachers don’t feel employees should be back in the classroom before Phase 3.

Nearly 80 percent of the 658 Richland teachers who responded felt the same according to numbers released by their union, according to a Facebook post on the union’s website.

REA President Ken Hays said if districts start working now on their plans for teaching online, there will be better results than last spring.

“When the governor announced the closure of schools on March 13, educators weren’t given time to prepare to teach virtually,” Hays said in an email to the Herald.

“Also, OSPI completely changed their guidelines for distance learning in the first few weeks after schools were closed. Educators left their classrooms ... with one set of expectations then, within a few weeks, were told they had to do something completely different,” he said.

Pasco has not released the results of its survey.

Weekly surveys

A joint statement about opening schools is expected to be coming from the three unions in the next few days, Hays said.

Pasco, Richland and Kennewick are planning weekly surveys, Woodford said.

That comes as the Washington Education Association applied its pressure to get state leaders to change course on opening schools this fall.

The state superintendent’s office and the Department of Health laid out a series of guidelines that include requiring a 6-foot separation between students and requiring face masks.

All of the Tri-City school districts have proposed a hybrid of spending time in class and teaching from a distance.

Richland’s plan also includes an option to bring back only students who need individualized attention.

Parents have been split about these proposals with some asking what reassurances they can get from educators, and others are saying the districts and the state are moving too slowly to return to normal.

The Seattle School District already announced it will stay with online classes when school starts this fall.

WEA Announcement

In a statement sent Thursday afternoon, the Washington Education Association demanded safety first in any plans to return students to class.

“As the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to grow across Washington, we are sadly faced with a choice between two bad options — either return to schools and put our educators, students and community at risk or return to a distance learning and virtual instruction model.”

More than 120,000 teachers, librarians, office staff, paraeducators and other employees work in the state, and opening the schools would lead to more cases, said the association.

They’re also concerned that any plan for moving forward must address the people most likely to be impacted by the closures, including special needs students, students who are homeless or students in rural areas.

The statewide organization is turning to state agencies to work with them on a plan for new guidelines.

“We believe that there is no more critical calling in this country than fulfilling the right of children to receive a world-class educational experience, and it remains the constitutional, paramount duty of the state to provide for that education,” the association said. “High-quality distance learning can exist, but we need the resources.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 6:00 PM.