The city of San Francisco is suing its own school system to force education leaders to produce a reopening plan after the district neglected to do so, according to its plans released Wednesday.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera, under the direction of Mayor London Breed, is set to file a motion with the San Francisco Superior Court on Feb. 11 that would create a court-ordered emergency declaration, thereby forcing the San Francisco Board of Education and the San Francisco Unified School District to construct an in-person class work plan.
More than 57,000 students who were affected have endured “significant learning loss” throughout the 11-month closure, according to Herrera.
“It’s a shame it has come to this,” he said. “The Board of Education and the school district have had more than 10 months to roll out a concrete plan to get these kids back in school. So far they have earned an F. Having a plan to make a plan doesn’t cut it.”
The district initially had a plan to reopen only for disabled students and young children, but it was tossed out after pushback from the United Educators of San Francisco, a prominent teachers union in the area.
Half a dozen union organizations are pressuring the Unified School District to require more stringent precautions than California’s state guidance, including vaccines for all staff members, transportation to and from work, and upgraded ventilation, among other requests.
United Educators rebuked the lawsuit, claiming that the city was uncooperative during reopening negotiations.
“United Educators is very disappointed that the City has chosen to attack rather than support the school district,” the union said. “UESF has been calling for the City to help with resources, such as COVID testing and vaccines, but this has not happened.”
School Board President Gabriela Lopez, a target of the lawsuit, said the litigation will serve only “to slow us down.”
“I think filing a lawsuit will most likely slow us down,” she said. “I don’t see how this is helpful right now when we are making progress and the county has failed to provide the necessary support with the testing and vaccines we need.”
Virtual classrooms aren’t “working for anyone,” said Breed, who funneled $15 million into the reopening effort.
“This is not the path we would have chosen, but nothing matters more right now than getting our kids back in school,” she said in a statement. “This is hurting the mental health of our kids and our families. Our teachers have done an incredible job of trying to support our kids through distance learning, but this isn’t working for anyone.”
Debates over how best to reopen schools have pervaded throughout the nation. Chicago-area public schools are engaged in a fight with city leaders over when and how in-person education should resume. Mayor Lori Lightfoot withdrew a threat Tuesday to lock teachers out of online software if they chose not to attend the Monday start date following weekslong negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union.
A similar dynamic is playing out in northern Virginia, where frustrated parents erupted at a heated board meeting over the Loudoun School District’s prolonged closure.
“You’re a bunch of cowards, hiding behind our children as an excuse for keeping schools closed,” said parent Brandon Michon, whose remarks during the meeting went viral, later adding that “the garbage workers who pick up my freakin’ trash risk their lives every day more than anyone in this school system” and calling on administrators to “figure it out.”
Evidence regarding the safety of reopening is muddled.
Two separate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies on the matter appeared to reach conflicting conclusions. An examination of 17 schools in rural Wisconsin found that the incidence of COVID-19 among students and staff was low, while a second study of two high school wrestling tournaments in Florida indicated that school sports could be a high-risk activity.
San Francisco County has experienced 31,703 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 324 deaths attributed to the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
