SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel announced Monday that it is calling on the San Antonio Independent School District to start off the school year with nine weeks of virtual instruction.
Our statement on SAISD's decision to force educators back into their classrooms for virtual instruction in August. It...
Posted by San Antonio Alliance on Monday, July 27, 2020
Right now, the district is planning on virtual instruction for the first three weeks of the school year and in-person instruction will become available for students after Labor Day.
The union said in a statement that it is not safe for educators to go back to school as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the area.
Union president Alexandra Lopez said the decision is based on community health and safety.
“We know what the medical health professionals are saying, which is that we don’t have the medical infrastructure to deal with this effectively,” Lopez said. “At the moment, it is about the health, not of individuals, but of the community at large.”
Families will be asked to make the decision before school starts, whether they want to send their students back to school after Labor Day or keep them at home doing remote learning. That decision, though, would only pertain to the remaining six weeks of the first, nine-week grading period.
According to an SAISD spokesperson, teachers will be phased in through Labor Day starting with volunteers who are willing to go into schools first.