Palo Alto Teachers Union Pushes For Distance Learning

PALO ALTO, CA — The Palo Alto teachers union in an open letter to the school district is asking that campuses remain shuttered to start the upcoming fall semester and that instruction be conducted virtually amid the coronavirus crisis.

The Palo Alto Educators Association cited safety concerns and noted a surge of coronavirus cases. As of Wednesday there were 6,951 confirmed cases in Santa Clara County, which was recently added to the state’s watch list.

The letter is addressed to Superintendent Don Austin, Deputy Superintendent Karen Hendricks and PAUSD Board of Education members.

“There are so many pedagogical and logistical challenges, so many compromises on quality teaching and learning, that can be reduced or eliminated by choosing an online-only approach,” the letter said.

“While online instruction brings its own set of concerns and challenges, district time, energy, and resources would be much better spent on maximizing the quality of online instruction, supplemented by providing appropriate learning materials (books, art supplies, math manipulatives, etc.) to all students and families who need them. A return to campus will not be like returning to school in pre-pandemic conditions, and the student experience will be vastly different and limited. As a District, we should strive to make the online learning experience as effective and as close to in-person as possible instead.

“Given these concerns, we, the PAEA Executive Board, the PAEA Negotiations team and a group of educators from PAUSD, urge you, Superintendent Austin and the PAUSD Board of Education, to adopt a distance learning model. It is the only way to keep our PAUSD community safe. There are many improvements which can be made to distance learning for the 2020-2021 school year from Spring 2020.”

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