Los Alamitos High teachers put off voting on strike, plan to work Tuesday
Nearly 100 Los Alamitos High School teachers met online Sunday afternoon, Sept. 27, to consider a potential strike over safety concerns with in-person learning, but they put off the vote for at least 10 days from Tuesday, Sept. 29.
In that time, union leaders are hopeful that both sides can iron out their differences and avoid a strike, said David Eisenberg, a science teacher and leader with the Los Alamitos Education Association.
RELATED: Los Alamitos high school teachers threaten strike over COVID-19 safety measures
While a strike is still possible, Eisenberg said he didn’t think it would come to that: “Mostly because the administration has started listening to what the teachers need. The only problem is they decided to do it at the last minute when they could have done this a month ago.”
Superintendent Andrew Pulver could not be reached late Sunday afternoon. He has previously said the district has met or exceeded state guidelines for the safe return of students to campuses. He also said every room in the high school is equipped with new air filtration systems using HEPA filters.
Eisenberg said for the union to strike, it would have to give the district 10-days notice. And that notice has to happen after the district takes unilateral action, such as forcing teachers to show up to work on campus. The teachers don’t have to show up on campus until Tuesday, which marks the first day of in-person learning at the high school. The district’s younger grades have already started in-person education.
The teachers said they want to return to teaching students in person, but only after they can confirm that safety measures are in place and all is in working order, including the new ventilation systems installed in the last few days.
On Saturday morning, the school board passed a resolution declaring an emergency and authorizing the hiring of substitute teachers should teachers not come to work on Tuesday.
Pulver said Saturday night that between 20 to 30 of those substitutes are already “in house,” including counselors and administrators at the high school and possibly assistant principals from the district’s other schools.
The high school’s approximately 125 teachers have been teaching more than 3,100 students online since Aug. 31.
During surveys conducted by their union, a majority of the teachers who responded expressed concern about returning to in-person instruction based on what’s in place.
In one survey of 108 teachers, 89 said they wanted to push the in-person start date to a later day. In another survey of 88 teachers, 55 said the school had “not met a minimum threshold of essential safety for reopening.”
On social media, some community members were reporting teachers are considering a sick-out. “The union would never engage in an illegal sickout,” Eisenberg said Sunday.
On Tuesday, the high school is set to shift to a hybrid model of learning, which for this district means students will attend class on campus for three hours, four days a week, rotating in morning and afternoon shifts. The other hours of the school day will still be distance learning and on Wednesdays, everyone has online schooling.
Pulver, in an earlier interview, said that when high school students show up for their first day of in-person instruction Tuesday, they will find more outdoor shade structures, which can be used for learning outside, handwashing stations throughout the campus, and directional arrows to assist with social distancing. Students also will find clear desk shields on their desks, which they will have to disinfect in every class, every day, along with their desk and chair.
About 500 families have chosen to not return to campus, selecting instead a new online-only program called LosAl@Home, which allow students to study strictly off-campus.
On social media, some criticized the teachers for not choosing to work in the online school if they had concerns about safety. But Eisenberg and other teachers said it wasn’t as simple as that. A district description of the online school changed vastly from the time the teachers were given a deadline to apply for it compared to what that online school has evolved into, Eisenberg said. Another teacher told the board during their Sept. 22 meeting that some educators who applied to teach in the new LosAl@Home were not given that opportunity, while others who did not apply were assigned to it.
The Los Alamitos Unified School District serves students from Los Alamitos, Seal Beach and Rossmoor, as well as neighboring communities, including Long Beach.
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