SACRAMENTO, California — Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) reached an agreement with the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) on Saturday that allows students to return to in-person classes as soon as April 8.
Sacramento County is currently in the red tier, which schools are allowed to have students in classrooms if they announced their COVID-19 safety plan. SCUSD released a plan on how students could return to in-person learning in February.
Pre-Kindergarten to third grade and kindergarten to sixth-grade special day classes could be in class on April 8, according to the reopening plan. Students sixth through 12th grade will return May 6 if Sacramento County returns to the red tier. The school district's last day is on June 17.
SCTA President David Fisher, a second-grade teacher, said they're very excited to get back into the classroom.
"Our negotiations have been very productive and far less adversarial than some of our past bargaining sessions," Fisher said. "I'm confident that the agreement we reached today will allow students, teachers and staff to return to our school buildings safely."
The district also released plans of how campus life would look like once students could return to classrooms. Schools will follow a disinfection schedule and install plexiglass barriers and signs to encourage social distancing.
Classrooms would also air cycled through vents as well as through opening doors and windows. Schools are installing air filters as well.
Schools are also promoting hygiene by disabling hand dryers, new school sinks and drinking fountains. They say that hand dryers spread germs and turning off fountains would reduce the number of places students could gather.
