As us-regions parents are taking state leaders to court in their effort to school-reopening-plans” target=”_blank”>reopen schools< next week and cutting back on some class time.
The teacher, Barbara McIntyre, has been working remotely due to health concerns surrounding the infectious-disease.
But she’ll be traveling abroad to celebrate her son’s wedding, according to an email sent to parents and shared with Fox News.
CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS LAG IN REOPENING PUSH
“I will be traveling to Mexico for my son’s long deferred wedding on May 19th, (after school)-for approximately 12,(+/-,) days,” she wrote in an email addressed to kindergarten families. “While I will be teaching from Mexico, some days will contain asynchronous lessons due to travel and limited family activities. Thursday, May 20th will be a completely asynchronous day, as will our return date, (yet to be established due to my mother’s health).”
Asynchronous lessons are unsupervised busywork, according to Jonathan Zachreson, the founder of Reopen California Schools.
“It’s basically handing out assignments and then not being there,” he said.
Zachreson’s group and others like it across the state are pushing for a full reopening of schools to in-person learning to all families who want it. But they face opposition from elected officials, administrators and some teachers’ unions, who cite health risks growing from the coronavirus pandemic.
SAN FRANCISCO HIGH SCHOOLS SLAMMED FOR ‘REOPENING’ FOR JUST ONE DAY TO GET $12M
“Nonetheless, she’s still taking the trip to Mexico, but isn’t coming back to teach in person,” Zachreson said. “I’m so baffled that a teacher is able to just cancel synchronous learning at their own whim and not notify staff or not find a substitute to replace.”
McIntyre, the district’s superintendent and union leaders all declined to comment on the situation.
Critics say California’s reopening plan is lagging behind other states, and Zachreson blamed that on state lawmakers’ decision to give school districts flexibility in how quickly they brought students back to the classroom.
In West Contra Costa, for example, the teachers who returned to in-person instruction did so voluntarily. And in San Francisco, the city’s largest public school district is reopening only a fraction of its schools for just one day before the end of the year in order to qualify for $12 million in state funds.
To qualify for the funding, California requires public school districts to reopen for in-person instruction for elementary school students and at least one middle or high school grade.
Less than half of the state’s 6.2 million students have the option to return to school, according to the Los Angeles Times, and many of them are offered only part-time learning.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
As a result, Zachreson is calling on state lawmakers to specifically end granting flexibility to districts and to define reopening explicitly before the next school year.
“The teachers need to be teaching in-person and on-site, off-screen, in the classroom,” he said. “That’s what we need.”
Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
