OAKLAND — A majority of elementary school families in the Oakland Unified School District want the option of sending students back to physical classrooms this spring, according to a district survey.
After almost a year of online distance learning forced by the coronavirus pandemic, about 58% of the 92% of families with students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade who responded to the survey said they are ready to send their kids back to school while about 42% want to stick with the distance learning through the rest of this academic year.
The district sent out the survey last month so it can figure out how many students would participate in a hybrid learning model that allows them back into classrooms a few days a week this spring. District staff sent emails and texts and made calls to the elementary school families over a two-week period to conduct the survey.
The responses varied among individual schools and geographic areas of the city. In northwest Oakland, almost 73% of families indicated they want to return to the classroom, while those in other neighborhoods, including East and Deep East Oakland, were more evenly split.
At Crocker Highlands Elementary, Thornhill Elementary and Peralta Elementary, more than 80% of families preferred a return to on-campus learning, while the majority of families at Reach Academy, La Escuelita Elementary, Lincoln Elementary and the Global Family School indicated they wanted to remain in distance learning. Other elementary schools were more evenly split in their responses.
A higher percentage of White families indicated they wanted to return to classrooms than other groups. The survey showed that 76% of White families preferred in-person learning, compared to 52% of Black families, 48% of Latino families and 44% of Asian families.
While about 63% of families said they did not have a preference for returning to either full or half days, about 12% said they definitely want to return for full days and 11% for half days.
The school district has not announced what specific dates the kids who opted for in-person education can return, although the school board sent a letter to families in late February saying it’s critical to open campuses this month.
Oakland Unified spokesman John Sasaki said the district is working toward reopening “this spring” but has not finalized a date yet.
The district and the teachers’ union are still bargaining over when to open, though proposal documents from both sides indicate agree on letting cohort groups of elementary school students back into classrooms and that vaccinated teachers can opt in to return to the classroom.
The district will send out more specific updates next week about programming and additional plans, Chief Academic Officer Sondra Aguilera said in the survey result message to parents.
Because of the need to coordinate the logistics of reopening and social distancing, Sasaki said families who indicated in the survey they want to remain in distance learning cannot change their minds and opt for in-person classes this spring.
Those who opted for in-person learning can, however, choose to stay at home.
Not every student returning to campus would necessarily get their same teacher or classmates.
“There might be some shifting of students and classes to accommodate all the changes that could be involved in returning some students to class but not others, on top of the limitations brought on by the social distancing requirements,” Sasaki said.
A state bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom has offered financial incentives for schools that offer in-person classes by April 1 to students with special learning needs and in certain grades, depending on where their counties rank in the state’s color-coded tier reopening plan.
Meanwhile, Oakland Unified will get about $250 million of the $15.3 billion in assistance going to California schools from the just approved $1.9 trillion federal American Rescue Plan Act, according to EdSource.
So far, the district is planning for elementary school students to be the first ones back in classrooms within small groups of socially distanced cohorts on a modified schedule, along with high-need and special needs students, unhoused students and students without easy access to distance learning.
A letter sent to families and signed by the school board last month said that for middle and high school students, “our current thinking is instruction may remain primarily in distance learning until the end of the school year, but all students should have the option of in-person socio-emotional and academic support, and extracurricular activities.”The district will send a survey to middle and high school students later this spring to gauge families’ plans for returning to classrooms. School leaders are discussing what the fall will look like, but so far they have indicated families who want to continue distance learning will have that option.
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