Oakland to resume more in-person classes next week

An Oakland Unified School District spokesman says additional city schools will offer full in-person instruction on Monday, as planned, as the district and its teachers’ union continue discussing impacts of reopening.

The district reached a tentative reopening agreement last month with the union, the Oakland Education association.

Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said then:

“It is clear that we need to offer more in-person instruction for those students and families who want and need it while also continuing to offer robust distance learning opportunities. … This pandemic has stripped away many of the tools that we use to support our students and community.”

Union members later ratified the agreement.

Now, OUSD spokesman John Sasaki said in a statement late Friday, the union has asked California’s Public Employment Relations Board to declare that it has reached an impasse with the district in talks over additional issues related to reopening. Sasaki said the district and union both asked PERB on Friday to appoint a mediator to resolve the matter.

On April 14 all OEA members were to return to classrooms. And in-person instruction is to resume on April 19 for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 6 — and “priority students” in higher grades — whose families had opted in.

The district has said it plans reopen in-person instruction to all students by fall.