Union: 600-plus San Francisco school teachers, aides out this week amid Covid surge

Hundreds of San Francisco Unified School District teachers and aides were out of school on Tuesday amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, according to the teachers’ union that is criticizing the district’s handling of testing for the virus.

Classes resumed this week at schools in San Francisco after the winter break, but more than 620 staff members were out on Tuesday alone, according to the teachers’ union, United Educators of San Francisco.

Union officials say the district did not develop an adequate plan to handle the latest surge of Covid-19 cases and did not require students and staff to show a negative test result before returning to campus, as some other districts have done. They also accuse the district of not having a plan to distribute a shipment of Covid tests set to arrive from the state later this week.

The union is holding a briefing at noon Wednesday to discuss the issues related to the Coviid surge and how they plan to help distribute the tests to students and staff.

SFUSD officials were not immediately available to comment on the criticisms by UESF.