Salt Lake school district talks return to school, teacher concerns

SALT LAKE CITY  — Junior high and high school students will have the option to return to the classroom in Salt Lake City on Monday, as well as the remainder of elementary school students.

Students will only be learning in person two days a week to minimize class sizes and allow for more distancing. At the high schools, students will be able to choose which classes they’d like to take in person.

Madden says for students at the large high schools, students will need to get a negative rapid test or quarantine before coming back to the building. That testing will take place this weekend.

“So we’re doing the rapid test. It’s the same thing that other schools around the county have done with the Test to Stay program. We’re just starting out with that so we can kind of get a screener, get a fresh start,” Madden said.

2News has learned some teachers won’t be returning to the classroom. James Tobler, president of the Salt Lake Education Association, says some teachers have opted to take different types of leave until they can receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“A lot of teachers were feeling anxious about it, considering the high levels of COVID we’ve had in Salt Lake County,” Tobler said. “We’re especially concerned for our teachers that fall in the high risk category.”

Accommodations were made for some teachers to remain remote, but many were required to return, Tobler said. So, some teachers who are at high risk for complications from COVID-19 decided to take leave until they’ve had both doses of the vaccine.

Tobler said the teacher’s union asked that teachers not be required to return in person until they’d received both doses of the vaccine.

We’re very close, and that’s kind of what’s frustrating. We’re so close to everybody having both doses of their vaccine,” he said.

Madden said the district has made every effort to mitigate risk and worked with teachers to try and find individual solutions. He says the district’s youngest teachers will get their first dose of the vaccine by the end of this week. Some teachers in the district will soon receive their second dose.

Tobler said the main concern from teachers, apart from returning before being fully vaccinated, is the perception that the district caved to pressure from the state legislature, and the decision to return wasn’t based in science.

So 2News asked Madden, does he feel he caved to pressure from the state in deciding to return to in-person learning?

Then, why not wait until teachers could get both vaccines, or at least their first shot?

Originally, our belief with the vaccine and what we were told was that there was a possibility that we would even be able to start vaccinating teachers at the end of December. That didn’t happen, and that got pushed back. Really, through no fault of anybody in the state, it was really more of a distribution thing with the vaccine. At that point, we had already committed to a start date. So yeah, the overlap is a bit uncomfortable. But we’ll do the best we can to keep a safe environment.”

For some parents, the need to get students back in school is paramount. We asked Tobler, what do you say to parents who say this is important, my kid isn’t learning at home and needs to be in the building?

“I say, ‘yeah, this is not an ideal situation. It’s difficult for everybody,'” he said.

Madden couldn’t give exact numbers of how many students will return to in-person learning, and high school students do have the option to do some classes in person and others online. But he says at West High, around 65% responded to their survey. Of that, around 50%, maybe a little more, planned to come back at least part time.