For immediate release
March 5, 2021
Media contact:
Anna Bakalis / 213-305-9654
91% YES: UTLA members overwhelmingly unite behind a safe return
LOS ANGELES — UTLA members have voted overwhelmingly to resist a premature and unsafe physical return to school sites. Over five days of voting March 1 through 5 conducted by Integrity Voting Systems, 24,580 ballots were cast, with 91% Yes ballots (22,480) and 9% No (2,100).
“This vote signals that in these most trying times, our members will not accept a rushed return that would endanger the safety of educators, students, and families,” UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said.
The vote result means members remain committed to distance learning until the three safety criteria are met:
- LA County is out of the purple tier
- Staff are either fully vaccinated or provided access to full vaccination
- Safety conditions are in place at our schools including PPE, physical distancing, improved ventilation, and daily cleaning
“Last March when educators first closed our classrooms and offices, we didn’t know that a year later we would still be physically separated from the students and communities we love,” Myart-Cruz said. “It has been a painful and difficult year for everyone. As much as educators long to be back to in-person instruction, it must be done safely for the sake of students, staff, and families. That has been our guiding principal from Day 1 of this pandemic.”
With COVID vaccines for school staff rolling out and infection rates decreasing, LA County is making progress toward the necessary conditions for a safe return, but we are not there yet. Some educators are having difficulty securing vaccination appointments, infection rates are still too high in many of the hard-hit communities we serve, and COVID variants could change the trajectory of the virus.
“With this vote, teachers are saying what I am hearing from parents in my community — it’s just not safe to physically return to schools yet,” said LAUSD parent and Reclaim Our Schools LA parent leader Alicia Baltazar. “I want to thank teachers for taking this stand and for all that you have been doing to educate my child during this pandemic.”
The overwhelming solidarity of the vote comes as legislators and Governor Newsom made last-minute changes to AB 86, the school reopening bill, redefining the COVID-19 tiers to try to push districts into returning to in-person instruction at levels that have been considered dangerous for close to a year.
LA continues to be the epicenter of the return-to-school debate, and the pressure on UTLA educators individually and collectively has been intense.
“Teaching in a pandemic is not easy. Standing up for students and our most marginalized communities is not easy. But our members continue to do both of these things, day in and day out because that’s our job,” Myart-Cruz said.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
damn …i was off …i guessed 93%..
did you read the ballot language? it makes the soviet union look inviting….
david
On Fri, Mar 5, 2021 at 7:43 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” For immediate release March 5, 2021 Media contact: > Anna Bakalis / 213-305-9654 91% YES: UTLA members overwhelmingly unite > behind a safe return LOS ANGELES — UTLA members have voted overwhelmingly > to resist a premature and unsafe physical r” >
With an unlimited number of charter schools LA may face a sharp reduction of public school kids when school doors open ….
More than 80% of LA charters have empty seats.
So where are the national union voices? I haven’t heard much from them particularly about the push for testing.
Good for UTLA for taking a collective stand for safety. The media and right wing will take the opportunity to bash them. So what? What the teachers are asking for is reasonable. They want to teach, but they do not want to get sick or bring the virus home. So many groups including teachers want schools open, but many districts are not providing teachers with the support to do so safely. Safety must be central to school openings..
There is pressure in wealthy neighborhoods to open up with little safety while most of Los Angeles is a high danger area. I have seen the hate flyers circulated on social media and heard antivaxxer complaints. Where do these racially prejudiced, misogynistic, sociopathic online media cults originate? Broad? Waltons? QAnon? Who knows? People need to pay attention to where they get their news and information. In the last couple weeks, I have seen civil rights activists reduced to rightwing conspiracy theorists.
Holding an online vote is challenging, just as teaching online is challenging, but we got it done. UTLA is not putting up with mass hate crimes. Nobody, not one body, is going to be harmed to appease the weak minded.
Excellent decision, & so glad to hear it. Kudos to UTLA for following the science/ CDC. This push to reopen just as variants hit the US & during start of vaccine rollout to teachers is pure politics: pols posturing as tough-guy toward unions. Also members of public whining about a lost year (as though they could suddenly reverse that with a few reckless spring weeks partially open), blaming it on pubschs/ teachers instead of covid.
A look at the pandemic graph for CA shows that in retrospect LA might have been able to safely do hybrid for 7 – 8 weeks between Sept 10-11/1, but at school’s normal 8/20 start their cases were sky-high… The public’s frustration with a year of remote is understandable, but it’s unreasonable to expect huge districts like this to be able to suddenly flip to in-person, then back to remote as dictated by rapidly-changing covid stats. Meanwhile their community spread since 11/1 has been higher than at any previous time, and they are only now coming back down to the level that was too high to permit them to start in late August.
Bravo for the Teachers of UTLA. Your brothers and sisters in the Bay area are behind you 100%!