Credit: Photo by Allison Shelley for American Instruction

A high schoolhouse student completes his schoolwork online from his domicile.

Credit: Photograph by Allison Shelley for American Education

A high schoolhouse student completes his schoolwork online from his dwelling.

Carl Cohn
January 13, 2021

Everyone that I know wants to go California'due south vi million-plus public school children back in school as quickly and as safely every bit possible.

If we're really going to get in that location though, land leaders, starting with Governor Newsom, are going to have to recollect out of the box equally this once-in-a-century pandemic continues unabated.

The governor deserves praise for his recent budget and school reopening proposals, merely schools aren't going to reopen someday shortly across the land if the details and agreements on in-person instruction have to exist reached through local commonage bargaining agreements and memoranda of understanding in more than a 1,000 school districts.

I offer this indicate of view knowing that, in a career that has spanned more fifty years, I take been a consequent advocate and champion for local control of schools.

Governor Dark-brown'due south historic embrace of a render to local control through the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAP) extended my career measurably through service on his State Board of Education and equally the launch executive director of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), a new country agency designed to go the right kind of help to districts, charters and county offices of education.

I also know that in my role equally superintendent of two of the largest districts in the land (Long Beach and San Diego) for more than 12 years, any proficient things we were able to accomplish were washed in close collaboration with our CTA and CSEA labor partners.

I count CTA stalwarts Marilyn Bittle of Long Beach, and Terry Pesta and Dick Gale of San Diego, in my personal pantheon of heroes for all that they did to partner in the interests of school children on a daily basis during my time every bit a superintendent in two very challenging assignments.

And, for the past two years, I've been honored to serve as a customs member of CTA's Institute for Teaching board, their foundation arm, which has given me an up close and personal view of the remarkable work that they're doing statewide to support innovation at the classroom level, where the real piece of work of rescuing historically underserved students is done on a daily basis in our state from Siskiyou and Modoc counties in the North all the way to the Mexican border on the Southward.

Having said all that, I believe that Governor Newsom should employ his emergency authority during this pandemic to temporarily append local collective bargaining, and that he should sit down with the leaders of CTA, CFT and CSEA to negotiate a safe statewide reopening of all public schools for in-person teaching.

Yes, this is an out of the box and anarchistic proposal, only information technology may be what's needed if we're actually serious almost reopening schools in a timely style this school year. Without getting into the weeds of a pact that is to be negotiated past the parties, the agreement should include guarantees with regard to cases, testing and contact tracing, vaccinations for all school employees, PPE, and thorough cleaning and sanitation of all school facilities on a regular ground.

So oft every bit leaders, we requite in to what I call the "you tin't" thinking when that kind of assay is ordinarily wrong. I remember dorsum in the 90s working with the Long Beach school board on improvements that were designed to improve the school system in a community that was threatened by economic collapse and permanent gang warfare. We were often met with "you can't" exercise that in the public schools.

Whether it was required school uniforms, unmarried gender teaching or ending social promotion, the constant refrain was that nosotros could non do any of those things in the public schools. It turns out that we could, and we did and, equally they say, "the rest is history" with Long Beach ultimately winning the Broad Prize as the best urban school organization in America.

I'm non downplaying in any way the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic presents leaders with an emergency for which there is no existing playbook with regard to solving the biggest challenges, but I do know that we won't become there without leaders taking risks and not getting stuck in conventional thinking.

I think the governor has excellent resources in the Legislature's education committee chairs, Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell of Long Beach and State Senator Connie Leyva of Chino. O'Donnell, a sometime classroom teacher and CTA ally, has advocated for a state level checklist with clear health metrics for reopening public schools for in-person educational activity, while Leyva, a former labor leader in her ain right, has pointed out that our school children learn best in in-person settings.

A statewide collective bargaining agreement is also important because information technology would complimentary up superintendents and their staffs to work on the disquisitional and emerging local workforce issues that haven't received a lot of media attention and then far.

Several superintendents have told me that their substitute teacher lists are depleted, classified health aides — so critical for supporting loftier need special education students — are not available, and tape numbers of employees are taking leaves of absence. Addressing all of these disquisitional workforce elements is essential for a condom reopening for in-person instruction in all of our schools. The state understanding that I'm proposing should include boosted coin and incentives for this.

I'm not arguing for a permanent abandonment of local collective bargaining agreements at the K-12 level, but all education policymakers are aware that our California Country University system, the largest public higher education system in the country, has had statewide collective bargaining for decades and remains a healthy robust system that serves students well.

If we're serious almost a timely return to in-person pedagogy for our younger students this school year, state leaders need to roll up their sleeves and remember out of the box.

•••

Carl Cohn was formerly executive manager of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, a member of the California State Lath of Educational activity and superintendent of the San Diego Unified and Long Beach Unified school districts.

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