Dear Educator,

Last week, we surveyed all members to find out your positions in regard to the District’s plan to begin Hybrid instruction in April. Our response at the bargaining table and in our advocacy is driven by our members' priorities, so it is crucial that we hear from all our members. We again had a huge response to this survey; by the time the survey closed, we heard from 2,818 members, or about 80% of our membership.

One thing that is crystal clear is that our members do NOT support a Simulcast Hybrid model.  When asked which option would best meet your students’ educational needs for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year, only 7.5% chose the Simulcast model for Hybrid instruction.  

In another question, 77% of educators responded that student needs would be better met by putting resources into improving CDL and meeting student needs through LIPI, than by shifting resources toward implementing a Hybrid model. When disaggregated by race, that number rose to 83% of educators of color.

We asked educators to identify MAJOR CONCERNS with shifting to a Hybrid model for 4th quarter, assuming educators have been fully vaccinated, and following all required ODE RSSL guidelines. Educators’ top concerns continue to be about safety. These are the top 3 responses:

• Risk of students spreading Covid-19 to non-vaccinated family members (87%)
• Lack of adequate ventilation and sanitation in your school (78%)
• Risk of teachers spreading Covid-19 to non-vaccinated family members (78%)

We realize that there are different considerations in implementing Hybrid instruction for different grade levels, so we asked members to what degree you support the goal of beginning Hybrid instruction at four different grade bands:

• For PK-2, only 25% of all members responded that they support shifting to Hybrid; this percentage was almost the same when we looked at the responses of just PK-2 educators (26%). The results for 3rd-5th grade were similar, with 23% of all members supporting Hybrid for these grades, and 25% of 3rd-5th grade educators supporting it.
• There was even less support for the goal of offering Hybrid for 6th-8th grade or 9th-12th grade, with 18% of middle school educators supporting a middle school Hybrid, and 19% of high school educators supporting high school Hybrid. 

While educators’ top concerns continue to be the safety and well-being of our students, these results make it clear that educators do not believe that implementing a Hybrid model this spring, particularly one built around Simulcast, would best serve our students’ educational needs. 

Given these results, our bargaining team will continue to fight for safe working conditions for when we do return to in-person learning. However, educators’ responses also make it clear that the priority is not getting as many students as possible into physical classrooms during this pandemic, but rather identifying student needs, and determining how we can best safely address those needs by improving Comprehensive Distance Learning and CDL supports, and increasing Limited In-Person Instruction options to meet needs that cannot be addressed remotely. 

Portland Association of Teachers
http://www.pdxteachers.org/