Today our partners at the Fresno Teachers Association held a press conference releasing their 10-point action plan to address members’ concerns. We appreciate our partners doing the work they must do in gathering feedback from their membership, and as they mentioned they will now bring these proposals to the district to work through the bargaining process collaboratively.
The feedback from members is incredibly valuable, and as we take an initial review of their proposed action plan, we see a lot of similarities in what we have heard directly from staff, parents and the community as well. The great part about that alignment is that we as a district have already been working on many of the items proposed in this plan.
For example, today we launched our COVID-19 dashboard on our website that will be updated daily, Monday through Friday, with student and staff counts of positive cases. It does not include all the elements requested in the FTA plan due to capacity and privacy concerns, however we believe this dashboard will help support the needs of our families and staff. It’s important to note that this dashboard is in addition to staff and parents already being notified every time a positive case is reported at a site the parent or staff member is affiliated with. These notifications have been in place since principals, teachers, and students have returned to our campuses.
We have also been working tirelessly with our FTA nurses to come to an agreement on implementing modified quarantine guidelines. Based on their own capacity, they have been forthcoming in sharing their struggles to handle COVID related initiatives and have asked that outside resources be brought in to take over COVID responsibilities. With a strong desire to implement our planned health and safety strategies as quickly as possible, the district has been working around the clock with outside agencies to do just that.
We will continue to work to improve our clarity and communication strategies internally and externally as we navigate this ever-changing environment due to COVID-19. In that effort, we’re happy to share our updated COVID-19 Guidelines webpage, which includes quarantine protocols, health and safety guidelines, testing and vaccination resources, and more. We look forward to our FTA partners bringing this proposal to the bargaining table and working together collaboratively to implement the areas that are possible and make the most sense to keep our students and staff safe.