The following message is from John Rubio, Chief of Human Resources at the Mount Diablo Unified School District:
“On Saturday morning, most families in Mt. Diablo Unified School District should have received an email requesting online registration information to plan for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year.
The registration form provides you the choice of one of two options for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. It is imperative that we receive 100% of these registrations back by March 1, 2021.
This required online registration form must be completed for each student enrolled in any school within the Mt. Diablo Unified District.
The information will be used for the purpose of assigning students to an afternoon support teacher, either in-person or online. While families may have the option to switch to a different model at a later date, this information is being collected with the intent to use it for planning and afternoon session assignments.
For each student enrolled, families can choose one of two options for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year:
- Option #1: Student continues with distance learning in the morning and then comes to the school site for “in-person” support in the afternoon two days per week.
- Option #2: Student continues with 100% distance learning and will not receive on-campus support.
In response to community input, in both options, students will keep their currently assigned teachers in the morning time slots. It is possible that students may see a different teacher in the afternoon for support.
If you did not receive a unique and individualized “family-specific” registration survey on Saturday, you may click here to access the “general” registration survey. Parents may also access the survey at mdusd.org/2020-21, with an updated FAQ.
*If you need assistance with accessing the general registration survey, please call your school site offices and our staff will collect the information and input it into the survey for you.
Please note that finalized schedules will be released once there is agreement with our labor partners.
Like what parents want actually matters to the teacher’s union. Who STILL have not agreed to this, by the way.
MDUSD jumping the gun again. No MOU w the teachers or the union.
What a load of bull
Option 3: fire John Rubio, mandate full and immediate return to in school, in class instruction, notify teachers non return will be tantamount to resignation and put an end to this extortion
The “extortion” is coming from the district. Forcing in class w/o proper plans for PPE is tantamount to disaster.
Gititogether
Exactly.
@Jazzman what PPE is needed? The vaccine? Which doesn’t keep you from getting it. Mask? There’s plenty of those to go around. Or how about the science that says it’s ok for in class teaching because there hasn’t been any documented spread of Covid in classrooms? Stop with the PPE crap already.
Tired Californian, … ONLY mask that is effective is an N95.
“… coronavirus is about 0.12 microns in diameter and N95 (masks) protect down to 0.1 microns, with 95% efficiency, …”
Most articles out there talk in terms of “percent”, while neglecting to mention particle size cloth masks are capable of stopping.
daily mail dot com article
https://tinyurl.com/1sbkjwvj
Had N95 masks been available Covid could have been knocked down months ago. Because of short short sighted DEMs here in CA, they did away with a 50 Million mask stockpile set up by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2006.
Then the H1N1 2009 during obama, 90% of national stockpile of N95 masks were used and NOT replaced.
Seeing a pattern yet, DEMs repeatedly failing the American people.
Keep the children and teachers safe.
And how would you keep the teacher safe and the kids safe, by staying home and being homeschooled while most parents work two jobs that makes a lot of sense, must be nice to be a stay at home mom or dad
You must be a teacher
Sure – let’s make everyone 100 percent safe from everything.
We’ll hide in our cocoons in the basement and never venture outside…. and think of rainbows and unicorns all day long.
Pretty soon, the entire population will be noting but a bunch of leeches and society will crumble.
I have been teaching in person since October. It can be done! We clean all the time, wear masks (even 4 yr olds). Teachers should only get to move ahead in the vaccine line if they are currently in person teaching.
“Teachers should only get to move ahead in the vaccine line if they are currently in person teaching.”
If you want more teacher back in classrooms, as you are, this spiteful mindset could not be more counter-productive
So no agreement from the Labor Unions .. and why are they called ‘Labor’ when they ain’t done crap in a year? Anyways ..
The district is not going to follow Biden’s ‘all schools will be back 5 days a week in my first 100 days’, but I thought they all loved Biden, funny they don’t follow what he says.
They don’t follow the CDC guidelines that schools CAN open safely with kids and teachers (who do not have the vaccine).
They don’t follow the evidence of 1000’s of other schools that have been open without issue.
They don’t follow the parents’ wishes.
What do they follow, … hmm … where is the money in this deal, bet you they would follow that!
Serious question, can we recall the Adam Clark, the superintendent and the other members of the Bored of Education that leads our district?
My sister is a teacher in southern CA, and remote is more work than in person. Does 3 separate Zoom for Math and English with just 10 students each and needs to take attendance, etc normally done at the school.
Let’s not confuse the teachers with the teachers union.
So Sam,
How bout she make it easier on her safe and tell the unions to GET BACK IN THE CLASSROOM.
Sorry for the yelling, but what is being offered is ludicrous …
Teachers, be a ‘strikebreaker’, a ‘scab’ and get back in the classroom. Go AGAINST the union. Stand up for your beliefs, that is what you teach our children, right? To stand up and be heard. Well, STAND UP!
@Sam,
Wow, has to take attendance on Zoom, you’re right that is super tough. Look, I know there are indeed teachers who legit want to get back in the classroom, but it is LUDICROUS to state “don’t confuse teachers with the teachers union” when quite simply the delays and resistance we see in a district like MDUSD does NOT happen without input/backing of the union members, i.e. the TEACHERS.
Firsthand I have read and heard comments from teachers about how this is the greatest thing ever, even had a couple teacher friends who completely misread our stance on this thinking we’re the “wear a mask while driving alone” type idiots and told us how they love it because they basically get “paid vacations” while teaching because they take trips, login to “teach” for a couple hours, then go have fun.
This would be funny if it was a movie.
Parents, it’s now in your court. You have seven days to respond or else we cannot proceed.
And what has the District been doing for the past year?
Also, my granddaughter spends under 3 hours a day online in her third grade class instead of six at school.
I’ll take that raise any day.
This is nothing but cover for the teachers/school…”hybrid” is total bulls**t, only TWO DAYS does student go to campus, and even then they START THE DAY ONLINE, then not until the AFTERNOON do they go for 2.5 hours. And that WHOPPING FIVE HOURS PER WEEK is NOT actual INSTRUCTION, it’s the student STILL DOING ONLINE with a “teacher” only there for “support”. So need “support” for an Algebra problem but the “in-person support” is a History teacher? Unless they happen to know Algebra really well then you’re s**t out of luck.
Plus, as previously mentioned, this 2.5 hours of “support” doesn’t start until afternoon, you know, just SOOOO easy for working parents—especially those who CAN’T work at home—to leave in the middle of the day to go home, take kid to school, then what? Back to work, back home, sit in the car…?
So EFF this district/teachers, they KNOW a bunch of parents are going to say “this ‘hybrid’ plan is STUPID, only 5-hours/week, still online work with only teacher ‘support’, and it’s a burden”…so they’ll pick remain 100% online, which the district/teachers can say “seeeee???? they don’t want to come back on-campus either, it’s still not SAFE!!!”, thus setting up online continuing well into 2022 and probably even 2023.
You nailed it Pete. They want parents to say no. This is the sorriest excuse for a return to school plan I could possibly imagine. Good job MDUSD, brilliant!
@PeteV you are exactly right! This is an outrage!
Pete V. agreed..
Okay so a few things:
-Vaccinate ALL teachers first
-If students are going in person to see a different teacher, how will those “new” teachers know their learning needs/differentiated instruction needs well enough compared to a teacher that has been working with them since the first day of school? Is this truly beneficial when it’s this late in the school year?
-Lastly, what will the protocol for K-12 be inside of classroom with COVID rules in mind?
MDUSD PARENT-
I am also a parent of a MSUSD student. First, CDC stated that teacher vaccination is NOT part of guidelines to safe reopening of the schools. Second, if you read the information provided in the survey, students will have the SAME teachers in the hybrid model. It’s actually in red bolded text. As for your question regarding covid protocols, have you been living under a rock for the past year? 6 feet, hand washing, masks, plexiglass, reduced class room size, multiple start times for students. Many schools across the country have been able to navigate this successfully without all the extra government assistance. If you want to keep your kid on a distance learning bubble, that’s on you but a lot of parents see the irreversible damage this is doing to our kids and think the POS teachers union is playing politics instead of doing their job. They have had months to figure out the logistics and now it’s time for them to step up to the plate. Also, fyi, case and hospitalizations is going down, which hasn’t been widely reported in the news, unfortunately. So, yes, the time has come to open the schools!
Why vaccinate the pre-madonnas?
CDC & WHO have both said that it is safe to open schools without vaccinating teachers. Besides that, we can look at countless other schools in our district, take 7 Hills in Walnut Creek for example, that have been open for MONTHS, no cases. If that is not enough, look at schools just north of Sacramento, in Lincoln. They are open … High School attends 5 days a week. Yeah, it is only for 2-3 hours a day, but 5 days a week. If that is still not enough, what about the countless other districts throughout the United States that have successfully opened without vaccinating teachers.
At this point, I think the teachers and Bored of Education should all be fired and replaced immediately for failure to uphold their end of the contract.
Vaccinate the teachers first … what a pile of crap.
“pre-madonnas”…? Whatever preceded that nasty hag singer has nothing to do with this.
It LITERALLY says students will keep their assigned teachers in the morning time but it is possible that they will see a DIFFERENT teacher in afternoon. Read before you reply sis 🙂
Pre-madonna?
Like Lady Madonna, before the Beatles made her famous?
MDUSD Parent- afternoon classes? My daughter’s classes end before noon daily. Distance learning is a joke and I am thankful this will be her last year In MDUSD. Kids are learning nothing in distance learning. The other day I overheard one of her classes. The teacher played a game of jeopardy with the students. She stated an answer then would call on a student for the question. Not a single student knew a single answer. This game went on for the entire period probably consisting of over 40 questions and no one knew any answers
Open schools full-time. This has gone on way too long.
Agreed! What a joke this has all been. Is this really the best they can come up with after nearly a year of planning? This is embarrassing. I have lost all faith in our districts ability to do their job.
Thank God for private school. Literally. I guess science can ignore the importance of a child’s formative years. What a crock.
I do feel sorry for the teachers, but there are so many other unions at work dealing with the public that are older than the kids going to school. Being in the construction field all trades are responsible to clean up after themselves, so why is that any different from any teacher that is attached Space to the Mount Diablo unified school district. I think these teachers need to start being a little prima donna and thinking that they’re LeBron James or a professional athlete. Knowing that all the athletes are back at work. I also think that if they will not go to school then there should be a reduction on our property taxes so we can offset the cost to send our kids to private schools were the teachers want to teach. Let me be clear as a disabled veteran and separating within the last 10 years I was getting paid $1200 a month to go to Iraq and Afghanistan and we had no union rep to back us up.I think if the teachers are not happy then they need to find a new union rep and do what they went to school for and help the kids of our future
@Dad~I agree with your entire commentary, especially the property tax reduction! Thank you for your service…
Is this a joke? It looks like a joke. One that is not really funny, just absurd.
What’s a joke?
The statement and “survey” from MDUSD. It’s like someone has stolen your car, kept it for 11 months, and then sends you a “car return” survey:
:Option 1: I keep your car and you get nothing.
Option 2: I keep your car but I’ll give you an occasional ride.
Respond by March 1! Subject to agreement from our organized crime partners.”
All the same questions, just a different day. The school district is no more committed to getting kids back in school then they were the last time they sent out a survey months ago with these exact same questions. What a joke!
This survey options are just ridiculous! They did that so parents say no to hybrid and then the district can tell everyone that the parents opted for distance learning…. BS
I am sorry that it sounded like I was taking the side of the teachers, as a father of two who have had both children assessed by two private schools I think it’s a joke. As a tax paying parent with property taxes and all I should not have to worry about my kids going to a public school. We have first line responders, Frontline workers, and military that still do their jobs without worrying about their unions. If you’re worried about young kids and cleaning tables then I think you may be in the wrong job considering that we have doctors, EMS, fire fighters who have been more exposed to the Covid than any teacher in the Mad Diablo unified school district. I also think That my property taxes/any taxes should not go to the school district if they cannot get their labor agreement approved.
Vote Republican
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#DefundTheUnion
The teacher’s union is nothing more than a bunch of maggots feeding on what was once a great society. All public unions fall into this category IMHO. Disband them all and privatize our education systems.
Guess it’s time to donate to a gofundme that’s gonna settle this in court. Anyone know of one being started?
Now, that’s so smart… NOT.
Who are you going to sue? The district? And who you think will pay to defend against this lawsuit? The union? Superintendent from his paycheck?
No, it’ll be the same taxpayers’ money. Money spent on lawsuits = less money for education.
And if you think you can sue the union, try running this idea by a lawyer. You will be laughed at, since parents have no standing whatsoever to sue the teachers’ union.
Right now you have 2 options: 1) during the next elections pay attention to MDUSD board candidate endorsements. If any of them is supported by the union, vote against. Ditto for any other elections and propositions.
2) try to move some schools out of the district into public charters.
… what a joke … what about full day 5 day / week in class learning? Teachers & district staff still not willing to accept their full time job while getting their full time pay… need to furlough district staff and some teachers ASAP
And now the CA teachers union is wanting to not hold the standardized tests this year due to COVID19.
I have an idea – hold everyone back a grade. Obviously, they’re not learning anything now. And for those teachers that refuse to go back to work….fire them.
Rather than complain about schools, teacher unions, and taxes, might I suggest that all the experts on this thread consider home school for their children. Then you can put your fiscal, education, and management expertise to work.
@ Duh … but I pay for the right to send my children to public school via my property taxes.
Sure, give me my property taxes back and I among many others may walk from this school district.
Maybe, Just Maybe these teachers should do the job that they studied for. I know, what a wild thought! Or maybe, we should pay folks for a job that is completed, rather than pay them ahead of time. I bet you if we took the money from these teachers/union, we would get to a decision much more quickly.
I am no expert in education, hence I am willing to pay for it through my property taxes. I am no expert in finance, though I owe no money except for my home. I do fairly well in management, at least per my managers and my folks who report into me. Expert, probably not, but successful.
That’s absolutely swell. There is just one tiny problem: the state doesn’t pay parents to homeschool their children. Not only that – their taxes aren’t reduced one dime because they homeschool their kids. While MDUSD is receiving nearly $14K per student per year to educate them.
So what you’re suggesting is that parents should take a double hit: on the one hand they continue to pay taxes so that MDUSD teachers could continue to live comfortably. On the other hand they do the job that these teachers are paid to do – and do it for free.
Is that smart or what?
I do homeschool my children. But I know an outrageous rip-off of the citizenry when I see one. And I know what it looks like when parents and kids are thrown under the bus by entrenched interests.
@Tashaj
As per the Taft Hartley Act/ Labor Management Relations Act: Unions CAN be sued for breach of contract violations. This is the reasoning other states and municipalities have used when filing suits to force schools to reopen.
Not sure how effective lawsuits would be here in CA but it’s possible.
@Get off
The operational words in your post are “breach of contract violations”. As a parent, you have no contract with the union. Hence no standing.
Now, MDUSD board is probably a party to the contract (I’m guessing here – too lazy to dig through the website). So they could have standing to sue the union. But why would they, considering that they were endorsed by the very same union?
Ok, that’s kind of funny. But the real sociopaths are the union leaders and the districts and politicians that enable them.
They have already made their decision. The survey is rhetorical propaganda used to waste off more time until their stimulus money comes through. That will guarantee them ludicrous dollars for several years; it has nothing to do with Covid. The Unions are holding Mr. Biden hostage, as we all know.
These options were designed to deter several families from selecting hybrid because of the logistics. what if you have a child in more than one school and you select hybrid? How can a parent/ guardian leave work at those times to get their child? They were designed to cause more headache than they are worth and also so the District could say they offered something. I am to the point of not even having faith that the District will return to full in person in the Fall.
The vaccine does not prevent getting/ spreading Covid. It lessens the severity of the virus. The vaccine efficacy % decreases the older you are. We need to reopen schools. We can’t hide under a rock until this virus goes away because it isn’t going away.
I totally agree with you, except for this part “the vaccine does not prevent getting/spreading Covid.”
That’s not true, even though public health doomsayers have been leading people to believe it. The vaccines won’t prevent transmission 100%, but the research has been really encouraging on this and a bunch of studies have been coming out lately. Here’s a discussion at the WaPo from today:
shorturl.at/vFN13
@ Led
I would be interested to read the article you linked but I am afraid the link did not work.
I am by no means a doomsayer (not saying you referred to me as one but just wanted to clarify). I did recently read an article about
an Israeli study that claimed the Pfizer shot may stop the virus but also the companies that worked on the preliminary observational analysis were not peer-reviewed. In turn some scientists disputed its accuracy.
My point is that we will continue to have to wear masks and social distance and take precautions. I hear so many people under the impression that once all of the Teachers have their shot things can return to normal. Believe you me I wish it was that easy.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine:
A vaccine that is 95% effective means that about 1 out of 20 people who get it may not have protection from getting the illness.
Also, while the vaccine may prevent you from getting sick, it is unknown at this time if you can still carry and transmit the virus to others. That is why, until more is understood about how well the vaccine works, continuing with precautions such as mask-wearing and physical distancing will be important.
The research is still emergent but all the signs point to significant reduction of transmission after vaccination. And that’s what everybody who knows anything actually expected – the messagers-that-be just don’t like to spread good news unless the evidence is ironclad. But right now the messaging is, effectively – go get vaccinated, but don’t expect it to make any difference. Which is crazy. Yeah, just because one person gets vaccinated doesn’t mean they can just do whatever they want individually. But it absolutely will make things different – it’s crazy to me that people would talk to the public this way, as if vaccination does nothing. It’s so counterproductive, and outright misleading. The whole point of vaccinating is that once enough people do it, this virus won’t be a major threat anymore and restrictions on our lives will go away. Not in a day or a week, but they will.
One more thing (sorry)…
People need to keep in mind that our immune systems are no longer being challenged for anything. Add that with antibacterial soaps, constant cleaning and hand sanitizing. We will not be able to fight anything off and if we are in need for antibiotics they may be resistant due to overuse of products. It’s not healthy. There are so many facets to the impact of this lockdown vs trying to make things safe to get children back into the classrooms.
It’s madness to bring them to school in the middle of the day for 2 hours, 2 x per week.. What is wrong with this picture??!! If they can be there for 4 hours per week they can go back at minimum of two days per week.. PERIOD.
Consistency matters with kids.. if you allow 4 hours per week why can’t they go 10.. 12.. 20.. or 30.. what’s the difference..
Get your S…. together MDUSD!!
Who comes up with this garbage….
Open the schools to all students, full time, and for the teachers who want to teach. For those who don’t want to go full time or teach full time, find something else. The MDUSD Parent Survey is meaningless along with worthless. Whoever wrote it up and/or approved it should resign or be terminated. What idiocy!
To all of those wanting a refund on your property taxes because you are not getting what you pay for. If that is the logic why do people with no children pay? People with children get a tax deduction. Those without don’t. So it is the tax payers without children footing the bill. It is the parents that vote in all the school bonds and parcel taxes. Those without children should pay less in taxes. They are not using all the services as those with children.
I think that anyone that paid property taxes should have that school district portion refunded. Where is this money going and why does this District continue to financially struggle?
Another way to look at it is this fiasco could very much affect the value of your property regardless if you have kids or not. I wouldn’t exactly call MDUSD a desirable school district at this point.
And I agree with you that people to stop voting yes on all of these school bonds.
@Lazy One,
Who do you think pays for Medicare and Social Security, in reality? People who are still working. The kids being born now will be sustaining our society and its social programs when today’s working adults are retired.
I’m not a fan of our public school system. I’d happily do away with it. But if you want to start accounting for “making and taking” in a society, you need to account for time, not just a snapshot. If everybody stopped having kids tomorrow, the social implications would be immense (even before the human race died out, lol). The ratio of working to non-working adults would fall to disastrous levels. This is already a problem in many developed nations with low birth rates: they are desperately handing out money to any citizens who will procreate.
It’s funny you guys act like teachers are easily replaceable. Not many people want to be teachers and people like you make it easy to understand why.
‘People like you’ – wow, so judgmental.
Let’s find out, shall we? Let’s suspend the union protections and see if anyone wants to replace the teachers in districts that aren’t reopening? If you don’t want to try that, then your talk is just talk. The whole point here is that teachers’ unions are too powerful. It’s not just difficult to replace teachers, it’s basically impossible. That isn’t a law of nature, it is an effect of political power, attached to a large voting bloc and a huge stream of government money.
How hard would it be to replace public school teachers if we legally could? I don’t know, but it’s impossible to find out. Because the unions are in charge. That’s what it all comes back to.
Let’s focus on replacing our Governor as he is easily replaceable.
I would teach for FREE to get lazy teachers and unions out of the schools! I guarantee there would scads of professionals lining up to stand up for children.
Thank you to all teachers all over the country. When I read local input from sites like Claycord, it only reminds just how under appreciated the teaching profession is looked upon these days.
This issue should be monitored and be receiving guidance and professional assistance from the Contra Costa County Office of Education with direct input from Superintendent Lynn Mackey. Trouble is Mackey is NOT on the job and incapable of providing professional guidance due to the fact she is unfit for the office…… Time to RECALL – LYNN MACKEY – Superintendent CCC Office of Education!
Perhaps the students will have a chance at quality live education once more if the teachers, administrators and students get some help from Superintendent Mackey, the CCC Board of Education, and the MDUSD administration working together for the students good. But it starts with action and accountability- Lynn Mackey is lacking sadly in both critical areas.
Recall SUPERINTENDENT- Lynn Mackey✔️
🇺🇸 Thank you for caring and sharing…….
Teachers are too *afraid* of in-person instruction but have no qualms about going to safeway, the mall, or on vacation. Hypocrites much?!?!
There’s a huge difference between indoor contact with a group five or six hours per day every day and 30 minutes in/out of a store with no contact. COVID-19 spreads when groups of people gather indoors. Masks and social distancing both slow down the spread but can’t stop it. It’s much like Russian roulette. You can pull the trigger once and the odds are high nothing will happen. In-person instruction is pulling the trigger multiple times a day, every day of the week. If you dodge the bullet one week you get to do it again next week.
A lot of people are working indoors 40 hours a week, including grocery store clerks, restaurant employees, etc. If it was “too dangerous” to be indoors they would shut down grocery stores, dentist offices, etc. I wouldn’t indoor dine, but as long as your wearing a mask, social distancing, etc. teachers should be in the classroom. Private schools have been open since the get-go. No teachers union.
@Kentucky Derby – Nearly of the people I have seen working are wearing masks, spaced well over six feet apart, and are in areas that have plenty of ventilation.
There are some exceptions, such as hair salons and barbershops. I have not been inside one to see if and how they have modified their establishments and/or procedures.
WC Resident — Of course people working indoors are wearing masks, social distancing, etc. And so should teachers. The point is if grocery store, restaurant employees, etc. can work 40 hours a weeks indoors –SO CAN TEACHERS. Don’t compare shoppers to teachers. Compare other employees.
There are two issues here. One is coronavirus. The second is the quality of the education and the two are getting mixed up. Teachers hopefully should figure out that half of the anger is over the quality and attitude of the teachers. The war veteran comments above sure makes teachers look clueless about danger and other commenters about teacher work ethic. But as to quality in the classroom, why are history classes focusing on Virginia slave laws and LGBTQ history? I know an 11th grader with A’s and B’s in history and I asked a series of questions. The results from their guessed answers are: they think Hooverville was where Lincoln was shot, no idea which side Russia was on in WWII, thought Watergate plumbers was some kind of group in a war, never heard of Kent State, thought Ho Chi Minh was a South Vietnam leader, and Charlemagne was either a city or a philosopher. Teachers, how about teaching history instead of indoctrination. That is some of the anger you see directed at you. Really, you are graduating kids who can get an A on a test on Virginia slave laws but have no framework to understand current geopolitics based on HISTORY you are supposed to be teaching? Stop the indoctrination.