SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) and the district's service employees reached a tentative agreement on the district's reopening plan on Tuesday.
The agreement was reached just days before the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was set to strike over health and safety requirements for the schools to open for in-person learning.
The union felt that the district's plan to bring more students and staff back in person did not do a good enough job to keep them healthy and safe.
The new agreement between the SEIU and the district includes many health and safety protocols, like physical distancing, face coverings, hand hygiene and screenings, which SCUSD says "goes above and beyond state and local health requirements for the highest levels of protection for SCUSD students and staff."
"The absolute last thing any school worker wants to do is go on strike. Workers don’t want to be walking a picket line over unfair labor practices," the SEIU said in a statement. "We want to be at work supporting the growth and development of Sacramento’s next generation of leaders and residents."
The union is happy that the new plan focuses on protecting the health and wellbeing of the entire district.
"We know that our students deserve the option of in-person instruction and support from our school sites and that every minute of instruction counts," Superintendent Jorge Aguilar said in a statement. "With an agreement in place with all five labor partners, we are pleased that we can now move forward together to welcome our students back to our schools.”
SCUSD started phasing in students for in-person learning on April 8, with another wave of students to start on April 22.
The SEIU members must now ratify the agreement before it can go into effect.
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