Having the Reopen Conversation

This is a guest blog by Terri Hook, Chair of OFT’s Education Issues Committee and Deb Tully, OFT’s Director of Professional Issues

Reopening schools in the fall will be a very delicate and complicated process. To get it right, it is essential that decisions are made collaboratively. School district administration will need to work together with educators and staff to be sure they make sound decisions and are able to implement them Because every district is experiencing different levels of impact from the virus and community comfort with resuming school, there needs to be a discussion as to what will work best locally. To that end, OFT assembled a committee of members to discuss what issues needed to be addressed as these decisions are made. The members involved represented a wide range of our locals including those from large urban districts, small rural districts and everything in between. There was representation from the full spectrum of grade levels, along with educators at Career Technical Centers. This document can be used by K-12, as well as higher education local unions. Having the Reopen Conversation is the result of the hard work of the committee.

Having the Reopen Conversation is not meant to be recommendations on how to proceed for the 2020–2021 school year. Rather, it is a series of questions in a variety of categories that should be asked as conversations occur and decisions are made. There are any number of documents that deal with health and safety concerns to draw from, but the OFT, while addressing some concerns of health and safety, also looks at considerations for delivering instruction and the social emotional well-being of our students. Questions are there to lead to discussions of flexibility and what the needed resources are to accomplish a reasonably smooth opening.

We encourage you to review Having the Reopen Conversation before you sit down with your administration. There are so many aspects of getting started this fall. We are sure the OFT document will be a help in making decisions and considering all aspects of what needs to be in place to get back to school in the fall.

For additional information, see our COVID-19 Resource page where we also have documents on how to re-open safely from AFT, CDC, and the Big 8 Plus Health and Safety Coalition.