Teachers and Union Ask: Does OUSD Have an Effective Tech Plan to Open Schools?

The hallway of Global Family Elementary School on Monday in Fruitvale where kindergarten teacher Sara Shepich teaches. Distance learning is planned at OUSD for the foreseeable future and Shepich and other teachers are asking the district for more tech support than they received last year. Photo by Zack Haber

Some Oakland public school teachers and their union, the Oakland Education Association (OEA), are expressing concern as the first of school approaches that the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) might not provide adequate technology, technological support, and preparatory time to understand distance learning technology before the school year starts.

“We need time to prepare and we need students to have access to the technology they need,” said OEA’s secretary and special education teacher Bethany Meyer.

OUSD has announced that teachers are scheduled to have a three day professional development from Aug 5–7, then instruction will start on Aug 10. The three day professional development is the same amount of time Oakland teachers have recently gotten to prepare for a typical school year. But circumstances have radically changed for the 2020–21 school year.

A recent announcement from Alameda County Superintendent of Schools L Karen Monroe indicates that OUSD could rely entirely on distance learning far longer than initially planned.

“Until Alameda County is off the State Monitoring List for 14 Consecutive Days, all Alameda County schools may only provide distance learning to their students,” read the statement, which came out on July 24.