Seattle teachers, district agree to maintain 6-feet of distance for students
Mar 26, 2021, 11:52 AM
Emily Valentine, a teacher at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 teaches students attending class in person on October 01, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Seattle schools will continue to mandate six feet of distance between students, despite the state changing its guidance on Thursday to recommend 3 feet of distance instead.
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That came as part of larger announcement from the Seattle Education Association (SEA), that the union has reached a memorandum of understanding with Seattle Public Schools on returning pre-K-5 students to a hybrid in-person learning model.
“We listened to our community and brought concerns we heard from them to the bargaining table,” SEA President Jennifer Matter said in a written release. “We are grateful for our community members’ collaboration, and for our bargaining team’s dedication to making this happen.”
The agreement with the district includes a mandated 6 feet of physical distancing between students that had previously been recommended by the CDC and state. After the CDC amended its guidance to recommend 3 feet last week, Gov. Jay Inslee updated the state’s own guidance accordingly on Thursday.
The state’s 3-foot recommendation still allows for districts to remain at 6 feet for now. By summer and fall, though, assuming there’s a continued reduction in cases, no district will be permitted to continue using the 6-foot minimum between students.
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“This is very important because schools have been limited now by this 6 foot requirement,” Inslee said Thursday. “And due to spatial requirements, it has not allowed them to return to normal, everyday activities in the classroom. So today, I am ordering that we make this new standard available for all schools that want to adopt it, and they can do this immediately, there is no waiting period.”
Seattle teachers and the district are still in ongoing negotiations over an instructional model for 6-12 students, with a focus on a system that “minimizes the disruption to class schedules, is sustainable, meets social-emotional and academic needs of all students (in-person and remote), centers equity, and also meets the requirements of the Governor’s return-to-classrooms proclamation.”
