OEA Statement on Latest Mask Wearing Guidance
As a result, our educators, students, parents, school districts and communities are being forced to grapple with how best to limit the potential lethality of these new variants.
“Educators want nothing more than to return to full, in-person instruction this fall,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro. “But we want to make sure that when we do, we do so safely for our kids and communities.”
OEA urges communities and school districts to use every tool at their disposal to ensure the safe return to in-person instruction this fall. The recent spike in COVID infections, driven by the highly infectious Delta variant, is especially concerning because the variant is more deadly to students and a youth vaccine has not yet been approved for students younger than 12. This means that most students will remain unvaccinated, for at least the first half of the coming school year.
However, that doesn’t mean our schools have no protection from these new variants. The science is clear that masking, appropriate ventilation, social distancing, handwashing, and vaccinations — all in combination — is the best way to keep students, families, and educators safe and keep community transmission rates low.
“Our members’ primary concern is for the health and safety of their students and the potential danger the fast-spreading Delta variant could pose for their communities and families,” DiMauro said. “We know that mask wearing has been scientifically proven to be effective in slowing the spread of COVID infections and should remain a key tool for avoiding further, unnecessary learning disruptions.”
DiMauro urged leaders to follow science, not political rhetoric when making these decisions.
“Local decisions about mask wearing need to be made based on science and not politics,” DiMauro said. “These decisions should made solely in the best interest of protecting the health of educators, students, and their families.”
DiMauro is especially concerned about politicians limiting the ability of school districts and communities to protect their kids from these new, more lethal COVID-19 strains.
“The best way to ensure a safe return to in-person learning this fall is to follow the science and listen to the medical experts.’ DiMauro said. “We can’t let politicians substitute their political ambitions for public safety when our kids’ health and safety are at stake.”
Ohio Education Association Applauds Plans to Prioritize Educators for COVID-19 Vaccines
“We are grateful to Governor DeWine for listening to the concerns of the state’s educators, who have been nothing short of heroic in their efforts to reach and teach Ohio’s students through extremely difficult circumstances, often being forced to put their own safety and that of their families and communities on the line,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “The decision to prioritize teachers and educational support staff in vaccine distribution plans demonstrates Gov. DeWine’s commitment to prioritizing education in Ohio’s COVID-19 response plans.”
Earlier this month, OEA’s Board of Directors, a governing body composed of dozens of educators around the state, approved a policy urging the state and school districts to put education first through a four-point plan that reflects the best practices for ensuring Ohio’s children receive a high-quality education in a safe environment. The full policy statement can be found here (Adobe pdf).
“We will encourage all OEA members who are medically eligible to receive a vaccine when they can. However, the COVID-19 vaccine is not a panacea,” DiMauro said. “Because the vaccines have not been approved for children, pregnant women, or some other adults, including those who are prone to severe allergic reactions, many people in our schools will remain unprotected from the virus. Moreover, it has not yet been proven whether a person who has been vaccinated could still spread the virus to others. Therefore, even when educators are able to be vaccinated, it will remain critically important to continue following all CDC guidance to keep our schools safe and open for in-person instruction when possible.”
OEA believes the highest priority for vaccine distribution among the education community is to make it available in communities that have been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic, including high-poverty communities and communities of color. “The vaccine is a critical resource for saving lives and reopening economies,” DiMauro said. “We need to ensure that resource is available where it is needed most as quickly as possible.”
Ohio Education Association Urges Schools, State to Put Education First: Reset, Restart, Re-Prioritize, Resource
In light of the alarming explosion in community spread of the Coronavirus in recent weeks and the likely spike that will follow large family gatherings over the upcoming holiday break, OEA is urging all of Ohio’s public schools to immediately suspend all in-person instruction until January 11, to include a 14 day quarantine period after Christmas. “This reset period, whether schools delay instruction or educate students in a fully remote model, is critical not only to ensure student and staff safety, but also to give schools time to refine their delivery model and make other necessary adjustments to execute their instructional plan so students can receive the best education possible in the face of all of the challenges the pandemic presents,” OEA President Scott DiMauro explained.
To restart after the reset period, schools should be required to obtain sign-off on the safety of their instructional model from their local Board of Health, which should evaluate each district’s plans based on its ability to adhere to CDC guidelines for any in-person instruction while considering local conditions such as transmission rates and healthcare capacity. Schools that are unable to obtain sign-off must remain fully remote and shall not hold extracurricular activities. “Public health experts, not the elected politicians that serve on local school boards, should make the determination about whether schools are safe for students and staff to gather in person,” DiMauro said. “The state has thus far failed to provide true leadership or firm statewide policies. We therefore must depend on local boards of health to make difficult decisions and accept accountability when they approve any educational plans.”
An important element of OEA’s updated plans calls for local leaders to reprioritize education in their policies outside school settings to ensure our schools can remain safely open and communities can continue to recover. “The education of our children should be the top priority in every community. State and local governments should do whatever is necessary to slow the spread of this disease and diminish its impact on the delivery of instruction. These efforts should include mask wearing, limits on crowds, and expansion of testing and contact tracing programs,” the OEA Board of Directors, a body made up of dozens of educators from around the state, said in the policy adopted at its most recent meeting.
Finally, putting students first requires a commitment to fully providing resources needed to meet the needs of our students, educators, and the wider community until a vaccine is widely available and our nation can begin moving beyond these difficult times. This support should include delivering additional funding for schools to operate safely, subsidizing local boards of health, and providing unemployment and health insurance benefits for every worker and small business owner impacted by COVID-related shutdowns and restrictions. “We cannot wait any longer for federal lawmakers to finally pass the HEROES act or for the state to finally draw on the rainy day fund,” DiMauro said. “Our communities need these resources now.”
Action Alert: Ohio Education Association Urges Members to Call on Congress to Provide Critical Funding for Schools
“Communities across the country are hurting. More than a million Ohioans are out of work. We know lawmakers at every level have to make very difficult choices, but education must remain a priority and Congress must act now,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said.
The financial plight of Ohio’s schools has garnered national attention and DiMauro has been asked to speak on a national telephone town hall, sponsored by the National Education Association, on Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 7 p.m. with NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia, CA Senator Kamala Harris and CT Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, a former national teacher of the year. The event is intended to mobilize the nation’s educators to contact Congress.
Anyone who wishes to participate can register for the event at nea.org/actiontownhall.
OEA members are calling on Congress to earmark $175 billion for education in the next federal coronavirus relief package to help mitigate the harm to students caused by budget cuts at the state and local levels. That funding is urgently needed in Ohio, particularly in the wake of Governor DeWine’s intention to cut $465 million in education funding in the current fiscal year which ends in June.
“Teachers have been heroic in their efforts to engage and educate their students while schools are closed, but there are tremendous challenges,” DiMauro said. “Many families don’t have internet access or enough devices for their children; many parents can’t help their children through the school day because they are frontline workers who must be out of the home. The challenges are especially great in the state’s poorer school districts,” he explained.
The OEA, Ohio’s largest teachers’ union, has been in touch with the offices of Ohio Senators Brown and Portman to urge their support for federal action. “Only the federal government has the resources to stabilize education funding in the country right now. Our federal lawmakers have a duty to provide the funding our kids need,” DiMauro said.
OEA members can contact their representatives in Congress at https://www.ohea.org/actions/action-alert-april-14/
OEA represents 122,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.