Berkeley Unified School District teachers have signed on to reopen schools for in-person classes.
The plan, agreed to last month, got a final stamp of approval Monday when 88% of union members in the Berkeley Federation of Teachers voted to ratify the deal.
The agreement hinges on vaccinating teachers and bringing back the youngest students at the end of March and older grades in April.
Current plans, which the district expects to finalize in the next two weeks, call for middle and high school students to continue distance learning until noon each day. Then, two days per week, students would come to classrooms around 1 p.m. for instruction, with an option to stay for academic and social activities from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
In a message to families Tuesday, Superintendent Brent Stephens wrote: "Our reopening dates are solid," though the county would have to move into the red tier from its current purple tier designation in order to go ahead with the plan. "But it appears that we could be in the Red tier soon," Stephens said.
He also clarified opening dates for middle and high school. The schedule is now:
March 29
Preschool, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten through second grade
April 12
Grades 3-5 in elementary schools
Grades 6-8 in middle schools
Grade 9 at Berkeley High School
Berkeley Technology Academy
April 19
Berkeley High School grades 10-12
All teachers, "except those with district-approved accommodations plans, will return to in-person work," Stephens wrote.
"We are resolute in our commitment to five days of in-person school at all grades in the Fall," he said. "We see that school reopening in April is one step on the road to a full return to in-person school."
Still, some Berkeley parents reacted with frustration after learning that middle and high school students would likely continue to spend the majority of their academic day in distance learning for the remainder of the school year.
"We know it can be done safely, and now teachers are being vaccinated. So I’m ... mystified that this is where we are," said Berkeley parent Sara Woolf at a protest Monday morning outside Berkeley Unified district offices.