LA Teachers: 'No Current Plans' To Reopen Schools

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - The union representing 33,000 Los Angeles teachers and other school employees Friday rejected "any fixed date" to reopen schools and says "there are no current plans" to do so.

A statement from United Teachers Los Angeles said any plan to reopen schools must be based on negotiations with teachers toward a hybrid-model plan and is contingent on LA County exiting the state's most restrictive coronavirus tier.

"We are bargaining over how to physically reopen in a hybrid model and we have told the district that the agreement must include language over when to physically reopen in said hybrid model," the statement said.

Additionally, UTLA says the three conditions which must be met prior to any return are exiting the purple tier; requiring staff to be fully vaccinated or "provide access to full vaccination"; and ensuring social distancing, proper ventilation and other safety conditions are in place.

Los Angeles Unified has already said the school district would not be reopening its campuses for in-person instruction until its own conditions are met, including the vaccination of 25,000 people.

"To vaccinate all who work in these schools, who are not otherwise already eligible, we would need to vaccinate about 25,000 people," Superintendent Austin Beutner said earlier this month. "You heard that right – vaccinating 25,000 people will allow us to reopen elementary school classrooms for 250,000 children and help their half-million-plus family members start on the path to recovery and allow many of them to go back to work."

County officials say if they have enough vaccine supply, they hope to start vaccinating teachers by March 1.