 You're tuned in to the COVID-19 Community Report here on KDR TLP 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Autumn LaBaye-Renau, and today is Tuesday, February 16, 2021, we're sharing local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. This month, I'm doing a series devoted to the reopening of in-person instruction in the Davis Joint Unified School District. Last week, I spoke with DJUSD Superintendent John Beaus, and I have two interviews today. Teachers Amy George and Diana Stommel, and Diana is also the current president of the Davis Teachers Association. Next week, I'll speak with parents who are at different points on the spectrum regarding reopening. I've spent the last few weeks talking about the county's interest form for the COVID-19 vaccination, which it launched on January 19. And that was before the implementation of the state of California's My Turn system. Last Friday, the county announced that as part of a statewide directive, it has transitioned away from its online vaccination interest form to embrace the use of My Turn. The My Turn website allows all Californians to register for an email or text notification to inform them when they're eligible for vaccination. Eventually, the system will also allow residents if eligible to book an appointment for a vaccination. The state first launched the My Turn system through trial periods with Los Angeles and San Diego counties, and it's now in the process of expanding the usage to all county and healthcare vaccine providers. My Turn allows vaccine providers to input data immediately, giving a real-time look at the number of shots administered regionally and statewide, while also allowing for a centralized notification system. About 35,000 residents have registered with Yolo County since January 19. Unfortunately, due to the inability to migrate the county's data into the state system, if you've registered already, you'll be getting a link to register again, and you'll need to do that to stay current. The My Turn website is currently available in English and Spanish with an additional six languages coming in mid-February. But for Californians who don't have internet access or need support in a different language, they can call 1-833-422-4255 and connect with an operator directly in English or Spanish or via a third-party operator in 254 additional languages. That's pretty cool. All residents are encouraged to register with My Turn at myturn.ca.gov. And please remember for all information about Yolo County's other COVID-19 vaccine distribution process and general information, visit yolocounty.org slash coronavirus-vaccine. Residents can also call Yolo 211 for resource information. Today's interviews are part of a series examining the many facets to reopening our local schools to in-person instruction and the multiple viewpoints around this issue. This week, I'm speaking with teachers. Amy George teaches sixth grade at Birch Lane Elementary in Davis, where she's taught for 20 years. Thanks for joining us today, Amy. Of course. So could you start by telling us just a little bit about a typical day of remote instruction and what that looks like for you? Sure. We start off, school starts at 8.30, but I always open at my meeting about 10, 15 minutes early just to have kids trickle in. And this is what I would do in a normal, typical situation. I would open at my door at 8.10 in the morning, and kids would come in, even though the bell doesn't ring till 8.30. So I felt like we got to do the same things. And so we just kind of socialize before 8 around 8.30. We say, okay, we're starting getting ready. But it is until about 8.35 or so when we know we have almost everybody here. Screens are kind of turning on. And we spend about a half an hour doing SEL, which is a part of the program that Davis-Joy Unified set up that our first half hour is dedicated and protected time for social-emotional learning. And that is the foundation of it all for me, even in a typical situation in person, that we do a lot of community building and social-emotional growth. So we do that, and we do a check-in and do little scavenger hunts, just get people moving. Just really have fun and try to continue that bond and set up that bond and build that bond and the community that is so hard when you're staring at a laptop. But it's fun. And then we go on and we have math and we have recess. We do a 20 to 30 minute recess, depending on how much challenge there has been so far. And we always have a recess break around the same time every day. So just like we would do in a typical in-person situation. And we have brain breaks every half hour. So I make sure like go outside, get off the computer, rest your eyes and everything just to really say, take care of yourselves. Don't just sit here staring at your device and drink some water. All the urgings that we need to take care of ourselves. And so I mean, I teach 8.30 to 12 every day straight, live synchronous time. And the lessons, everything's recorded. The meetings are recorded. So if somebody were to be absent, they could get the meeting from me and do it. But I found that's the best way of reaching everybody. Everybody does show up for most days. And again, if somebody's absent, they can get the video of the meeting. But I do teach. For me, I felt like it was important to try to have a semblance of normalcy by just having 8.30 to 12. We are here together as a whole class. Everybody's in their seats, so to speak. And so it feels good to me. And I've heard positive things from the students and the families. I haven't heard anything that this isn't working out for people. And I have asked many times, just please let me know if your kid is struggling. So, yeah. So for you, what have been some of the highs and lows of this time? Obviously, things are not normal. You can't greet people in person. You don't have your eyes on necessarily if a kid is really struggling. I know that I've known you for a long time, a little bit for a long time. I know that those are things you talk about as being very important to you. As a teacher. So I imagine that's been challenging. Has there been anything that's really rich during this time? It's interesting. I'm pausing to think because the challenges are huge and many, as you know, so many. But I think for me, there's again, like the silver linings are there. We have been able to create a community out of nothing. We've been able to create a community out of being separated by this huge digital universe. We are still a group of people working together. We're all in this together. Every action that one takes affects the other. Like, I mean, truly, I do feel that with my class and they're getting to know each other and feeling more comfortable with each other in breakout rooms and building that bond together. But I think the hardest thing with that is the black screens when you don't have students who, and I don't make anyone turn their videos on. It's not a requirement. It's something I feel very concerned about that there are students who don't feel comfortable turning their videos for some reason can't. I'm like, that's totally fine. That's part of the social emotional well-being. But because we have black screens, I don't know how the kids are doing because there's no body language to check up on. There's no proximity. I can't walk up to a student and say, how you doing? If I wanted to say that, I have to go in a breakout room or email and hope that I get a response. So that's the hardest thing because as an educator and just standing in a classroom and looking at my kids, I know how they're doing. I can tell and I think the trust and the connection I have with my students is is deep enough that they would feel comfortable telling me. But in this situation, I have no idea how they are unless they were to reach out on their own and that's really hard for a sixth grader. Yeah, it's such a huge challenge. And you're right. Teachers, one of the things you all do is you read your students and you know. I sent my three DGUSD and had lots of conversations with teachers over the year who were checking in about various things. So now we're at this juncture where the school board and the administration they're making progress on determining the conditions for reopening to in-person instruction, hybrid instruction, you know, they're looking at all those variables. I'm wondering from a teacher's perspective, what will help you feel safe and assured that you can do your best and help keep your classroom community safe too as we reopen? And this is such a dense topic, I realize. Yeah, and it's something that we think of like every waking moment of our day is spent. Like what? You know, I'm sitting here in my classroom right now staring at the space and wondering how we could make it work. If there were a number of students who in a hybrid situation who chose to come back rather than continue with distance learning, how we would make that work with the space we have for the body size we have, six graders are larger. You know, if with the furniture we have, with the ventilation that we have, you know, I'm looking at the windows, I could keep all the windows open, we have one door but there's no cross ventilation. I know that they are saying they're going to provide filtration, you know, portable filtrations and the filters and the HVAC units are good. Like I feel like all those protocols are fabulous and really I am so grateful to our school board for choosing to do what they're doing and working so hard to make sure that teachers and staff are safe and students are safe and students families are safe because that's my personal opinion that this is what is the right thing to do. But I still looking around here, I don't know how we would make it work with that many students and feeling safe and I know it's a feeling versus the science, you know, but for me, even if I were to be vaccinated, which I'm not and I think that's a whole other topic, the vaccination of teachers, but if I were to be vaccinated with two doses and all that had my mask on and everyone was wearing masks, six graders I know could handle themselves from this part. I really worry about teachers of younger students. It's really, really concerning when I think about kindergartners for graders, second graders, even third, fourth graders being able to not touch each other, not, you know, keep their mask on, just toe the line. Yeah. Yeah. That's not kids or kids. I spent time with a five-year-old recently and absolutely incapable of keeping his mask on. Is that his fault? It's just, you know, developmentally, he's not there. I know the Birch Lane campus well from having all my kids go through there. It features outdoor spaces like an arboretum, you know, playground, a new site for a new MPR. There's a lot going on there. Is there talk of being able to teach outside as much as possible? You mentioned ventilation as a concern and, you know, only having one door that opens. So I'm just kind of wondering what the discussion is around things like that. You know, I haven't heard any news from the district or even from our site about outdoor education, but I would jump on that chance. I'm staring at the arboretum right now. I'm looking outside in my outdoor classroom, outside my door, my windows, and I would 100% take desks out there and teach outside. Again, with the PPE, you know, we have to do the same thing. We don't hang out with our friends without our mask on outside, check it apart. You know, I wouldn't do that with students either, but I would be outside with students if we can have the setup out there with the desk far apart and I would be far apart and the wind would be blowing and I would feel much safer about that. But that's, again, my personal thing because I want to be outside all the time. As you know, and I'm going to be interviewing parents on kind of different ends of the spectrum next week. As you know, there are people who are really wanting the schools to reopen now and there are many others who are saying, you know, we would like the teachers vaccinated and we would like some other things in place. From a teacher's perspective, what else would you like us to know right now about your concerns about reopening or your hopes? For me, from the Amy George perspective is, you know, I was just standing outside in the arboretum looking up at the gray horned owl that was hooting in the tree and the neighbor walked by whose tree it is and we were chatting about, you know, the silver linings of having no students around is that we had a nest of gray horned owls last spring and wonder if they're going to do that again in our arboretum here at school and that's that is a silver lining, the birds on campus, but not related students, of course. But here we go. So I'm out there and he said, have you been vaccinated yet? I said, no, not yet. You know, he's like, why not? I said, well, you know, we're it's a different tiered system and we're not there. And he was an elderly gentleman, lovely man. And I said, are you been vaccinated? He said, yeah, I'm like, that's so wonderful for you. He's like, yeah, but you should be vaccinated. Like, yeah, you know, and so I, I think we should be vaccinated if if we are if there's a demand for for teachers to return. Yes, we need to be vaccinated. We I also think people who work at grocery stores should be vaccinated. I think that the people who are named essential workers should be vaccinated. But I also 100% believe that elderly people should be vaccinated to help right with the, you know, the health care system. So I think me is that if if people in their general population are still being given the the the advice or, you know, the man to stay away from each other to not gather, or then that holds true for me as an educator in a in a room full of students that to me feels like gathering. I don't feel comfortable doing that because it makes me feel like here we are. I've spent almost a year not being with anybody else than my immediate family. Right. And now I'm expected to just like go inside a building and be in a space with people who are not in my family. And I'm not vaccinated. And yes, I'll have a mask on. But I don't know, it's really it's it. So yeah, really hard considerations all the way around. So I we are at the end of our time here together. I want to appreciate just express my appreciation for you sharing time because I know that your day doesn't end when instruction ends. And you know, I'm well aware of how much time and their own resources that teachers give to teach our kids. So yeah, it does sound like like being vaccinated and being safe is is kind of a baseline requirement. Anyway, thank you, Amy George. You're welcome for joining us. You're welcome. You're welcome, Autumn. Have a wonderful day. Today's interviews are part of a series examining the many facets to reopening our local schools to in person instruction and the multiple viewpoints around this issue. This week I'm speaking with teachers. Diana Stommel teaches 11th grade US history at Davis High School. She's been in the district for about 11 years and has taught for 14. This year she also serves as the president of the Davis Teachers Association. Thanks so much for joining me. Happy to be here. So Diana there are strong advocates on both sides of the reopening discussion and there's a large group of parents advocating that reopening take place right now. Can you tell us what is the Davis Teachers Association the DTA's position and how has your organization been involved in the decision making process around this? Well, our position is that schools need to be safe to be reopened. We have asked for vaccinations for teachers in part to protect students and also just because nobody wants to bring home COVID to their families or inadvertently infect their students. We're also looking to be in the red tier to reopen as well and a lot of that has to do with practical reasons. If you try to open while schools are well the community is still in a purple tier and widespread what that leads to is quarantines and shutdowns of cohorts and that's already happened kind of with our smaller cohorts where several have had to shut down just because of exposure. When you bring in siblings to that equation across multiple school sites that leads that could lead to many many closures and quarantines and kind of what we're hearing from teachers it is a concern about disrupting learning. You know we've been teaching online for a while now and you know people are in their routines. It's obviously not perfect but we don't want to close or we don't want to open just to keep closing and causing that kind of disruption to our students. That's okay we've had a lot of dogs barked during the course of this show in the pandemic. Thank you for that. So I interviewed last week I interviewed Superintendent Bose and he did talk about the school board's decision-making process and what's been set in motion so far. He also mentioned that we need to you know return to the red tier we need to stay there for a certain amount of time and you know that there are various benchmarks externally that we have to meet before returning to school. So I imagine as a teacher you're dealing with some of the parents who want to to reopen now and I think we can understand that this has been a hard situation on everyone. So we did talk about the return to the red tier and I know from interviewing Superintendent Bose we talked about some of the other things that have to be in place. He mentioned things like filtration in the classrooms but from a teacher's perspective two questions what else needs to happen and then second how are how are teachers feeling about returning the district has a decision to make they said by May 3rd to 7th they'll be decide if it is if there's enough merit to to reopening for the short the month the last month of school. So how are teachers feeling about that? Okay so just to start with teachers we did run internal polls to figure out kind of where people were and seeing in what conditions they'd feel comfortable coming back. We've been working with the district since the summer since before school opening trying to come up with processes deal with things as they come up and it's been you know kind of a trying time because metrics have changed, infection rates have changed and you know we kind of agreed to take more of a cautious approach particularly before the holidays because there's a lot of concern that you know the infection rates would go up because of Halloween because of Thanksgiving and all that actually came true. The district I know has been working very hard to change out air filters to upgrade to you know put things in place that would make reopening possible including testing of students as well and having testing sites just for asymptomatic testing and all of that is really good but just kind of our general feeling is that it needs to happen within the context of teachers being vaccinate being vaccinated and you know we've gotten through this whole this whole pandemic without people getting seriously sick students or teachers or admin getting seriously ill from school and we're almost to the finish line we're in the tears where teachers get vaccinated and so to me it seems very sensible to make sure that school employees are vaccinated before they return just because of our close contact with children so there's that as far as what teachers feel comfortable was that the second part yeah what would it take for teachers to come back yes I you know I think it's really just what we've been setting out you know being vaccinated being it and the red tier and and you know as far as like well why wouldn't you reopen school after May I know that the the school board will be discussing that part of that is though is again it's the idea of disruption once you can send back into some sort of in-person learning with hybrid then that's a whole disruption to routines it's a whole different way of teaching it's setting new expectation new class rules usually this is the kind of stuff we do at the beginning of the school year and then it takes a couple of weeks to really get into that kind of rhythm right so the concern with putting it off for too long like starting too late is that we wouldn't get to the point where um you know we would be teaching yeah I think everyone can agree this hasn't been an optimal situation for parents students district teachers for anyone but I have been most curious to ask a lot of people that question about what is the wisdom in reopening for a short period of time versus the risk and so what I'm hearing is that there are still concerns on the part of teachers about that risk and that risk taking at this point in time yeah and I mean everyone wants to be back in their classroom you know I've read that you know we're trying to run out the clock that Davis teachers don't want to return to school and that's just false like we do want to be back in the classroom um you know it's it's where we want to be it's our job um but on the other hand we want to do so safely yeah switching gears just a little bit Diana we have a couple minutes left together from your perspective as a teacher what has your experience been like you're working with 11th graders so they're they're old enough to have some autonomy in how they direct themselves but obviously they're still in school and still still need guidance what's it been like trying to cultivate a a remote community a remotely connected community during this year um well it's really difficult right I mean it's really difficult for students like I have a high schooler at home you know and he really misses his friends and his social interactions and you know he'd rather be back at school which probably surprised him because he didn't really like school before but he really misses it um it is hard just to build that community because it's so different you know you're online people particularly high schoolers aren't super comfortable talking out loud in class so you know a lot of community comes via chat which has been kind of a transition for me and I guess for me it's um I guess I'm poking more fun at myself just because you know I'm trying to make people feel more comfortable and just being open to talking and hopefully getting something out of the year and you know I've tried to be very flexible with students just because you know people have had varying experiences some people's parents have lost their jobs um some people some my students have lost their home some have lost family um to COVID there's been death so it's um you know it's just a time for I think you know for me to be super compassionate and flexible and um trying to help students get through this and I think there's some kind of camaraderie in that because we're just trying to get through yeah um a really difficult time yeah your students sound lucky to have you and and to have that perspective from you all right well thank you for taking a few minutes out of what I'm sure is a very busy day to uh this is a school day and we're recording on and Diana's agreed to meet with me for a few minutes after school to share her perspective and we appreciate it very much thanks so much yeah thanks for having me