Teachers are happy being back in their classrooms with their students, continuing to provide a quality education through an educational model collaboratively developed by the Natomas Teachers Association/CTA/NEA (NTA) and the Natomas Unified School District with input from District teachers, and agreed upon by the parties. This current model, implemented just over a month ago after collective bargaining, provides for distance learning and concurrent in-person instruction with smaller class sizes of consistent groups of students, known as “cohorts.” The current model provides greater safety protections for all students and staff and students benefit from the smaller class sizes in their cohort groups. NTA and the dedicated educators it represents are gravely dismayed that the District has unilaterally scrapped this collaboratively-developed model.
The District’s March 21, 2021, announcement to adopt a new model without any input from, or negotiations with NTA, ignores the negotiated educational benefits and safety precautions for students and staff. The District seems to want to give the impression that teachers were part of that decision-making process. In fact, NTA received notice just 12 minutes before the District made its public announcement. Teachers are dismayed by the District’s actions and its disregard for the input of teachers, as they are the experts in education. NTA has worked collaboratively with the District throughout the pandemic and bargained agreements in good faith that NTA expected the District to uphold. Instead, the District plans to ignore our agreements, ignore the benefits to students and staff of the current model, and plans to implement a new five-day-a-week model that teachers have not given any input to and is not consistent with our current agreements