Wild card in schools reopening: What will teachers (and their unions) do?

In Buffalo, the teachers union is prepared to go to court if necessary to ensure that adequate safety measures have been included in the district’s reopening plan. After Buffalo submits its plan to the state, the Buffalo Teachers Federation will vote on whether to support it.

“If the teachers rejected it and the district said, ‘OK, we’re going to implement it anyway,’ we would then have to take legal action,” union president Phil Rumore said. “We’d have to go to court.”

Will it come to that?

District officials seem confident it will not.

In Buffalo, as in districts across New York, a group of teachers, parents, administrators and others are helping to develop the reopening plan.

Rumore says the group has met only twice and done little of substance, while the clock is ticking. District officials say the group will meet on Monday to start hashing out more of the specifics about how to meet state requirements that came out last week.

“We want to make sure we do share this widely so that everyone can give us feedback,” said Darren Brown-Hall, the district’s chief of staff. “We do want questions about our plan. We do want to refine it.”

West Seneca Teachers Association president and high school history teacher Joe Cantafio said teachers know the importance of going back to school.

“Everybody wants to go back to school, but people are afraid. Whether you’re teachers, a parent, a kid, they’re afraid of going back if it’s not safe,” he said.

While school districts are working to put safeguards in place, the union will not risk the safety of students or its members, Cantafio said.

"As the leader of the West Seneca teachers, and as a board member at NYSUT, and as a delegate to the American Federation of Teachers, from national to state on down, we 100% will do all that we can to make sure schools are safe for our teachers and our students,” Cantafio said. “If they try to open schools that are unsafe, no reaction is off the table for me, because we don’t get a do-over on this."

To a degree, the tone is one of cooperation and collaboration in many local districts, as teachers are among those providing input on reopening plans.

“Many of us desperately want to get back into the classroom,” said Peter Stuhlmiller, president of the Kenmore-Tonawanda teachers union. “But we want to get back to an environment that is safe for us and our students.”

Districts have only until July 31 to post their plans online and send a link to the state Education Department. But, Brown-Hall said, Buffalo’s plan will be fluid, evolving over time as the district gets more feedback and adapts to changing circumstances.

Teacher weighs retiring

Some districts have an older workforce, which automatically puts staff at higher risk. And some teachers have health conditions that put them at higher risk.

Like many educators, Buffalo teacher Chris Salamone has mixed feelings about schools reopening. On one hand, she prefers to be in the classroom, where she teaches high school social studies.

“On the other hand, there are so many questions that still are not answered,” she said. “I do not know how we possibly go back and not have this thing get out of control again.”

Salamone believes a lot of teachers feel the same way, and she wouldn’t be surprised if many decide, one way or another, not to return should schools fully reopen again in September.

In fact, Salamone is weighing whether to retire.

“Even if it’s halfway through the year,” she said. “I don’t want to get this coronavirus. I’m usually not afraid of getting sick, but this thing is scary.”

Districts will want concessions

A successful reopening of schools, whether entirely or partially with in-person classes, will require the vast majority of teachers to be willing and able to be back in the classroom with students.

“Unfortunately, if you do have a high number of people with health concerns, substitutes are not readily available in Western New York at the moment,” said Dan Weiss, president of the Niagara Falls teachers union. “You can’t go into September without half your staff or even without 10% or 15% of your staff.”

Districts need concessions from the unions to get some flexibility to accommodate the unprecedented circumstances, Niagara Falls Superintendent Mark Laurrie noted.

For instance, it isn't realistic to expect that custodians will sanitize every student computer between classes, Laurrie said. So teachers might need to help out, so that the schools can be as safe as possible.

“We’ll have to insist on some changes to be able to come back, so that we can protect them,” Laurrie said. “If we don’t protect them, they won’t be willing to come back.”

And West Seneca's Cantafio said, “If we did open schools incorrectly, we’re just going to close them down in a week or two.”