On January 3rd, McAllen AFT launched a 2022 Return to In-person Instruction Survey to gauge school employees' attitudes regarding the return to in-person learning following winter break and the increase in COVID-19 cases throughout Hidalgo county.

In less than 24 hours, we gathered nearly 400 responses from the educators, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, and custodians that constitute our membership.

Results showed:

• 91% of respondents reported that they personally know more than 1 person infected with COVID-19 over winter break.

• 68% of respondents reported that they do not feel safe returning to work following the winter break.

• 78% of respondents reported that they feel the district should offer virtual instruction temporarily to protect employees and curb community spread.

Educators understand that the best learning happens when students are in the classroom forming connections with their teachers and peers. However, we cannot sacrifice our students and teachers because district leadership fails to be proactive. Districts such as Weslaco ISD restructured plans to accommodate for safe returns to campus by providing a virtual instruction period that allowed for students and staff to quarantine. Edcouch-Elsa ISD is offering employees additional paid leave for staff members infected with COVID-19. McAllen ISD had the ability to implement effective mitigation strategies that would have allowed students to continue their education without extreme disruption. Now, students and staff throughout the district are sick at home or under quarantine. Paraprofessionals and office staff are forced to sit in for infected teachers as the district experiences severe substitute shortages.

This is not effective or sustainable. A lack of teachers, staff, and substitutes in schools will lead to a collapse in our local infrastructure.

Now that students and staff are back on campus, McAllen AFT recommends McAllen ISD implement the following measures:

• Reallocate funds to offer paid additional leave for staff testing positive (minimum 5 days) to incentivize staff to remain at home and avoid spreading COVID-19 to other staff members and students.

• Reverse course on the district’s “optional/encouraged” mask policy for students and staff.

• Conduct a needs assessment to determine what supplies (PPE, desk shields, disinfectant, testing kits) are needed at each campus so that the district can distribute.

• Present the community with an emergency plan that details how the district intends to deal with the increase in infected students and staff and subsequent student absences and staffing shortages (virtual instruction period, reducing class sizes, frequent testing, etc.) no later than January 17th, 2021. This plan must include metrics for when to enact individual school closures based on COVID-19 cases and the percentage of staff that is absent.