While most Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) students and staff will safely start the school year in distance learning, some members of our union are being forced to work onsite. Our Minneapolis Kids Child Care Assistants and Workers will be providing childcare for hundreds of children, including those of Tier I essential workers.

Our students deserve a safe and caring learning environment. To provide this it is critical to have adequate staffing. The significantly increased need for cleaning, enforcement of health and safety protocols, and support for distance learning all depend on secure staffing.

To ensure that there is stable and safe staffing to meet these needs, our union has issued a Demand to Bargain letter to MPS.

Our belief was that our members would have the same terms and conditions that MPS implemented last spring during Emergency Childcare. Because these have been taken from us without notice or justification, we now are demanding they be restored.

Our demands include the following.

• Once again, provide choice of paid remote work for those at high risk of exposure to COVID 19.

• Continuation of the additional $5 an hour “hazard” wage that recognizes both the risk and increased responsibility of onsite work.

• Return to the safe 1:9 staff to student ratio rather than the newly imposed 1:14 ratio.

To date we have not received a response from MPS and time is running short. On September 8th our children will be onsite for childcare.

Sign our petition to tell MPS: “Get to the Table for Staffing that is Safe and Stable!”