Hundreds of West Ada teachers calling in sick to protest reopening in COVID ‘red’ category

This story was originally published on Oct. 15, 2020, at IdahoEdNews.org.

West Ada Education Association leaders are encouraging members to use sick days en masse Monday to amplify their message that teachers don’t feel safe teaching in-person classes while the district is in the “red” COVID-19 risk classification.

They have responded by the hundreds.

Members of the local teachers union gathered for an emergency Zoom meeting Wednesday night, saying they want to make clear that it is unsafe to offer in-person instruction now that Central District Health has elevated the district to the high-risk classification.

CDH uses a color-coded, three-tier rating system of green, yellow and red. The recommendation for red originally was remote learning only.

West Ada Education Association President Eric Thies encouraged teachers to request the sick day as soon as possible so he could bring numbers to the district’s board meeting Thursday afternoon.

“If you choose to do something other than remote in red, these teachers are choosing not to be in school on Monday,” Thies said during Wednesday’s meeting, which an Idaho Education News reporter attended.

West Ada Assistant Superintendent Bret Heller confirmed the looming action during Thursday’s school board meeting. At last check, Heller said there were more than 700 requests in for sick days on Monday. Heller called the movement significant and said the district does not anywhere near enough substitute teachers available to cover the absences.

Had the board agreed to move to remote learning in red, the West Ada Education Association would call off the sickout. But board members voted 3-1, with one abstention, to move forward with in-person classes.

“I can’t stress enough that the goal is to convince the school board that it’s not safe in our schools and we should be remote,” Thies told West Ada Education Association members.

“The only approach that’s left is this level of work action, and I know that some of our members may not support this and I am sorry.”

Thies said he talked to the West Ada Education Association executive board before Wednesday’s meeting.

“It is not me asking this, it is the association asking this,” he said.

West Ada’s movement, which members are referring to as a sickout, spread quickly following Tuesday night’s lengthy and bizarre West Ada School Board meeting, Thies said.

“That’s the bottom line, that red needs to be remote,” Thies said during the meeting.

West Ada began the school year remotely when CDH had the district classified in the red. However, West Ada moved to a hybrid learning model and began phasing in grade levels after CDH moved the district to yellow on Sept. 8. CDH moved all Ada County school districts back to the red on Tuesday.

Thies, who presided over the nearly 30-minute meeting Wednesday night, said there are several reasons the association picked Monday. One reason is that WAEA members want to send a message ahead of Thursday afternoon’s special school board meeting. Thies said the teachers union also wanted to give parents time to plan for the possibility of remote instruction or no instruction on Monday, in the event that so many teachers called in sick and the district could not find enough subs to step in.

“Parents need to be able to plan and prepare,” Thies said. “If we close school tomorrow and Friday, that puts a hardship on parents, which is why we’re pushing it on Monday. They’ve got the weekend to figure it out and make plans.”

A West Ada school district survey from earlier this month showed that parents and staff are divided over the question of in-person learning. According to the district, at least 64 percent of the parents who responded to the survey are in favor of students returning to school daily in the yellow and on alternate days in the red. Meanwhile, a majority of staff opposed students attending on alternate days in the red.

The looming sickout is the latest development during a very difficult period for West Ada.

A parent group launched a recall campaign last week targeting all five trustees. On Tuesday, trustees could not agree on action regarding CDH’s move to the red during a meeting that ran for more than four hours and concluded with Ed Klopfenstein abruptly resigning as chairman of the school board, but keeping his seat as a trustee.

West Ada is the state’s largest district based on enrollment and serves about 40,000 students. West Ada had about 2,300 teachers who received evaluations during the most recent school year.

This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 3:31 PM.