January 9, 2022
The increasing spread of COVID-19 in New Orleans is worrying. Each day, the city is breaking the previous day’s record for COVID-19 cases, hospitalization rates have doubled, and over 30% of people in New Orleans who get a COVID-19 test are currently testing positive.
New Orleans continues to experience the highest rates of COVID-19 we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic. Governor Edwards announced on January 16th that the new UK strain of COVID-19, which is easier to spread, has been identified in the New Orleans area.
In the midst of COVID-19, school safety depends on transparency and accountability.
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January 4th, 2021- Today New Orleans Public Schools announced that all schools should move to virtual-only learning by Thursday of this week.
This is an important policy change that will help protect the health and safety of students, teachers, and all New Orleans residents who interact with those in our schools. Less than a week ago, the district had decided to insist upon in-person learning, but this caused an outcry from concerned educators, parents and students. The United Teachers of New Orleans published an Open Letter to the Superintendent and School Board outlining these concerns on January 1st, and in the subsequent days, several individual schools determined that they could not safely resume in-person learning at this time and decided to transition once again to virtual learning. MORE
Dr. Lewis and members of the Orleans Parish School Board,
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the distribution of the vaccine, but we cannot act with reckless abandon in the face of a rapidly spreading virus.
As students begin to return to schools virtually during the pandemic the United Teachers of New Orleans is collaborating with First Grace United Methodist Church on re:Purpose a program to facilitate the repair and donation of computers to students of Orleans Parish Public Schools.
Here are all the calls made to the city's 311 line that are related to COVID-19 and that have the same address as a school. To find out more about the report, copy the service request number for the report and search for it on the city's NOLA 311 site.
Workplace Checklist for Prevention of Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 Virus in K-12 Education
On July 8th, six organizations came together for a virtual town hall: UTNO, FFLIC, RETHINK, STEP UP Louisiana, OPEN, and Familias Unidas en Acción. Community feedback was collected during break out sessions, which allowed participants in small groups to voice their concerns and raise questions about the upcoming school year. We want to share these notes publicly in order to continue the conversation, especially as schools will eventually need to recalibrate as they consider transitioning from phase I to phase II. We believe strong and safe decisions are made when we incorporate as many directly impacted voices as possible, including parents, students, teachers, and school staff. We want those making decisions about our lives to read and listen to the comments and concerns of over 300 people in our community. Together we can improve the decisions about teaching and learning for the 2020-2021 school year.