Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
There are still some challenges for students and teachers to return to schools and a new normalcy, said Eddie Flores, president of the South San Francisco Unified School District School Board.
He said this has been an unexpected year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the lives of students, teachers and other staff are in the hands, and that is why we have a distance education model, which has been in place since the spring.
"It's a model that, while not perfect, we are perfecting as we have many more voices participating with suggestions and recommendations from both the teachers' union and the parents themselves. It's been successful so far," she said.
He said the board made a decision to continue distance learning until the county can return to orange, since they are confident that this is the best way to take care of the health of all the people they represent and that is the most important thing.
They have also developed special learning spaces for groups in need, and have partnered with community centres to provide assistance to specific groups with special needs or even homelessness.
"These are specific groups that we have focused on bringing to these learning centers, which are in physical locations in the South San Francisco community, because we want to avoid it being like an academic avalanche that prevents students from advancing, and we don't want this year to go to waste," he explained.
They have also provided all families who need it with digital devices so that they can continue studying, regardless of whether they have two or three students at home, as well as workshops so that parents can also learn how to use these technologies.
On the other hand, he said that the vaccine for COVID-19 is what will help us prevent the virus and return to a new normal. "We are anxious that the federal government can classify teachers and academic staff at the district level as the next essential group to receive the vaccine.
Because, he said, teachers are key to returning to a new normalcy, so that students can return to schools, even though they have been working either in the offices or through the computers at a distance in this virtual learning.
On Latino representation on the council, he noted that with district elections, which many cities and school districts have adopted as a new form of election, "we are having a new wave of representatives and voices that we value very much in the community.
"I am very happy with what has been happening and the new opportunities that are being had, I think it was time that this had happened, so that we could give a voice to all those people who had not been represented," he added.
He added that there are indeed barriers for Latinos and the doors have not yet been fully opened to these types of positions, but it is a job where they have to support each other and participate, because that is the most important thing and make a difference.
