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In union poll, 58% of L.A. Unified teachers want to keep mandatory masking
More than half of Los Angeles Unified teachers who responded to a union poll want to continue the district’s indoor mask mandate, and union leaders have proposed lifting the requirement at schools where at least 75% of staff and students are vaccinated.
The tally was 58% for keeping the requirement and 42% for ending it, according to an update the union sent to members Thursday morning. The survey was taken as the district and union are negotiating the future of masking and coronavirus testing in the nation’s second-largest school system.
The poll was conducted on March 13 and 14, and more than 18,500 union members participated. The union has more than 30,000 members, according to recent figures, and represents nurses, counselors and librarians as well as teachers.
Most school districts in Los Angeles County have moved to optional masking — as allowed by county health officials, who also continue to strongly recommend the use of masks for indoor school settings.
L.A. Unified has not released its bargaining proposals, but Supt. Alberto Carvalho has stated that he is ready to move the district to optional masking. He’s also said he wants to ramp down the costly weekly testing program, so the money saved can be shifted to support other student needs.
In an earlier agreement, L.A. school officials committed to bargaining with the teachers union over masking. Most other school systems were not bound by such an agreement with their teachers union. Leaders of other L.A. Unified unions said they also want to be consulted over the matter.
Families are divided over the issue. In a poll from early February, a clear majority wanted required masking to continue, but that was closer to the peak of the Omicron surge and before county officials allowed schools to make masking optional. More recent, informal polls from two Los Angeles parent groups suggested that most parents now favor optional masking, although communities hardest hit by the pandemic were likely to be under-represented in those surveys.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-17/in-union-poll-58-of-l-a-unified-teachers-want-to-keep-mandatory-masking