December 11, 2020
The Honorable Governor Newsom
State of California
1303 10th Street, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Newsom,
As elected representatives of the Coronado Unified School District we are writing this letter to request that critical decision makers in your administration include teachers, front line school staff, and at-risk students as a priority in receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
Our teachers have provided distance learning instruction since the imposed school closures. In surveying our stakeholders we have learned that instruction provided solely through distance learning platforms cannot fulfill the academic and socio-emotional needs of all our students. Despite all of our best efforts over the last nine months, some are not thriving.
We acknowledge that there is still risk from the spread of COVID19 and that until there is widespread vaccine availability for our students, strong mitigation efforts must be maintained. Masks, social distancing, and sanitation efforts will be with us at least for the remainder of the school year. Access to the vaccine for our staff will ensure that our students can be with us as well.
Not to do everything we can to bring our students back on campus as soon as possible would be unconscionable. It is our duty to advocate for all adults who work with our students to be a priority in accessing the vaccine. We ask you to recognize the importance of the safety of our staff and how many young lives each of them touch. We need our educators to be confident they are safe in the classroom so they may resume their invaluable and essential work.
We appreciate your support in getting staff and students safely back in classrooms.
