For decades those were often the only options. But in recent years, California has expanded opportunities for teachers to get paid training for work at high-need schools, namely through special grants and through programs known as teacher residencies. This fall, the state will launch its first registered apprenticeship program for teachers, which means it gives students a chance to earn a wage and a teaching credential at the same time.

These programs are promising, but they’re set against a troubling backdrop, said Mary Vixie Sandy, the executive director of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, in a state hearing last month. “More teachers are entering the profession, but too many are leaving,” she said, adding that there is a “continued reliance on underprepared personnel, emergency-type permits, and substitutes to fill persistent vacancies.”

In the last academic year, almost 16,000 teachers in the state entered the classroom underprepared, about 5% of the total teacher workforce, according to the most recent report by the commission. It’s a significant increase compared to the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years. Areas in California’s Central Valley, the far north, and rural parts of the state, such as near the Sierra, have some of the highest rates of underprepared teachers.

Being a teacher is burdensome and for many, cost prohibitive, even in areas with a lower cost of living. California requires teachers to get a credential, which can cost over $30,000, in addition to a bachelor’s degree. Students also have to spend at least 600 hours in a classroom, often unpaid. As a result, many teachers carry student debt for years, according to an analysis from the Learning Policy Institute, an education research nonprofit.

While cheaper education and training programs exist, and some teachers in high-need areas are granted temporary permits to work without a full credential, it can take years to pay off the college debt. Starting salaries for teachers are low, often around $63,000 a year. Many new teachers quit, and retention rates are especially low for those who lack the proper credentials.

Nationally, both Democrats and Republicans have supported teacher apprenticeship programs. In his gubernatorial campaign in 2018, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised he’d create 500,000 apprenticeships over the next 10 years, many of them in fields where apprenticeships didn’t exist before, such as teaching. President Donald Trump said he’ll expand apprenticeships, too.

Still, to be recognized as an apprenticeship program by the state, employers and local agencies must go through complicated planning and vetting. The Tulare and Santa Clara county offices of education spent roughly two years setting up the first teacher apprenticeship programs, which will serve just eight students in the first year.

A teacher prep program with ‘divisive’ ideologies

In 2024, the Biden administration awarded the Tulare County Office of Education roughly $18 million to expand and improve teacher training, including designing future residencies and apprenticeships.

The Trump administration abruptly cut that funding last year, saying the grants promoted “ divisive ideologies,” such as diversity, equity and inclusion that no longer fit the U.S. Education Department’s “priorities.” The Hanford Joint Unified School District, about an hour south of Fresno, was one of many school systems affected by the federal cuts. Hanford has about 55,000 people, surrounded on all sides by dairy, nut and fruit farms or manufacturers who support them. Most people in Hanford have never finished college, making it particularly difficult for the district to find qualified teachers.

The district often temporarily waives the education and training requirements for new teachers, in some cases allowing them to take on a classroom alone with no prior experience. These emergency-style waivers or permits are especially common for teachers in math, science and special education.

The federal grant would have provided a pipeline for teacher residents in Hanford. Residents get full training and mentorship before they are in charge of a classroom and, as a result, have significantly higher retention rates than teachers with emergency-style permits or waivers, said Melanie Leung-Gagné, a researcher with the Learning Policy Institute.

Of the teachers who started at the Hanford school district without the proper training during the COVID-19 pandemic, about half have since left, according to local teacher data reviewed by CalMatters.

An easier hire but at what cost

Hanford West High School is a collection of long, single-story concrete buildings near the train tracks, which run north-south through the town. In Luis Garcia’s special education classroom, long chains of colored paper and posters cover his wall — his students recently decorated the classroom to celebrate his Teacher of the Year award.

But Garcia’s excellence is an exception in more ways than one. When he started teaching in 2018, he didn’t have the proper qualifications. For the first few years, such underqualified teachers are often called interns but are treated similarly to regular employees — handling an entire classroom on their own —- complete with a full-time salary. They are expected to simultaneously enroll in a program to gain their teaching license.

“In a pinch it’s much easier to hire an intern but at what cost,” said Brooke Berrios, who oversees some teacher preparation programs at the Tulare County Office of Education, including many at Hanford West High.

In retrospect, Garcia said more robust training, such as the residency or apprenticeship model, would have better prepared him for the job. “It was difficult because I was on my own,” he said while tidying the decorations before class one morning last month. He mentors both residents and interns now and said he can see clear differences in the quality of their training.

Trump cuts put a student’s future in flux

Unlike during Garcia’s internship, resident teachers aren’t responsible for a classroom their first year. Students co-teach with the help of a mentor while enrolled in a teaching preparation or graduate program. Residents receive a stipend of up to $40,000 during their first year of training. The new apprenticeship program will work similarly, at least in its first year. The main difference is that apprentices will also have jobs as substitute teachers, allowing them to earn more money on top of their stipend.

Last spring, Hayden Pulis was finishing his bachelor’s degree and helping coach football at the University of Central Oklahoma when he decided to return home to Hanford and become a teacher. “I didn’t have any teaching experience before,” he said, stepping away from his class and letting his mentor supervise the students. “Personally, I wasn’t ready to take over a classroom.” He applied to join the residency program at Hanford High School, 2 miles on the other side of the railroad tracks from Hanford West High, where Garcia teaches.

But a few weeks later, he learned in a meeting that the money was cut, putting his future in flux. In an average year, the Tulare County Office of Education supports about 20 residents, said Berrios. With the federal grant, the office was planning to serve almost 100 students, including Pulis, in collaboration with other county offices.

For weeks the district scrambled to find a solution for its incoming class. Using other state funds, Berrios said the school district was able to fulfill its commitment to Pulis, though his stipend was reduced to $35,000.

It was a “weight off my chest,” Pulis said. If the program hadn’t come through, he said he’d probably still be coaching football.

An opportunity to build wealth

All told, California has spent roughly $2.1 billion over the past decade to address teacher shortages, often through grants to make credentialing programs cheaper and make the training better. The largest pot of state funding goes toward residency programs, including the stipends.

There’s also the Golden State Teacher Grant, which gives students up to $10,000 toward the cost of their teaching credential. In return, aspiring teachers commit to working in schools, such as Hanford West High or Hanford High, where the students are majority low-income, English learners or foster youth. Pulis used the money to cover much of his tuition. The grant program is set to end this year, unless state lawmakers approve new funding in the upcoming budget.

Starting this summer, the state is launching a new grant that pays student teachers $10,000 for the hundreds of hours of classroom work during their preparation.

For Pulis, just thinking about the impact of these programs on his life makes him emotional. The grants allowed him to get a head start on building wealth, he said, speaking for himself and his wife, who is working as a waitress while in nursing school. In the past year, Pulis got married and moved to California — major expenses that would have been much harder to bear, he said, if not for the Golden State Teacher Grant and the $35,000 residency stipend.

Many of these grants and programs didn’t exist when Garcia was starting as a teacher in 2018. The internship was the only feasible route financially, he said, since other programs required him to study or work without a salary.

Internship programs, such as the one Garcia did, often pay more than more rigorous training programs, such as residencies, though Berrios said she intends to continue bringing those costs down.

Garcia still has about $30,000 in debt from the graduate-level teaching program he enrolled in as an intern. He also has another $50,000 in debt from his bachelor’s degree at Sacramento State.

Still, he said he had no regrets and was proud of his recent Teacher of the Year award. “Am I rich? No. But it’s nice that your colleagues see your hard work and your students praise you.”

When asked if the award came with a cash prize, he laughed and said no. “I’ll gladly take a donation.”

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis high school senior Caston Peters had used they and them or he and him pronouns at school for three years without a problem, but they came home a few days into this school year and told their mother that the situation had changed.

Peters, 18 and nonbinary, heard from a teacher that a new state law meant they wouldn’t be able to use those pronouns, or the first name they’ve used for years, without explicit permission from a parent because the pronouns and name don’t correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

This was news to Caston’s mother, Kim Michaelis-Peters, who immediately sent teachers, a counselor and the principal an email asking them to comply with Caston’s wishes, and the school staff did. But even though her own child’s wishes are being respected, Michaelis-Peters said she has deep concerns about what Indiana’s law could mean for students whose parents might not be understanding if they learn from school officials that their child is transgender or nonbinary.

“It makes me feel like there’s going to be a child out there who’s not going to feel safe at home to tell their parents and the school’s going to rat them out for wanting to be called a different name or different pronouns,” she said.

Indiana is among at least 10 states that have enacted laws prohibiting or restricting students from using pronouns or names that don’t match their sex assigned at birth, a restriction that opponents say further marginalizes transgender and nonbinary students. Most of the laws were enacted this year and are part of a historic wave of new restrictions on transgender youth approved by Republican states.

The measures are creating fear for transgender students and sowing confusion for teachers on how to comply but still offer a welcoming environment for everyone in their classes.

“The things that are passing are so vague and so hard to understand that (teachers) don’t know what to do,” said Cheryl Greene, senior director of the Welcoming Schools Program for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights. “It just creates this ambiguity and fear with educators because it’s not clear.”

Supporters of the laws have argued that parents should have a say if children are using pronouns or names different than those assigned at birth. Republican lawmakers describe it as a parental rights issue alongside efforts to restrict how gender identity is addressed in the classroom or in library materials.

“School districts can’t shut a parent out of their child’s decision about their gender identity because the child objects or because the school believes the parent isn’t supportive enough of an immediate gender transition,” according to a brief signed by nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general and filed in a lawsuit stemming from a California school district’s policy.

Mental health experts and advocates say that requiring parental consent or notification of pronouns forcibly outs trans students, who already face a high risk of bullying and abuse.

Similar restrictions have sparked some opposition in Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin unveiled new model policies over the summer that include a requirement that minors must be referred to by the names and pronouns in their official records unless a parent approves something else. Some school boards have begun to adopt policies consistent with Youngkin’s guidelines while others have balked.

Some teachers in other states are finding ways around the requirements or defying the restrictions, saying they don’t want to put their students at risk. Since the laws are being enacted in states where teachers have little job protection, few are willing to talk on the record.

Jillian Spain, who teaches social studies at a middle school in Yanceyville, North Carolina, said she’s continued to address her students by the names and pronouns they use. Spain said outing a child, which is what the law would do to transgender and nonbinary students, “is not in the job description.”

Spain said the fear of being outed just adds to the pressures students already face, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated their well-being and academics.

“I am absolutely never, ever, ever going to out a child,” Spain said. “School is supposed to be their safe place. It’s supposed to a place where they can be who they truly are.”

Teachers’ groups say educators have been given little to no guidance on how to comply with the new restrictions, including basic steps like how to get permission from parents of students who use pronouns or names not listed on their birth certificates.

Indiana, like other states, leaves the specifics up to school districts.

The state’s teachers union says Indiana’s new parental notification law, which also bars teachers from providing instruction on human sexuality to students from pre-K through the third grade, is aimed at a problem that doesn’t exist.

“We have heard concerns anecdotally about the potential impact of this law,” Indiana State Teachers Association President Keith Gambill said in a statement. “Teachers are worried that it will create confusion and additional administrative burdens in an already demanding educational environment.”

Kentucky’s new law says teachers and school staff cannot be compelled to use a student’s pronouns if they don’t “conform to the student’s biological sex.”

The law, which includes other provisions dealing with student bathroom assignment and parental consent, has prompted confusion among educators, said Chris Hartman, director of the Fairness Campaign, the state’s highest-profile LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Hartman said it allows educators to ignore students’ wishes about pronouns even if their parents have asked the district not to let it happen.

“The mental health impact on trans kids being willfully misgendered by the adults in the room is disastrous,” Hartman said. He said supportive adults are crucial to keeping transgender students from slipping into depression and considering suicide.

Jefferson County Schools, the state’s largest district with 90,000 students, struggled to comply with the new state law. After a third try, the school board in Louisville adopted a policy that includes giving students with gender dysphoria an exception for bathroom accommodations and adds potential punishment for teachers and staff who willfully and repeatedly misgender a student.

A group of parents and students in Lexington have sued over the Kentucky law. One of the families alleges a school office employee intentionally refused to use their child’s name and pronouns while speaking with them in April. The parents, who are identified by a pseudonym, decided to legally change the child’s name after that encounter, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in late September. The suit asks a judge to declare Kentucky’s new law unconstitutional.

In Indiana, Caston Peters said they think other students will suffer because of that state’s law.

“School is supposed to be a safe spot for us where we can be ourselves without having to deal with being called out, without being bullied or name-called or anything like that,” they said. “And I think for some of us being able to be called the name or pronouns that we prefer it’s something we need. And if we can’t get that at home then having it in another safe place like school — if that’s the only place we can get it — well now it’s being taken away from us. “

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CNS | CONTRIBUTED

Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Norco, introduced legislation Monday to assert the freedom of teachers to openly communicate with parents regarding their children’s gender transition decisions, based on a Jurupa Valley educator’s firing over her predisposition toward full disclosure. “Public policy should never presume that a parent does not have the best interest for that child,” Essayli said during a briefing outside Jurupa Valley High School Monday. “Concealing information from parents is not only wrong; it’s dangerous and harmful to the safety of trans minors. Parents play a critical role in nurturing and supporting children, and they cannot be removed from the equation.”

Essayli’s proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 1314, would reinforce in the California Education Code provisions already in place establishing a “parent’s right to know,” he said. “This law would reset the appropriate relationship between children and their parents,” the assemblyman said. “Children are the domain of their parents, not the government.”

Essayli was inspired to author the bill after learning about the treatment of physical education teacher Jessica Tapia, who was terminated from Jurupa High earlier this year following her challenge to a Jurupa Unified School District policy that limited her ability to convey messages to parents regarding their children’s gender identity preferences. Tapia ran afoul a district policy linked to AB 1266, which was signed into law in 2014. The bill focused on “pupil rights,” expanding on Section 221.5 of the education code regarding students’ participation in courses.

The thrust of AB 1266 was that a “pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.” There were no explicit provisions written into the bill prohibiting educators from talking with parents about their kids’ gender choices. However, legal guidelines attached in a companion measure cited the California Public Records Act, Article 1, Section 1 of the state constitution and the federal Family Educational & Privacy Rights Act — FERPA — in establishing limits on what educators are permitted to disclose.

“Parents want to know everything happening with their child,” Tapia said during the briefing. “They are trusting us to make sure their child is safe and taken care of.” She said her termination was rooted in an interaction with administrators during which she and colleagues were instructed “to withhold information from parents” whenever they encountered a student who had begun identifying as a different gender. “Right away, a major red flag popped up,” Tapia said.

“I said, `Are you asking me to lie?’ And they said, `Yes, it’s for students’ privacy.’ It was just so bizarre to me, because you’re talking about minors. The decision- making portal of their brain is not fully developed. They need their parents at this time for everything they’re going through. I can’t understand why the school system thinks that we ought to act as though we are the parents.” Tapia alleges that JUSD administrators found her Christian religious principles, which she said guided her in all life decisions, conflicted with the district’s policy regarding non-disclosure, and she lost her job because of it.

She has initiated civil action against the district based on religious viewpoint discrimination, specifically protected under Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, according to her attorney, Pacific Justice Institute President Brad Dacus. JUSD released a statement last week, saying, “The district denies the allegations raised by Ms. Tapia. The district takes seriously its obligation to accommodate its employee’s religious beliefs. Simultaneously, the district is obligated to comply with all local, state and federal laws, including anti-discrimination laws and laws that protect students’ rights to privacy, which are in place to protect the nearly 2,500 employees and 18,000 students we serve.” “She was fired because of her beliefs and conscience,” Dacus said. “She’s not alone.

There are people across the country who are being fired because of their beliefs, not because of their job performance. It’s outrageous. Parents trust public schools when they drop their kids off.” He said Essayli’s bill “validates what parents already are assuming exists, which is recognition of their fundamental rights over their children.” “Now is the time to send a message to school districts like this that we’re not going to take this,” he said.

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Julia Shapero | Contributed

As the new school year kicks off, several California school districts are finding creative ways to provide housing for teachers who are being priced out of the neighborhoods they serve.

Just south of San Francisco, voters approved the construction of a 122-unit apartment complex on property owned by the Jefferson Union High School District, CBS News reported. The building rents to the district’s teachers and staff at more affordable rates.

Terra Nova High School, a school in the district that had previously faced job vacancies over the high cost of living, is now fully staffed, according to CBS.

Another school district in the San Francisco Bay Area recently asked parents if they had rooms available for teachers to rent, The Washington Post reported. The Milpitas Unified School District lost 10 teachers in the previous academic year over the lack of affordable housing.

“Many of the Milpitas Unified School District moderate-income employees are working families and are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase or rent a home within a 15 mile radius or close to the Milpitas Unified School District where they work,” the Milpitas school board noted in a recent resolution.

Schools across the country are facing severe teaching shortages and dealing with the lack of educators in unique ways. Arizona removed the requirement that its teachers have bachelor’s degrees. In Florida, veterans can become temporary teachers, also without a bachelor’s degree.

In California, known for its astronomical housing prices, teachers’ salaries have not kept up with the housing market. In 2016, a Redfin analysis of several California counties found that just 17 percent of homes for sale were affordable on the average teacher’s salary, according to the Post.

As of the 2019-2020 school year, the average teacher’s salary in California was $84,531, according to the California Department of Education. The average home in the state now costs $683,000, according to Forbes.

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Sue Breyer, CalRTA Division 33 Vice President

The students of five local teachers will see some new gadgets, games and gizmos in their classrooms before the school year ends, thanks to the California Retired Teachers Association’s State and Division 33 Teacher Grant programs. The names of four lucky $100 grant winners were randomly drawn at Division 33’s recent membership luncheon on April 12th. A fifth name was selected in early March in a CalRTAstatewide drawing.

The Division 33 $100 grant recipients were Darian Benzango, a Kindergarten teacher at Cawston Elementary School in Hemet; Kaeli Trask, a 7th grade English Language Arts (ELA) teacher at Thompson Middle School in Murrieta; Alicia Gee, a third grade teacher with the Menifee Virtual School in Menifee; and Lee Jones, a student government teacher at Tahquitz High School in Hemet. Hemet’s McSweeny Elementary School Transitional Kindergarten teacher, Dawn Jackson, received one of CalRTA’s 40 state $100 Teacher Grants in a drawing held March 11th and was surprised to find out that she would receive another “matching” $100 from Division 33, a $200 windfall for her and her students. She plans to use the money to purchase some much-needed hands on activities to reinforce her students’ fine motor skills, letter recognition and science knowledge.

Darian Benzango is currently taking the LETRS course (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) – and will use her $100 check to purchase phonemic awareness games and hands on activities for her kinder students! “Thank you so much! It was very exciting to find out I was this month’s winner,” Benzango exclaimed after receiving her award notification.

Seventh grade ELA teacher Kaeli Trask was also excited at her selection. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am beyond thrilled I was chosen as one of the CalRTA Teacher Grant Winners this past month. The $100 grant will allow me to purchase Calming Fluorescent Light Filters to dim the harsh classroom lights for my students, and a large collection of golf pencils — my students are constantly in need, and these provide a quick way for them to grab a pencil and continue their work,” Trask said.

Lee Jones, Tahquitz High School ASB Director and 17-year veteran educator, shared her excitement upon receiving her $100 grant. “Thank you for this gift! I will be using it to purchase a lighted-tripod so that the students can record events ‘live’ and share what we are doing on campus,” Jones explained.

Menifee Virtual School’s third grade teacher, Alicia Gee, explains, “I have always been interested in hands-on science activities. With the $100 I plan to build science kits that my students can use while at home as they are part of the Menifee Virtual School. Thank you!”

CalRTA Division 33 will hold one final drawing for this school year on Tuesday, June 7th, during their scholarship luncheon. Teachers in the Hemet, San Jacinto, Temecula, Menifee, Murrieta, Nuview, Romoland and Lake Elsinore School Districts can access the application at div33.calrta.org/scholarships-and-grants/ or tinyurl.com/CalRTADiv33TeacherGrant. Teachers will also receive notifications via email at their school sites and can find more information on the CalRTA Division 33 Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/calrtadivision33.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California will become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, as schools return from summer break amid growing concerns about the highly contagious delta variant, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday.

The new policy applies to both public and private schools and will affect the state’s 320,000 public school teachers, more than 250,000 support staff — from cafeteria employees to cleaners — and at least 80,000 private school employees, according to the California Department of Education and labor unions. It will also apply to school volunteers.

Newsom announced the new policy at a San Francisco Bay Area school that reopened earlier this week to in-person classes. Many California schools are back in session, with others starting in the coming weeks.

“We think this is the right thing to do, and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open and to address the number one anxiety that parents like myself have for young children,” said Newsom, who is a father of four. “That is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep our kids safe.”

Several large school districts in the state have issued similar requirements in recent days, including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Long Beach Unified.

California, like the rest of the country, has seen a troubling surge in COVID-19 infections because of the delta variant, which represents the vast majority of new cases. It has affected children more than previous strains of the virus, prompting a growing number of teachers unions to ease earlier opposition to vaccine mandates.

California’s two largest teachers unions, both powerful political allies to the governor, said Wednesday they fully supported Newsom’s policy.

The California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers both cited state and national polling that indicates nearly 90% of educators have been vaccinated but said the rising spread of the delta variant, particularly among children, makes the new policy necessary. Children under 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated.

“Educators want to be in classrooms with their students, and the best way to make sure that happens is for everyone who is medically eligible to be vaccinated, with robust testing and multi-tiered safety measures,” CTA President E. Toby Boyd said in a statement.

While Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced last week that all Department of Education staffers would be required to disclose their vaccination status or face weekly testing, California’s order is far more sweeping, applying to all staff who work in both public and private schools in the country’s most populous state.

Over the past few weeks, Newsom has mandated that all health care workers must be fully vaccinated and required that all state employees get vaccinated or choose weekly testing.

For schools, Newsom had already issued a mask mandate that applies to teachers and students. But until Wednesday, he had left the decision of whether to require vaccines up to local districts.

Vaccine mandates are perilous for the Democratic governor, who faces a recall election next month fueled in part by anger over his handling of the pandemic.

California was the first state to order a pandemic lockdown in March 2020, which shuttered businesses and schools statewide. While many private schools maintained in-person classes, most public schools kept students in distance learning for up to a year. Newsom faced intense political pressure to reopen schools from Republican opponents and supporters who urged him to override powerful labor unions. Many public schools finally reopened last spring, lagging much of the country.

Newsom pushed for a full return to in-person learning this fall. But his mask mandate for schools has angered some parents and been criticized by Republican candidates vying to replace him.

Several of the GOP candidates criticized the new plan Wednesday. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who has encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, said state officials “should not be pushing uniform statewide orders on every school district across the state” but should leave it to local districts.

Details of how the new policy will be enforced were not announced. Labor unions say those logistics still need to be worked out.

Matthew Hardy, a spokesman for the California Federation of Teachers, said the union supports the plan that allows an option for testing.

“We do not think people should lose their jobs over this,” he said.

Schools are required to be in full compliance with the new policy by Oct. 15, giving schools time to verify vaccination status and have in place weekly testing for unvaccinated staff, said Amelia Matier, a spokeswoman in the governor’s office.

Newsom did not rule out expanding the requirement to students after a vaccine is approved for children under 12 years old.

“We’ll consider all options in the future,” he said, in response to a question. “We believe this is a meaningful first step.”

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Three local area teachers beat the odds when they were randomly selected from over 100 applicants to receive CalRTA Division 33’s $100 Teacher Grants for February. It was an especially sweet Valentine’s Day gift in this stressful time of instructional challenges for our nation’s educators.

Paul Kobayashi of Dartmouth Middle School in Hemet, Ofelia Cordero-Chemidlin of Southshore Elementary School in Menifee, and Rachel Maryanski from San Jacinto High School in San Jacinto have each received $100 to help them meet their classroom needs, even in this time of virtual instruction. Kobayashi, an English teacher, plans to use the money to build his class library. “I have some books, but I really need to up my variety of books that kids can read so I want to focus on non-fiction, fiction, anime books, and other genres,” Kobayashi said. Elementary school teacher Ofelia Cordero-Chemidlin heard about CalRTA’s teacher grant program from her principal. “I was motivated to apply because of the amount of extra work we’re doing for distance learning and thought it would be helpful to get some fun resources for my class,” Cordero-Chemidlin explained. “I plan on getting a Spelling City subscription to help my students with their spelling during distance learning. I also want to purchase online math and word games to make our small group time more engaging,” she added. San Jacinto High School agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Rachel Maryanski plans to use her $100 check to “purchase and send home interactive lessons for my students.”

Holding true to the California Retired Teachers Association’s mission to “protect and advocate for retired and active educators’ pensions and other retirement benefits, and to support public education in our communities,” Division 33, which represents the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley and surrounding communities, selects three $100 Teacher Grant recipients at each of their five memberships meetings during the year, in addition to awarding six $1000 scholarships each June to graduating seniors in the Hemet and San Jacinto school districts. Vice President Sue Breyer said that applications for their next drawing in April will open March 13.

For more information, go to https://div33.calrta.org/scholarships-and-grants/ or follow Division 33 on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/calrtadivision33.

Sue Breyer • Contributor

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State leaders around the U.S. are increasingly pushing for schools to reopen this winter — pressuring them, even — as teachers begin to gain access to the vaccine against the raging pandemic.

Ohio’s governor offered to give vaccinations to teachers at the start of February, provided their school districts agree to resume at least some in-person instruction by March 1. In Arizona, where teachers began receiving shots this week, the governor warned schools that he expects students back in the classroom despite objections from top education officials and the highest COVID-19 diagnosis rate in the nation over the past week.

“We will not be funding empty seats or allowing schools to remain in a perpetual state of closure,” said Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. “Children still need to learn, even in a pandemic.”

Leaders of Arizona’s major hospitals disagreed with the governor’s position, noting at a news conference Wednesday that the state is teetering on the brink of having to ration life-saving care.

“We understand that learning and bringing our children together is very important,” said Dr. Michael White of Valleywise Health. “But at this time with uncontrolled spread of the virus, we need to do things that we know will reduce the chance that the virus will spread and that is not gathering with people we don’t live with.”

The U.S. recorded an all-time, one-day high of 4,327 deaths on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The nation’s overall death toll from COVID-19 has topped 380,000, closing in fast on the number of Americans killed in World War II. Confirmed infections have reached about 23 million.

President-elect Joe Biden initially pledged to reopen a majority of the nation’s schools in his first 100 days but recently revised the goal to most of the country’s K-8 schools. He has said teachers should be eligible for vaccinations as soon as possible after those who are at highest risk.

Some states aren’t waiting, but the process can be scattershot.

Meika Mark, a ninth-grade English teacher in Orange County, New York, got vaccinated Tuesday at a hospital, using a link a friend texted her.

“It’s just word of mouth: ‘Here’s a link and hopefully you get a slot,’” said Mark, who contracted the virus in March and spent the rest of the school year teaching remotely. “I know of a woman who had her husband sit in front of a computer literally all day and just click the refresh button until an appointment came up.”

Mark, 34, is now doing some in-person teaching and is grateful for the added layer of protection.

“I told my students before that every day is one day closer to normalcy,” she said. “I think if we just remind ourselves of that, it just helps to pause and live in the moment for a minute.”

High school band director Michael Crookston was among the first teachers to get a vaccination in Utah, which is among the earliest states to give priority to educators. Crookston has been in the classroom since the new school year began, despite having diabetes, which puts him at greater risk from the coronavirus.

“It’s been a thing I’ve been looking forward to, a little bit like Christmas,” said Crookston, who teaches at Davis High School, north of Salt Lake City, where he used a parent’s donation to buy 12 air filters for his band room. Students also wear face masks and use covers on their instruments.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has said he wants to vaccinate all teachers by the end of February.

Salt Lake City has been hit hard by the virus and was the only district in Utah to stay all-remote this school year. That has angered some GOP leaders, who have threatened to deny the city’s teachers the $1,500 bonuses promised to the state’s educators.

An estimated 10.3 million Americans have received their first shot of the vaccine, or about 3% of the U.S. population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is an increase of about 1 million from the day before, indicating the vaccination drive is picking up speed after a slow start.

But the U.S. is still well short of the hundreds of millions who experts say will need to be inoculated to vanquish the outbreak.

A report released Wednesday by the CDC adds to the evidence suggesting that children aren’t the main drivers of community transmission. It found that increases in reported cases among adults were not preceded by increases among children and teens. Young adults, it appears, may contribute more to the spread than children do.

Chicago began a phased-in reopening of its schools this week, with about 6,000 pre-kindergarten and special education students expected to return to classrooms and other grades set to follow in the coming weeks. Illinois teachers are not eligible for vaccines yet, but Chicago officials are providing virus tests on school grounds for staff.

Chicago teachers who were punished for refusing to show up for classes over COVID-19 concerns demonstrated Wednesday outside the school board president’s home. Roughly 150 employees have been docked pay and locked out of the school system, meaning they can’t teach remotely either.

“I don’t believe it’s safe to reopen the schools. I don’t believe it’s safe for my family, I live with an elderly mom. I don’t believe it is safe for the city’s children or their families,” said Kirstin Roberts, a pre-kindergarten teacher.

New York State expanded vaccine eligibility to teachers this week. But in New York City, the nation’s largest school district, with 1.1 million students, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that middle and high schools will remain closed indefinitely.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a $2 billion plan to pay for testing, protective equipment and other safety enhancements to reopen the lowest grades as soon as Feb. 16.

But educators said it is too soon to know when California’s 600,000 teachers can expect to be vaccinated. Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, said vaccinations have to come first, then schools can talk about reopening.

“We cannot put our own lives, the lives of our students, and our communities at risk during what is clearly an escalating crisis in our state,” the union leader said.

California’s rollout of vaccines has been slower than anticipated, with the first phase, involving health care workers and nursing home residents, still underway.

On Wednesday, Chiefs of Change, a bipartisan group of school administrators, called on state and federal officials to make teachers and other school employees immediately eligible for vaccinations and provide more resources to conduct testing and contact tracing in school districts.

“Those individuals are very uncomfortable and they’re very scared about coming back into school, no matter how safe we make it,” said Robert Runcie, superintendent of public schools in Broward County, Florida.

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CalRTA selects $100 grant winners

Christmas came early this year for three local teachers, bringing tidings of great joy in the form of $100 teacher grants, courtesy of the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) Division 33, which serves Hemet, San Jacinto and surrounding communities. Vice President Sue Breyer says, “This year has been such a tremendous challenge for educators, our hope is that these $100 grants will help bring a little holiday cheer to these teachers and their students.”

Laura Anderson, Jenna Spinali and Natalee Boggs each completed an easy online application form in November with hopes of winning one of three grants. CalRTA Division 33 holds drawings four times a year, in October, December, February and April, randomly selecting three winners from the list of applicants. During their December virtual holiday gathering, the names of three recipients were drawn from a pool of 50 applicants.

Laura Anderson is a veteran third grade teacher at Hemet Elementary school and is prepping her library for when students return to in-person instruction, adding books that have diverse characters and are more inclusive of the demographics of her campus. Anderson has been conscientiously working on this project over the past year. “The $100 gift will accelerate the process,” Anderson says.

Fruitvale Elementary School teacher Jenna Spinali works with struggling readers in the primary grades at her Hemet school. She plans to use the $100 grant to purchase a book titled “Bridging the Gap” by Brenda D. Smith, which she’s had on her wish list for a long time. “Many of my students have gaps in their phonemic awareness skills, so I hope the book will help me help them improve,” Spinali says.

With her $100 Teacher Grant, Natalee plans to buy science goodies for her students at Murrieta Mesa High School! The funds will allow her to purchase lab supplies for them, such as Borax, plastic bags, paper bags, balloons, straws, droppers, baking soda, new slides for the microscopes, markers, dish soap and paper. Boggs was surprised she was selected and says, “My students and I are very excited!”

For more information about CalRTA Division 33’s next teacher grant drawing in February, visit https://div33.calrta.org/scholarships-and-grants/ or access their Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/calrtadivision33 and watch for announcements.

Sue Breyer • CalRTA Division 33 Vice President

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Division 33 of the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA), which serves the Hemet/San Jacinto valley and surrounding communities, recently awarded three $100 teacher grants to local educators.

Teachers in the Hemet, San Jacinto, Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee and Lake Elsinore school districts were notified in September that the first drawing would be held during Division 33’s virtual membership meeting on October 13th. Nearly 40 teachers applied for the grants, and the three winners were randomly drawn from the list of applicants.

Kristina Killien Ward, a science teacher at Alessandro High School in Hemet for the past twelve years and honored as her school’s Teacher of the Year in 2017, plans to use the funds to renovate the lizard tank in her science classroom. Jennifer Ream, who teaches at Hemet Elementary School, says, “I would buy rewards I can send to my scholars virtually. With them learning from home, it would be nice to brighten their day with a treat.” Another Hemet Elementary School teacher, Rebecca Zayas, intends to purchase headphones for some of her students. “Their home environments are so loud and they cannot focus” during their virtual lessons and online class time, Zayas explained.

This is the second year that CalRTA Division 33 has offered $100 teacher grants, knowing that the funds will go a long way to help teachers meet the many needs of their students. Applications will open on November 8th for the next drawing to be held at Division 33’s next virtual membership meeting on December 8th. Teachers can watch for announcements about upcoming teacher grant opportunities by accessing CalRTA Division 33’s Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/calrtadivision33 or going to Division 33’s website at https://div33.calrta.org/.

Sue Breyer, Vice President, CalRTA Division33

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