More than a week ago the city of San Francisco reached a tentative agreement with teacher’s unions about reopening the district’s schools.

The tentative agreement covers baseline health and safety standards, district and union representatives said, including the return of students to classrooms when the city and county have reached the red tier of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, as determined by the California Department of Public Health, and all staff members returning to schools or worksites “have had the opportunity (eligibility and access) to be vaccinated at the recommended dosage,” the district said in an announcement.

Students could also return if the city and county reach the orange or any lower tier, “regardless of the availability of vaccines,” the district said.

That proposal was supposed to be discussed by the SF School Board today but at the last moment that plan was scrubbed. Now the board’s website says the plan will be discussed next Tuesday.

The San Francisco Unified School District and unions were scheduled to discuss Tuesday a tentative agreement to bring teachers and students back to the classroom. However, the district has delayed their meeting one week.

In a last minute change, the district’s website was updated to reflect that the discussion will take place at the regular meeting on Feb. 23.

A reporter who covers the education beat for the SF Chronicle says the planned discussion was preempted by a legal issue related to the renaming of schools:

The SFUSD school board vote on a tentative labor deal on health and safety reopening requirements has been delayed. Instead, the board will be in closed session tonight over a legal issue, reportedly related to the renaming of 44 schools. It's unclear why the board can't do both.

— Jill Tucker (@jilltucker) February 16, 2021

Yesterday, SF School Board President Gabriela Lopez and Vice President Alison Collins, co-wrote a piece for the Examiner confirming the delay was caused by litigation thought they didn’t specify the topic:

We were due to meet this Tuesday to vote on part of the reopening plan, but now, we have to hold a closed session to discuss litigation filed by people who claim to have our students’ best interests at heart…

And while we are working everyday to ensure our schools are physically safe, the work to ensure our schools’ are emotionally and culturally safe spaces does not stop. There are people who are focused on dividing us in order to undermine the important work of creating school environments that are free from hate. Folks are saying we must first prioritize school reopening before we can address racism. This is a false dichotomy. We can and must do both. Our children and young people deserve schools that are physically, emotionally and culturally safe.

The idea that removing, for instance, Abraham Lincoln’s name from a high school will make it culturally safe from racism is plenty stupid on its own. But the idea that this is just as important as whether or not kids are learning in classrooms is the height of ignorance. Kids who are failing class or simply not showing up for weeks at a time are potentially going to be impacted by this for years.

But this attitude really isn’t a surprise. As I pointed out yesterday, School Board President Lopez recently suggested that kids who were not in school are “just having different learning experiences than the ones we currently measure.” She’s not taking this seriously at all. That’s why she sees school renaming as equally important. But back in the real world there is no comparison between these two things. One is a priority for kids and parents and the other is virtue signaling for woke 20-somethings.