PASADENA, Calif. — Some Pasadena parents are pushing for a full-time school schedule in the fall.
Families created Open PUSD Schools and wrote a letter to both the Pasadena Unified School District and United Teachers of Pasadena asking that classrooms be open five days a week during the 2021-2022 school year.
Parent Corey Hegger has been working from home while helping her three boys with hybrid learning.
“It’s non-stop. Every day I’m on one of them,” Hegger said. “I get one of them on track and the other one, the wheels have come off on the other one. So it’s just constant work for me.”
Learning from home has been hardest for her middle son, Henry whose grades are dropping fast. He received four D’s on his last report card, despite her efforts to get him to complete his assignments.
Henry says learning at home is not the same pressure as being at school.
“A lot of the time you’re with the teacher learning and you feel a certain pressure to do the assignment because the teacher is there,” Henry said. “But when you’re not there you’re just a name on the screen.”
He and his brothers are all back at school two days a week which helps, but it is still hectic. They are all on different schedules.
Hegger is one of the over 100 parents who signed a letter asking that schools reopen and place desks at three feet apart instead of six feet. The school board held a special meeting and committed to open full-time without moving the desks closer.
United Teachers of Pasadena has yet to respond to the request for a public commitment to a full-time reopening.
“It’s great that the board did this but what about the union?” Hegger said. “Because if the union doesn’t agree to it then it’s all for not.”
Hegger says if full-time learning doesn’t happen she will remove her kids from the district.
“I can’t do this again,” Hegger said. “It’s not good for the kids.”