The San Diego Unified School District teachers union is calling for all district schools to close immediately for health and safety reasons, even though county health officials have not directed schools to do so.

“The science of COVID-19 is clear: the best way to protect the communities we serve is to limit the opportunities for this virus to spread,” San Diego Education Association President Kisha Borden said in a statement Thursday night. “Closing schools would be an important step towards protecting our students, their families and their communities from the COVID-19 threat.”

Borden said the union decided to call for closures after consulting with the union’s board of directors and talking with district leaders about their coronavirus plans.

“We just feel like we don’t wanna wait for more people to get sick,” Borden said.


No public schools have closed yet in San Diego County, according to the San Diego County Office of Education. County health officials have not yet said schools should close, even though it announced Thursday afternoon that community spread of coronavirus has likely begun here.

District spokeswoman Maureen Magee said earlier Thursday that the district is in constant communication with health officials and is monitoring the situation.

“At this point, local, state and federal experts have stressed that schools are an essential service with multiple community benefits and children have been shown to not have a high risk of the illness,” Magee said.

The district won’t be closing schools for now, but “that could change at any time,” Magee said.


Some parents have been questioning why their employers are telling them to stay home from work, yet they’re supposed to send their kids to school, Borden said.

Having hundreds of people congregate at schools every day contradicts “social distancing” policies, Borden said.

“We’re saying ‘social distance’ or trying to stay away from large crowds, and this is kind of the opposite,” Borden said.


Borden is also concerned about schools’ ability to keep everything clean. She said classrooms aren’t cleaned every day, and it’s difficult for staff to make sure all students wash their hands if they are supervising, say, 35 kids at a time.

Borden is calling on San Diego County Public Health Services to direct that San Diego Unified close the schools. Superintendents have been told not to close schools unless county health officials tell them to do so.

Borden acknowledged that it would be difficult for some parents to get away from work and that many students depend on their schools for meals. The union also is calling for state and local officials to set up safe food distribution systems for students.

San Diego Unified officials said Thursday that they plan to set up seven drive-thru sites with free meals if schools must close. The sites will be strategically located in areas where there are the highest concentrations of families who qualify for free meals, Magee said.


One of the vital services that schools provide is free meals for students from low-income families. About 60 percent of San Diego Unified’s roughly 103,000 kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

