Gov. Cooper announces stay at home order extended until at least May 8, announcement regarding school coming tomorrow
At today’s press conference at 3 pm, NC Governor Roy Cooper announced that he is extending the stay at home order for all of NC until May 8th.
“It is clear that we are flattening the curve,” Cooper said in the news conference Thursday. “But our state is not ready to lift restrictions yet. We need more time to slow the spread of the virus before we can ease the social restrictions.”
A detailed plan related to what Gov. Cooper is calling the “3 Ts”: testing, tracing, and trends, was laid out describing the metrics NC would need to meet to not just flatten the growth of COVID-19, but push trends downward consistently over time. When asked when NC public schools might reopen, Gov. Cooper stressed that the safe return of students and staff is very important and that an announcement with other state public school officials will be coming tomorrow.
Organizing works. What we’ve won:
Since the onset of COVID-19, it has been clear that the majority of workers staffing the essential employee responses such as making sure students are able to eat every day have been our classified, hourly employees like school nutrition staff and bus drivers. These same employees are those that the state of NC struggles to pay a $15 minimum wage or even provide access to basic healthcare coverage. The work we have done together over the past years was able to shine through in the emergency of these past weeks. We were able to quickly survey employees most at risk, mobilize our membership, communicate directly to elected officials and policy makers. This resulted in considerable pay increases, workplace safety guidelines, and expansions of emergency leave for all employees. Here are links to each:
- GCS is providing time and half pay for all mandatory employees staying to work
- Guidelines for Ensuring Health and Safety for School Nutrition Staff and Children and Families Receiving School Nutrition Services (pdf download)
- Expansions to Emergency Leave
Where do we go from here?
Online meeting Saturday, April 25, 10 am for GCS Classified Workers
Attention School Nutrition, Transportation, Maintenance, Custodial, Teacher Assistants, Data Managers, and other GCS Classified Staff:
Join us for this online meeting Saturday, April 25, at 10 am, for our ongoing discussion regarding working during COVID-19. We have made significant gains in guidelines for workplace safety, pay increases for front line workers, and making emergency leave available for all employees.
Public schools won’t be closed forever. Let’s dig in and talk about the terms of reentry.
Register here.
Not yet a member? Join today!
We are kicking off spring enrollment which means you can join now and pay no dues until next fall! Sound good? Email us at gcaenc@gmail.com and request a spring enrollment form!
The work we do together keeps us all safe.
Forward-
Todd Warren
President, Guilford County Association of Educators
Guilford County Association of Educators 