GREEN BAY, Wis (NBC 26) -- Teacher union representatives from Wisconsin's five largest school districts, which includes Green Bay, are calling on Governor Evers to ban in-person classes at public schools for the beginning of the school year.
On Wednesday Justin Delfosse, President of the Green Bay Education Association said, he's heard from several teachers who are concerned about showing up to school in-person in the fall. Many of whom, according to Delfosse, are concerned about an increase in the spread of COVID-19.
"So cases continue to skyrocket and that's with schools being closed. So our fear is if we open back up all the schools those numbers that are skyrocketing are going to get even worse."
His association represents about 1,400 teachers who are members of the fourth-largest school district in the state. And as of Wednesday, those teachers are preparing for either virtual teaching, in-person teaching, or a blended option of the two in Green Bay.
"Milwaukee and Madison have already announced that they are going to start out virtually and then as it becomes safer, slowly bring students back into the schools," says Delfosse.
For now, Delfosee has joined forces with the five largest school district's teachers unions in the state including Racine, Kenosha, Madison, and Milwaukee. These are union leaders which Delfosee says would like to see schools slowly reopen, as communities watch positive cases of COVID-19 continually fall.
"All of our teachers acknowledge that where they want to be is in the classroom. None of us went into education to teach through a computer screen. But at the same time, we also don't want to risk our student's lives or our lives."
If Gov. Evers doesn't act on the request regarding when schools will be allowed to reopen, the decision will be left to local boards of education. Green Bay's board of education will be meeting on August 3rd.
