Dr. Duran must go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I for one want equity gaps addressed and think doing so helps the whole school system and community. If Dr. Duran does that - even in the midst of a pandemic - that has set everyone on their heels and been a particularly doozy for schools, then I’m a fan.

His version of equity is everyone learns less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t buy that teachers don’t get paid enough for back up childcare. The average teacher salary in Arlington is 80-100k. There is no reason they can not afford childcare care. All other employees from mall workers, grocery workers, sanitation workers, waitresses come to work. They make less than what the teachers make. This is now more about a woke, progressive culture taking over N Virginia to such an extreme level that people are looking out for themselves instead of the greater good and not taking personal responsibility. These people have no sense of professionalism anymore or duty. Dr Duran is a prime example of someone from that woke culture who will put employees first before students because he believes whole heartedly that this school system exists to employ teachers rather than a system made to educate the city’s children.

Well that's not very much money for Arlington and back up child care is available in this area but the services are set up so an employer must purchase slots for their employees to use and then the employees can use the service for a daily fee. Of course there are other options and yes teachers just like other working professionals need to be prepared for instances when they need back up care. For example, many at home daycares don't close on snow days because they don't need to since the provider doesn't need to leave home to work.

1) The sub shortage is due to COVID (increased need for subs and decreased willingness of people to sub). This too shall pass.
2) If in the future the sub system is no longer to be relied upon, then I agree. HOWEVER lets not pretend it isn't a change and that teachers are slackers because their employers had a back up system in place and then that back up system failed.
3) I agree it would have made sense for Syphax to telework, maybe even to call it an additional teacher planning day. But no way is it reasonable to suddenly demand teachers have back up child care when the sub system starts to fail.

When my parent was a teacher they had only 7 days of leave during the school year (sick and personal combined). If my parent needed to miss an additional day for any reason they simply didn't get paid. How many on DCUM have that little leave?

And while I'm thinking about this, why should the job and NOT caring for a sick family member be the priority? Isn't that thinking exactly what is wrong with America's work culture?

What does a sub shortage have to do with back up child care? If a teacher is at a school that is going to open, but their child's school is not, the teacher would need to have back up child care available for their child.

The sub system is the backup child care system, especially on short notice.

But the sub system is set up to have a someone cover for them at work on short notice. Backup childcare would mean having an alternative childcare arrangement so that the employee can go to work. Many people have to figure out their own backup childcare in the scenario that a colleague cannot cover for them at work. Just wanted to point out the difference. I’m sure with short staffing lots of people are having a hard time finding someone to cover them and therefore have to find a school closure camp, family member, neighbor, spouse, etc. to watch their kid(s) while they work. This past Thursday “snow” day I spent $300 (essentially my salary for the day) for 2 kids to attend a snow day camp because I couldn’t take off again after all the leave I used for the previous snow week not to mention the past school year when trying to deal with virtual school. Being a working parent really freaking sucks right now for all of us, not just teachers. But parents don’t seem to be getting the same consideration from APS as teachers. The solution to more snow is virtual school, which again, sucks for working parents with young kids. They need to be finding ways to build back in-person learning and not relying on more free labor from parents to meet the obligation of educational hours for the school year.

I 100% agree being a working parent sucks right now. However, teaching is unique in that it is an industry that (with the exception of this one day) has a system in place to cover teachers when they are absent. Please don't blame teachers when they use that system, it fails, and administration decides their only recourse is to close all schools for the day. I promise you the teachers didn't ask for subs trying to shut down APS for a day. The fact that the school system has NOT shut down in the past on days when surrounding districts have PLANNED to be closed but APS is open reinforces that this was a one time system failure.

Now, if you want to say APS administration needs to make a plan to prevent this from happening in the future, I'd agree with you. To that end it would be interesting to see how many teachers at each school were asking for subs. Was it 50% of instructional staff at all schools? Could some schools have been opened but some not? Could Syphax staff have covered some of the classes? Would hundreds of students have had to spend half the day in the cafeteria doing independent work while supervised by the principal and an assistant principal?

I’m the immediate PP and I’m not trying to blame teachers for last Thursday off. In fact I don’t blame them for any of the craziness of the past 2 years. But I do have a grudge already against the school administration for making my kindergartner learn on an iPad the bulk of last year while the bars down the street operated as normal and other school districts went back more days than us.

The questions you raise are good ones and what I was trying to get at. It feels like all of APS’s sympathies lie with teachers and they lack any motivation to try to come up with solutions to help parents. Like for instance, I don’t think they should get to use virtual for the young elementary kids to count toward instructional time. No one I know actually plans to log their kids back on in the event of another snow day. So I want APS to give up the farce that virtual learning is a solution for young kids. Why can’t they look at getting rid of early release days or some other time off. I get that isn’t preferable for teachers, but in many professions it is common to have to make up work at a later time when you get an unexpected day off. And I saw that FCCPS opened its aftercare program once it became clear the snow was a bust last week. Why didn’t APS consider this to help working families?

I guess I just basically want to see this administration actually come up with a solution, hell *any* solution, that actually helps students and families beyond acting as if virtual learning is some sort of Godsend. We wasted SO much COVID relief money on VLP while throwing out pitiful “bonuses” to entice teachers into summer school that ultimately could not be fully staffed. Over and over, the priority is Duran’s pet virtual project.

I don't know any teachers that would rather teach virtually than lose an early release day- take all of them if it means snow days won't be virtual!!!!

+1 Take them away! I'd rather be with the kids than sitting in a 3 hour meeting after working a compressed schedule all morning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t buy that teachers don’t get paid enough for back up childcare. The average teacher salary in Arlington is 80-100k. There is no reason they can not afford childcare care. All other employees from mall workers, grocery workers, sanitation workers, waitresses come to work. They make less than what the teachers make. This is now more about a woke, progressive culture taking over N Virginia to such an extreme level that people are looking out for themselves instead of the greater good and not taking personal responsibility. These people have no sense of professionalism anymore or duty. Dr Duran is a prime example of someone from that woke culture who will put employees first before students because he believes whole heartedly that this school system exists to employ teachers rather than a system made to educate the city’s children.

Well that's not very much money for Arlington and back up child care is available in this area but the services are set up so an employer must purchase slots for their employees to use and then the employees can use the service for a daily fee. Of course there are other options and yes teachers just like other working professionals need to be prepared for instances when they need back up care. For example, many at home daycares don't close on snow days because they don't need to since the provider doesn't need to leave home to work.

1) The sub shortage is due to COVID (increased need for subs and decreased willingness of people to sub). This too shall pass.
2) If in the future the sub system is no longer to be relied upon, then I agree. HOWEVER lets not pretend it isn't a change and that teachers are slackers because their employers had a back up system in place and then that back up system failed.
3) I agree it would have made sense for Syphax to telework, maybe even to call it an additional teacher planning day. But no way is it reasonable to suddenly demand teachers have back up child care when the sub system starts to fail.

When my parent was a teacher they had only 7 days of leave during the school year (sick and personal combined). If my parent needed to miss an additional day for any reason they simply didn't get paid. How many on DCUM have that little leave?

And while I'm thinking about this, why should the job and NOT caring for a sick family member be the priority? Isn't that thinking exactly what is wrong with America's work culture?

What does a sub shortage have to do with back up child care? If a teacher is at a school that is going to open, but their child's school is not, the teacher would need to have back up child care available for their child.

The sub system is the backup child care system, especially on short notice.

But the sub system is set up to have a someone cover for them at work on short notice. Backup childcare would mean having an alternative childcare arrangement so that the employee can go to work. Many people have to figure out their own backup childcare in the scenario that a colleague cannot cover for them at work. Just wanted to point out the difference. I’m sure with short staffing lots of people are having a hard time finding someone to cover them and therefore have to find a school closure camp, family member, neighbor, spouse, etc. to watch their kid(s) while they work. This past Thursday “snow” day I spent $300 (essentially my salary for the day) for 2 kids to attend a snow day camp because I couldn’t take off again after all the leave I used for the previous snow week not to mention the past school year when trying to deal with virtual school. Being a working parent really freaking sucks right now for all of us, not just teachers. But parents don’t seem to be getting the same consideration from APS as teachers. The solution to more snow is virtual school, which again, sucks for working parents with young kids. They need to be finding ways to build back in-person learning and not relying on more free labor from parents to meet the obligation of educational hours for the school year.

I 100% agree being a working parent sucks right now. However, teaching is unique in that it is an industry that (with the exception of this one day) has a system in place to cover teachers when they are absent. Please don't blame teachers when they use that system, it fails, and administration decides their only recourse is to close all schools for the day. I promise you the teachers didn't ask for subs trying to shut down APS for a day. The fact that the school system has NOT shut down in the past on days when surrounding districts have PLANNED to be closed but APS is open reinforces that this was a one time system failure.

Now, if you want to say APS administration needs to make a plan to prevent this from happening in the future, I'd agree with you. To that end it would be interesting to see how many teachers at each school were asking for subs. Was it 50% of instructional staff at all schools? Could some schools have been opened but some not? Could Syphax staff have covered some of the classes? Would hundreds of students have had to spend half the day in the cafeteria doing independent work while supervised by the principal and an assistant principal?

I’m the immediate PP and I’m not trying to blame teachers for last Thursday off. In fact I don’t blame them for any of the craziness of the past 2 years. But I do have a grudge already against the school administration for making my kindergartner learn on an iPad the bulk of last year while the bars down the street operated as normal and other school districts went back more days than us.

The questions you raise are good ones and what I was trying to get at. It feels like all of APS’s sympathies lie with teachers and they lack any motivation to try to come up with solutions to help parents. Like for instance, I don’t think they should get to use virtual for the young elementary kids to count toward instructional time. No one I know actually plans to log their kids back on in the event of another snow day. So I want APS to give up the farce that virtual learning is a solution for young kids. Why can’t they look at getting rid of early release days or some other time off. I get that isn’t preferable for teachers, but in many professions it is common to have to make up work at a later time when you get an unexpected day off. And I saw that FCCPS opened its aftercare program once it became clear the snow was a bust last week. Why didn’t APS consider this to help working families?

I guess I just basically want to see this administration actually come up with a solution, hell *any* solution, that actually helps students and families beyond acting as if virtual learning is some sort of Godsend. We wasted SO much COVID relief money on VLP while throwing out pitiful “bonuses” to entice teachers into summer school that ultimately could not be fully staffed. Over and over, the priority is Duran’s pet virtual project.

I don't know any teachers that would rather teach virtually than lose an early release day- take all of them if it means snow days won't be virtual!!!!

+1 Take them away! I'd rather be with the kids than sitting in a 3 hour meeting after working a compressed schedule all morning

Me, three!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duran has engendered zero teacher trust that he's taking appropriate safety or HR measures. Every transition has left teachers panicked and frustrated.

As a few examples, the teacher vaccine roll out was a mess. APS review of teacher exemptions from in person teaching for health reasons was a huge mess. The roll out out virtual learning was a huge technical disaster. APS bought crappy filters for the classrooms and didn't tell teachers how to use them. APS has left every school set their own covid policies so whether a school is "safe" depends on the reasonability of that principal and advocacy by teachers and parents. Duran doesn't get credible scientific input and set evidence based standards. They're all over the place. Oh, and don't forget the summer school debacle. That was a mess. Plus VLP.

He's also done absolutely nothing to try to catch kids up after failing test scores. Lexia and Dreambox don't cut it.

On the filters, what can we do to fix this? Why is there so much resistance to improving ventilation and filtration?

[Anonymous]

Yawn

[Anonymous]

good luck finding a super intendent who wants to take the job. As it is there is a shortage of them. They put up with alot and dont get much praise. Its disgusting watching how parents behave. No wonder the kids have so many issues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duran has engendered zero teacher trust that he's taking appropriate safety or HR measures. Every transition has left teachers panicked and frustrated.

As a few examples, the teacher vaccine roll out was a mess. APS review of teacher exemptions from in person teaching for health reasons was a huge mess. The roll out out virtual learning was a huge technical disaster. APS bought crappy filters for the classrooms and didn't tell teachers how to use them. APS has left every school set their own covid policies so whether a school is "safe" depends on the reasonability of that principal and advocacy by teachers and parents. Duran doesn't get credible scientific input and set evidence based standards. They're all over the place. Oh, and don't forget the summer school debacle. That was a mess. Plus VLP.

He's also done absolutely nothing to try to catch kids up after failing test scores. Lexia and Dreambox don't cut it.

On the filters, what can we do to fix this? Why is there so much resistance to improving ventilation and filtration?

. There isn’t. APS installed filters and hepa in every space practically. They meet all the required air exchanges. APS has done nothing for learning loss but they sure handled ventilation. They had a whole FAQ page on their site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duran has engendered zero teacher trust that he's taking appropriate safety or HR measures. Every transition has left teachers panicked and frustrated.

As a few examples, the teacher vaccine roll out was a mess. APS review of teacher exemptions from in person teaching for health reasons was a huge mess. The roll out out virtual learning was a huge technical disaster. APS bought crappy filters for the classrooms and didn't tell teachers how to use them. APS has left every school set their own covid policies so whether a school is "safe" depends on the reasonability of that principal and advocacy by teachers and parents. Duran doesn't get credible scientific input and set evidence based standards. They're all over the place. Oh, and don't forget the summer school debacle. That was a mess. Plus VLP.

He's also done absolutely nothing to try to catch kids up after failing test scores. Lexia and Dreambox don't cut it.

On the filters, what can we do to fix this? Why is there so much resistance to improving ventilation and filtration?

. There isn’t. APS installed filters and hepa in every space practically. They meet all the required air exchanges. APS has done nothing for learning loss but they sure handled ventilation. They had a whole FAQ page on their site.

they aren't real HEPA filters, dummy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:good luck finding a super intendent who wants to take the job. As it is there is a shortage of them. They put up with alot and dont get much praise. Its disgusting watching how parents behave. No wonder the kids have so many issues

100%
I like enough Duran so far and am interested in seeing what he can do over the next couple of years if APS parents don’t drive him away.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who likes Duran isn’t paying attention. He has created a system that caters to the bottom 1/3 in the name of equity. He is lowering standards instead of demanding excellence from all students and teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who likes Duran isn’t paying attention. He has created a system that caters to the bottom 1/3 in the name of equity. He is lowering standards instead of demanding excellence from all students and teachers.

+100000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duran has engendered zero teacher trust that he's taking appropriate safety or HR measures. Every transition has left teachers panicked and frustrated.

As a few examples, the teacher vaccine roll out was a mess. APS review of teacher exemptions from in person teaching for health reasons was a huge mess. The roll out out virtual learning was a huge technical disaster. APS bought crappy filters for the classrooms and didn't tell teachers how to use them. APS has left every school set their own covid policies so whether a school is "safe" depends on the reasonability of that principal and advocacy by teachers and parents. Duran doesn't get credible scientific input and set evidence based standards. They're all over the place. Oh, and don't forget the summer school debacle. That was a mess. Plus VLP.

He's also done absolutely nothing to try to catch kids up after failing test scores. Lexia and Dreambox don't cut it.

On the filters, what can we do to fix this? Why is there so much resistance to improving ventilation and filtration?

Because the current ventilation and filtration has been in place and there has been nothing to suggest it isn't sufficient. I don't know if that's the reason but it seems logical. They did some improvements, brought in some air filters, and it doesn't seem to make a difference one way or the other. Also, you can't expect a school system to just follow someone who has complied stats and information pulled from places on line. They have to actual hire professionals to assess. I think they did that and the professional opinion came back as the measures they put in place were ok. You can't expect them to keep hiring additional professionals over and over to just confirm what the previous professional told them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who likes Duran isn’t paying attention. He has created a system that caters to the bottom 1/3 in the name of equity. He is lowering standards instead of demanding excellence from all students and teachers.

Totally agree. We live in a community. The interests of ALL its members should be considered when making decisions. APS doesn't do that. It is catering to a very small group from a sense of guilt, and my kid has paid the price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duran has engendered zero teacher trust that he's taking appropriate safety or HR measures. Every transition has left teachers panicked and frustrated.

As a few examples, the teacher vaccine roll out was a mess. APS review of teacher exemptions from in person teaching for health reasons was a huge mess. The roll out out virtual learning was a huge technical disaster. APS bought crappy filters for the classrooms and didn't tell teachers how to use them. APS has left every school set their own covid policies so whether a school is "safe" depends on the reasonability of that principal and advocacy by teachers and parents. Duran doesn't get credible scientific input and set evidence based standards. They're all over the place. Oh, and don't forget the summer school debacle. That was a mess. Plus VLP.

He's also done absolutely nothing to try to catch kids up after failing test scores. Lexia and Dreambox don't cut it.

On the filters, what can we do to fix this? Why is there so much resistance to improving ventilation and filtration?

Because the current ventilation and filtration has been in place and there has been nothing to suggest it isn't sufficient. I don't know if that's the reason but it seems logical. They did some improvements, brought in some air filters, and it doesn't seem to make a difference one way or the other. Also, you can't expect a school system to just follow someone who has complied stats and information pulled from places on line. They have to actual hire professionals to assess. I think they did that and the professional opinion came back as the measures they put in place were ok. You can't expect them to keep hiring additional professionals over and over to just confirm what the previous professional told them.

As for ventilation and filtration, they also talked to one of the leading experts in the world on this topic, Dr. Joseph Allen of Harvard and that was last spring before widespread vaccination. But hey, some people trust a woman with an at home business stationary company who thinks COVID is Ebola and that COVID eradication is possible. I can see why they went with Dr. Allen.

[Anonymous]

https://www.arlnow.com/2022/02/03/aps-superintendent-recommends-pausing-virtual-learning-program-next-school-year/

$10M wasted on VLP. Another feather in Duran's cap.