Has your school communicated a plan with teachers and families?

[Anonymous]

Oyster parent here. No word yet about the reopening plan for our school. No survey, announcement or plan. Even our teachers are in the dark.

Maybe other schools have been communicating with staff and families?

[Anonymous]

We got an email from the principal about the general plan, but it was (unsurprisingly) still kind of vague. No survey -- the school selects the kids to go back in person, I think, based on need, and the CARES thing is a random lottery.

[Anonymous]

I know our principal is working a ton behind the scenes to find a workable implementation. It’s an impossible task and almost no one will be happy. I’m sure our principal isn’t the only one quietly trying to get some concessions from central office before finalizing plans. Hoping DCPS relents a bit on the rigidity so that it can be marginally less of a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know our principal is working a ton behind the scenes to find a workable implementation. It’s an impossible task and almost no one will be happy. I’m sure our principal isn’t the only one quietly trying to get some concessions from central office before finalizing plans. Hoping DCPS relents a bit on the rigidity so that it can be marginally less of a disaster.

exactly. they can’t release a plan until it’s done.

if certain parents weren’t so agro, maybe they would get the “voice” they are demanding.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. How can principals release a plan before teachers from their school are brought into the conversation? How do they know how many teachers can or are willing to come back without a survey? Do the teacher receive marching orders from the principal or DCPS?

Feeling clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. How can principals release a plan before teachers from their school are brought into the conversation? How do they know how many teachers can or are willing to come back without a survey? Do the teacher receive marching orders from the principal or DCPS?

Feeling clueless.

You’re clueless by design. They need to have a plan first before everyone goes crazy objecting to it. If they tried to consult with everyone to develop the plan, we wouldn’t be back to school until 2030. It’s called leadership. Public schools actually are not a democracy - they are a workplace.

Ideally DCPS would have been able to consult with your union, but my sense is they don’t trust WTU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. How can principals release a plan before teachers from their school are brought into the conversation? How do they know how many teachers can or are willing to come back without a survey? Do the teacher receive marching orders from the principal or DCPS?

Feeling clueless.

My understanding is DCPS is telling principals which teachers are required to come back based on the survey results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. How can principals release a plan before teachers from their school are brought into the conversation? How do they know how many teachers can or are willing to come back without a survey? Do the teacher receive marching orders from the principal or DCPS?

Feeling clueless.

My understanding is DCPS is telling principals which teachers are required to come back based on the survey results.

Yes, but what my principal said yesterday is that she hasn't gotten any guidance about how many CARES classes per grade we have to have. 1? 3? It seems like a lot of her questions to downtown are going unanswered.

[Anonymous]

Email from our school:
DCPS HR is currently determining staff availability for in-person learning at each elementary school site and I am required to follow a specific process when assigning staff to in-person or virtual learning.

I did find it interesting that the Principal stated that in-person learning teacher will be a grade level homeroom or a grade level co-teacher with other staff available to support.

I thought Special Education Teachers were specifically designated federal funds and had to provide services per IEPs. I a class has a mix of students that did not all have IEPs, wouldn't this be a violation to have a special education teacher teach this classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Email from our school:
DCPS HR is currently determining staff availability for in-person learning at each elementary school site and I am required to follow a specific process when assigning staff to in-person or virtual learning.

I did find it interesting that the Principal stated that in-person learning teacher will be a grade level homeroom or a grade level co-teacher with other staff available to support.

I thought Special Education Teachers were specifically designated federal funds and had to provide services per IEPs. I a class has a mix of students that did not all have IEPs, wouldn't this be a violation to have a special education teacher teach this classroom?

Not really. Is this Janney?

[Anonymous]

Some schools have shared with staff, my school is not one of them. I am technically out today (my poor kid is sick, thank goodness it's not covid) but I attended all my meetings and the tension was tight.

Staff are not happy admin hasn't even told us who'd be in person and who's online. As well as the plan, we have kids who can get aggressive and the people who help gen ed teachers deal with that will be online...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Email from our school:
DCPS HR is currently determining staff availability for in-person learning at each elementary school site and I am required to follow a specific process when assigning staff to in-person or virtual learning.

I did find it interesting that the Principal stated that in-person learning teacher will be a grade level homeroom or a grade level co-teacher with other staff available to support.

I thought Special Education Teachers were specifically designated federal funds and had to provide services per IEPs. I a class has a mix of students that did not all have IEPs, wouldn't this be a violation to have a special education teacher teach this classroom?

Not really. Is this Janney?

No, sped teachers pass all the exams gen ed teachers do and an extra sped one. So it wouldn't be a violation, in fact it might be the best choice given most special education teachers teach all subjects.

[Anonymous]

So who is selecting kids for in-person taught class? Is it DCPS or the school
Administration itself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So who is selecting kids for in-person taught class? Is it DCPS or the school
Administration itself?

Central Office, the school has almost 0 input unless there's a student that was missed they feel really, really needs in person who meets the criteria.

[Anonymous]

If no teachers in the grade at the school can come back (health reasons, etc), then there will not be an in-person option for that grade. Cares classrooms depend on size of school and space. In our smaller school, we were told only one cares class and one in-person class per grade. If no teachers are coming back for that grade, then there will be two cares classes per grade. Only 9 kids per cares class for our smaller school (it’s based on size of school).

This is such an AWFUL plan, DCPS. Why aren’t we parents up in arms over this!?!