From a DCPS Teacher

[Anonymous]

Sample letter for your listserve or parent email with a summary of DCPS plan to reopen. Feel free to use:

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I’m sharing this info because you may have a child at a DCPS school or know someone who does. This information is public, but has not been shared widely. I am sharing it because I think the district has not been transparent with teachers, parents and the community at large.
This week, more details about DCPS' plan to reopen were released, and to say that teachers were shocked at what they heard was an understatement. Despite DCPS' claims that teachers should "trust the process" for reopening, the plan is detrimental to students-- both those who will continue virtual learning and those who will return to school. We learned:
1. Teachers, staff and students who are to return to school in-person are not required to take a Covid test prior to entering the building.
2. DCPS is making staffing decisions that go against my school’s dual language program. The decisions also go against the programs of other schools that have bilingual programs.
3. DCPS could require teachers to teach grades and subjects they have never taught before. In addition, those teachers will not get additional planning time to teach those subjects or grades.
3. DCPS' plan to return would require that many students will have to switch cohorts. They might be in 2B or 4A now, but might have to moved to 2A or 4C if their teacher gets pulled into in-person classes.
This means that the teachers and classmates your student has been developing relationships with could be affected.
4. Students will likely lose one of their teachers if that person is pulled to cover another grade where fewer teachers are coming in due to having health restrictions or other justifications for not coming in-person (and we have been told this is a distinct possibility).
5. DCPS will also be pulling some high school and middle school teachers to cover elementary classes in some cases.
6. Beyond that, these staffing decisions are out of the hands of our Principals and the admin teams meaning someone who does not know your child’s school and students might be in charge of assigning who goes where when the shift happens.
The Washington Teacher's Union has been working tirelessly for months to negotiate a new contract for teachers for virtual learning, and DCPS has refused to negotiate.

Teachers want to go back, but only when it is safe and when we have a plan that won't disrupt student learning on such a massive scale. The current “plan” neither respects best practices in education nor the health and welfare of students and teachers.
If you are interested in supporting students and teachers, there is a rally this Friday October 23rd at 3 pm at the Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW). If you're unable to attend please share the invitation information with other parents, community members, teachers and students. There will be a live stream and social media storm happening as well.

Please consider contacting our Ward 4 council rep Brandon Todd or At-large rep Phil Mendelson (Twitter handles @chmnmendelson and @CMBrandonTodd). The DCPS chancellor’s Twitter handle is @LewisDFerebee and the DCPS handle is @dcpublicschools.

[Anonymous]

Parent here. Strongly with the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Some of these reasons seem really good, others seem less good. What does it mean to "go against" a dual language program? Sorry but I don't think dual language is a priority at the moment, if the kids miss out on a year of Spanish that's fine. Most kids don't get any dual language at all so wah.

[Anonymous]

Some school is better than no school.

[Anonymous]

Also, all these grievances are due to the fact that teachers wouldn’t go back in any reasonable fashion. It’s pretty disingenuous for them to now play the victim . . . The children are the victims of the WTU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these reasons seem really good, others seem less good. What does it mean to "go against" a dual language program? Sorry but I don't think dual language is a priority at the moment, if the kids miss out on a year of Spanish that's fine. Most kids don't get any dual language at all so wah.

Agree. And I hate the only when safe canard - say what you want and have it be things that are doable. If they aren't doable because they are things DCPS can't afford, then say you don't want to do back till 2021-2022 or 2022-2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these reasons seem really good, others seem less good. What does it mean to "go against" a dual language program? Sorry but I don't think dual language is a priority at the moment, if the kids miss out on a year of Spanish that's fine. Most kids don't get any dual language at all so wah.

+1

HVAC upgrades and testing requirements? Yes. Sacrifice in-person school because it doesn’t meet expectations around language immersion? Eh.

Also, nothing on this list about getting medical staff assigned to schools or ensuring all schools have a separate room for symptomatic kids.

And the stuff about teachers being asked to teach grades/subjects outside their expertise— I don’t understand. If a school has only one in-person class per grade, why would there be a shortage of teachers for in-person class? Or if these teachers are being called in for CARES classrooms, I get that it’s not ideal, but that’s really not the same as being forced to teach something. You’re just babysitting those classes and facilitating DL. If there are MS or HS teachers who currently don’t have work (perhaps because they teach specials that can’t be done via DL), what is the harm in moving them to CARES classrooms? It provides a useful service while ensuring that teacher keeps their salary. Seems ok?

[Anonymous]

Why hasn’t the Union been able to reach an agreement with DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some school is better than no school.

But not all kids are given the opportunity. And the majority of kids are just getting CARES babysitting....not an education

[Anonymous]

And I would respond with all the research indicating why it’s tlme to go back to school.

[Anonymous]

How is this letter “supporting students”? The current plan ls to help the students who need it the most. If teachers don’t want disruption then should have not stood in the way of a hybrid opening in August, and should be arguing now for everyone to return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And I would respond with all the research indicating why it’s tlme to go back to school.

+1

And anecdotally I am a high school DCPS teacher who is starting to see kids really struggle with the day to day of distance learning. Significantly more absences, tech problems becoming more exacerbated, kids getting overwhelmed by school and watching younger siblings, etc. Even kids who have none of these issues at home who were enthusiastic in the beginning are fading. It’s really sad to watch and something needs to give.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why hasn’t the Union been able to reach an agreement with DCPS?

They have declined to speak with them. Which is why DCPS is in the middle of a lawsuit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why hasn’t the Union been able to reach an agreement with DCPS?

They have declined to speak with them. Which is why DCPS is in the middle of a lawsuit.

that’s false. All media reports are that DCPS and WTU are actively negotiating. everything else is smoke and mirrors for WTU to gain itself perceived leverage. the ULP proceeding was for discrete actions in the past - says nothing about ongoing negotiations right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sample letter for your listserve or parent email with a summary of DCPS plan to reopen. Feel free to use:

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I’m sharing this info because you may have a child at a DCPS school or know someone who does. This information is public, but has not been shared widely. I am sharing it because I think the district has not been transparent with teachers, parents and the community at large.
This week, more details about DCPS' plan to reopen were released, and to say that teachers were shocked at what they heard was an understatement. Despite DCPS' claims that teachers should "trust the process" for reopening, the plan is detrimental to students-- both those who will continue virtual learning and those who will return to school. We learned:
1. Teachers, staff and students who are to return to school in-person are not required to take a Covid test prior to entering the building.
2. DCPS is making staffing decisions that go against my school’s dual language program. The decisions also go against the programs of other schools that have bilingual programs.
3. DCPS could require teachers to teach grades and subjects they have never taught before. In addition, those teachers will not get additional planning time to teach those subjects or grades.
3. DCPS' plan to return would require that many students will have to switch cohorts. They might be in 2B or 4A now, but might have to moved to 2A or 4C if their teacher gets pulled into in-person classes.
This means that the teachers and classmates your student has been developing relationships with could be affected.
4. Students will likely lose one of their teachers if that person is pulled to cover another grade where fewer teachers are coming in due to having health restrictions or other justifications for not coming in-person (and we have been told this is a distinct possibility).
5. DCPS will also be pulling some high school and middle school teachers to cover elementary classes in some cases.
6. Beyond that, these staffing decisions are out of the hands of our Principals and the admin teams meaning someone who does not know your child’s school and students might be in charge of assigning who goes where when the shift happens.
The Washington Teacher's Union has been working tirelessly for months to negotiate a new contract for teachers for virtual learning, and DCPS has refused to negotiate.

Teachers want to go back, but only when it is safe and when we have a plan that won't disrupt student learning on such a massive scale. The current “plan” neither respects best practices in education nor the health and welfare of students and teachers.
If you are interested in supporting students and teachers, there is a rally this Friday October 23rd at 3 pm at the Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW). If you're unable to attend please share the invitation information with other parents, community members, teachers and students. There will be a live stream and social media storm happening as well.

Please consider contacting our Ward 4 council rep Brandon Todd or At-large rep Phil Mendelson (Twitter handles @chmnmendelson and @CMBrandonTodd). The DCPS chancellor’s Twitter handle is @LewisDFerebee and the DCPS handle is @dcpublicschools.

Yeah, sorry no. This mostly sounds like concerns teachers have for teachers. This isn't really about students and getting back to school. No matter what plan DCPS comes up with, the union is going to dispute it because really, teachers basically don't want to go back to work in person.