I used to work as a Union negotiator. There’s a lot here you can unpack

- In general unions don’t care about what’s best for the members, they care about what’s best for re-election. Leadership can lose their position.
- The absolute best way to get re-elected is to appear hard on management (in this case DCPS) about whatever the topic is. The degree to which you are right or wrong, and even whether you get any concessions is nearly irrelevant
- WTU leadership likely stonewalled the teacher request because the message they wanted to echo to teachers was “We are tough on them for you! They don’t have good intentions! Vote for same leadership next time!”. Whether or not DCPS had good or shitty intentions to use the data, I can almost guarantee, wasn’t actually part of the decision process.
- Unions do better when they tug on heart strings - with their own members and with the public; the purpose of the sentence about deaths is absolutely to leave the reader with a final thought about what could be. That’s not to say they are wrong (they aren’t - people could die after all), but they easily could have ended with “people could get sick” or the positive version of “we want people to be healthy”. They didn’t because that doesn’t stir emotion and fear. Instead, by focusing on death, when they release the document their audience (who isn’t me, you or even DCPS - that letter is written for their members) they can again look tough.

Anonymous wrote:Let’s be honest. It’s DRIZZLING outside and the Mayor is closing testing sites. This has never been about the Teachers or Administrative Union wanting distance learning. You guys are falling for it hook, line and sinker. She got you guys to believe the boogeyman instead of wondering what the hell DCPS and the DC government has been doing for 5 months. You aren’t as smart as you think you are.

Okay, I’ll bite. So what’s the conspiracy theory? Mayor bowser hates children?

Anonymous wrote:Also note DCPS emailed questionnaires to teachers asking if they felt they were unable to return because of a health condition or because they lived with a person who person who did. Do you know what WTU did? The WTU leaders texted ALL of the teachers and told them not to respond to the questionnaire. And the teachers didn’t respond so DCPS could not adequately staff their classrooms. So DCPS kids never had a chance against WTU. And our kids will be home until next Fall. You can believe it.

Did you actually read the questionnaire sent to DCPS teachers, because I did. That is not what but wanted us to sign off on. The information cited here is cherry picked. There were other things as well that we had to sign off on that were just not kosher

Anonymous wrote:Is it wrong that I watch all of this and take some degree of pleasure? Between the Ferebee, Bowser and the WTU it is just so hard to decide whom to dislike the most. It's like a circular firing squad. A pox on all your houses.

Uh huh, and non-teacher parents are just innocent angels?

It’s incredible people on here bashing teachers and the Union. No I’m not a teacher but as a parent understand their concerns for safety.

What exactly do people who vent on here hope to accomplish when it was the right decision? So people want DCPS to open schools when every other public school district around us is virtual? So the DMV can say what a sh*tshow DCPS is when the classes have to close down, Kids and teachers get Covid?

People actually think a hybrid plan was feasible when other surrounding school districts did not have enough teachers for hybrid and had to scrap it. You all are delusional enough to think that DCPS would actually have the organization and staff to do hybrid? Really?

Is it wrong that I watch all of this and take some degree of pleasure? Between the Ferebee, Bowser and the WTU it is just so hard to decide whom to dislike the most. It's like a circular firing squad. A pox on all your houses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another poster mentioned this but I wanted to reiterate that DCPS had NO actual plan for hybrid. The logistics of hybrid are so complicated and they would need to have been worked out already for schools to prepare. DCPS wanted virtual but needed someone to blame. Even if 80% of teachers said they would return in person, it still would be impossible to adequately staff schools. And even with adequate staffing they didn't have a plan.

This is a chicken and egg situation. DCPS couldn’t plan hybrid until they knew how many teachers would return. WTU pushes against providing that info based on not knowing what hyrbid would look like. There has been political posturing on both sides instead of actually trying to find a workable solution.

I don't agree. I think hybrid could only happen if they had enough staff but they could have planned for hybrid in terms of number of staff needed, PPE, health monitoring, scheduling, etc. Schools have been given no info or plans for hybrid. And individual schools would need the whole summer to prepare and plan. I just don't think they planned at all.

Anonymous wrote:Another poster mentioned this but I wanted to reiterate that DCPS had NO actual plan for hybrid. The logistics of hybrid are so complicated and they would need to have been worked out already for schools to prepare. DCPS wanted virtual but needed someone to blame. Even if 80% of teachers said they would return in person, it still would be impossible to adequately staff schools. And even with adequate staffing they didn't have a plan.

This is a chicken and egg situation. DCPS couldn’t plan hybrid until they knew how many teachers would return. WTU pushes against providing that info based on not knowing what hyrbid would look like. There has been political posturing on both sides instead of actually trying to find a workable solution.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest concern, as a parent, was DCPS pretty much admitting they had no plans for when an outbreak occurred. There was no metric for when a cohort/grade/school would close. They would only say they would send an email. This was something that was obviously going to happen but they had not even planned for it.

I think you're confusing the fact that DCPS hasn't discussed the plan, with "not even planned for it." Things are in a lot of flux, so I don't see why you would expect them to issue a plan for something like that so far in advance of when we'd actually be going back into schools.

I know it's hard, but you're going to have to deal with frequent changes and uncertainty, just like everyone is.

So far out....school starts in 4 weeks. In terms of planning for a massive system to start that not much time at all. But since you think I should ask for plans, what are the DL plans? Other than the tiny graphic I saw. When should I expect more info August 29?

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest concern, as a parent, was DCPS pretty much admitting they had no plans for when an outbreak occurred. There was no metric for when a cohort/grade/school would close. They would only say they would send an email. This was something that was obviously going to happen but they had not even planned for it.

I think you're confusing the fact that DCPS hasn't discussed the plan, with "not even planned for it." Things are in a lot of flux, so I don't see why you would expect them to issue a plan for something like that so far in advance of when we'd actually be going back into schools.

I know it's hard, but you're going to have to deal with frequent changes and uncertainty, just like everyone is.

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest concern, as a parent, was DCPS pretty much admitting they had no plans for when an outbreak occurred. There was no metric for when a cohort/grade/school would close. They would only say they would send an email. This was something that was obviously going to happen but they had not even planned for it.

+1

And to reiterate, THIS IS NOT UNIQUE TO DC. Also, stop bashing the teachers and the teachers' union which is advocating for its members health and safety AS THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO. Y'all keep using equity as a reason to open schools, but you completely fail to take into consideration that there are large numbers of Black and Latino employees of the DC school system (teachers, administrators, OSSE bus drivers, cafeteria attendants, paraprofessionals, office staff) all of whom would be exposed and whom we know are more vulnerable. So what about equity for them? (Many of you are white, white-collar professionals who are working from home, so when you're talking about equity in schools and NOT talking about who is paid least and would bear the brunt of infections ... it sounds a little hollow.

Plus, there is not one single school system in our immediate vicinity that has in-person school for the first term. As a PP pointed out, NOT ONE SINGLE SCHOOL SYSTEM in the areas of VA and MD that border on DC is doing in-person instruction beginning August 31.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s be honest. It’s DRIZZLING outside and the Mayor is closing testing sites. This has never been about the Teachers or Administrative Union wanting distance learning. You guys are falling for it hook, line and sinker. She got you guys to believe the boogeyman instead of wondering what the hell DCPS and the DC government has been doing for 5 months. You aren’t as smart as you think you are.

DC has the best testing system/rate in the nation right now.

Ok what’s their plan for hybrid? Do you know any details other than their crappy graphic from two weeks ago? Demand to see it? What have they been working on for 5 months? It’s should be done....school starts in a month and teachers return in three weeks.


THEY DONT HAVE A PLAN. They never planned on doing hybrid. Keep believing it’s all in the teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Let’s be honest. It’s DRIZZLING outside and the Mayor is closing testing sites. This has never been about the Teachers or Administrative Union wanting distance learning. You guys are falling for it hook, line and sinker. She got you guys to believe the boogeyman instead of wondering what the hell DCPS and the DC government has been doing for 5 months. You aren’t as smart as you think you are.

DC has the best testing system/rate in the nation right now.

Anonymous wrote:Let’s be honest. It’s DRIZZLING outside and the Mayor is closing testing sites. This has never been about the Teachers or Administrative Union wanting distance learning. You guys are falling for it hook, line and sinker. She got you guys to believe the boogeyman instead of wondering what the hell DCPS and the DC government has been doing for 5 months. You aren’t as smart as you think you are.

Good point. What have they been doing? They could've been working super hard to make sure the school buildings are safe and supplies on hand and testing available, etc...pouring money into it...

Anonymous wrote:Another poster mentioned this but I wanted to reiterate that DCPS had NO actual plan for hybrid. The logistics of hybrid are so complicated and they would need to have been worked out already for schools to prepare. DCPS wanted virtual but needed someone to blame. Even if 80% of teachers said they would return in person, it still would be impossible to adequately staff schools. And even with adequate staffing they didn't have a plan.

YES YES YES

I don’t understand why people refuse to understand this.