Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get why the teachers don’t trust DCPS. As a parent, I don’t trust them either.

You trust the union more? With all the union reps writing on here that their sole interest is defending teachers, and the kids' interests are irrelevant? I have my complaints with DCPS, but at least they actually have a statutory/regulatory mandate to educate children. And for that matter, my personal experiences with DCPS central (getting an IEP when my child was in private daycare) were WORLDS better than how the local school teachers and admin dealt with the situation.

You seem to have a misunderstanding of the role of a union. DCPS has a statutory mandate to educate children. WTU, as a public union, has a statutory duty to defend the interests of its membership (meaning teachers, etc.). Like it or not, the needs of the students are not part of its mandate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get why the teachers don’t trust DCPS. As a parent, I don’t trust them either.

You trust the union more? With all the union reps writing on here that their sole interest is defending teachers, and the kids' interests are irrelevant? I have my complaints with DCPS, but at least they actually have a statutory/regulatory mandate to educate children. And for that matter, my personal experiences with DCPS central (getting an IEP when my child was in private daycare) were WORLDS better than how the local school teachers and admin dealt with the situation.

You seem to have a misunderstanding of the role of a union. DCPS has a statutory mandate to educate children. WTU, as a public union, has a statutory duty to defend the interests of its membership (meaning teachers, etc.). Like it or not, the needs of the students are not part of its mandate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get why the teachers don’t trust DCPS. As a parent, I don’t trust them either.

You trust the union more? With all the union reps writing on here that their sole interest is defending teachers, and the kids' interests are irrelevant? I have my complaints with DCPS, but at least they actually have a statutory/regulatory mandate to educate children. And for that matter, my personal experiences with DCPS central (getting an IEP when my child was in private daycare) were WORLDS better than how the local school teachers and admin dealt with the situation.

Anonymous wrote:I get why the teachers don’t trust DCPS. As a parent, I don’t trust them either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway from watching the roundtable is that, while the professionals agree that kids should be in schools, the people who will actually be inside the school buildings - families and teachers - are scared. There is longstanding mistrust of DCPS, starting well before Ferebee. He has done nothing to improve the situation. On school reopening, DCPS hasn't brought the people directly affected to the table to inform the planning. This is how they end up with generally unworkable ideas that get pushback.

When Feebee was asked in yesterday's roundtable why DCPS can't seem to reopen like other cities' school districts, his response was about staffing. The real, underlying problem is that stakeholders lack trust and confidence in DCPS. And until Ferebee and Bowser own up to that and address it, this situation will continue to be a disaster.

I'm a former DCPS teacher and wrote about that exact issue on this thread: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/150/930030.page

They are unwilling to state clear policies. If they did and wrote them down and everyone signed - we could start to build trust. (eg. Students who refuse to wear a mask will be sent home after the 3rd violation they will be moved to permanent DL, X% of students and teachers will be randomly tested at each school, If there are more than X positive cases at a school, it will be moved to DL for two weeks.)

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway from watching the roundtable is that, while the professionals agree that kids should be in schools, the people who will actually be inside the school buildings - families and teachers - are scared. There is longstanding mistrust of DCPS, starting well before Ferebee. He has done nothing to improve the situation. On school reopening, DCPS hasn't brought the people directly affected to the table to inform the planning. This is how they end up with generally unworkable ideas that get pushback.

When Feebee was asked in yesterday's roundtable why DCPS can't seem to reopen like other cities' school districts, his response was about staffing. The real, underlying problem is that stakeholders lack trust and confidence in DCPS. And until Ferebee and Bowser own up to that and address it, this situation will continue to be a disaster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched the round-table. About half of the people were for and half against reopening, including a children's hospital manager/doctor, who was pro-reopening, as evidence was that it could be done safely. Councilmen Grosso and Mendelsohn asked why New York is opening school fully five days a week, while DCPS has not been able to make a lot of progress. Council members Allen, White and Silverman expressed a hostility toward reopening schools and blamed the Chancellor for how poorly the process has gone. White in particular wanted a commitment from the Chancellor to not opening schools for all students this year and asked for that repeatedly.

thanks for the summary. super disappointed in Charles Allen and Silverman. Hopefully Grosso’s view will be shared by Henderson.

Grossing? The man who is now going to be a partner at a firm so he can lobby for charter schools?

I’m sorry, what? Do you think the anti-charter school stuff (driven by the union) has ANY persuasive o
power now? One consequence of the WTU behavior is to make me look much more favorably on charters.

I don’t really care about about anti charter stuff. My kids attend a charter school. I’m just pointing out he is going to become a lobbyist in a month when he leaves the council for charters. He has been a terrible lead on schools on the council. He has been useless. I actually think he should have excused himself from this.

But go ahead and attack me as some kind of shrill.

So what is the relevance of him being a charter lobbyist? I’m glad he’s at least speaking sensibly about schools. Maybe the fact that he doesn’t have to think about WTU votes now should tell you something about why the other councilmembers are insisting on schools staying closed.

My kids charter is closed. I’m unclear how that is the unions fault.

This gets asked all the time on DCUM. The answers are cray-cray. You need to just ignore this little problem with their alternate reality where everyone (politicians, charters, etc.) are all deathly afraid of the WTU. Just go with it and watch the same small group of crazies whip themselves up thread after thread. Think of it like performance art.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched the round-table. About half of the people were for and half against reopening, including a children's hospital manager/doctor, who was pro-reopening, as evidence was that it could be done safely. Councilmen Grosso and Mendelsohn asked why New York is opening school fully five days a week, while DCPS has not been able to make a lot of progress. Council members Allen, White and Silverman expressed a hostility toward reopening schools and blamed the Chancellor for how poorly the process has gone. White in particular wanted a commitment from the Chancellor to not opening schools for all students this year and asked for that repeatedly.

thanks for the summary. super disappointed in Charles Allen and Silverman. Hopefully Grosso’s view will be shared by Henderson.

Grossing? The man who is now going to be a partner at a firm so he can lobby for charter schools?

I’m sorry, what? Do you think the anti-charter school stuff (driven by the union) has ANY persuasive o
power now? One consequence of the WTU behavior is to make me look much more favorably on charters.

I don’t really care about about anti charter stuff. My kids attend a charter school. I’m just pointing out he is going to become a lobbyist in a month when he leaves the council for charters. He has been a terrible lead on schools on the council. He has been useless. I actually think he should have excused himself from this.

But go ahead and attack me as some kind of shrill.

So what is the relevance of him being a charter lobbyist? I’m glad he’s at least speaking sensibly about schools. Maybe the fact that he doesn’t have to think about WTU votes now should tell you something about why the other councilmembers are insisting on schools staying closed.

My kids charter is closed. I’m unclear how that is the unions fault.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway from watching the roundtable is that, while the professionals agree that kids should be in schools, the people who will actually be inside the school buildings - families and teachers - are scared. There is longstanding mistrust of DCPS, starting well before Ferebee. He has done nothing to improve the situation. On school reopening, DCPS hasn't brought the people directly affected to the table to inform the planning. This is how they end up with generally unworkable ideas that get pushback.

When Feebee was asked in yesterday's roundtable why DCPS can't seem to reopen like other cities' school districts, his response was about staffing. The real, underlying problem is that stakeholders lack trust and confidence in DCPS. And until Ferebee and Bowser own up to that and address it, this situation will continue to be a disaster.

I think they know this but don't want to antagonize teachers/WTU any further.

The underlying issue is that the WTU is willing to deprive kids of an education as a negotiating tactic. Yes this puts DCPS is a very hard position (one shared by many other urban school districts) but I’m not sure if it’s fair to blame DCPS for that.

And this is exactly why they're banned from striking. Hurting children is not a negotiating tactic.

Anonymous wrote:All I'm hearing is some teenagers who are worried about returning to in-person school... None of them acknowledging that returning to in-person school would be optional, only for those who choose that option.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway from watching the roundtable is that, while the professionals agree that kids should be in schools, the people who will actually be inside the school buildings - families and teachers - are scared. There is longstanding mistrust of DCPS, starting well before Ferebee. He has done nothing to improve the situation. On school reopening, DCPS hasn't brought the people directly affected to the table to inform the planning. This is how they end up with generally unworkable ideas that get pushback.

When Feebee was asked in yesterday's roundtable why DCPS can't seem to reopen like other cities' school districts, his response was about staffing. The real, underlying problem is that stakeholders lack trust and confidence in DCPS. And until Ferebee and Bowser own up to that and address it, this situation will continue to be a disaster.

I think they know this but don't want to antagonize teachers/WTU any further.

The underlying issue is that the WTU is willing to deprive kids of an education as a negotiating tactic. Yes this puts DCPS is a very hard position (one shared by many other urban school districts) but I’m not sure if it’s fair to blame DCPS for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway from watching the roundtable is that, while the professionals agree that kids should be in schools, the people who will actually be inside the school buildings - families and teachers - are scared. There is longstanding mistrust of DCPS, starting well before Ferebee. He has done nothing to improve the situation. On school reopening, DCPS hasn't brought the people directly affected to the table to inform the planning. This is how they end up with generally unworkable ideas that get pushback.

When Feebee was asked in yesterday's roundtable why DCPS can't seem to reopen like other cities' school districts, his response was about staffing. The real, underlying problem is that stakeholders lack trust and confidence in DCPS. And until Ferebee and Bowser own up to that and address it, this situation will continue to be a disaster.

I want to agree with you, but there is a need for leadership. People are afraid. When European countries reopened schools they made attendence obligatory, because they were concerned people would keep their children home due to fear. I am not saying that school should be obligatory in DC, but in Europe people generally accept the situation, because the leadership said it was safe, opened, and it is safe. There is no less general distrust of the government in Europe than in DC (states lied in Europe about masks at first and contact tracing, testing and isolation has failed). The question is whether it is safe to open schools. If it is then they should open.

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway from watching the roundtable is that, while the professionals agree that kids should be in schools, the people who will actually be inside the school buildings - families and teachers - are scared. There is longstanding mistrust of DCPS, starting well before Ferebee. He has done nothing to improve the situation. On school reopening, DCPS hasn't brought the people directly affected to the table to inform the planning. This is how they end up with generally unworkable ideas that get pushback.

When Feebee was asked in yesterday's roundtable why DCPS can't seem to reopen like other cities' school districts, his response was about staffing. The real, underlying problem is that stakeholders lack trust and confidence in DCPS. And until Ferebee and Bowser own up to that and address it, this situation will continue to be a disaster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway from watching the roundtable is that, while the professionals agree that kids should be in schools, the people who will actually be inside the school buildings - families and teachers - are scared. There is longstanding mistrust of DCPS, starting well before Ferebee. He has done nothing to improve the situation. On school reopening, DCPS hasn't brought the people directly affected to the table to inform the planning. This is how they end up with generally unworkable ideas that get pushback.

When Feebee was asked in yesterday's roundtable why DCPS can't seem to reopen like other cities' school districts, his response was about staffing. The real, underlying problem is that stakeholders lack trust and confidence in DCPS. And until Ferebee and Bowser own up to that and address it, this situation will continue to be a disaster.

I think they know this but don't want to antagonize teachers/WTU any further.