So curious how the vote tomorrow will turn out.

And of course, should the union be certified, how much foot-dragging the Administration will do before getting to a bargaining table.

Anonymous wrote:Unions are not needed and are just overhead. They severely harm children and families.

Hm, you should review all your history classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person considering transferring their child in light of how the school is handling this? I just read the following on Facebook, [Today, a special education teacher at Mundo Verde Public Charter School was trying to meet with a special needs student, as she does every day. She was denied access to her space, by our executive director, because the $3000/day (your tax dollars at work!) union buster Angel Cornejo is holding anti-union meetings in her room. This is after nearly 100 parents signed a letter demanding leadership expel this man, who is trying to sow discord and confusion ahead of our union vote on Wednesday. If that's not a clearer depiction of the administration's priorities (maintaining power, denying staff voices, preserving the broken status quo > student services & learning) I don't know what is. Intimidation is illegal.]

We are leaving MV. We were already considering leaving and but this has made the decision easier. We are in an upper grade so it will be hard for MV to fill our slot. If others do the same it could just be another challenge for the school to deal with next year (either the school will have a smaller budget or will have to integrate more new upper grade kids or will have larger classes in earlier grades).

Im certain mundo will fill it with a 3rd grader who had a Spanish nanny when he was 2 and will “pick it up right away!”

Or maybe a 4th grader who wants that dci slot and doesn’t mind sacrificing two years of learning.

We are leaving too. We considered after the administration decided to expand against the will of the teachers and parents. I spoke with many teachers in the aftermath of that incident and found out the teachers are treated horribly. This union-busting is the nail in the coffin for us. We are also in the upper grades so that is lost revenue for the school. (I’m sure that is the only way they’ll view our departure)

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person considering transferring their child in light of how the school is handling this? I just read the following on Facebook, [Today, a special education teacher at Mundo Verde Public Charter School was trying to meet with a special needs student, as she does every day. She was denied access to her space, by our executive director, because the $3000/day (your tax dollars at work!) union buster Angel Cornejo is holding anti-union meetings in her room. This is after nearly 100 parents signed a letter demanding leadership expel this man, who is trying to sow discord and confusion ahead of our union vote on Wednesday. If that's not a clearer depiction of the administration's priorities (maintaining power, denying staff voices, preserving the broken status quo > student services & learning) I don't know what is. Intimidation is illegal.]

We are leaving MV. We were already considering leaving and but this has made the decision easier. We are in an upper grade so it will be hard for MV to fill our slot. If others do the same it could just be another challenge for the school to deal with next year (either the school will have a smaller budget or will have to integrate more new upper grade kids or will have larger classes in earlier grades).

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person considering transferring their child in light of how the school is handling this? I just read the following on Facebook, [Today, a special education teacher at Mundo Verde Public Charter School was trying to meet with a special needs student, as she does every day. She was denied access to her space, by our executive director, because the $3000/day (your tax dollars at work!) union buster Angel Cornejo is holding anti-union meetings in her room. This is after nearly 100 parents signed a letter demanding leadership expel this man, who is trying to sow discord and confusion ahead of our union vote on Wednesday. If that's not a clearer depiction of the administration's priorities (maintaining power, denying staff voices, preserving the broken status quo > student services & learning) I don't know what is. Intimidation is illegal.]

I really want to know what, if anything, this particular MV board member, who works for an organization dedicated to expanding unions, and whose bio says he has a "history of defending worker rights" is doing and saying about all of this behind closed doors. Ihttp://www.mundoverdepcs.org/board-of-directors

Francisco “Paco” Fabian, Secretary, parent trustee
Paco Fabian is the Communications Director at Change to Win Federation. Before that he served as Communications Director at America’s Voice, as Senior Account Executive at Fenton Communications and Journalist/Analyst with AFA Press. He has an extensive history of political activism and defense of human rights, immigration, health, and worker rights. Paco holds a Masters in International Relations and Political Theory from the University of Westminster and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, International Relations from the University of Arizona. He is also the parent of one current Mundo Verde student and one graduate

[Also, MV is out of compliance w/r/t its Board. They are supposed to have an odd number of members, yet only 8 are listed on their website.]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person considering transferring their child in light of how the school is handling this? I just read the following on Facebook, [Today, a special education teacher at Mundo Verde Public Charter School was trying to meet with a special needs student, as she does every day. She was denied access to her space, by our executive director, because the $3000/day (your tax dollars at work!) union buster Angel Cornejo is holding anti-union meetings in her room. This is after nearly 100 parents signed a letter demanding leadership expel this man, who is trying to sow discord and confusion ahead of our union vote on Wednesday. If that's not a clearer depiction of the administration's priorities (maintaining power, denying staff voices, preserving the broken status quo > student services & learning) I don't know what is. Intimidation is illegal.]

I dunno. We have a high waitlist number to come IN to MV P St, but this gives me some trepidation. I am fine with the union happening, as a union member myself where I work. It troubles me that the teachers feel they must unionize to be heard. How has it come to this? A Tier 1 school with such resources should be able to keep its teachers at least mostly happy

Am I the only person considering transferring their child in light of how the school is handling this? I just read the following on Facebook, [Today, a special education teacher at Mundo Verde Public Charter School was trying to meet with a special needs student, as she does every day. She was denied access to her space, by our executive director, because the $3000/day (your tax dollars at work!) union buster Angel Cornejo is holding anti-union meetings in her room. This is after nearly 100 parents signed a letter demanding leadership expel this man, who is trying to sow discord and confusion ahead of our union vote on Wednesday. If that's not a clearer depiction of the administration's priorities (maintaining power, denying staff voices, preserving the broken status quo > student services & learning) I don't know what is. Intimidation is illegal.]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh boo hoo. I am in a union at my job. Teachers at all the highest performing DCPS schools are in the union. It is fine. And the hypocrisy of naming a school after Cesar Chavez and then opposing a union is disgusting.

X1000!! If your organization does not support workers rights pick a new name.

Sí

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has the worst teachers in the country, the goal should be to have more accountability over them not the teachers having leverage over families. I would also recommend pta and parents hold the school administration and the teachers accountable, they have both failed the country.

In no universe would teachers in a union have leverage over families. That doesn't even make sense.

In a charter school, the parent organization has ZERO oversight or role w/r/t the Administration. It is not like DCPS which at least has a veneer of accountability and transparency through the LSAT. Only 2 of a charter school's Board of Directors must be parents, and those parents are handpicked by the Board/Administration -- not elected by the parents to represent them.

+1000. How can families hold a school accountable without a seat at the table of boards, ptos with actual leverage or unions representing teachers. Especially when if you make too much of a fuss a Charter will simply boot your family from the school, there is no oversight or controls in place to prevent this. (particularly if you are not donating tons of money.) Charters need more accountability and transparency for sure

They do have a seat at the Board table...in fact two seats. It's the law that two parents (or students in adult schools) have to be on the boards of public charter schools.

Except those two seats are not selected by the parents to represent them - at any charter school. Parent members are handpicked by the boards, usually suggested by the administration. There is no requirement for them to meet with parents on any regular basis to gather concerns or to report back.

They are board members who happen to be parents; they are not parents' reps on the board.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone interested in what is going on at MV should read the Glassdoor reviews. https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Mundo-Verde-Reviews-E767246.htm

These are all a few years old, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has the worst teachers in the country, the goal should be to have more accountability over them not the teachers having leverage over families. I would also recommend pta and parents hold the school administration and the teachers accountable, they have both failed the country.

In no universe would teachers in a union have leverage over families. That doesn't even make sense.

In a charter school, the parent organization has ZERO oversight or role w/r/t the Administration. It is not like DCPS which at least has a veneer of accountability and transparency through the LSAT. Only 2 of a charter school's Board of Directors must be parents, and those parents are handpicked by the Board/Administration -- not elected by the parents to represent them.

+1000. How can families hold a school accountable without a seat at the table of boards, ptos with actual leverage or unions representing teachers. Especially when if you make too much of a fuss a Charter will simply boot your family from the school, there is no oversight or controls in place to prevent this. (particularly if you are not donating tons of money.) Charters need more accountability and transparency for sure

They do have a seat at the Board table...in fact two seats. It's the law that two parents (or students in adult schools) have to be on the boards of public charter schools.

Teachers in Europe are all in unions. In those countries, kids seem to do pretty well on international tests.

Anonymous wrote:Mundo Verde’s teacher turnover statistics were documented as inaccurate to theCharter Board. I would not take any comfort from these statistics.

The numbers cited above and on the PCSB website are from the annual report that MV submitted themselves. They calculated the numbers.

Are they cooking their own books or just bad at basic math?

Mundo Verde’s teacher turnover statistics were documented as inaccurate to theCharter Board. I would not take any comfort from these statistics.