Teachers pivoted to online learning in a weekend. They have risked life and limb during the pandemic too. So what has DCPS done for them? Doubled down on testing, stolen planning time, and offered them a bad faith contract, all while sitting on nearly 70 million dollars. Please consider a few things before voting.
The district has nearly 70 million in reserves, something like 15 million over what they are contractually required to do.
The district said it was spending 500k a month on emergency maintenance, something it will not have to do anymore.
If there were no COVID or bill 641, money for this year was already allocated. The one good thing that the state did was hold schools harmless and give them as much as last year. This means we would have gotten our steps or performance pay.
New teachers and newer teachers will get their raise sooner or later; that's going to happen. So why not continue to fight for better working conditions like equitable planning and doing away with unpaid faculty meetings.
New and newer teachers should also realize that someday, some will be veterans, and they will wish they would have done more. No teacher should be allowed to be treated the way the state and district are.
If the district isn't going to come off economic issues, then there should be other things they should be willing to do, and they are not.
We all know this is shitty, the district has to know this is shitty, but they have been silent. Greene nor the board have been out there fighting to improve them and educate the public. At this point, their silence is complicity.
Finally, I get it, we don't know what will happen, but I don't believe for a second this is all or nothing. If we turned it down, we would go back to negotiating. There are too many moving pieces to get locked into the turd as presented.
Friends, you deserved better, but they will never give it to you whether it is good times or bad, if you just take the scraps they throw at you. It's time to say no. If not, now then when.
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