Some good news from DCPS

People have accused me of writing only about bad news, and they are right. I don’t do a good news blog but, in my defense, I am a teacher in Florida, and I do work for DCPS, and they give me plenty of bad news to write about. That being said, there were a few signs of hope at yesterday’s board meeting.  

Last Monday’s COVID-19 shots for school board employees apparently went over well, I mean very well, as the staff has raved about the efficiency. That’s great, and hopefully, it can serve as a larger scale template when the governor decides teachers are worthy of getting the shot.  

The district is going to get 159 million in PPE money. I have asked what we can do with that money, and when I get that, I will share it, but at the very least, that should open other money for things like taking care of veteran teachers, and who can use a printer? 

The union requested a reopening of negotiations to take care of veteran teachers.  After a terrible reading of the situation, DCPS decided to screw over veterans. Hopefully, now they can be treated equitably, and then we can treat our paras and office personal as well.  

Then finally, DCPS and DTU have negotiated a continuance of COVID sick days until June 1^st. This means if somebody gets sick or must quarantine, they can use ten days of this before they get to their PTO. And look, I get it, the District thinks COVID in our schools is like seeing a unicorn, but this is good news that will probably play a huge difference. 

Now there were some things that bugged me, and I went home early. Yay, we got a new charter school; this makes the eight new or expanded ones in less than a year. A 15th-year teacher now makes 500 dollars more than a first-year teacher; how that is acceptable is @#&$ing insane. Then there was the entire they voted to give themselves huge raises while veterans teachers took pay cuts thing and finally the board just gave me a vibe they were completely clueless about how bad contact tracing, social distancing, and the dashboard are. Maybe I am wrong, but yeah, that is how it seemed.