Who listens to teachers in DCPS? Nobdoy.

 The answer is apparently no one.

On the one hand, I am glad after a week of unrest, the district listened to students and changed their ham-fisted and tone-deaf "take off the mask" campaign but incredibly disappointed again at the realization nobody with any authority listens to and cares about teachers. We shouldn't pretend for a second that they do.

When Vitti left, he said, and I am paraphrasing him here, that he regretted thinking he could just replace teachers, that they were just easily replaceable cogs. 

Through their actions, Greene and the board repeatedly show that they don't care about teachers. Last summer, teachers overwhelmingly said they didn't feel safe going back to school, and Greene and the board shrugged their shoulders and said, fine, quit if you don't want to.

Then they didn't plan for the pandemic making sure things like substitutes were in place. 

Then as the year went on, instead of helping teachers like taking things off their plates, they double-downed on things like walk-throughs, learning arcs, and testing. 

They know many teachers have less planning time and more stress but do you think that deterred them? Absolutely not; they must think, if they quit, we will just get more, and why wouldn't we just increased starting salaries. 

The thing is, they won't. This starting salary is not going to slow the exodus, and in fact, it may hasten it as they %$@#ed veteran teachers to raise starting salary.

So what do they do? While not mentioning the pandemic one, and taking ownership for the fact they are the cause of most staff stress, they say, hey just take off the mask. Nothing will change, but at least the mask will be off.  

Over and over again, the district has had the opportunity to listen to teachers, to help teachers, to be there for teachers, and they passed. 

Friends valued colleagues; they don't care about you. Please don't pretend that they do.

So I will close with this suggestion. Work the contract and not one second more. Do all you can for your students, while on the clock, and then not one thing more. Stop being the abused partner in an abusive relationship; you are better than that.