RIF'ed DC Teachers Challenge Union Colleagues To Fight

Teachers and school counselors who were recently laid off by the Rhee administration have stepped up their fight on behalf of unfairly laid off teacher colleagues. These group of laid off teachers and school staff are known as Fight for Fired DC personnel. Included in this activist group are Washington Teachers’ Union Executive Board members Sheila Gill, Willie Brewer and Agnes Dyson. This group plans to work to combat unfair November 2 teacher cuts by  Chancellor Rhee’s administration.

Fight For Fired DC Personnels’ first actions included advancing their written request to the Washington Teachers’ Union for financial assistance to the cover the cost of their legal appeals to OEA (Office of Employee Appeals). This request was sent to the WTU President George Parker as well as AFT President Randi Weingarten via certified mail.

At last week’s rescheduled December 15 executive board meeting, Sheila Gill, WTU Board member proposed a motion that the WTU will file a legal appeal of Judge Bartnoff’s November 24 ruling. It was noted that  there is a 30 day timeline to file an appeal. Although much discussion ensued, WTU President George Parker did not lend his support for a motion to appeal Bartnoff’s decision. He indicated that he did not vote since the motion did not result in a tie. Unfortunately, our union attorney was not present at the WTU Executive Board meeting.

 I spoke in favor of laid off teachers’ right to an appeal even though WTU President George Parker would not allow me to speak in the first round and only reluctantly allowed me to speak in the second round of discussions on this matter. I do not agree with the parliamentarian’s opinion (John Tatum)  that I should not be allowed to vote ex-officio as a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) given that a decision was made for BOT members to be included in all executive board meetings. So it seems that Parker twists Robert's Rules of Order to his convenience denying me the opportunity to speak or requiring me to speak last in an effort to prevent my voice from being heard.

 Given that union president, George Parker historically is not a fighter, it is not surprising that he does not support teachers' legal right to file an appeal to Judge Bartnoff’s November 24 legal decision. However, what came as a surprise to me is that most elected teacher board members acknowledged that they had not even read Judge’s Bartnoff’s decision on the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and preliminary injunction which is not only posted on the WTU website but has also been written about and discussed in the mainstream media. Rather than take a stand to support their laid off colleagues right to a legal appeal, teachers on the executive board, some of whom acknowledged that they had previously been laid off- decided to either abstain from voting or cast their vote no.

It is troubling when teachers who are elected to represent teachers are uninformed about matters that impact our membership and vote to abstain from voting. Among those who abstained from voting included Robert Willis who by the way is a laid off teacher from Ballou Senior High and former WTU Building Representative. 

A roll call vote was held and here are the results:

Abstained from voting: Maria Angala (teacher/Jefferson MS), Joyce Armoo ( teacher/Seaton ES), Deborah Hines  (teacher/Beers ES) , Andre’ Taylor (itinerant librarian), Robert Willis (RIF’d teacher/Ballou SHS)

Voted No:  Camille Locke (teacher/Hart MS) , Erich Martel (teacher/Wilson SHS ), Lorraine Smith (teacher/Bancroft ES)

Voted Yes:  Willie Brewer (RIF'ed teacher/Marshall ES) , Agnes Dyson (RIF'ed teacher/Woodson SHS), Sheila Gill (RIF'ed counselor/McKinley TSHS) , Nathan Saunders (WTU Gen. V.P.), Diane Terrell (teacher/Stoddert ES).

Not Allowed To vote: Candi Peterson, WTU Board of Trustees

* According to Parliamentarian, John Tatum’s interpretation, WTU Board of Trustees are not allowed to vote even as ex-officio member’s of the WTU Executive Board. I have repeatedly challenged this interpretation to no avail.

Absent: Sallie Littlejohn Dorsey, Pablo Giron’, Jackie Hines (BOT), Milton Bruce Williams, Rashida Young

Retired or resigned: Derek Davis, Gloria Everette, Tenia Pritchard, Joshua Rascoe 

Given that there were five YES votes mostly from the laid off WTU Executive Board members to three NO votes, the motion passed. The WTU President agreed to notify our lawyer On December 16 that the motion passed and request that he prepare his legal appeal.

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence