WTU Panel to Participate in Education Roundtable on December 14

Education Round Table Discussion

By Candi Peterson

The DC City Council Committee on Education will hold a public oversight round table discussion; Setting Teachers Up for Success. The purpose of the round table, chaired by Council member David Catania is to hear from District of Columbia educators about their experience and perspective on the state of public education and how they and their students can be set up to succeed.  The discussion will be held this Saturday, December 14, 2013 from 10 am - 1 pm at McKinley Senior High school located at
151 T Street, NE.

Both District of Columbia public school teachers and charter school teachers have been invited to testify.

Washington Teachers' Union (WTU)  has convened a panel of DCPS educators/WTU members to present testimony at tomorrow's round table. Our WTU panel includes:

Elizabeth Davis
WTU President

Candi Peterson
WTU General Vice President

David Tansey
Dunbar Senior High School

Angela Thompson Murphy
LaSalle Education Campus

Guy Brandenburg
DCPS retired educator

Signe Nelson
Whittier Education Campus

Maria Angala
Jefferson Academy

Janice Brown
Itinerant Related Service Provider

Emily Washington
WTU Teacher Center

Erich Martel
DCPS retired educator

Hope to see you there!

WTU Looks For Ways Around Teacher Furloughs

By Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice President

Furloughs without pay are on the horizon for District government employees. Exempt from the furloughs are police officers and fire fighters as their furloughs would impair public health and/or public safety, in addition to, a handful of independent District agencies. Vincent Gray, although exempt from the furlough days as the Mayor, has signed a waiver to join the rest of DC government employees on furlough in order to help save the city 19 million dollars during fiscal year 2011. I applaud Mayor Gray’s willingness to endure the furlough days like other DC city workers.

Included in the mix of those to be furloughed are District of Columbia Public School teachers and school personnel. As a result of emergency legislation, known as the Balanced Budget Furlough Emergency Act of 2011, that was recently passed by the DC City Council – DC government employees will be furloughed on four designated legal public holidays during Fiscal Year 2011: February 21, Washington’s birthday, April 15, DC Emancipation Day, May 30, Memorial Day and July 4, Independence Day. The emergency legislation specifically states: "The District of Columbia Public schools shall not furlough a classroom teacher on a date when there is classroom instruction during an instructional period."

WTU President Nathan Saunders commented on teacher furloughs in a recent press release. Saunders stated: "Furloughs are the repercussions that workers face when subjected to government budgets which they don't control. City workers, including teachers, will now receive less pay as a result of poor budget decisions made by senior level DC government officials. At some point, the DC government must hold managers accountable for over-spending the same way it holds workers accountable." (Click furloughs for WTU press release). I contend that the Michelle Rhee/Kaya Henderson regime under the helm of former DC mayor, Adrian Fenty contributed to the DCPS' share of the budget deficit problem.

What concerns me is that we still aren't making the necessary budget cuts where they need to be made. After all, furloughs aren't a permanent solution for a budget deficit, and there is talk that even more furloughs will be proposed at a later date. I would like to suggest a number of ways to cut some of the public school bloat for the longer-term. Let’s start by reducing Interim Chancellor Henderson’s executive staff salaries by putting a moratorium on bonus payouts, reducing administrative staff in the central office inclusive of the thirteen new instructional superintendents who were recruited last May 2010 with salaries ranging from $120,000 to $150,000, eliminating Master Educators' positions whose starting salaries begin at $90,000 a pop and delegating all teacher evaluations to principals and/or supervisors, discontinuing non-essential testing of students, and putting an end to DCPS contracts that aren’t justified. Has anyone considered tightening our belt by conserving energy in our schools ? What happened to the cost savings as a result of the DC government freeze?

During our February 5, 2011 WTU Executive Board meeting, elected teachers and school personnel expressed their frustration about getting hammered at every turn due to DCPS overspending. Our board was in agreement that 'alternatives to furloughs' need to be considered. As a result of this lively discussion, the WTU Executive Board passed a motion which gives the Washington Teachers’ Union authority to explore 'alternatives to furloughing' teachers and school personnel before President’s Day, the 1st day of government furloughs. Washington Teachers' Union is interested in your ideas on how DC Public Schools can achieve real cost savings so that we can look for ways around teacher/school personnel furloughs. We will compile a list of your ideas and provide these recommendations to Mayor Gray amongst other strategies. The Washington Teacher blog will also post your ideas. Please email your cost saving recommendations to: helpdesk@wtulocal6.org or via fax @ 202-293-9732. Got suggestions- we’re listening.

Rhee's Motto: Speak No Evil

The DC Schools Insider blog features a story about DCPS lining up support for the upcoming Council annual performance oversight hearing on March 15. Turque who writes for the Insider blog wrote "Testimony at these events tends to become an open-ended infomercial for those unhappy with Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. So Peggy O'Brien, Rhee's family and public engagement chief, is reaching out to those who have had kind words for DCPS and have asked what they can do to help." Talking points have been created by Rhee's staff as well as a plan to give those willing to testify favorably, a reminder call about 1 hour before their turn comes up on the council docket. In my open letter to Peggy O'Brien, I discuss what is wrong with this picture:

February 26, 2010

Dear Dr. O’Brien,

I am most concerned about your inappropriate effort to solicit positive testimony only from a group of parents who have previously expressed support for the Chancellor’s reforms. In your role as chief of Family and Public Engagement for a tax-payer supported agency, you have an obligation to appeal to all DCPS stakeholders to testify at the March 15th City Council hearing, not just to identified supporters. In the interest of all the DC residents your office represents,

I ask you to do the following:

*Post an announcement on the DCPS homepage about the hearing, inviting all family and parents of DCPS students to testify. Just announce it. Do not provide positive, unsubstantiated talking points as you did in your original email.

*Send an email to your original group of supporters acknowledging your error in using your public office to solicit positive views only.

Of course, I understand that your office would welcome positive testimony, given the chancellor’s recent controversial remarks about RIFd teachers hitting and have sex with children and her sliding poll numbers. Thus, I suggest you contact groups like DC School Reform Now, a non-profit organization founded by former Teach for America workers to support the Chancellor’s reform efforts. Interest groups such as this would see it as their mission to mobilize their members and provide talking points that are strictly supportive of the Chancellor. Unlike public agencies, they don’t have an obligation to serve all citizens, but only those who share their point of view.

Sincerely,

Candi Peterson

_______________________________________

From: Peggy.O'Brien@dc.gov

CC: Katherine.Gottfredson@dc.gov; Jason.Crawford@dc.gov

February 23, 2010

Dear Parents and Friends of DC Public Schools,

"I've lived in this community for 40 years, raised two children here, sent them to DCPS. I know that more people than ever are feeling optimistic about DC Public Schools because I talk to parents and community members every day and they tell me so.

And for good reason. Test scores and graduation rates are up, facilities have been modernized, our teachers are more qualified, more effective, and better supported, access to technology is system wide, early education is expanding and improving, and programs to address reading and learning problems are proliferating.

I am reaching out to you because you have expressed your support of DCPS reforms at some point during the past year, either to the Chancellor or to me directly--and we are coming up to a time when expressions of support would be most helpful.

The DC Council will hold a DCPS Agency Performance Oversight Hearing on Monday, March 15, starting at 10 a.m. at the Wilson Building. These hearings are opened with public testimony. People sign up in advance, and then testify in the order in which they have done so. If you are willing to share your story at the hearing, please contact Aretha Latta at 202-724-8196, or email her at alatta@dccouncil.us to be placed on the list. Once you are on the list, we would be happy to call you an hour in advance of when you would be expected to testify if you are not able to attend the entire hearing. Just let us know if you've signed up. You can also submit written testimony if you cannot attend the hearing.

The District of Columbia deserves a more complete picture of the school reform efforts underway. Your testimony can help provide that. Thank you for considering this."

Sincerely,

Peggy O'Brien, Ph.D.

Chief, Office of Family and Public Engagement

Office of the Chancellor

District of Columbia Public Schools

Posted by The Washington Teacher, featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence, email courtesy of DC Schools Insider blog.