by Alexis Gutierrez

Update: In an email on Monday morning, DCPS has announced that Term 2 will begin on November 9th with learning at home, delaying the in-person learning set to start on the 9th. School administrators appear to be receiving this information at the same time as parents. The new schedule for this week is:

Monday, Nov. 2 — Instructional day,
Tuesday, Nov. 3 — Election Day; no school for students and teachers
Wednesday, Nov. 4 — Instructional day
Thursday, Nov. 5 — Instructional day
Friday, Nov. 6 — No school for students; 1/2 Records Day and 1/2 Professional Development Day for teachers

As Petworth News reported at the beginning of October, a major concern with DC Public School’s reopening plan was whether the teachers would come back to teach in person. In recent weeks it has become increasingly apparent that they will not. The Washington Teacher’s Union has called for a “Mental Health Day” for its members in protest of the DCPS re-opening plans. This is effectively a “sick out,” where teacher’s call in sick. In a week where there was only going to be one day of live instruction. With this latest action by WTU, many DCPS students may have no live instruction for the week as Tuesday is a holiday for election, Wednesday there is no live instruction, and Thursday and Friday are Professional Development days.

In addition to the WTU’s concerns, the Council of School Officers, the union for the principals, has also outlined numerous concerns with the DCPS reopening plans. Their concerns include the design of the lottery for selecting homeless, English-language learners, and at-risk children for in-person learning. They are also concerned about the impacts to secondary schools as a result of elementary schools returning to in-person learning.

In October, the Public Employee Relations Board ruled against DCPS for failing to collectively bargain with the teachers. This required the city to rescind the survey that DCPS teachers had been asked to complete on whether they would return to the classroom. With this survey rescinded, principals were trying to plan for reopening without knowing what staff they had. This past week, at least one principal candidly told their school in a weekly email that the school would not be returning to in-person learning on November 9th as a result of not knowing what staff they had.

The tension between DCPS and WTU has been building for months now. Those who participated in the DCPS or the Mayoral town halls on reopening could see the palpable frustration of teachers asking questions in the chat windows, trying to glean any information from DCPS officials. Teachers have used the hashtag #OnlyWhenItsSafe during the public meetings to galvanize support, in addition to holding their own town halls with parents.

Many teachers have expressed concerns that they do not believe repairs that they have been asking for years in their building will be fixed in a month. They are concerned that they are finally making headway with their virtual learning classes, only to have that disrupted by some teachers returning to in-person instruction and those continuing to teach virtually having to do so with much larger classrooms.

In town hall after town hall, the DCPS Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee, and Patrick Davis, Chief Operations Officer, among other DC government officials, assured parents and teachers that each HVAC system has been assessed and will be brought up to the ASHRAE standard. According to DCPS, if an HVAC can’t be outfitted with the latest technology, then medical grade HEPA filters will be placed in each classroom. Mr. Davis also assured everyone the schools will be amply supplied with paper towels, soap, PPE and hand sanitizer. Dr. Ferebee noted that all schools that need additional resources to accommodate these larger virtual classrooms will get it, but did not offer specifics. Meanwhile, the chat filled with parents and teachers expressing disbelief.

As the Mayor’s office has taken over the town halls, they have become shorter in length (down from 60 minutes to 30 minutes), allowed less time for questions and feel more choreographed. The Chancellor and other central office staff are seated in an elementary school wearing masks. The voice of staff from the Mayor’s office introduces everyone and reminds the audience to enter their questions in the Facebook or Twitter chats or call into the phone number. The Chancellor at each town hall methodically lays out the reasoning for in-person learning for the neediest children — homeless children (3,180 DCPS students were homeless in school year 2019-20), English-language learners, and those at high risk. Yet the Council of School Officers’ open letter to the Mayor states concern that the lottery process will leave behind many of the most vulnerable students.

At this past week’s town hall, as the Chancellor talked about his positive conversations with the Washington Teachers Union, the Facebook chat included questions about when teachers would know their staffing assignments or accusations that the Chancellor was being untruthful about what he had told WTU.

You can check DCPS’s “School Building Reopening Plans and Readiness Checklists” website to see what DC says is the readiness of your child’s school.

Petworth News will keep tracking this issue as more information becomes available.