As the snowstorm looms today, the clock is ticking for the District’s high school students return to the classroom. If you re-read Dr. Gusick’s message from Sunday, December 13, Conestoga HS is remote learning only through today. The District’s plan is for the high school to return to hybrid teaching starting tomorrow, December 17.
But here’s the question, will the District have sufficient CHS teachers for in-person teaching tomorrow? It is my understanding that 54 teachers at the high school were out on Monday. Has the teachers union opposition to in-person now changed?
It is unclear as to why the safety of the teachers in the classroom is focused primarily on the high school. Shouldn’t any health concerns associated with in-person teaching be District-wide and include the those teaching at the two middle schools and five elementary schools.
The widespread support and concern that many CHS students have shown this week for their teachers is strong. In the past, only occasionally have students responded to Community Matters posts yet a review of the latest comments indicates the safety of teachers in the classrooms has struck a chord with many.
The District students took to social media and created a Change.org petition titled “Give teachers the option to teach virtually or physically”. The opening paragraph of the petition reads as follows,
This petition is in support of the teachers’ petition to boycott the school with their sick days because the Tredyffrin Easttown School District requires all teachers to go physically to school while students have the option to go hybrid or virtual. The primary goal is to force the school board to allow the option for both physical and virtual teaching for teachers.
In a matter of a few days, the petition has already received over 1,000 signatures of support.
Regarding the District’s return to hybrid teaching, TEEA union president Amy Alvarez read a strongly worded statement of opposition and asked questions of the school board at its meeting last week. Without responding to Ms. Alvarez, the school board voted unanimously (9-0) to return to hybrid teaching. Why did no member of the school board answer the union president?
No one likes to feel marginalized or not heard. Whether it’s a resident asking a question at a school board meeting, or in this case, the president of the teachers union, all deserve a response. School board, silence is not a response. The topic of the question does not matter, communication is expected, and answers are deserved.
There’s another week of school before winter break — will all students return to hybrid learning tomorrow, December 17? We understand that these are unprecedented times, but communication is critical. School board, our community needs leadership from you.
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A couple of notes: Since my previous post, I have been inundated with a firestorm of calls, emails and many, many comments. However, there are nearly 50 comments that were not posted because sadly their content was abusive, offensive or harassing.
In addition, the managerial board of The Spoke, Conestoga’s news source released the following statement:
As COVID-19 continues to surge across the nation and right here in southeastern Pennsylvania, school districts are returning to remote learning. Today we learned that the largest public school district in the country, New York City (1.1 million students and 1,800 schools) is returning to virtual learning effective tomorrow, November 19. It is unclear when the NYC students will be able to return to in-person learning.
With the 2020 election last week and then the wait for the results, I purposefully delayed this post.
Started in 2017, the “Sunrise Movement” is a national grass-roots movement of young people uniting to stop the climate crisis. The nonprofit , which has become known for its New Green Deal proposal, describes its mission as “building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.”
Do you recall the 2017 federal lawsuit filed against T/E School District and Dr. Amy Meisinger, principal of Conestoga High School?
Like many school districts in America, the T/E School District started the 2020-21 school year virtually. No one thinks virtual classrooms are as good as the real thing, but they were a necessity to fight the pandemic. In the stressful era of Covid-19, the re-imagining of education is no easy task for students, parents or teachers.
