SHAPPE's Position on DCPS Reopening for Term 2

Dear Mayor Bowser, Deputy Mayor Kihn, and Chancellor Ferebee,

The Senior High Alliance of Parents Principals and Educators is 22 years old.  We consider ourselves partners looking for constructive solutions so that a strong DCPS can thrive. It is our hope that you will reconsider and amend the current plan. We believe that you can prevent the significant loss of supports and infrastructure to the secondary school students that it will cause and engage elementary school students.  We are writing here about the educational program, the building checklist and health supports have to be in place for any plan. We want to work with you on a strong educational program to reopen we can all endorse.   

Design Process

We propose that DCPS begin a Design Process to be implemented in Term 3. This process would build on the strengths we have identified and benefit from the missteps we have learned from.  COVID 19 has forced parents, teachers, administrators and support staff to re-invent and re-define their roles. As we approach November many school communities have an established routine that is stronger and is finally feeling familiar.  Support Centers are in the process of being designed to be rolled out or expanded in Term 2 to do a better job reaching those students facing the most challenges.

This Design Process should begin at the school level now with subsequent coordination within a feeder pattern and then across elementary, middle and high schools. That outreach and connection has already started in response to the current plan. This would guarantee the services would be matched to the need.  Equity is not standardization. DCPS has the opportunity to be nimble with a diversity of educational programs across the city.

Equity

We share the District’s commitment to equity. We are concerned on two fronts with the current DC Reopen plan.  As noted by the WTU table below, the current plan will not equitably meet the needs of the students identified as at risk across the city.  One ward will be able to serve 243% and another 30% of their at risk elementary school students. 

The secondary at risk students will have a significant reduction in their supports.  According to the AFTON research report being used by the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula review committee “multiple options for better targeting segments of the District’s at-risk student population that are particularly low-performing, including students designated as high school over-age and/or those placed in foster care by the Child and Family Services Agency (“CFSA”), as well as those experiencing multiple at-risk factors” should be considered. This highlights the needs of secondary students (58% of 9th graders) and others.  It is not to diminish the need of elementary students but to emphasize that we cannot take vital staff from the secondary schools.

The reduction of capacity to meet the needs of all secondary students in this plan is stunning.  It will cripple the virtual plan the secondary schools have implemented.  Everyone in a secondary school plays an instructional role, even more so now. Assistant principals and counselors will not be there as needed to schedule for the second semester or support the grading.  12th grade counselors working with seniors on their post high school options will be unavailable; ELL new comer bilingual technical support to enable these students to attend school virtually will no longer be available.  The literacy support for teachers and students, especially key right now will be lost as librarians move to the elementary schools. Mentoring, tutoring and Student Support centers planned to bring select students having difficulty into the school for Term 2 are being cancelled.  There can be no planning for Term 3 and no realistic hope of bringing secondary students back into the classroom in February under the current DCPS Reopen Plan.  This is just a sampling. This letter from the Council of School Officers supplements these concerns as well as offering some suggestions. 

Trauma Informed

We are working toward having our schools operate informed by the cost of trauma and able to respond appropriately.  This applies to everyone in the schools. As families struggle with childcare and with the risks associated with returning; school staff members are also struggling with assessing their risk and what it represents to their families.  It has been disturbing to see the terminology change to “deploy” and “AWOL” as if this is a warzone.  It is a crisis but DCPS employees are not military and the model is ideally one of collaboration and consent.  Our proposal is for us to come together in open discussion without the fear of reprisal if questions and concerns are raised.  It is a sign of strength in our system that school leaders are powerful advocates for their students and families. Contracting COVID19 with possible serious complications is a real threat.

Plan B or What Could Go Wrong

This is an important element of any plan.  The staff being assigned from DCPS central office or other agencies does not have experience or training working with 3 to 10 year old young people.  It is not their choice to do this work and perhaps especially during COVID19.  These are people with skill and talent in what they do but they may not have the patience and instinct to work with younger children.  That skill and talent is not something that can be conveyed in a short training. The elementary school leader may have to say, this is not working out.  What then? Many of these adults have accrued sick leave and vacation leave that they may use as they confront something they did not consent to.  There is a shortage of substitute teachers in normal circumstances and more so now.  What will the experience be for these children? 

The quality of virtual learning will suffer with this effort to provide some elementary students with in school learning. If COVID cases increase, the families of staff and students may again be confronting loss and grief where stability and predictability are crucial. If we are forced to return to all virtual instruction we will have lost the ground we gained through Term 1 with the proposed extensive staffing changes.

This plan was presented without an adequate and effective staffing plan in place to support it.  We need to get it right. It can be amended, put on pause or postponed so that no students receive less and returning to school is appropriately staffed; contingencies are taken into account.  The school leaders, teachers, staff and families are eager to be part of this work with DCPS.  Embarking on a Design Plan is a path forward. 

Sincerely,

Cathy Reilly

Director of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators