A Teacher's Union Effort Succeeds with Public Involvement
Cheers RVA!
Today remains cooler with mostly sunny skies and a high of 77, with a low of 55 in the evening.
the juice:
The Virginia Department of Education has released SOL scores for the 2023-2024 School year.
The results can be viewed here.
With nine spreadsheets across various metrics, each with 50k-100k rows, so there’s a lot to unpack, and a lot of opportunities for leaders to cherry pick data that supports a narrative of improvement.
The Superintendent of RPS Jason Kamras has teased in the RPS Direct newsletter that exciting results are to be made public today.
the pulp:
The Richmond Flying Squirrels formally signed a 30-yr lease agreement with the Richmond Economic Development Authority for the $117 million new stadium. The stadium is still “set to open” by the 2026 season.
Henrico has purchased a $1.4 million plot of land near Parham and West Broad for a bus transit station, via the RTD. The GRTC is planning to expand the Pulse four miles out West Broad by 2028.
the dive:
The Richmond School Board met last night for it’s regular bi-weekly meeting.
Public Comments
The public comments section began with the usual cast of characters speaking first, Richmond Education Association leaders continuing to comment on employee grievances.
But last night’s meeting was fruitful for a specific set of teachers.
An American Sign Language interpreter from Henrico High spoke on how she felt she was being robbed every week. Despite her masters degree and 30 years of experience, she was given a notice of appointment rather than a continuing contract, meaning she could be fired without cause at any time.
The theme of a lack of guaranteed contracts potentially causing ASL interpreters to leave RPS persisted.
Another interpreter spoke, noting how both of her parents were deaf, and both of her kids were deaf, and 95% of children born hard of hearing are born to parents to fully hearing parents. She stressed the critical role interpreters play in child development.
Then another ASL interpreter spoke. Then another. Another Masters Degree. Another 20 years of experience.
A 7 year-old deaf child spoke publicly to the board, saying how she loved her interpreter.
Her Dad spoke, vaguely threatening legal discourse if the contracts were not issued.
The first deaf graduate of Open High School spoke. She told her story of how working with quality interpreters directly impacted her education. She noted how ASL was originally based on French, how the syntax is different, presenting further challenges for hard of hearing students. She’s now a professional animator.
RPS teachers cited language injustice as a priority for the school system, yet hard of hearing learners were being treated unfairly due to uncertain contracts.
One ASL teacher even suggested the teachers were being punished for joining the union.
Resolution
And finally, after nearly 45 minutes of public commentary solely focused on ASL interpreter contracts, action was taken.
A motion was unanimously passed later in the meeting to formalize the legal language for ASL interpreter contracts by December, with Kamras promising continuing contracts would be sent to all ASL teachers tomorrow morning! Good for them.
School Renaming
The renaming of the Richmond Alternative School was another topic of discussion. Per the RPS website,
Alternative Education in Richmond Public Schools provides non-traditional learning opportunities for students experiencing different life circumstances that keep them from finding success in the traditional high school setting.
The discussion ensued for 30 minutes, with members suggesting the process didn’t include enough community feedback, with only six parents commenting at two public meetings.
The administration suggested the Richmond Success Academy, with other options being Richmond Prep Academy and Academy of Excellence.
At one point board member Stephanie Rizzi briefly excused herself after nearly getting upset for feeling as if it wasn’t her time to speak (Rizzi stepped down as Board Chair in July).
She noted her work with VCU and the term “inclusive excellence” being reworked, and how excellent was an overused word.
Board member Mariah White, who represents the 2nd district where the school is located, noted the difference between “success” and “excellence”, and how the administration’s suggestion wasn’t even on the list of top 5 names.
Kamras concluded he would survey all students at the school and present the results at the next school board meeting.
Unpaid Leave for Union Elected Officials
Two measures on policy revisions regarding food services and recent compliance legislation from the General Assembly passed unanimously without comment, but board action on the item of employee leave was conflicting.
Policy revised to provide up to one, one-year term of unpaid Union Leave for one elected officer of
exclusive representatives certified by the School Board.
Kamras bagan by saying he was against providing unpaid leave to elected union officers primarily because of the immediate seven vacancies it would cause in a system already critically understaffed.
The REA president, Neri Suarez, was terminated in June for what Kamras called “refusing to return to work when required”, whereas the REA saw it as a union-busting move.
Kenya Gibson, who represents the 3rd district and is running for City Council, was animated noting RPS currently retains about 78% of it’s 3000 staff yearly, amounting to 660 employees who leave each year.
She argued one reason collective bargaining was agreed to, was to increase staff retention; therefore, the vacancies caused by seven staff members was inconsequential in the big picture of retaining staff.
Other board members questioned the ability of elected union officials on unpaid leave to increase teacher retention.
Ultimately, the board voted to table the discussion of unpaid leave for elected officers until December.
They are currently four unions representing RPS staff, with seven bargaining units, resulting in seven elected union officers who currently work for RPS, including one principal and one director.
Transportation Audit Update
The transportation audit update was on the agenda, but the transportation director did not attend the meeting.
Gibson did express skepticism on the audit not including the number of bus drivers. She said the audit claimed the average bus driver salary for 2023-2024 was $85k.
She noted the narrative in the media about how much bus drivers earn, how unfair it was.
Then she pulled out a giant calculator and did her own math, using the audit’s total spending, and concluded the average driver salary had actually increased from $47k in 2019, to $51k in 2024, and this increase was simply not newsworthy.
In response to some push back from those attending the meeting, Kamras said plainly regarding any potential changes in bus driver pay structure,
I am the Superintendent. Nothing will change on bus driver salaries until an agreement is made in collective bargaining, or the school board asks me to make a change.
the vibe:
It’s nice to hear some good news for a small but essential group of educators, even if it took a lot of noise from teachers, parents, and even students.
Have an involving day RVA!
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