ABCFT YOUnionews September 3, 2021
Observed on the first Monday in September, Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. Click here for more on the history of Labor Day.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
I woke up this week to read the following opening sentence in the Huffington Post: “The leading Republican candidate seeking to replace California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election this month opposes efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among children in the state, including in schools.”
My takeaway? Elections have consequences. Or as journalist Ezra Klein puts it, “We live in the foreign policy aftermath of 2000 and the legal aftermath of 2014. This whole era is a brutal reminder that you never know which elections will turn out to be the hinges on which history turns, and so you need to treat them all that way.”
This special recall election was driven by forces that realized they were unlikely to win in a traditional format so they intentionally pushed for an off year contest that would result in a lower turnout. But there are crucial differences between the two leading candidates and thus the choice for who leads our most populous state and the 5th largest economy in the world (!) should not be left to a minority of our electorate. Please consult the CFT endorsement and stand with your fellow partners in labor with a vote that will continue to support working families and educators.
This all feels particularly relevant given that we are about to recognize Labor Day this Monday, September 6. When I explained to my students that we are going to have a school holiday next week I had one ask about the convention of not wearing white after Labor Day. It made me realize that the holiday has become synonymous with an unofficial marking of the end of summer, the beginning of football season, or another welcome opportunity to have a barbeque with family and friends. Sadly, the decoupling of Labor Day with its actual history is likely no accident. For example, I have been struck by the dissonance of politicians who tweet bland messages regarding the holiday while consistently voting against policies that would strengthen unions and keep working families safe and healthy.
The first Labor Day parade was organized in New York by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor on September 5, 1882. In the years that followed, Labor Day was celebrated at different times and in diverse ways by distinct unions and organizations, and there were those who argued for a much more progressive element to the holiday: celebrating it on or around May 1, to link it overtly to the burgeoning international association between May Day and socialist activism. Both the formalizing and the federalizing of the holiday happened in direct response to such radical elements. The May 1886 Haymarket riots and bombing, and the fears of international radicalism that followed, led to President Cleveland’s 1887 recognition of a September Labor Day, the first such formal national acknowledgement of the holiday. The 1894 Pullman strike, one of the most prominent national strikes of the period, led Congress and Cleveland to go one step further-just six days after the strike ended Cleveland signed the hastily drafted legislation that made Labor Day a federal holiday to be celebrated on the first Monday of September. It is almost as if there was an attempt to placate or mollify the real concerns of labor with the symbolic trappings of a holiday in lieu of actual policy changes that would improve working conditions.
The desire to separate Labor Day with the worldwide workers movement associated with May 1 was not only accomplished by moving it “safely” to September but to place new signifiers around the first day of May. No longer would it be linked to a celebration of workers and the working classes but would instead be designed to counter International Workers Day with what became known as Loyalty Day. Loyalty Day was described as a “day set aside for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom.” In case there could be any doubt as to the intentions of this new holiday, it was originally called “Americanization Day” and began in 1921 during the First Red Scare. Loyalty Day was then officially recognized by Congress in 1955 during the Second Red Scare.
What is troubling to me, obviously, is the false narrative that attempts to equate the legitimate goals of working Americans as somehow being a threat to loyalty or American values. Labor Day, along with every victory of the labor movement, whether it be eight-hour workdays, the weekend, health and safety protections, or child labor laws would not exist without the movement’s more activist elements. Remembering the holiday’s origins can thus help us celebrate what the labor movement has already achieved but also to recognize the continued need for activism and engagement. As I have written elsewhere, “labor” or “the union” is not an abstract shadowy entity. It is not “the other”. It is not a “they”. It is “we”. It is “us”. It is “YOU”. The proud legacy of our labor movement is that of a collection of people standing in solidarity to achieve their dreams for their families and fighting to protect the rights of their brothers and sisters. I don’t know what could be more American than this definition of...a more perfect union.
In Unity,
MEMBER ONLY RESOURCES
September - ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
This month’s academic service update is vital for all teachers. We hope that you will take a moment to look at this monthly report which discusses changes in academic services. This document provides the union with a means of giving the District feedback on the many programs or changes they are proposing at any one time. Without your feedback or questions on these changes, it is harder for ABCFT to slow down and modify the district’s neverending roll out of new projects. Please submit your comments and questions to the appropriate ABCFT liaison.
For Elementary curricular issues please email Kelley at Kelley.Forsythe@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Secondary curricular issues please email Rich at Richard.Saldana@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
Click Here For This Month’s Full Report
MEMBER BENEFITS - Wellness Wednesday Archive
Maintaining our mental health and well-being is important for all of us. Last year, ABCFT offered Wellness Wednesdays members had an opportunity to virtually participate in Guided Meditation and Chair Yoga. These weekly sessions gave members a chance to practice self-care. Even if were not able to attend these wonderful restorative practices you can still access the archive by using the link below.
Click here to view the recording of the Guided Meditation and Chair Yoga for the weekly archives
In partnership with Kaiser Permanente, you can also access mindfulness resources for all ABCFT members. For Kaiser members, you have free access to the app Calm and myStrength which offers personalized self-care programs based on the cognitive behavioral therapy model. Please be kind to yourself and find time in your busy schedule to take care of yourself.
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with the membership is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and wellbeing of ABCFT members. This weekly report aims to keep the membership informed about issues that impact their working/learning conditions and their mental well-being. Together we make the YOUnion.
S**TSHOW. Forgive me for my crude language but that is how I would categorize this school year to anyone who wants to know about how we are doing in education. HOWEVER, we are all making it work. The new normal is chaotic, challenging but we are grounded in our belief in our collective mission as frontline workers for our students and the ABC Community. I feel like collectively last year felt an overwhelming sense of fear for the unknown and a lasting feeling of vulnerability to our core. This year feels different and we are reacting differently.
So much of what we are experiencing is out of our control and in some cases, some of what we are experiencing is out of the normal control of the district and the union. Parents, community members, and ABCFT members often ask me why we can’t do what we did last year with our online programs and why all these changes to our Independent study program? The fact is that the state of California will not let any district legally have a distance learning program or anything that looks like full-time online instruction. Knowing this restriction, districts across the state scrambled to come up with their unique Online Independent Study Programs during the summer. Meanwhile, state legislatures in Sacramento “moved the goalposts” and changed a number of guidelines for independent study over the course of the summer which made negotiating nearly impossible at the local level. I don’t think our legislators realized the impact that the lateness of these guidelines would have on school districts and how they would unleash a storm of chaos in every single school district in California. Districts scrambled to fill classes with students and teachers, gather materials, hire OISP administrators, and coordinate how it would all work as a brand new version of independent study.
Your ABC administrators and your ABCFT negotiated what we thought would best suit the students of ABCUSD and our parents. This original program had about 400 students and plans were made to support that many students. The plan was put into motion. Then the unexpected, when during an agonizingly long ABC school board meeting, the school board members changed the rules not understanding the consequences of their knee-jerk decision. Some parents were upset that if they enrolled in the OIS program they would lose their school of choice. So then the Board members decided to change an important rule concerning saving a student’s homeschool. As a result, in the next couple of days over 200 new students flooded into the OIS program which overloaded the initial OISP plan. Some of you have witnessed the impact of this new rush of OISP students as classroom teachers across the district have been recruited to teach in the OISP program. Some classes have been collapsed and in some cases, those in-person students have been redistributed across the grade level causing overcrowding in our previously balanced classes. This is just one of the overarching changes impacting our schools, there are plenty of other challenges too numerous to mention. Across the district teachers, administrators, and classified workers are working together to make the best of this unplanned situation in spite of the challenges. ABC employees are amazing.
In my interactions with members over the past three weeks, I get the feeling that all of us are in various stages of grief and as a survival mechanism we are processing and adapting as we learn to live with the whack a mole quarantines and COVID case notices at our sites. It is the new normal. The grief process is the natural way of adjusting to new realities and major changes in our lives and it is a sign of good health. Each of us has a different list of things to grieve but many of those roads are the result of the impact of this extended pandemic. The grief process is the way we make ourselves whole again so we can continue to move forward. So I want to ask you, which stage of grief are you at and how are you making healthy changes to process your grief? As you do your self-assessment just know that psychologists say that you can be in multiple stages of processing grief at the same time but sometimes one stage can be dominant.
In my circle of friends, we are all experiencing trauma, change, and uncertainty but what makes it all bearable is how we process these speedbumps of grief on our way to acceptance and peace of mind.
As frontline workers, I do hope that you are taking care of yourself and maintaining a balance between work, mental health, and your personal life. YOU matter and together we will hold our heads up high.
Don’t miss next week’s YOUnionews as we outline everything you need to know about vaccine reporting, weekly testing for those who choose that option, testing for student-athletes, sanitizing and cleaning updates, and how ABCFT is lobbying CFT and AFT on how they can support members the ABC frontline workers.
In YOUnity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
The latest CFT articles and news stories can be found here on the PreK12 news feed on the CFT.org website.
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
----- MASK NEWS -----
U.S. Education Department to probe five states with ‘unacceptable’ school mask bans
The Department of Education’s civil rights office has launched five investigations into statewide school mask bans, as COVID-19 infections disrupt the fall back-to-school season in some communities. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona accused education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah of “putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve.” “The department will fight to protect every student’s right to access in-person learning safely,” he said in a statement. The department will specifically look at whether the state bans violate Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which includes “the right of students with disabilities to receive their education in the regular educational environment, alongside their peers without disabilities, to the maximum extent appropriate to their needs,” the department said. It will also look at whether statewide prohibitions violate Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits disability discrimination by public entities. The department said it has not opened investigations in Florida, Texas, Arkansas or Arizona because those states’ bans on universal indoor masking are not being enforced in schools because of litigation or other state action.
AP News New York Times Politico Wall Street Journal
San Diego USD to require masks outdoors
San Diego USD will require students and staff on school campuses to wear masks outdoors — not just indoors, which is the state requirement. The new policy does not mean students will be wearing masks every minute they’re on campus. Students can take off masks when outdoors while eating, the district said. They also can take off masks during “mask breaks,” P.E. class, sports and performing arts programs. During those times, students should stay six feet apart from each other, the district said. “It’s the safest way of continuing to keep kids safe and continuing to minimize the possibility that the virus could spread on a school campus,” said Board President Richard Barrera. “Absolutely, one of our biggest concerns over the first couple weeks of school is having to have situations to send students home. Anything we can do to minimize that possibility, such as the outdoor mask policy, is something we want to do.”
Judges back schools in mask mandate lawsuits
State judges in Florida and Texas on Friday sided with school districts, ruling that those states’ governors exceeded their authority in barring officials from introducing mask mandates in schools. In Florida, a state judge ruled against Gov. Ron DeSantis’s order barring local school district mask mandates. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper said: “The school district which adopts a policy such as a mask mandate is acting within discretion given to it by the legislature and the Florida Parents Bill of Rights.” In Texas, District Judge Catherine A. Mauzy ruled that challengers are likely to prevail on their claims against Gov. Greg Abbott, who “is not authorized to declare by executive fiat that school districts are prohibited from requiring individuals to wear face coverings.” The two rulings are particularly prescient as governors in eight states have barred school districts from requiring masks, so a wave of legal tussles nationwide now appears likely.
The Hill Education Week Washington Examiner Wall Street Journal
Florida Education Officials Withhold School Funding Over Mask Defiance
The AP (8/30) reports that on Monday, Florida state education officials “began to make good on threats to withhold funding from local school districts that defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on mask mandates, despite a circuit judge last week ruling the ban unconstitutional.” According to Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, “the Florida Department of Education has withheld an amount equal to monthly school board member salaries in Alachua and Broward counties, as directed by the State Board of Education.” Corcoran said in a statement, “We’re going to fight to protect [parents’] rights to make health care decisions for their children. They know what is best for their children.” Axios (8/30, Gottbrath) reports the department said it will continue to penalize the school boards until they comply with DeSantis’ order.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Ed Dept releases new resource to help address lost instructional time
The U.S. Department of Education has released a new resource to help educators as they implement, refine, and work to continuously improve their strategies for supporting students. “Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time” is part of the Department’s Return to School Roadmap, a guide for states, schools, educators, and parents to prepare for the return to in-person learning this fall. Under ARP ESSER funding, districts are directed to use at least 20% of their funds to address the impact of lost instructional using evidence-based interventions. “Our country’s students—particularly our students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, students experiencing homelessness, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners—have faced immense challenges amid the pandemic, especially with regard to lost instructional time,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Nationally, we know that disparities in access to educational opportunity—including access to rich, rigorous learning experiences; talented and diverse teachers; school counselors and high-quality social-emotional supports; and safe, welcoming schools existed long before COVID-19. Our work as a nation must be to eliminate these disparities, and we must do so with urgency. Our students don’t have a moment to wait. I’m proud that these new resources will help states and districts to accelerate learning, especially for those students who need the most additional support.”
Jill Biden honors education 'champions'
First lady Jill Biden has hailed teachers over their work and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic as schools across the country reopen for the fall. “Educators across the country worked through the anxiety and unknowns, often while struggling to support their own families at home. As difficult as it has been, I have never been prouder to be a teacher,” Mrs. Biden, an English professor at Norther Virginia Community College, wrote in an op-ed for Time. In the magazine's “The People Who Saved a School Year” edition, she celebrated teachers as “champions” during the pandemic for students and families, calling them the “heroes we needed.” She also recognized cafeteria workers who make sandwiches for hungry families, bus drivers who drive wi-fi hot spots to neighborhoods and counselors who take calls from parents.
----- STATE NEWS -----
Substitute shortages leading to California classroom closures
California school districts, already struggling to find enough teachers for classrooms, are facing a substitute shortage so severe that officials at smaller districts fear temporary school closures. “In the next two to three weeks I’m not sure how we will stay open,” said Nevada Joint Union High School District Superintendent Brett McFadden. “It’s possible I’m just going to run out of people and resources. I’m not complaining about the federal and state government. They gave us a ton of money. This isn’t a money issue, it’s a resource allocation issue.” McFadden fears this school year will be a repeat of what happened last October when the district had to return to distance learning just two weeks after it reopened in a hybrid model of instruction. Kindra Britt, spokeswoman for California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, said many school superintendents are concerned about the shortage of teachers and substitutes; examples include Konocti USD, which started the school year without the 10 to 12 teachers it needs to be fully staffed; Tulare County, which had 30 substitutes last year but only 10 at present; and the Chula Vista Elementary School District, which has temporarily increased the daily rate it pays substitutes from $122 to $200.
----- DISTRICTS -----
Sacramento school district plans to fire teacher filmed discussing antifa
Natomas USD has said it is taking steps to fire the teacher placed on paid leave after allegedly being caught on video claiming he keeps an Antifa flag in his classroom and encourages students to go to protests. District officials spent two days investigating the teacher's alleged actions and classroom environment. Superintendent Chris Evans wrote in a letter to the public that the teacher's educational approach was “disturbing and undermines the public's trust.” The Inderkum High School AP Government teacher drew national attention after speaking with an unknown person in a cafe in a 12-minute video. The video, originally published by Project Veritas, a conservative activist group that often produces undercover videos, sparked threats towards the school district and the teacher.
CBS Sacramento ABC10 Sacramento Bee
Nearly all SFUSD teachers fully vaccinated for COVID
Nearly all San Francisco USD teachers and other staff members have reported being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, district officials announced yesterday. The district last month required all of its nearly 10,000 employees to submit their vaccination status by August 31st. Of the 9,297 who responded by the deadline, 8,919 people - 96% - said they were fully vaccinated of Thursday, Superintendent Vincent Matthews. “It’s extremely encouraging to see such high rates of vaccination among our staff,” he added in his statement. "Our vaccine requirement is one of the many ways we are keeping our students, staff and families safe.”
----- CLASSROOM -----
Teachers Rally Against Laws Limiting Classroom Discussions On Racism
Education Week (8/30) reports, “As state lawmakers continue to introduce legislation that would limit how schools can teach about racism and sexism, some teachers are pushing back and speaking out.” This past weekend, “educators in more than 50 cities held in-person and virtual events pledging to ‘teach truth’ – in other words, to continue teaching about oppression and injustice in the face of new laws that they believe attempt to stifle these kinds of discussions.” These rallies and teach-ins “are an initiative of the Zinn Education Project, a resource for teachers coordinated by the nonprofit organizations Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change.” The group “provides free lessons and materials aligned with historian Howard Zinn’s approach to teaching history – foregrounding the perspectives of people whose stories have been marginalized or ignored in dominant narratives.” Teachers “who use this approach fear their work will be threatened by the recent pushback to classroom discussions of historical and present-day racism.”
Nation gets ‘C’ on school quality report card
The nation has once again received a 'C' grade for the combined academic, finance, and socioeconomic factors on Education Week’s Quality Counts 2021 report card, with an overall score of 76.2 out of 100 possible points. The overall results are based on the EdWeek Research Center’s analysis of data from 2018 to 2020, which is the most recent available, and reflect mostly pre-pandemic performance on 39 distinct indicators in three graded categories; chance for success, K-12 achievement, and school finance. For the third consecutive year, New Jersey leads the nation with an overall grade of B-plus and a score of 88.1. Massachusetts earned the only other B-plus (87.2). New Mexico received the lowest score (66.7), a D-plus. Four other states — Alabama, Louisiana, Nevada, and Oklahoma — also receive grades of D-plus. In all, 32 states and the District of Columbia get grades between C-minus and C-plus. Notably, the overall grades underline the degree to which academic achievement, and the resources that support it, already differed widely across the states before the pandemic hit.
Survey suggests decline in parental support for in-person learning
Support for full-time, in-person school has dropped among parents after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended fully vaccinated individuals wear masks. A survey from the CDC and National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), conducted among 1,448 public school parents between July 23rd and August 8th, found support for in-person classes is at 43% while support for hybrid learning is close to 40%. Before the CDC’s guidance, support for in-person learning was around 58%, while support for hybrid learning was around 27%. Support for fully remote learning is still low, but slightly higher after the CDC guidance, with around 18% of parents wanting remote learning. Before the guidance, around 14% supported remote learning.
----- LEGAL -----
District probes teacher's TikTok about students saying pledge to pride flag
Newport-Mesa USD has removed a teacher from the classroom while it investigates a posting of a video on social media in which she is heard saying she told students they could pledge allegiance to an LGBTQ pride flag, since she’d removed the American flag from her room. In the nearly one-minute video reportedly posted to TikTok on Friday, the woman describes how she allows her students to decide whether to participate in the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and that her class opted to stand for the observance, but not say the pledge. She explains that she took down the American flag in her room while students were learning remotely (“because it made me uncomfortable,” she whispers as an aside) and was unable to find it for the new school year.
States sue Biden admin over school LGBT protections
Attorneys general from 20 states sued President Joe Biden's administration Monday seeking to halt directives that extend federal sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ people, ranging from transgender girls participating in school sports to the use of school and workplace bathrooms that align with a person's gender identity. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2020 that a landmark civil rights law, under a provision called Title VII, protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment. This June, the Department of Education said discrimination based on a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity will be treated as a violation of Title IX, the 1972 federal law that protects against sex discrimination in education. Joining Tennessee in the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. “The guidance purports to resolve highly controversial and localized issues such as whether employers and schools may maintain sex-separated showers and locker rooms, whether schools must allow biological males to compete on female athletic teams, and whether individuals may be compelled to use another person’s preferred pronouns,” the lawsuit states. “But the agencies have no authority to resolve those sensitive questions, let alone to do so by executive fiat without providing any opportunity for public participation.”
COVID shutdown lawsuits cost California more than $4m in settlements
The state of California has settled at least 10 lawsuits this year related to public health orders during the coronavirus pandemic, agreeing to pay $4.36m to cover the costs of lawyers who sued over restrictions on schools, religious services, and other institutions. The 10 settlements all name Gov. Gavin Newsom as a defendant. They include an April agreement for the state to pay $95,000 to the lawyers for a group of San Diego County parents who sued in February over the state’s school reopening plan. A judge ruled in March that some of the guidelines, including a ban on in-person instruction at middle and high schools in counties where the virus was spreading most rapidly, were too restrictive, and the state updated its rules a day later.
Virginia high court rules for teacher in transgender debate
The Supreme Court of Virginia has upheld a lower court ruling that ordered the reinstatement of a northern Virginia gym teacher who said he won’t refer to transgender students by the pronouns they use, due to his religious convictions. Loudoun County Public Schools appealed to the state Supreme Court after a judge ruled that the school system violated the free speech rights of teacher Tanner Cross by suspending him after he spoke up at a school board meeting. Tuesday’s ruling leaves in place a temporary injunction that bars the school system from suspending Cross. A trial is scheduled for next week in Loudoun County to settle the issue permanently.
Professor sues over CA school’s vaccine mandate
A California professor is suing his school’s officials over a COVID-19 mandate, saying that he already contracted the virus and is “naturally immune.” Aaron Kheriaty, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at UC Irvine, says that he was sick with COVID in July 2020, during which his body "created a robust natural immunity to every antigen on the COVID-19 virus, not just the spike protein of the virus as happens with the COVID-19 vaccines." According to the lawsuit, Kheriaty is “already naturally immune to the virus” and “less likely to infect other individuals than are people who have been vaccinated.” The suit calls the vaccine mandate “irrational” and that “by targeting people who have had the virus but remain unvaccinated, the mandate unfairly singles out one unpopular group for disparate treatment.”
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Parents continue to be split on vaccinating their kids, claims survey
About half of parents plan to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, while a similar percentage supports mask mandates in schools, according to a survey of public opinion published by the Education Next Institute and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School. The survey also found a drop in public support for education policy reform proposals across the board, regardless of whether the policies in question were backed by those on the right or those on the left. For example, support for free public college dropped from 2019 to 2021, but so did support for school vouchers. The results suggest that the public may be looking for a return to normalcy, said Martin West, the academic dean and a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and editor-in-chief of Education Next. “While the pandemic has created space for innovation, it is not clear that it has created broad demand for change. And so those who see this as an opportunity to rethink education policy or practice will still need to convince the public that that’s the right way forward,” he said.
School districts forced to develop quarantine strategies on the fly
The Delta variant has left school districts scrambling to work out who can stay in school safely and who should go home to quarantine, attempting to find a balance between protecting their students and staff from a hyper contagious virus, and delivering on their cherished goal of face-to-face instruction. If districts tilt too heavily toward quarantines as a safety measure, they could compromise students’ learning. If they let too many COVID-exposed people stay in school, it could compromise everyone’s safety. So it’s “crucial for districts to get this balance right,” said Bree Dusseault, a researcher-in-residence at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which has been tracking 100 districts’ reopening plans. Some districts are sending home all “close contacts”—anyone who’s been within six feet of an infected person for a total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period, as the CDC advised last spring. Most districts, determined to provide face-to-face instruction, are taking advantage of multiple exceptions to quarantine that the CDC outlined in its school guidance, such as for vaccinated people without symptoms. Some medical experts think schools should abandon the prevailing approach of making quarantine exceptions for defined subgroups. David Rubin, the director of the PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which has advised the White House COVID Task Force and written reopening guidance for schools, said: “People are still in the mindset of trying to eliminate transmission, and that’s not possible anymore. It’s about managing transmission. All these exceptions just lead to different interpretations of who you should quarantine, and when, and for what purpose.”
-----TRANSPORTATION -----
Schools continue to struggle with bus driver shortages
In a new nationwide survey, half of student-transportation coordinators described their school bus driver shortages as either "severe" or "desperate." Curt Macysyn is executive director of the National School Transportation Association, which conducted the survey with two other trade associations. He said the shortages are unprecedented. "This back-to-school period is nothing like the previous periods we've seen," he said. "In previous years, we've seen regionalized driver shortages, but nothing to the extent that we're seeing today." Mr. Macsyn said three leading factors lie behind the shortages: that drivers need to have commercial licenses in order to be hired; that these qualifications have been difficult to obtain due to departments of motor vehicles being closed over the last year; and concerns among license holders about driving unvaccinated children, despite the effectiveness of measures such as distancing and ventilation.
----- TECHNOLOGY -----
Online learning advances hold promise for student-centered learning
The experience with emergency online instructional programs that teachers gained during the pandemic shutdowns has empowered them to make their classrooms more student-centered through differentiated instruction, capacity to allow students to learn and demonstrate knowledge in various ways, and the use of online tools to help absent students keep on track academically. A new report from The Christensen Institute also found that optimism among administrators that pandemic-era experiences with flexible learning formats and EdTech tools will strengthen efforts for equitable and personalized student learning, as well as individualized educator professional development models. The report shares a variety of resources to help school systems with shifts toward student-centered practices, including The Learning Accelerator's recent white paper about using students’ experience with instructional self-direction and stress self-management to improve educational practices.
----- SOCIAL & COMMUNITY -----
California seeks gender neutral displays in large stores
The California state Legislature has passed a bill that could oblige large department stores to display some child products in gender neutral ways, doing away with traditional pink and blue marketing schemes for items like toys and toothbrushes. The bill would not outlaw traditional boys and girls sections in department stores, but it would require retailers to have a gender neutral section to display “a reasonable selection” of items “regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys". The state Senate passed the bill Wednesday, sending it back to the Assembly for a procedural vote before it heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. If it becomes law, California would become the first state to require these sections in stores. Some large retailers are already rethinking how they display their products: Target, for example, announced in 2015 it would stop using some gender-based signs in its stores.
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
White House ends waiver limiting audits of students applying for aid
The Department of Education has announced the resumption of audits of college students relying on federal grants and loans. The decision could result in more students from low-income households being asked to provide further proof that the information on their 2022-2023 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is accurate. The audit, known as verification, is widely criticized as being an invasive, time-consuming and unnecessary hurdle for some of higher education’s most vulnerable populations. Verification is supposed to maintain the integrity of the $120 billion federal financial aid system, especially the billions of dollars in Pell grants provided to students with limited resources. Financial aid applicants with the lowest incomes tend to face the highest hurdles because many are exempt from filing taxes. That prevents them from easily importing verified income data from the IRS onto their FAFSA form and requires more legwork to complete the audit. “Extending the current relief would help our advisers and school counselors spend more time on student support and postsecondary planning and less time on paperwork,” said Kim Cook, executive director of the nonprofit National College Attainment Network (NCAN). “This is especially important as we seek to build back from historic college enrollment drops of over 10 percent for students from low-income backgrounds.”
----- OTHER -----
One student killed in North Carolina school shooting
One student was fatally wounded in a shooting at a high school in the North Carolina city of Winston-Salem yesterday. Authorities said the shooting took place at Mount Tabor High School; the student was identified as William Chavis Raynard Miller Jr. The suspect, who authorities think is a fellow student, was taken into custody without incident, according to Forsyth County public affairs officer Christina Howell. Authorities offered no details about the suspect, a possible motive or what might have led up to the incident.
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
Years ago ABCFT started a working relationship with National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company. Throughout our partnership, NTA has been supportive of ABCFT activities by sponsorship and prizes for our various events. This organization specializes in providing insurance for educators across the nation. We have been provided both data and member testimonials about how pleased they have been with the NTA products and the opportunity to look at alternatives to the district insurance choice. Apply Here for NTA Benefits
To All Members of the ABC Federation of Teachers,
National Teacher Associates (NTA) is committed in our efforts to helping educators through tough times. It’s what we do. After all…in our eyes, you are the heart and soul of our communities.
Protecting you and your families has been our goal for over 45 years. Despite the current global pandemic, we are not about to slow down now. We know that many of you have had our programs for years and sometimes forget the intricacies of how they work. NTA wants to help facilitate any possible claims for now and in the future. Fortunately, all claims and reviews can be done by phone and online. I personally want to offer my services to guide you in the right direction with your NTA benefits.
We also apologize for not being able to finish the open enrollment for those of you who wanted to get our protection. We are still able to help by extending our enrollment window for the near future. Again, this can be done over the phone, email, or online.
Please contact Leann Blaisdell at any time either by phone or email.
562-822-5004
Click here to schedule an appointment
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