Sisters and Brothers,
Yesterday was the first official day of our temporary “remote learning” program. Thank you to everyone who reached out to your representatives and to me directly with problems and concerns. As I mentioned in my email on Friday, there will be challenges presented by implementation and I am working with the Superintendent to address them. I spoke with Dr. Marotta this morning to discuss those emerging issues and potential solutions.
Good Friday and April Vacation
- Good Friday (April 10th) is a scheduled day off for staff and students. You do not need to perform remote work on this day.
- Commissioner Riley’s recently released a recommendation that districts honor the originally scheduled April vacation, but left that up to local districts to determine. Dr. Marotta and I agreed with the commissioner that a break is a good thing for people to regroup and refresh. You may post activities for students to complete and remain engaged during the April vacation period, but remote work will not be required or expected.
Role of ESPs
- Library and Technology ESPs do not plan lessons or assess student work during the regular school year. As such, they should not be asked to perform these functions remotely. Instead, like clerical ESPs who do not typically work with students and teachers directly, these ESPs should be considered part of the general building pool of available workers. All ESPs should be in contact with their administrators to find out what tasks need to be completed.These tasks include reaching out to families via phone, email, or video chat, assisting teachers with planning and delivering instruction to students via Google Classroom, or other building-based tasks.
- Some ESPs expressed concern about making outreach calls to families and/or discussing school activities with parents. I shared these concerns with Dr. Marotta and explained that in the past, ESPs have been told NOT do to these things. She agreed that that was a poor policy which is no longer in effect.
Flexibility vs. Over-Scheduling (For Educators AND Students)
- The MOU we agreed to provides flexibility for educators and students to engage in remote learning. Educators should not be requiring students to be “in class” live at set times any more than educators can be required to do so (they can’t). While you may choose to offer a live session, it may not be possible for all students to participate in real time and they should not be penalized. Some younger students and their parents may not be able to conform to the model schedule created by the school. At the older levels, there are 8th-graders and high school students who may be working – some of whom might be the only ones in their families working – who can not be “present” during a live lesson. To make sure that EVERY student has an equal opportunity to succeed, assignments must be able to be completed at each student’s own pace. Please review the guidelines attached to the MOU for guidance in planning and “grading” your own remote learning activities.
- I have received feedback from many members about administrators asking for what seems like an excessive number of meetings during this time. According to the MOU, weekly staff and curriculum meetings may be scheduled by administration. If you can not make it to the scheduled meeting in real time, it will be recorded so you can view it later.
- All other meetings (PLC meetings, grade-level/team meetings, building-based SpEd/ELL meetings, etc.) are considered part of your menu of options for 3 hours of planning and/or delivering content instruction. In our view, these meetings should be scheduled based on the consensus of the participants, not dictated by the administrator or fellow unit member (regardless of role) who calls for them.These groups should use their professional discretion to determine as a group if such meetings are necessary and when they should be held. These meetings do not necessarily have to follow the schedule which existed prior to the school closing (though the group could agree to do so). For example, one grade-level or content team may decide that they want to meet every Monday at 4:00 pm while another decides to play it by ear, meeting at 3:00 Monday this week and 9:00 Tuesday the week after. It’s also possible that in either case educators may decide no meeting is necessary so they can work on other tasks before they reconvene another time. I discussed this view with Dr. Marotta who agreed that professional adults can meet their responsibilities with this kind of flexibility. Of course, if you can not make the meeting scheduled by the consensus of the group you should reach out to a colleague or the person running the meeting for notes on what you missed.
- You can’t be everywhere at once! If you have competing directives or too many tasks to complete than can be reasonably accomplished under the terms we negotiated, communicate with your team and administrators. There will be meetings you can’t attend, even when scheduled by consensus, as you manage your personal and professional responsibilities from home. We all need to be flexible and understanding during these challenging times.
Live Lessons and Video Recording
- You are not required to be “live” with students at any time if you do not wish to be. Schedules created by administration are a recommendation to parents and students, but there should be no expectation that educators or students follow them exactly as they would in a traditional school setting. The expectation for all educators is that there must be a lesson of some kind available for a student to complete no later than the scheduled time – this can be posted by the educator daily or in advance.
- The HEA is advising members to be extremely cautious when on camera live with students. This is a decision you must make on your own, but due to a myriad of privacy and security concerns, we recommend you consider the unintended consequences of live video with students. The FBI has issued a warning to school Districts about video conferencing issues, many of them specific to Zoom, which is NOT to be used with students (stick to the Google products provided by the District). You can learn more about that warning here.
- The Haverhill Public Schools has sent parents an “opt-out” letter informing them that educators may record lessons which include student voices or images to be posted for other students later. The HEA believes that absent explicit permission from parents for each of your students about video and audio recording, you may not want to utilize this platform, particularly when individual educators are responsible for knowing which students can and can not be recorded. Additionally, some administrators are actively advising that educators record and post the online lesson videos to their classrooms. Again, HEA is advising against recording students. When and if we receive more detailed guidance from the MTA we will share that with you.
Special Education Concerns
- The Special Education department is by far the most challenging area for the Association and the District during these difficult times. The Superintendent and I agree that the lack of concrete guidance from DESE, coupled with the expectation that services still be provided in some form (and documented) has left many Special Education teachers feeling overburdened with more expectations and requirements – an abundance of meetings in particular – than other educators. This is a concern the Association shares and the Superintendent is empathetic to our concerns. We both agree that there are only so many hours in a day and that providing services to students takes priority. Educators who are finding that they have more work than they can reasonably complete under the bargained expectations are encouraged to communicate with their colleagues and administrators so that all are on the same page. If you are not able to reach an understanding with your administrator, contact your building representative or me for assistance.
If you have not yet reviewed the MOU, it can be accessed here.
As always, I want to thank each and every one of you for all you have done for the students and families in our District. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed!
In Solidarity,
Anthony
Anthony J. Parolisi
President
Haverhill Education Association