Why we are wearing blue this Tuesday (and other updates!)
January 8, 2022
Dear colleagues and community,
Happy 2022! We hope that you had the chance to rest over break and that you are safe and healthy. As union leaders and educators, we are acutely aware of the challenges we all faced returning to school this week, so we also know that rest, safety, and health might not reflect where you are at currently.
We wanted to share a few brief updates from your union officers - specifically about our recent meeting with the interim CEO, our rep council, and bargaining that begins next week!
Meeting with HTH's new CEO:
If you missed the announcement before the break, Dr. Meadows resigned as CEO of HTH schools the week before break, and Dr. Kaleb Rashad was appointed as interim replacement. He reached out to our officers to set up a meeting for this week. The main focus of our conversation was a shared desire for a more collaborative relationship with our administration. Our progress as a union has been slowed by unnecessary delays when it comes to collaborating or even getting responses from central administration, and it is clear that we cannot afford any more delays when it comes to collaborating on solutions. We appreciated Kaleb’s emphasis on leading with learning: Centering student learning, and giving teachers the support they need to make that happen. We genuinely hope this is the beginning of a more collaborative relationship, as we work to protect what we treasure about our schools and to grow in the ways we need to grow.
Representative council & feedback from staff:
Thursday evening, elected site reps from across our schools convened at our second monthly Rep Council. Especially in the light of administrative changes, continuing staffing struggles, and now surging cases in this newest wave of the pandemic, this was a chance to get a temperature check at each campus. While staff has already been under a lot of pressure, it is clear that this new wave of COVID cases is pushing many staff and schools close to the breaking point. Beyond the issues we will negotiate in bargaining a long-term contract, there are some items that are immediately urgent and which can be addressed without official bargaining. Based on what representatives shared, we passed on these items to our interim CEO, as he is seeking feedback from the community.
We hope that leadership will take immediate action to resolve these concerns, many of which are existing issues amplified by this recent wave.
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