A Message from WTU President

Good Morning WTU,

Hopefully, you enjoyed the warmer temperatures earlier this weekend! The WTU wants to congratulate KC Boyd for giving Jefferson Middle School Academy students an opportunity to engage in conversations with National Book Award Winner Dr. Ibram Kendi (author of “How to be an Anti-racist”). Thank you, K.C. Boyd, for your continuing commitment to literacy as well as inspiring and educating our children!

The WTU received good news from the Ward 3 Democrats Committee on Thursday! They unanimously passed a resolution urging Mayor Bowser and Chancellor Ferebee to negotiate a timely DCPS teacher contract. Ward 3 Democrat Delegate Elizabeth Mitchell, the initiator of the resolution, called upon DCPS and the Mayor to engage in quick negotiations so that teacher salaries can be included in the FY25 budget process. Thank you to the WTU members who attended the meeting! If you were unable to attend, please consider participating in our next contract action event. We need large numbers of teacher voices to continue to rally community support for our contract. Mayor Bowser attended this meeting, giving us the chance to ask her pointed questions. To see video recaps of the resolution’s adoption, urgency for a new contract, and questions directed at Mayor Bowser, please click on the underlined links. Additional photos are posted on the ‘photos’ page of the WTU website: Join > Photos. Again, we greatly appreciate all WTU teachers who devoted their rainy Thursday evening to speak truth to power at this important contract action event! Thank you, as well, to the new members who joined our CAT team meeting via Zoom last week.

Please remember to keep tabs on the expiration dates of your teacher certification. It is critical to make sure it remains current. Thank you, as always, for your support!

In solidarity,

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, President

Washington Teachers’ Union

Weekly Update - WTU’s Contract Action Team (CAT)

Thank you to those who showed up for last Thursday’s Contract Action event! Also, we still need your photos wearing red on Fridays and more signatures on our petition. Please encourage all to sign!

DCPS Revises Secondary Grading and Reporting Policy!

DCPS’s current secondary and reporting policy is under being revised. To offer input on what the revisions should be, click here to take a survey.

DCPS Release Five-Year Strategic Plan!

To see a copy of DCPS’ five-year strategic plan,” A Capital Commitment: 2023-2028 Strategic Plan,” click here.

FY 2025 Initial Budgets to be released soon!

Given the upcoming DCPS FY25 initial budgets, please review the LSAT newsletter to prepare the budget priorities for your school. Until the new budget is released, it is best to reference the FY24 Budget Guide. For additional resources, please check out the budget recording here. If you need support, please contact [email protected].

A Message from WTU President

Good Morning WTU Members,

This past Saturday marked another successful one-day Union Leadership Institute (ULI) for WTU members! A special thanks goes to Sharona Robinson for her presentation on the LSAT and DCPS budget, and Michael Donaldson for his presentation on Article 18 of the CBA, The Behavior Management Committee and Student Discipline! DCPS’ most recent documentation on Student Behavior Guidance can be found here. We appreciate all WTU staff and teachers who devoted their weekend time to this key training!

Along with ULI, WTU leadership also attended the AFT CSI conference in New York. We’d like to thank the CTE teachers, WTU Executive Board Members and the Representative from Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kiln’s office for attending this rigorous conference on career and technical education programs. Event photos are available here.

As mentioned last month, please note your February 9^th paycheck should reflect a dues adjustment voted on by our membership in the fall. Academic year 2023-24 rates will increase to $39.72 (FY24). This initial catch-up plan will take place over a three-year period and is required by the WTU Bylaws and Constitution. Moving forward, dues adjustments for (FY25) $40.81, (FY26) $43.97 and successive annual dues increases will be effective on October 1^st of every fiscal year as required by the WTU Constitution and Bylaws. Dues adjustments will support union activities as we strive to provide members with efficient member services, professional development, and address long-overdue building maintenance issues.

We also invite MORE WTU members to join us for Contract Action Team meetings. The next meeting will be held on January 24^th @5PM via Zoom. See passcode below. Please attend! All voices matter.

As always, I wish you a warmer, peaceful and productive week!.

Thank you for your support!

In solidarity,

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, President

Washington Teachers’ Union

Weekly Update - WTU’s Contract Action Team (CAT)

We need your ideas for contract bargaining actions! Please join us online for our next CAT team meeting on January 24^th @5PM via Zoom.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81635873339?pwd=aWdwemtuRFRtUGU0VDlHWkhlc1owQT09#success
Meeting ID: 816 3587 3339, Passcode: 302288

Also, we still need your photos wearing red on Fridays and more signatures on our petition. Please encourage all to sign!

Volunteer to participate in WTU Endorsement Process!

Use this form to sign up to volunteer to formulate and ask questions for the March 23 WTU COPE 2024 DC Primary Forum to proceed the WTU endorsement process. Click here to sign up!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFiUewmtvtV_OFE1ccL3-8gFyZDcxlrviSr6hRQaX_h48fdg/viewform

FY 2025 Initial Budgets to be released soon!

Given the upcoming DCPS FY25 initial budgets, please review the LSAT newsletter to prepare the budget priorities for your school. Until the new budget is released, it is best to reference the FY24 Budget Guide. For additional resources, please check out the budget recording here. If you need support, please contact [email protected].

REMINDER:

UNION LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE, VIRTUAL MEETING

A Message from WTU President

Good Morning WTU Members,

Hopefully, you had a peaceful and rewarding Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and found ways to honor and celebrate Dr. King’s legacy. We are excited to announce that Malcolm X and Kimball Elementary Schools have officially been named ‘Community Schools’ by DCPS! The WTU worked with both schools for a couple of years in moving towards this goal.

Last year, with the support of the AFT and the WTU, teachers and administrators from Malcolm X and Kimball Elementary Schools attended the annual AFT CSI Conference in New York and the Community Schools Intensive Conference in Philadelphia. DCPS Chief of Schools Kim Jackson and DCPS Instructional Superintendent Katie Larkin attended the CSI Conference in NY. While DC State Board of Education President Eboni-Rose Thompson attended the Community Schools Intensive Conference in Philadelphia. Again, we would like to thank these DCPS educators, District of Columbia leaders, and the AFT for their support of real solutions for kids and communities.

This year’s CSI Conference will focus on Career and Technical Education (CTE). We’re pleased that several CTE teachers and a District of Columbia official as well as WTU leadership will be attending the conference. We are hopeful that our team will learn about successful CTE programs from around the country.

This past week, the WTU Representative Assembly voted to give our support to a Digital Equity Letter to Mayor Bowser. We signed this letter to ensure that all students in the District of Columbia have equitable access to digital technology.

We still need your support in showing DCPS we are serious about getting a new contract in this new year. Please take a moment to ask your colleagues to sign our petition for safe schools! Thank you, as always, for your support!

In solidarity,

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, President

Washington Teachers’ Union

Weekly Update - WTU’s Contract Action Team

Our Contract Action Team met this week and plans to share details on future contract actions with teachers attending the online Union Leadership Institute on Saturday, January 20^th. If you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late to sign up. The Union Leadership Institute (ULI) gives all members the opportunity to acquire the detailed knowledge needed to be effective teacher representatives in their building. Job descriptions for all WTU leadership roles can be viewed here!

Volunteer to participate in WTU Endorsement Process!

Use this form to sign up to volunteer to formulate and ask questions for the March 23 WTU COPE 2024 DC Primary Forum to proceed the WTU endorsement process. Click here to sign up!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFiUewmtvtV_OFE1ccL3-8gFyZDcxlrviSr6hRQaX_h48fdg/viewform

A Message from WTU President

Good Morning WTU Members,

Again, Happy New Year! I hope your first week back in the New Year was peaceful and productive. Today marks our 100^th day of working with an expired contract from DCPS. It makes me reflect on all we have accomplished so far and where we plan to go. In our efforts to bring DCPS back to the table quickly so we can push this negotiations process that should have started months back, twenty-three members of the WTU’s Contract Bargaining team spent their summer vacation in the basement of the WTU crafting, debating, and editing 13 proposals and three Memorandums of Agreement. Beginning in June, they delivered these documents to DCPS only to receive an emailed reply of “Documents Received.” It is disappointing and disrespectful that DCPS didn’t think it was important for them to attend our first contract bargaining session on December 12^th. Getting this contract done not only shows great support for our teachers but ensures stability for the education of our District of Columbia children.

We want to thank the members of the DC City Council, the DC State Board of Education and ANC Commissions for supporting our District of Columbia Public School teachers. They found time to sign petitions and speak out on our behalf because they know teachers matter to the health of this city.

We still need you to continue to come out and be loud and proud and commit to supporting all our actions. Your commitment helped us to get the last contract. Please ask your colleagues to sign our petition for safe schools?  With hard work and your support, I remain optimistic about our future.

In solidarity,

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, President

Washington Teachers’ Union

Weekly Update - WTU’s Contract Action Team

Watch the WTU’s Contract Negotiating Teams’ January 4th Update here or by clicking on picture above.

The Contract Action Team will be meeting on Wednesday, January 10^th. Stay tuned Please share our petition for safe schools! We also need your beautiful photos wearing red on Fridays! Email photos to [email protected] or text them to 202-957-1782.

A Message from WTU President

Good Morning WTU Members,

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing winter break with family and friends! This year, I want to share my New Year’s resolution for the WTU. I resolve to find new ways to support WTU members and hold DCPS accountable when they do not treat us like valued professionals. We deserve better than an expired contract. We deserve the financial security of knowing we will be paid on time for the important work we do every day in educating our nation’s children. No WTU member should go to work worrying whether they will be fairly compensated for each day they work without a contract. Next week will mark the 100^th day without a contract. We need your help! We were able to get a contract last fall because all members came out to support our actions. We were loud and proud.

As the Contract Action Team releases new contract events, we need members to show DCPS we mean business! Start now by taking a few moments to sign WTU’s petition here! We should never settle for less than what other professionals view as normal. As you know, in a dismaying show of disrespect, not one District of Columbia Public Schools official, including Chancellor Lewis Ferebee, showed up at the first bargaining session for the Washington Teachers’ Union contract. As Chancellor Ferebee tweeted recently “showing up is more than half the battle.” We couldn’t agree more! We need the Chancellor and DCPS to come to the negotiating table.

We deserve better! As part of my resolution, we plan to launch a once-a-week email called “Brew To-Go.” It will feature the top questions we get from members each week along with answers. We hope it will deliver specific answers to questions foremost on the minds of members.

Thank you, as always, for your support! May you have a safe, peaceful, and productive New Year!

In solidarity,

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, President

Washington Teachers’ Union

Weekly Update - WTU’s Contract Action Team

Please share our petition for safe schools! We also need your beautiful photos wearing red on Fridays! Email photos to [email protected] or text them to 202-957-1782.

Results of Survey of Special Ed Educators & Related Service Providers are in!

Thank you to all the special education teachers & RSP’s who completed the survey. Click here to see the results of the Special Ed survey or on the link below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WdI9OzldkQ5bh9P9G9Oe5r_Fex1BVZ-3P6CFVIY0iVE/edit?usp=sharing

Members of Jackson-Reed’s Arab Student Union said they were barred from showing “The Occupation of the American Mind," which has been accused of antisemitism.

December 30th, 2023 - Washington Post reporter Laura Lumpkin reported that parents and teens have accused Jackson-Reed administrators of censorship after shutting down a documentary screening of a documentary on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Read the full story here.

A Message from WTU President

Good Morning WTU Members,

Last Tuesday, December 12th, WTU had its first in-person bargaining session for a new contract with DCPS. In a dismaying show of disrespect, not one District of Columbia Public Schools official, including Chancellor Lewis Ferebee, showed up at the first bargaining session for the new Washington Teachers’ Union contract. The two city officials who attended on Tuesday had little knowledge of the conditions necessary for teachers to teach and students to learn, instead focusing on managerial rights. Ironically, less than 24 hours before our meeting the mayor was able to find $500 million for an 11th hour deal to keep two D.C. sports teams in the city, saying it would be an ‘invaluable investment.’ Yet, the WTU team was told the city is out of money. A reporter from the Washington Informer covered the story here.

It’s time for the city to see D.C. students as invaluable investments, and that can start with the Chancellor and other DCPS officials joining the WTU at the bargaining table to discuss safety and violence issues, class sizes and other issues that will improve the teaching and learning in our schools! Thank you to the teachers who came out to cheer on the WTU team as they entered the Negotiations Center! Help us to continue to communicate this urgency by signing WTU’s petition on school safety and encouraging family and friends to sign it throughout the holiday break.

Thank you to the many members who joined us for our annual holiday party on Friday! Celebrating the holiday season with our current and retired members was what made “ A Party that Sleighs,” slay! Thank you to all the Executive Board members who came out along with DC city officials, Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn, Ward 7 Representative and President of the State Board for Education Eboni-Rose Thompson, President of the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, AFL-CIO Dyana Forester, AFSCME President Robert Alston, and Director of OLRCB Lindsey Maxwell. Photos from our holiday party will continue to be uploaded to WTU’s website throughout the week and can be found here. Please continue to follow us on social media for video recaps and select holiday photos.

Please note that the WTU’s office will be closed from Friday, December 22th, 25th, 26^th, 29^th and Monday, January 1st. so that our staff can spend time with their families through the holidays. Please expect to see the next edition of the Morning Brew on Tuesday, January 2nd. Thank you, as always, for your support! May you have a safe and relaxing holiday season.  

In solidarity,

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, President

Washington Teachers’ Union

Weekly Update - WTU’s Contract Action Team

Watch the December 12^th Contract Negotiating Teams’ weekly update here or click on photo above. All other updates from CAT can be viewed on the playlist here.

Please share our petition for safe schools! We also need your beautiful photos wearing red on Fridays! Email photos to [email protected] or text them to 202-957-1782.

Calling all Special Ed Educators & Related Service Providers!

We hear you! The WTU would like special education teachers & RSP to complete this survey in order for us to better support you. All names will remain confidential, but it will help to have your phone number if we need additional information.