(Updated 6/5) Parents and teachers at a School Board meeting last night said the rollout of a new plan to split specialist teachers across schools has been an unmitigated disaster.
The change affects Alexandria City Public Schools’ (ACPS) encore teachers: teachers who run classes like music, art and physical education. A new change announced in an email earlier this week, without public discussion or meetings, would split these teachers across multiple schools throughout the district.
The Washington Post also noted that the change came just days before teachers were supposed to receive contracts for the upcoming school year.
“Taking us away to go to other schools is going to dramatically change the situation at our school,” said Luisa Tio, an art teacher at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School. “We just found out 48 hours ago that this was going to happen. None of this was in our contract. All of this is a complete shock to us.”
Meg Ziemann, PTA secretary at Cora Kely School for Math, Science and Technology, said the change was alarming both for how it would affect teachers and for the way it was handled:
No public comment was sought [and] the School Board did not have an opportunity to vote on these changes… The clandestine nature of this decision-making process, the fact that parents have not been alerted, and the fact that there is no mention of the significant staffing changes anywhere on the ACPS website raises major concerns about district communications, transparency, and erodes trust between the district and the community they serve. The impact of this adminsitrative decision cannot be understated.
Ashley Bender, the ACPS 2020 Teacher of the Year, said the change was heartbreaking.
“I stand before you today completely torn apart because of the trust and love that has led myself and encore teachers through the hardest parts of education,” Bender said, “not just by the decision to reallocate encore teachers, but consistent disappointments from ACPS leaders on the day-to-day scenarios in schools.”
Bender said the changes impacting already overworked teachers will have a significant impact on the quality of education for students.
“At our title one school there is a student that needs are because they cannot speak English,” Bender said. “There is a student that needs music because their trauma causes a loss for words, and there is a student that needs physical education because they’ve never had a pair of sneakers.”
ACPS leaders said the change will expand the reach of encore teachers to new and underserved schools. School Board member Ashley Simpson Baird said on social media (there was no discussion of the topic at the meeting) there has been public misinformation about the change to encore teachers. As of 1:20 p.m. on Friday, there remains no official information about the change on any ACPS website or social media channels.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out over the past two days to share concerns about Encore teachers. I hear you. I also hear a lot of misinformation. Here are a few points I want to clarify. More to come. pic.twitter.com/txUvhwrUYi
— Ashley Simpson Baird (@ASBforACPS) June 2, 2023
Recent Stories
The Alexandria Police Department has identified the victim of last Monday’s (April 22) suspicious death as 54-year-old John Andreadakis. APD released Andreadakis’ name on Sunday, but have answered no other…
Police are investigating a commercial robbery that took place this morning around 11 a.m. at a shopping center off S. Van Dorn Street. According to scanner traffic, a man in…
Those hoping to learn a little more about the candidates running for local office in Alexandria can do so later this week at a forum hosted by Tenants and Workers…
The former general manager of Hank’s Oyster Bar in Old Town was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling $680,000 from the restaurant. Claude Ibrahim, 53, was…
Good news, D.C. area. You can save money on your next home cleaning with Well-Paid Maids. It’s easy!
We offer a discount when you set up recurring cleans — and the discounts just increased this week!
For weekly cleans, get $30 off each cleaning.
Potomac Harmony is Back! Following a gap year of competing, then virtual rehearsals during the pandemic, followed by the well-earned retirement of our long-term director, a year of a director search, Potomac Harmony hit the regional contest stage in Concord, North Carolina in March for the first time since 2018! It was exhilarating, reaffirming, and rewarding!
The chorus hit all of its goals, the biggest of which was to have fun and sing our best on contest stage — we did both! Because we earned a score over 400 points, our new Director, Allison Lynskey, was awarded the Novice Director award, photo above. Additionally, one of our charter members, Jackie Bottash, was nominated for and honored with the Leadership Excellence award. It was a celebratory weekend!
What’s next? So much! We now look forward to upcoming performances, growing our membership, and expanding our musical product with new arrangements and an education component each week. It’s an exciting time to be part of this ever-growing ensemble!
