Sarah Y. Kim / DCist/WAMU

D.C. teachers held demonstrations at at least five schools across the city after school on Thursday, continuing their push for a contract after their last one expired in 2019. At one school, they chanted slogans like, “Support your teachers, support your students,” and waved signs that declared “FAIR CONTRACT NOW!” and “GOOD WORKING CONDITIONS = GOOD LEARNING CONDITIONS.”

Negotiations between the Washington Teachers’ Union and D.C. Public Schools have been at an impasse for more than three years. After entering an arbitration process last month, they returned to the bargaining table Thursday morning.

Michael Donaldson, from Alice Deal Middle School in Ward 3, was among the teachers wearing red, chanting, and marching in the cold on Thursday. He and his colleagues stood outside nearby Jackson-Reed High School, waving signs at honking cars.

Donaldson said he and colleagues have struggled to support their families through the ongoing pandemic and inflation.

“We’re working off of 2019 money in 2022,” he said.

DCPS and the Bowser administration have blamed union leadership for the delay in settling a new contract, saying that the city has given a fair offer that they believe teachers would support. But because negotiations are confidential, union leaders haven’t been able to give teachers the details of that offer. In a statement to DCist/WAMU, DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said that DCPS is proud of its offer that includes “robust compensation increases,” but noted that collective bargaining agreement negotiations are “confidential and pursuant to D.C. code.”

“We are grateful for the hard work of our employees, especially our teachers. I want very much for them to have the pay increases that they deserve as soon as possible,” Ferebee said. “We continue to work diligently toward providing stability for our educators with a finalized contract.”

Donaldson said since negotiations are confidential, it’s on the mayor and chancellor to make it clear that the union would not be penalized for sharing the full details of the proposal.

“If the mayor is proud of her proposal and she’s asking the WTU to show it to their members, we’re not sure why she just doesn’t show it to the public herself,” he said.

Donaldson said this year he’s been “really happy” to have students back in class after pandemic lockdowns. But like many of his colleagues, during the pandemic, he considered leaving teaching altogether. (In a September survey of D.C. teachers conducted by the WTU, nearly half of all respondents said they plan to leave their jobs in the next few years.) He has taught at Alice Middle for eight years.

“I see my peers [in other fields of work] with the same level of education, with higher salaries, with more flexible schedules, who aren’t as stressed out as I am about meeting every goal and trying to support every student without the pay, without the time, without the class limits,” he said.

In addition to a contract that ensures higher pay, Donaldson and other teachers want more staffing, smaller classes, and guaranteed lesson planning time.

Elisabeth Chay, who teaches seventh grade English at Alice Deal, did not have her usual lesson planning time on Thursday — her job has gotten busier while understaffing and teacher retention remain a big issue.

“People act very upset about this and talk about it all the time. ‘Oh no, what are we going to do? How are we going to get teachers to stay?'” she said. “And it’s just, where is the basic respect for us to give us an appropriate amount of money for the times and given inflation?”

Chay said she can’t afford to live in D.C. — she lives in College Park — and that with their current salaries, a lot of teachers can’t afford to live here.

The job, she added, has been “psychologically and emotionally taxing.” For her, the pressure on teachers feels higher than it was in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was a sense that teachers and students deserved more leniency.

“There was a lot of warm and fuzzy language, giving each other grace and what-not. Last year, we were still sort of in the ‘giving ourselves and each other grace’ kind of mentality,” she said. “This year has been more challenging. We’re still dealing with COVID challenges, and now we have the pre-COVID expectations.”

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, president of the Washington Teachers Union, said some teachers are still contracting COVID-19 or getting re-infected, and that many have lost loved ones. Three years waiting for a union contract that helps meet the increasing cost of living and addresses teachers’ concerns, she said, is “just disrespectful.”

“No one gets into this business because they want to get rich, but they want to be able to make ends meet,” she told DCist/WAMU. “And three years of a pandemic, three years of now — we’ve gone through inflation, high gas prices, high food prices — how do we expect to keep people?”

Earlier this week, Ferebee tweeted that he was “surprised” that teachers were planning to protest given that the union and DCPS were returning to the bargaining table Thursday.

In response, Lyons said they have to keep fighting to put pressure on the District, and “to get what’s right and what’s fair.”

“We don’t know why we’re not done yet. That’s our concern.” she said “Why don’t we have a contract?”

This post has been updated to correct the hyphenation of Jackson-Reed High School.

Previously: 

D.C. Schools Are Losing Educators. Teachers Have Solutions

Survey Shows Most D.C. Teachers Aren’t Happy With Their Jobs

Filed Under: d.c. schools, dcps, education, Teachers Contract,