The Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) says timely negotiations on a new contract are needed to address issues of teacher retention and other after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The previous contract expired on Sept. 30th, and as two parties head into their third month without a contract, the union says DCPS is dragging its feet.

The union and D.C. public schools have yet to sit down at the bargaining table. Union president Jacqueline Pogue-Lyons said DCPS has failed to commit to a meeting date and has not responded to the union’s contract proposals.

“We see the urgency of it,” Pogue-Lyons said. “But we’re finding that DCPS doesn’t see the urgency.”

DCPS declined to answer specific questions about the negotiations, saying to do so would violate D.C. code.

“DCPS is honored to partner with WTU as we endeavor to complete an agreement that serves the district’s educators and students as efficiently as we can,” DCPS said in a statement.

Tough questions for DCPS

At a D.C. Council budget hearing on Nov. 14, councilmembers grilled D.C.P.S. Chancellor Lewis Ferebee on the delay. He told councilmembers “the challenge in meeting in-person is we have yet to agree on ground rules.”

Pogue Lyons acknowledged a lack of agreement on ground rules were an obstacle to starting negotiations. But she added the parties had “reached an understanding that we’re going to move on.” She said that DCPS had informed the union in late October they would respond to the union’s proposals and potential meeting dates by Nov. 10, which was then pushed to Nov. 17. The union said DCPS has still not responded, though it did suggest that it would follow up in the coming weeks.

Ferebee’s reference to ground rules did not appease D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who noted ground rules are not required by law. At the hearing, Mendelson’s pointed questions suggested DCPS has been slow to respond to the union since the spring.

In a timeline the union shared with the council, WTU said it first reached out to DCPS in May with proposals for ground rules for in-person negotiations. DCPS did not respond until July. When the union got back within two weeks with a list of proposed dates, the WTU said DCPS took another 45 days to respond.

At the Nov. 14 budget hearing, Mendelson pressed Ferebee as to why the process was moving so slowly. Ferebee insisted DCPS was bargaining in good faith and disputed that they were responsible for delaying the process.

Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin said DCPS has been “abundantly cautious” when asked about the contract, using the law as “a sword and shield.”

“In some ways, that gives them license to just not talk about the process at all,” he said. “I think they need to be talking about the process.”

Frumin said it’s not surprising that DCPS was slow to come to the bargaining table before the last contract expired. Every new school year there is a “crush” to be ready and hire new staff.

But now he doesn’t see any excuse for the delay.

“I was patient until Oct.1,” Frumin said. “I’m getting increasingly impatient.”

There’s concern among teachers this process will be a repeat of previous years-long negotiations.

“This is a bad habit that we have in the District that we really have to break,” Pogue Lyons said. “It’s disrespectful to the teaching profession and to educators.”

Alice Deal Middle School Spanish teacher Michael Donaldson Jr. said that it’s “disheartening” that DCPS still hasn’t come to the negotiating table. He said union members held weekly hours-long meetings starting in May throughout the summer.

“Being on the inside of these negotiations, it’s literally DCPS stonewalling,” said Donaldson. He added that teachers “deserve an explanation, period, as to why DCPS has not come to the table.”

Glen Edwards, a fourth grade social studies and English Language Arts teacher at Whittier Elementary School, said letting the contract expire was “preventable.”

“It’s just frustrating,” Edwards said. “We’re here. We’re ready.”

What the union wants

The WTU shared their priorities for the new agreement, which include a focus on teacher retention, salary increases, more diversity in the staffing, and addressing safety concerns amid increases in violence in and around schools.

They stopped short of discussing the exact salary increases the union is requesting. Pogue Lyons said only that their proposals are “fair,” given the city’s high cost of living. She also pointed to the issue of retaining and recruiting teachers, which has become a significant problem since the pandemic.

It’s a trend teachers hope the new contract will help reverse. In the 2022-2023 school year, 70% of teachers from the previous school year stayed in their jobs, according to data from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) released in February. That marks a dip greater than 10% from 2020-2021, when 81% of teachers from the previous school year had stayed.

Retention rates were similar across all racial groups. Pogue-Lyons said the union and DCPS need to come up with ways to keep and recruit Black and brown teachers, especially Black men. Across the country, burnout and low pay have led to higher turnover rates for teachers of color.

One of the union’s proposals involves collaboration with DCPS to improve diversity in staffing. It’s an issue Donaldson is particularly passionate about.

“I want more role models for our students, particularly our males of color,” he said.

As a Black man, Donaldson wants to be one of those role models. It’s one of the reasons he stayed in the profession. But he said teachers need more reasons. “I could be in a different career with more career mobility, with more career stability,” he said.

The pace of the previous contract negotiations didn’t help. Teachers worked without a contract for more than three years, which meant they didn’t have guaranteed pay increases and many struggled to meet the higher cost of living.

“If we had a longer contract or we had more stable contracts…people would want to stay in the District,” Donaldson said. “It wouldn’t be sort of a revolving door.”

Teachers received retroactive pay increases when the last contract was approved in February, but those pay increases took months to reach teachers. And Donaldson says getting retroactive pay in a lump sum came with an additional challenge: he suddenly found himself in a higher tax bracket, having to pay thousands in taxes he hadn’t anticipated.

Other proposals include making schools more environmentally sustainable and creating more individual lesson planning time for teachers during morning blocks from around 8 to 8:40 a.m., when students aren’t yet at school. Getting additional lesson planning time has become increasingly difficult for teachers as they are tasked with additional responsibilities like covering for other classes.

The union is also seeking continued dental and vision benefits, pension plans that are “competitive with other industries.” They are also asking for more athletic trainers for students; Pogue Lyons said an ongoing shortage is unsafe for students.

Addressing safety issues

Another priority for teachers is improving safety in and around schools. An uptick in violence has been a common source of stress for teachers. In a teacher survey by the union, the majority of 800 respondents said that they were noticing more fighting between students.

There are also concerns about violence outside schools. On Oct. 26, Glen Edwards was teaching class at Whittier Elementary when they were ordered into lockdown, along with two neighboring schools because of reports of a shooter in the area.

“I sat on the floor with the lights off, sheltered in my classroom with worried faces staring at me, for two hours and eight minutes.” It was the longest lockdown he had experienced.

The union has been circulating a petition demanding that DCPS respond to their contract proposals on safety.

“I just think it’s indefensible that the District is not coming to the table,” Edwards said. “What are your priorities if it is not the safety of your students and the safety of your staff and the safety of your family and community?”

Specific recommendations include expanding Safe Passage, distributing an annual survey to teachers to determine common safety concerns, and forming a committee of teachers dedicated to safety solutions.

Donaldson said they want their solutions to be based on what the community wants. He said they are refraining from prescribing specific, divisive solutions like bringing in more school resource officers (SROs), which he called a “mixed bag.” Many school districts across the country have shifted away from SROs, as distrust in police grew over recent years. But he does feel a need for more “community relationship building” with officers in general. There’s also a push for expanding mental health resources to support students and better emergency preparedness within schools.

‘Quiet resignation’ 

It remains unclear when bargaining will start, despite pressure from other government and education agencies to accelerate the process. When approving the last contract in February, the D.C. Council tasked the union and DCPS with starting negotiations for the next contract quickly. And the State Board of Education passed a resolution in October urging a “prompt resolution” and calling on DCPS and the union to reach multi-year tentative contract agreements by Jan. 1, 2024.

If there is still no resolution by that point, Frumin said D.C. councilmembers could potentially send a letter to the Chancellor, demanding action. They could also reiterate existing mandates for negotiations.

Otherwise, Frumin said he’s “not sure how much more we can do.”

Frumin said budget concerns may be on DCPS’ mind, and there may be reluctance to act quickly because measures like salary increases would draw from the budget.

“Whatever it is that they will have to give up in these negotiations, they probably aren’t in a hurry to have to give up,” he said.

Among teachers, Edwards said the frustration is a “quiet resignation this year.” “We’re not surprised,” he said.

Teachers aren’t taking to the streets just yet, which they did last year. But that might change, he said, if negotiations drag on.

Donaldson said as disappointing as the beginning has been, he “has hope that it will get done.”

“I feel like I can make a change,” Donaldson said. “I think that what’s keeping me here, honestly, is knowing that I can keep pushing for change. Our union wants that.”