Archives for January 2021

Dear SOMEA family,

Here is the correspondence sent to the Board a couple of minutes ago.

01-25-2021

Dear Board members and Dr. Taylor,

Following a reasonable effort in good faith to provide hybrid instruction to our students, we write to advise you of the necessity of SOMEA to return to all-virtual instruction effective Wednesday, January 27, 2021, given the unsafe conditions and ineffectiveness of the district’s current operations. Please know this is not a decision SOMEA made lightly. Since the start of the pandemic, SOMEA has worked tirelessly to bridge the obstacles to the delivery of instruction to our students. For example, when the district sent staff home last spring without explicit guidelines on how to transition to remote instruction, teachers took it upon themselves to find creative ways to deliver curriculum. When the community asked for synchronous instruction come September and despite still having little to no professional development, teachers rose to the occasion and started the year with synchronous instruction. Indeed, despite being advised that live instruction need only be a component of each period, many teachers have delivered synchronous instruction rather than videos and asynchronous tasks from bell to bell. Further, when asked to switch to a new instructional platform with no training prior to the start of school, teachers trained themselves and subsequently students to be ready to deliver instruction via Canvas in September. Throughout this period, which has necessitated countless additional hours of planning, conferencing, and grading, teachers have not asked the district for anything other than regard for their physical safety and that of their families.
Most recently, despite the rising cases of COVID-19 worldwide, in New Jersey, and Essex County in particular, as well as reports of new variants which are so contagious and dangerous that our President deemed it imperative to place immediate flight bans on entering the United States to stem the tide of transmission, illness, and death, the district deemed it a fitting time to return to our buildings sooner than wait for the imminent immunization of educators. While SOMEA respectfully pointed out the ill-advised nature of this decision, it nonetheless in good faith returned to buildings as directed. Yet that same good faith has been absent from our administration. By way of example, teachers, school staff, and students have been asked to endure deplorable conditions, such as temperatures which average 35 to 60 degrees all day, as windows need to be open in an attempt to offset the inefficient, antiquated ventilation systems in our buildings. In fact, our Superintendent in his most recent FAQs acknowledged that windows would be used by the district as alternative sources of ventilation in the absence of sufficient building systems. Yet even with this admission, teachers have been admonished by administration for having windows open, as the temperatures are freezing or near freezing in classrooms, and ordered to close windows in danger to themselves and students in the classroom. Or in Marshall School they were made to complete the day despite the building being without an operational boiler. Teachers and staff are already suffering the ill-effects of these freezing conditions, complaining of aches, chills and coughs, weakening their immune systems to attack by COVID-19.

Further, the lack of good faith by administration is evident in the discrepancies between the architects’ report, who acknowledge that they are not experts in ventilation and filtration, and SOMEA’s own walk throughs of the schools with our trained SOMEA Healthy and Safety Committee members. Similarly, administration has omitted reporting to teachers when workers have been sent into their rooms, some of whom have reported to the rooms without masks and when teachers complained, administration denied their presence despite video evidence. And then there are the occasions when administration has ordered teachers to amalgamate students in classrooms despite its promise to use cohorts to limit the spread of COVID-19 within the schools. Perhaps more disconcerting has been the failure of the district to quarantine students and staff after having contact in their school settings, with individuals who tested positive for the virus.

Additionally, administration’s reckless disregard for the well being of its employees and children was evident in its intentional refusal to evacuate Clinton School or call the police or fire department following a gas leak which rendered teachers and students sick, instead requiring teachers to use sick time if their nausea, eye irritation, and dizziness didn’t subside. No medical professionals were asked to screen students, and parents were not notified of this hazardous condition. Equally disturbing is administration’s decision to reprimand a teacher for being transparent with parents about the work orders she requested be completed in her room for the wellbeing of her students but which the district repeatedly ignored. Note that she was not reprimanded for requesting necessary work be completed, but for sharing with parents that such work had not been completed.

And such risks to the health and safety of others are not limited to the classroom. Our bus drivers and aides have reported students who dropped their masks so as not to cover their noses or who took off their masks entirely, and despite requests to wear them properly, continually refused during their ride. Indeed, staff have likewise observed a lack of social distancing in hallways as well as the lack of masks on students as they enter and exit buildings. Likewise, athletes on buses are not practicing the social distancing deemed appropriate by other county districts, instead leaving no space between students on buses, packing students to a bus. Given the COVID-10 deaths of two of our bus drivers last year, this blatant disregard of protocols and caution on buses is simply indefensible.

Perhaps most disingenuous is the administration’s suggestion that it values the safety of SOMEA members while the Director of Human Resources first issued a blanket refusal to consider any teacher’s request for accommodation due to risk factors associated with COVID-19. Following SOMEA’s request that the district comply with the law, the district then engaged in a practice of ignoring requests for accommodations, many of which were made months prior to the scheduled return date of January 13th, instead advising staff that they would need to take sick days until such time as the district decided to review their application and in complete disregard for the cost of instruction to students, as SOMEA members were ready and willing to teach remotely and most students were not even in the building to warrant requiring teachers to be physically present. Rather it has been through the combined advocacy of community members on behalf of our teachers, for which SOMEA is extremely grateful, as well as the cost of legal representation that some – though not nearly all – of these requests by our high-risk members have been addressed to some degree.
The district’s protestations of the safety of the buildings is equally evidenced in the Board of Education’s unwillingness to grant SOMEA’s request that the Board of Education hold its next meeting in person to address the questions and concerns of staff and community stakeholders using the same protocols it deems sufficient to mandate staff return to buildings, or that each Member attend school for full days so that they can answer questions and concerns based on first-hand experience with the conditions under which hybrid learning is actually functioning. As has been typical, SOMEA’s pleas to its Board went unanswered.
Again, notwithstanding these clear indications of the failure of the district to make paramount the well being of its staff and students, SOMEA returned to these buildings to deliver instruction in good faith. But a return to virtual learning on just one day this past Friday made clear that there is absolutely no instructional benefit to returning to our buildings. Students and staff spoke ubiquitously to the inability to access the WIFI, the lack of devices and non-functioning devices in classrooms, the lack of charging stations for students, the incessant buffering and connectivity issues throughout lessons. Further, at the elementary schools, teachers were forced to break social distancing as so many of their students had technical difficulties which could not be addressed from six feet away. By comparison, teachers reported accomplishing more instruction in a single day on Friday from home than they did in three days within the district buildings.

In sum, while SOMEA has tried to make hybrid learning work in good faith, it has not been met with good faith by the district. Instead, the district has placed its desire for hybrid instruction, the efficacy of which has been proven subpar compared to the remote, synchronous instruction provided since September, as more important than the health and safety of all. While it has suggested that teachers should be willing to work under such intolerable conditions as newly coined essential workers, the reality is that educators trained to provide instruction to students. We are not emergency workers. (Indeed, the fact that the federal government has prioritized vaccines for medical personnel, police, and firefighters is evidence that we are not one and the same.) Further, while we appreciate the concerns raised about the mental health of our students, know that we care for our students but we are not mental health professionals and consider it unreasonable to ask teachers to return to an unhealthy environment under the thinly-veiled disguise of promoting the well being of students. Social engagement is simply not possible in school right now. Moreover, the district should consider the mental anguish students would suffer to learn that a peer or adult contracted and died from COVID-19 as a result of hybrid learning. ***Hybrid instruction also does not mean less screen time for students receiving in-person instruction. Students in a hybrid situation still remain on their computers so that they may interact with their remote classmates. Once the Chromebooks are closed, however, both sets of students lose contact with each other and become more isolated from their classmates.

We will continue to educate passionately but will do so from our homes until such time as temperatures are moderate enough to avoid bone-chilling working conditions in violation of minimum temperature standards and vaccines are made available to educators. We are nearing February and already vaccines are available to high-risk individuals, so a return to school is on the horizon. But to do so as numbers climb, variant strains are spreading, and under conditions which render actual instruction less effective, is not just fatuous but reckless. We will continue to do what we do best – provide passionate instruction — from the safety of our homes. Please note that we delayed this decision until Wednesday, January 27th not only to provide parents an opportunity to make necessary plans for their children at home and to allow teachers to retrieve the materials they need to teach effectively, but also to permit eleventh graders to sit for the PSATs tomorrow at Columbia High School. As always, SOMEA operates in the best interests of its students while safeguarding the health of its members.

The South Orange-Maplewood Education Association

Thank you for your attendance and support.

In Unity,

Executive Board
Rocio Lopez, President
Shira Lincoln, Vice President
Phil McCormick, Secretary
Laurie Pham, Treasurer

David Mastrodonato, Action Chair
Michelle Rhodes-Soriano, Member Communications

01-21-2021

Dear Board members,

We hope that you and your families are safe and well.

SOMEA respectfully requests that the Board of Education hold its next meeting in person with all Members present at a district building for the express purpose of addressing the questions and concerns of staff and community stakeholders in attendance without limitations on public speaking. Of course, we would expect the Board to use the same protocols, i.e., signage, six-foot distancing, hand sanitizing stations, and windows open, as it deems sufficient for the safety and welfare of staff and students engaged in in-person learning in the midst of rising COVID-19 positivity. Relatedly, SOMEA asks each Board Member to attend school for full days so that they can answer questions and concerns based on first-hand experience with the conditions under which hybrid learning is actually functioning. SOMEA would be happy to coordinate a schedule so that Members obtain a full view of the district’s buildings in operation. Given the Board’s repeated collective and individual assurances that they believe hybrid learning in the midst of our escalating pandemic is entirely safe for staff and students and represents the best current instructional method for our students, we expect that the Board will be more than willing to grant SOMEA’s reasonable requests.

Thank you.

SOMEA Executive Board

Dear SOMEA members,

Due to the many requests from members, here are notes from the last Columbia Highschool inspection/walk-through from one of our SOMEA Reps.

We expect NJEA Reports imminently.

Columbia High School- Inspection/Walk-Through
(ISSUES OF COVID EXPOSURE)

· ALL windows and doors must be opened 2 hours before the start of school each day and remain open 2 hours after school each day. This is to allow for the correct number of air exchanges per day. MERV filters <13 require 6 exchanges per day.

· All windows in stairwells must remain open.

· Two windows being open (as we were told) is not adequate. This 2 window rule was pre-COVID and was designed for elimination of CO2 and not pathogens. ALL windows must be open. If you cannot open all windows as per the original design it is not adequate as per Harvard School of Public Health.

· We do not have a waiver from the fire department yet to allow us to keep classroom doors open.

· All rooms with carpeting must be vacuumed daily with a vacuum that contains a HEPA filter that is disposed of after each vacuuming. These filters cannot be washed and reused.

· Any room, office, or space in the school that does not have windows is an unusable space. This includes: Library and all library perimeter rooms/offices, TV studio, Offices, Guidance suites and conference room, CST offices, and Custodian break rooms.

· Any room that has two windows only and an air conditioner is occupying one of the windows should not be deemed a useable room.

· Odorox machine filters need to be changed every 3 months and they need to be inspected/cleaned once a month. Right now they are all dirty.

· Bathrooms are not safe unless they have an exhaust system to create a negative pressure environment. Studies show that COVID is present in very high amounts in fecal matter, higher than in droplets. Odorox machines in the bathrooms just make the rooms smell good.

· Room temperatures should always be between 68-78 degrees.

· Additional rooms that are unusable: D11, C201, PE offices.

· Window unit AC fans should NOT be used unless the AC units have HEPA filters. This is coming from NJWEC.

· Central AC units should not be used as this is recycled air.

· Floor dyer machines (the maroon machines with HEPA filters on the outside) should not be used. They keep the virus on the outside of the unit.

Isolation Room (Nurse’s Office)
· There needs to be clear protocol on how to get a sick student out of the building in the most efficient way. It was determined that the student(s) should exit through the stairwell leading to the A/B Supervisor’s lot and be picked up from there. No students can be in the hallway as the student is leaving the building.

A WING:
· Completely manual operation of ventilation due to no univents. This is inadequate.

D WING:
· Does not have enough window openings as one is used for an AC unit. This is inadequate.

Library/Library Perimeter Rooms/Offices
· The library has passive ventilation. This is inadequate.

HVAC Engineering Firm:
These firms are being hired by schools/businesses to do an accurate assessment. They will check for air balancing and check ventilation to make sure adequate.
SOMSD Re-Opening Plan-should be able to be accessed by the public.

Room Capacities with Students and Adults:
Students should be 6 feet apart from each other and all adults should be 6 feet apart from each other. This was a concern for teachers who have co-teachers and paras in the rooms. If they cannot maintain the 6 ft social distancing, then that is an issue.

Contact Tracing between two towns:
· Who is doing the contact tracing in the two towns and how are they communicating with each other and us?
· When can a child come back to the school? What is the rule?
· What temperature do they have to have to be sent home?

ASHRAE:
· The CDC refers to this org for information. ASHRAE goes beyond NJ Standards but the CDC gets the recommendations from them for best practices.

Proof of Concept:
· Many of these machines and rules is us becoming proof of concept. This means all the things that are being done are not really proven, and we are being used to prove this concept.

Open windows and Ventilation System:
· As was stated, all windows in all useable rooms need to remain open. This puts severe stress on the ventilation systems, which could cause a breakdown, especially if the pipes freeze due to the temperature.

Please keep checking your emails.

In Unity,

Executive Board
Rocio Lopez, President
Shira Lincoln, Vice President
Phil McCormick, Secretary
Laurie Pham, Treasurer

Michelle Rhodes-Soriano, Member Communications

Dear SOMEA,

Yesterday, you should have received an email from NJEA’s Action Network. Members are being asked to send letters to the Board of Education and the Superintendent.

Using the link provided in the original email will prompt you to create an account through the Action Network. Creating an account signs you up to receive emails from the Action Network and allows you to support other local unions; however, you may find this link to be a bit more user friendly.

Letters sent through the Action Network will be forwarded to each BoE member and to Dr. Taylor.

If you did not receive NJEA’s email (see below)-

• It may have filtered into your Promotions, Junk, or Spam folder.
• Your contact information may need to be updated through NJEA’s website. To update your information, log into NJEA with your NJEA PIN (or email address) and password (last 4 digits of your SS#).

In Unity and Solidarity

Executive Board
Rocio Lopez, President
Shira Lincoln, Vice President
Phil McCormick, Secretary
Laurie Pham, Treasurer

Michelle Rhodes-Soriano, Member Communications

Please SOMEA members, sign here immediately!