January 16, 2024 Newsletter
In This Edition:
1. Our Year in Review
2. APE 2024 Resolutions
3. Teacher's Lounge: 200:1, A Plan to Emphasize Tier One Support
4. Teacher's Lounge: Syphax's Extended Winter Break Hurts APS
5. New Calendars Reflect 29-32 Paid Holidays for 20% of Staff
6. APS School Board Candidates
7. All-In Tutoring Launched
8. Open Policies: Make Your Voice Heard
9. Happening Soon
APE 2024 Resolutions
Continue to advocate for resources and support that address learning loss and low literacy rates and reduce achievement gaps.
Ensure our voices are heard by having at least one APE representative on every Advisory Group within APS (we are currently at roughly 70%!) (Interested? Apply here.)
Push for the release of data from the Grading for Equity (GFE) pilot program, and a transparent analysis of that data.
Advocate to have administrators in Central Admin substitute teach to help alleviate the substitute teacher shortage and see how their policies work inside of classrooms and help tutor on a consistent basis in APS schools.
Champion fewer four-day and disrupted school weeks while keeping at least 180 days of school.
Increase the number of APS teachers’ voices we hear from in our advocacy. (Email us if you want to write an anonymous Teacher’s Lounge Op-Ed)
Keep our top-notch FOIA skills sharpened with new requests (Want to donate to help defray costs? You can do so here.)
Reframe the secondary school SEL dialogue: we must ensure we listen to our students and make sure the benefits outweigh any harms. Some of the best predictors of good social-emotional status are a culture of rigor, perseverance and high expectations and data shows secondary ‘SEL program’ interventions can do harm.
Support a mandate that APS must use evidence-based methods—and makes that evidence public—for both teachers’ professional development and all new academic programs, as well as present both sides of long-standing pedagogical disputes (e.g., traditional math vs reform math).
Support a budget that prioritizes smaller class sizes, teacher pay and student-facing positions, freezing Syphax growth and using any needed cuts at the central administration level first.
Officially declare Lyon Hall our post-School Board comment period gathering place. (Join us! Email us if you want the deets)
Promote active and effective engagement between APS and parents regarding school policies, including regular communication and collaboration.
Have at least one new member happy hour quarterly, where you can come and meet us and learn how to get more involved! Stay tuned…
Advocate that APS remove the additional paid holidays for 12-month central office staff, which are both costly and disruptive to APS operational effectiveness.
From The Teacher's Lounge:
200:1 - A Plan to Emphasize Tier One Support
By Deborah Waldron, APS Teacher
(Editor's Note: From time to time we will offer op-eds, which are the unedited perspectives of an APS parent or teacher on a topic of interest or concern to APS.)
APS has two different formulas it uses to calculate how many teachers are assigned to each elementary school. One formula is based on the planning factors, the "goal" for each elementary class size and the other formula is based on the maximum allowable class size. Once both numbers are calculated, APS chooses the LOWER number. Yep, despite APS' "Every Student Counts" philosophy, APS picks the lower staffing number, saving money, while simultaneously knowing that choice will lead to overcrowded elementary classrooms.
In 2022-23, one APS kindergarten class had 26 students in it. There was a second-grade class with 28 students and an additional 9 upper elementary classes with 28 students. In fact, 44 % of all elementary classrooms in APS had more than 22 students in them. Even knowing that classes are overcrowded, when SOL scores are released, the leadership seems surprised that test scores are low and promises to provide the needed resources to alleviate these problems. Yet, when staffing numbers are calculated each spring, we choose the lower number.
I teach high school physics and I know first-hand the many (sometimes insurmountable) difficulties that happen when there are too many students in a class. Most high school teachers will suggest that, for a typical class, 24 students should be the maximum class size. As a teacher, I find it frustrating and demoralizing that APS continues to staff any class at these higher levels. But, at the elementary level, when students are learning to read, are learning the basics of math, and are learning to (hopefully) enjoy school, it is inexplicable that elementary classrooms have more than 24 students in them. And yet, last year APS had 84 elementary classes with more than 24 students.
At the Dec 11 board meeting, I presented an unsolicited budget proposal called “200:1 A Plan to Emphasize Tier One Support”. Tier 1 support is classroom teachers. Tier 2 and 3 support refers to various intervention models that occur after a student has fallen behind. The “200:1 plan” proposes that APS staff each school using the current planning factor, but then allocate an additional 1 teacher for each 200 students in a school. This effectively provides each high school 10 additional teachers, each middle school 5 additional teachers, and each elementary school 4 additional teachers. No school or program would be allocated less than 1 additional teacher. The net cost for this proposal is $20.6 million dollars–2.2 % of the current APS budget and 1.3 percent of the County budget. This plan should eliminate elementary classes of 24+ students as well as high school classes of 26+. This proposal puts students first by providing them an environment where they can truly grow and flourish.
We know the teacher-student relationship is the most important factor in helping students feel connected to their school. We know that strong teacher-student relationships lead to students meeting and exceeding academic standards. Yet, APS continually undervalues Tier 1 support–classroom teachers–and instead focuses on Tier 2 and 3 support, support that comes after problems emerge. What if we instead emphasized Tier 1 support too? What if we put every single APS student in a reasonably sized class, where the teacher could truly get to know them as an individual, where the teacher had time to work with them individually, and had time to tailor lessons to students’ strengths and weaknesses? What if we allowed every teacher to truly be exceptional by giving them a reasonable student load? What if we created a system where ALL students could thrive from day one? I think the first step to achieving this goal is to find the money to fund the “200:1” proposal.
Please, take a few moments to read through the plan. If you like it and support, email the school board and demand that they at least discuss funding the plan. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at dwaldron153b@gmail.com. See the 200:1 Plan here.
From The Teacher's Lounge:
Syphax's Extended Winter Break
Hurts Teachers & Operational Effectiveness
(Editor's Note: From time to time we will offer op-eds, which are the unedited perspectives of an APS parent or teacher on a topic of interest or concern to APS.)
School board members and Superintendent Duran can often be heard using words to praise the role of teachers and earnestly stating the indispensable importance of teachers in teaching and caring for Arlington’s students. However, these words ring hollow when time and time again they make policy decisions that make our teaching and care of students unnecessarily harder.
Once such decision is the paid absence of Syphax staff in offices during teachers’ furlough days. This is yet another decision showing that Syphax staff have no clue of a teacher’s day-to-day reality. We do not have extended windows away from our students and colleagues to give and receive phone calls to resolve issues like retirement, FMLA,certification, National Board cohorts, transfer policies, compensation mistakes, key cards, extended day, etc.
And, of course, health care benefits. How can Syphax staff be given paid vacation days of December 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, and 29, when a major policy switch affecting thousands of student-facing staff goes into effect January 1?
This is not just an issue affecting teachers. Our most vulnerable students are shut out of inquiries or documents during these vacation days. And the APS Welcome Center should be staffed almost every day for parents and students.
APS needs to have Syphax staff in their offices on all days that are not federal or state holidays so that teachers do not have the stress of trying to squeeze calls in during our filled-over-the-brim days or have to rush calls before long breaks in the winter and spring because Syphax staff are inexplicably absent those days.
Approved Calendars Reflect 29-32 Paid Holidays for Twenty Percent of Staff
APS 12-month employees will receive 29 and 32 paid holidays, in addition to their regular annual leave, in the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years. This far exceeds the standard for any public employee. This is a new practice since the 2021-2022 school year and exceeds paid leave in neighboring districts.
Why It Matters:
This is an expensive benefit for only 20% of staff. During a past challenging budget cycle, APS proposed a one-day furlough of 12-month staff to save about $300,000 (see graphic below); since 2021 APS has granted 13-19 additional paid holidays to this subset of staff. Extrapolating from the 2020 budget proposal, these additional holidays have a value of at least $6 million in 2024.
APS recognized that the work of our 12-month employees has value and were concerned about the impact that even a single-day furlough would have. As a result, they proposed scheduling this single day to “minimize the impact” on operations (pg. 109 of 2020 proposed budget).
Since 2021, 12-month employees have been granted an additional 13-19 paid holidays without any public evaluation of its budgetary or operational impact.
Background:
Prior to 2021, 12-month employees had 13 paid holidays per APS policy plus other types of leave. In contrast, APS teachers (10-month employees) do not receive any paid holidays because they have 200-day contracts. In fact, 12-month staff now work only a few more days than teachers, despite being paid for two more months of contract than teachers.
Roughly 1,000 of APS’ 5,000+ employees are 12-month staff.
Our Ask:
Early indications suggest this could be a challenging budget cycle and APS likely cannot afford to continue a disproportionate benefit for 20% of staff.
We urge our school board and our county board to ask questions about this practice that has granted additional paid holidays since 2021 to a subset of APS employees without any public evaluation of its impacts:
Teachers reported difficulties addressing health care changes because Syphax was fully closed for the last two weeks of the calendar year.
How does this impact students who might be registering mid-year (and cannot)?
Are there other operational impacts related to these repeated closures?
Are other publicly funded institutions operationally closed for this many days?
We urge the school board to add this to the audit plan for APS’ internal auditor.While this new practice has only been in place since November 2021, there is now ample history for the auditor to address its impacts before it becomes a “permanent” feature.
Email the school board and ask them to add this to the Internal Auditor’s work plan to assess the budgetary and operational impacts of this practice.
APS School Board Candidates
Sitting Arlington County School Board Members David Priddy and Cristina Diaz-Torres both recently announced they would not be seeking re-election this year. Their terms expire at the end of 2024. In early January, Chen Ling announced his candidacy for School Board as part of the Arlington Democrats’ School Board Endorsement Caucus in May.
Make your voice heard!
Feedback on policies currently being considered by the School Board should
be sent to engage@apsva.us or please click the link provided.
Support for Students-Wellness— Provide Feedback
Foreign Exchange Student ProgramsProvide Feedback
You can see the rest of the policies currently scheduled for revision here. Graphic from APS.
Applications are open! Apply to Serve on a School Board Advisory Council or Committee for SY 2023-24! Information about all advisory groups and the application to join an advisory group is available on the School Board Advisory Councils and Committees webpage.
Happening Soon
Tuesday, January 16, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Office Hours with School Board Member Bethany Zecher Sutton. Virtual. Sign up.
Tuesday, January 23, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Work Session #2 with the Advisory Council on Teaching & Learning (ACTL). Syphax, Suite 260.
Thursday, January 25, 7:00 pm School Board Meeting. Sign up to speak. Syphax. Watch live.
Tuesday, January 30, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Office Hours with School Board Member Mary Kadera. Virtual. Sign up.
Don't forget! You can subscribe to APS School Calendars here.
