After operating under an expired contract for a year, the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) reached a tentative agreement for a five-year contract with DCPS.
“We had to go through the whole contract and say, ‘This is what we want, this is what we don’t want, this is what we want to fight, this is what we don’t want to fight,’” said health teacher Rebecca Bradshaw-Smith, Jackson-Reed’s WTU building representative, who was a member of the districtwide contract negotiations team.
“That was the arduous part: figuring out what we’re doing, what we want from DCPS, and how we’re going to work with them,” she said.
Generally, teacher reactions at Jackson-Reed were positive. “I’m very happy that it was able to go through because we have been working without a contract for the past year,” said social studies teacher Ashley Bryant.
The deal was announced to WTU members on September 30, the one-year anniversary of the previous contract’s expiration. The prior contract took three and a half years of negotiation and operated for half the school year. Traditionally, contract cycles last four years.
“This agreement shows what can be achieved when we work together with a common goal of putting students first,” DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee, WTU president Jacqueline Pogue-Lyons, and Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a joint statement. “With this agreement, we are reaffirming our commitment to investing in our young people and making DC the number one city for teachers.”
The latest round of talks featured tumultuous negotiation tactics with DCPS, including several early morning meetings in March between Ferebee and the WTU that he failed to attend, as reported by The Beacon.
“We had a lot of support from the DC City Council. Because of all the support we had from everyone, we started to have the bargaining meetings at more reasonable times,” Pogue-Lyons said in an interview with The Beacon.
When a contract isn’t active, the WTU communicates with the DC Office of Labor Management through memorandums of agreements (MOA). According to the DC government, an MOA is a “document describing a cooperative agreement between two parties.”
DCPS officials in late summer received two updated MOAs from the WTU that included WTU’s language regarding diversity and school climate. In August, Pogue-Lyons took to YouTube to allege DCPS and the Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining of “not operating in good faith.” Pogue-Lyons cited administrator inaction, uneventful meetings, and students’ return to school.
“When we went to them in August, we didn’t feel like they were working just as hard as we were at trying to get the contract,” Pogue-Lyons said. She credits overwhelming District support and “strong leadership from everyone on the bargaining team” for pushing DCPS to a quick agreement.
A month later, WTU members received the announcement of a new contract that includes annual raises to keep up with inflation, paid wellness days, and expanded family leave.
Though she believes the proposed contract is equitable, Pogue-Lyons stressed that the WTU’s work isn’t done. “There are things we need to work on now that we’ve gotten this contract that has to do with how teachers are evaluated,” she said. “I still don’t think that IMPACT, DCPS’ evaluation system, is good for students and not fair for teachers, particularly in underserved communities.”
A 2019 research project conducted by American University found that, on average, white teachers’ IMPACT score was 17 points higher than Black teachers’, 14 points higher than Hispanic teachers’, and nine points higher than Asian teachers’.
Legislation would be required to strike down IMPACT, rather than teachers’ contracts.
All active WTU members can approve this new contract electronically from October 15 through October 21.
“A contract shows a level of respect between the District and teachers and, when that takes a while to pass, it is frustrating for those who are working hard and just want to be seen and heard,” Bryant said.
If the contract passes the WTU vote, the decision is handed off to the City Council. Pogue-Lyons is hopeful that the contract can reach the Council by early November.
