Happy new year!
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Visitors must call the ACEA office to make an appointment at 301-729-8280.
In the alternative, Evan West can be contacted at ewest@mseanea.org or call 240-405-9652. Kim Sloane can be reached at 240-496-9712 or through email at ksloane@mseanea.org. ACEA Members are invited to join each Thursday at 4 p.m. to get the latest information, share concerns and "get happy"! Simply click on the link above to join.
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ACEA DECEMBER 2020 STATEMENT Intelligent people can disagree over opinions, but those who seek to criticize the educators who have been on the front lines of this pandemic do a grave disservice to them. Since it must be presumed that such opinions are formed and shared based on a lack of information and research, we will seek to educate those who have not done their homework.
First and foremost, our educators stepped-up and met the challenge of their profession and in a very short amount of time, the majority of which was off-the-clock, re-trained for the new reality of virtual classroom. For those who don’t know, educators are salaried employees, and when they continue working past the contracted workday, they don’t get over-time, double-time or receive a bonus. In the past, educators received the support and gratitude of the public, but now, they only seem to get less time to address the needs of their own families during this pandemic. It is also a serious misunderstanding that teachers are hardly working. To the contrary, our educators are working harder than they have ever had to in the past. Please don’t be mistaken- educators have much work to do beyond the virtual instruction time. Each and every lesson must be adapted or totally recreated for the virtual and hybrid format which takes hours. For those educators instructing Pre-K through 5, they also have to stage their room to do both in-person and virtual instruction at the same time. Educators must also monitor each student’s attendance. This is not just simply to mark present, but to monitor it throughout the class, document it, and then communicate personally with the student, then the parents, and provide this information to the administration. There is also the student work to assess and feedback to provide. It is estimated that in the virtual format, this takes twice as much time as it ordinarily would. For example, one of our veteran educators reported that it takes the most part of each Sunday to complete the grading for the week. There are also parent conferences, staff meetings, and professional development requirements to be completed. The expectations and workload are tremendous. As highly qualified professionals, our educators have spent a great deal of time and money training to understand how students learn best. There is no doubt that the best learning happens in-person and in schools. It was because of this knowledge and experience that our educators agreed to the hybrid phase-in for our Allegany County students to return to the buildings if it was safe, meaning CDC protocols were in place. While reasonable attempts were made by ACPS to meet these protocols, lack of funding and resources mean deficits still exist. For those who aren’t aware, there are no plexi-glass barriers between students and/or educators, or temperature checks at the door. In addition, many educators supplement hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies for their room and even make sure they clean their rooms each day. This is largely due to an insufficient number of custodians to complete required protocols while responding to other needs in the schools. A lack of available substitutes also led to emergency coverage by other colleagues at a moments notice. A duty-free 30 minute lunch was also rarely realized, and if so, many ate after the students were all gone from the building at 2 p.m., having started their work-day at least six hours earlier. Many educators are also supplementing with their own personal equipment to increase accessibility to various programs for students. Educators did not ask for this situation, but continue to work harder than ever to overcome the challenges it presents. Any perceived failure is not due to the educators. What educators do ask for is a bit of respect, cooperation, patience and a safe learning environment for both students and staff. |
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