As we reflect back on our time spent teaching through the pandemic, it is impossible to ignore that the professionalism of our teachers has been of little concern to our district office since the very first day of buildings closing on March 12th, 2020. If you recall, it was the intent of the Superintendent to immediately send us to school on Friday, March 13th, and only backed down after members of the WITA Executive Board appealed to the Board of Education to ensure the safety of our students and staff by having the buildings remain closed for at least that weekend. As you might also recall, several cases were reported the very next day. If not for the intervention of WITA leadership, we fear what would have happened. That was day one of the pandemic in West Islip, and one of the reasons we wear black..
Since that day, despite the willingness of WITA members to "be flexible" in working with students and families and administration, the central administration has continued to fail in recognizing the professionalism of the teachers. Although the superintendent claims a philosophy of "shared decision making", in practice, it has always been the administration making a decision, and then sharing it with us, even if it knowingly resulted in violating our contract. The fact that we have been asked to be flexible, which we have happily and willingly done, while the same courtesy has not been demonstrated by the administration, is another reason we wear black.
Each one of us, regardless of building or level, can recall a time that things have been made more difficult by our administration unnecessarily. Whether it has been issues involving webcams, classroom printers, quarantine protocols, credit for required training for DASA and Right-to-Know, or previously agreed upon guidelines for bringing our kids back in a safe manner, WITA has had to fight for what is right every step of the way. For all of these issues, and the many more not mentioned here, we wear black.
We are professionals with over six thousand years (seriously!) of collective knowledge and experience in the classroom. That our perspectives, ideas, proposals and concerns have largely been ignored is deeply troubling. We are important stakeholders in the school community, and for that reason, we wear black.
Please continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our fellow members in solidarity by wearing black (and other WITA wear). Our unity is our strength!
