Fairfax teachers plan to tell the school board Thursday night that teachers are “ready to quit” and that new technology tools are killing their time with children and “dehumanizing” the teaching profession. Although the teachers can’t legally strike, one union chief says “all kinds of things could happen” if workload relief or pay raises don’t come through by year’s end, including sickouts, slowdowns and campaigns to keep school board members and county supervisors from re-election. Amid a two-year pay freeze, Fairfax County Federation of Teachers President Steven Greenburg says teachers are shouldering a larger workload because of a new online tool that aggregates students’ test data. For instance, teachers are encouraged to post lesson plans to share with their colleagues.

“When is a teacher putting lessons on the computer? If the answer is at home, then that’s why the teachers are burned out and ready to quit,” said Greenburg, who teaches at Reston’s Forest Edge Elementary School. If the answer is at school, “They’re spending their class time with machines and not with children. … It’s a dehumanization of the profession.”