Only the stalwarts among D.C. Public Schools teachers trickled back to their classrooms on Friday for planned meetings and training sessions that followed four days of weather-caused closures.
For students, the teachers development day meant a full week out of classrooms.
At Northeast’s Myrtilla Miner Elementary about 40 teachers called in absent by 8:45 a.m., out of a staff of about 120, said Principal LaVonne Taliaferro-Bunch.
“It’s always good to have [staff] development, but I’m wondering if we’ll have to have a repeat because of the turnout,” she said.
While students and school staff all over the D.C. region stayed home Friday, D.C. teachers returned to work for the training that have become a keystone of the reforms pushed by schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
They’ve also been a source of contention with union leadership, who stress the need for more training focused on discipline, and who voice dissatisfaction with Rhee’s new “DCPS Teaching and Learning Framework” around which professional development is based.
Miner’s gym teacher Duriel Cobb trucked to school in a 4×4, slightly miffed by the end to his nearly weeklong vacation, but on board with the work ahead.
“The climate of the school has changed with the new professional development,” he said, explaining that he’s benefited most from learning new strategies for tapping into students’ ability to learn.
But at Northwest’s Seaton Elementary, a teacher who requested not to be named said that turnout was less than 50 percent, training sessions were canceled, and “the building was freezing.”
By 3:30, Seaton’s parking lot was nearly empty, and the principal had left for the afternoon. Five blocks north, the mood shifted at Garnett-Patterson Middle School, where two teachers carrying afternoon cups of coffee said that staff turnout was at least 80 percent after arriving slightly later in the morning than planned. “Honestly, I felt good to get back, and to get prepared for the coming week,” said special education teacher Ron Lucena. As to the professional development, Lucena called it “productive — very, very productive.” D.C. spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said there are no plans to repeat the training for those absent. Final teacher attendance figures were not available by Friday evening.
