Internet For All Petition

After COVID-19 forced Rochester public schools to cancel in-person classes, thousands of students have been unable to continue their learning online. Spectrum promised low-income households two free months of its discounted “Internet Essentials” package, but many have been left unconnected due to restrictions and requirements placed on this offer. This digital divide is especially felt by Black students, nearly half of whom lack internet connectivity at home. After July 1st, our most vulnerable Rochestarians will be expected to pay for the Internet Essentials package, which is slower than 89% of connections nation-wide. Even as Black and low-income students struggle to even log on to class, Spectrum has yet to open existing higher-speed networks for free to those in need.

This callous stance appears even worse given the years of support Spectrum has received from Rochester taxpayers. Spectrum has received billions in assistance from a 20% property tax cut, city tax allowances since 2007, as well as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In 2019, such corporate welfare enabled Spectrum to post a profit totaling $16.9 billion, 5.0% higher than in 2018, and CEO Thomas Rutledge made $8.16 million in salary and incentives in 2018, a 5% rise over his 2017 total compensation.

Despite calling Rochester its home and receiving billions in support from its neighbors, Spectrum has failed to support our most vulnerable students in this unprecedented time by refusing to provide students with the assistance they need. Though Spectrum has pledged to take action against digital disparities, the urgency of this pandemic calls for current efforts to be directed toward what is most needed—access to reliable, high quality internet.

To meet the needs of our most vulnerable students, we are petitioning Spectrum to:

1) Offer the Internet Essentials program for free to all low-income Rochester homes with students now throughout the end of the 2020-2021 school year

2) Increase the upload speed of Internet Essentials from 3 Mbps to 25 Mbps and the download speed from 25 Mbps to 100 Mbps

References and further reading:

1) Auxier, Brooke, and Monica Anderson. “As Schools Close Due to the Coronavirus, Some U.S. Students Face a Digital 'Homework Gap'.” Pew Research Center, 16 Mar. 2020, URL (petition banner image)

2) Nasr, Amir. “The Perilous Future of Internet Access for Students of Color.” New America, 12 July 2018, URL

3) Paul Ericson. "Why Digital Disparity Persists" Rochester Beacon, 31 January 2019, URL

4) Paul Ericson. "The cost of digital disparity in a pandemic" Rochester Beacon, 15 April 2020, URL

Click Here to Add Your Name

Monroe County School Reopening Proposal

Background and Context

In the same way that the state is taking a deliberate and careful approach to reopening the economy, the state must take an equally deliberate and careful approach to reopening our public schools. Having spent approximately 25 percent of the 2019-2020 school year in crisis mode and learning remotely, all of our students — regardless of socioeconomic status or race — will be coming back with social, emotional and academic needs that we don’t yet fully understand. The health and wellness of the students and staff of the Rochester City School District is intrinsically linked to that of students and staff in all of Monroe County. Any reopening plan must be uniform across the county to acknowledge the interconnectedness of our communities. Public health crises do not recognize town boundaries.

The nearly 60,000 students whose families are living in poverty will have even more acute trauma than they carried before the pandemic. The intersection of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement compels us to examine and dismantle structures of racism and classism in society and in the institution of public education. Our schools cannot go back to the conditions under which they operated before COVID-19 or we will fail our students, families, educators and communities at the time of their greatest need. This moment provides us with an exciting opportunity to transform public education to adapt to our new reality.

Educators will need to develop new skills, strategies, teaching methodologies and curricula that match the conditions we will be returning to under any of the three models (remote, in-person or hybrid). Students and their families have ongoing needs that must be met — before and upon return to school. School buildings across Monroe county are not yet equipped to meet environmental health and safety standards. To be ready to return, we need time to prepare buildings and physical settings; plan and learn new skills; and welcome and acclimate our students and families. And we need full funding and staffing to address the myriad facets of teaching and learning during a global pandemic.

Local associations and local districts should determine the plan to start the year with that best suits their context — be it remote, hybrid or full return with health and safety protections — and then determine a secondary plan for changes in context. Standing labor management committees should be established immediately to provide opportunities for regular communication and feedback to the district regarding reopening planning and implementation. MOUs should be negotiated as dictated by local governing practices. Additional stakeholders such as families, students and community members should also be given ongoing and systematic opportunities to be engaged and to give input. The local plan should be a living document, the goal of which is to provide a vehicle for ongoing partnership and collaboration with educators, families, communities and students. 

Not Until It's Safe - Sign Our Open Letter

An open letter to union and district leadership: 

To the President of the Rochester Teachers Association, Adam Urbanski, the President of the Rochester Association of Paraprofessionals Angie Rivera, and Board of Education Non Teaching Professionals President Dan DiClemente and Lesli Myers-Small, RCSD Superintendent: 

 

We as parents, educators, staff members in the Rochester City School District are writing to express our support for the #14daysnonewcases campaign. As parents, we want nothing more than to keep our children safe and to work with teachers and the district to make the right choices for our children. As educators and staff, we are dues-paying members of RTA, RAP, and BENTE and need you to use our strength in numbers to stand up. Our unions and leaders must formally declare that we will not return to campus until our county reports no new cases of COVID-19 for at least 14 days.

While there’s nothing we want more than to see our students in-person again, and to see our children thrive in their school environment, it is far too dangerous for our children, our families, and our colleagues to resume in-person instruction this fall. Until it is safe, we must develop and implement a more robust distance learning program for the children. To allow our students to equitably access this distance learning program, we must also demand that our students be provided with all necessary technology, such as personal computers and high-speed internet access.

States and school districts are unveiling reckless, unethical school reopening plans that put our colleagues and their families, our students and their families, and ourselves in extreme danger. Even in countries that have far better controlled the pandemic, they have had to close schools soon after reopening them. Schools in China and South Korea have closed after infections flared up. Students and staff have contracted COVID-19 in schools after they reopened in Canada, France, the Netherlands, and Israel, forcing them to close again. The number of COVID-19 patients under 10 years old in Oregon has increased fivefold, matching the number of cases in patients over 80 years old. More than 17,000 children under the age of 18 have contracted COVID-19 in Florida alone. Now new research suggests that children transmit COVID-19 just as easily as adults do.

These trends and research clearly demonstrate that it is irresponsibly dangerous to reopen school campuses this fall. If elected officials and district officials want campuses to reopen, then they need to implement the public health measures that they should have implemented months ago, including, but not limited to: mass testing, contact tracing, and strict suspension of nonessential business and travel activity. Our governments also must provide the economic relief we and our students need to endure these public health measures, including, but not limited to: basic income, rent and mortgage cancellation, protection from eviction, and single-payer healthcare throughout the pandemic.

As educators and staff members, we know how impossible it will be to implement strict physical distancing, mask enforcement, constant sanitation, and hybrid learning on every campus in our district. As parents, we do not and should not expect our teachers and children to endure these harsh and harmful conditions emotionally, mentally and physically. We all would rather everyone stay healthy and alive than pressured into dangerous and emotionally damaging situations. We must refuse to return to campus until our county reports no new cases for at least 14 days.

We need our unions and leaders to stand up to protect all, not just the few.

Signed, 

The Millionaires Tax Budget Action

RORE Members joined other school employees, parents, and community members across NYS  to get educated about Senator Robert Jackson's bill, The Millionaires Tax to fully fund education, and then joined in a collective action. 6/9/2020.

RTA & RAP Members Re-entry Survey

Let your voice be heard.

As our district makes plans for what the 2020-2021 school year might look like, make sure you share your opinions.

This survey has been adapted from the Oakland Education Association, in preparation for the 2020-2021 school year.

Plan on needing 5-10 minutes to complete the survey. Share widely. The more feedback we can share with our leadership, the better their understanding will be of the desires of their members.

This survey was created by RORE.  Only collective data will be shared with RTA, the District and the rest of the community.  No identifying information will be shared.

Click Here to Begin the Survey

The Effect of Displaced Teachers on Special Education Students

[The following was submitted to Dr. Shelley Jallow by RORE Steering Committee Member, Lianne Dupree.]

Dear Dr. Jallow,

I am a Special Education teacher in the Rochester City School District. For 12 years, I have served RCSD.  I was recently displaced from my elementary self-contained 6:1:2 Autism Spectrum Disorder classroom due to having multiple certifications in teaching including English (Grades 7-12) and English Students with Disabilities (Grades 7-12).  I also have Childhood Education and Students with Disabilities Childhood Education (Grades 1-6) certification.  I have taught in the elementary setting for the past 5 years and had no intention of returning to high school as I am able to have a profound positive impact in the lives of my current students and see that our students need passionate Special Education teachers in the elementary that do have knowledge of the expectations of high school to help adequately prepare them for the transitions they will face in their futures.

Many of my fellow Special Education teachers who were displaced in our District had Generalist Special Education (Grades k-12) certification as when they obtained their degrees, this was what was available in their teacher preparation programs. Many of my colleagues would have pursued elementary Special Education certification had it been offered at the time.

By forcing Elementary Special Education teachers to teach in the high school setting, RCSD is in violation of contract protocols, best practices, and the rights of our students and families.

In Solidarity with Black Lives Matter Petition (Please Sign)

Rochester Organization of Rank-and-file Educators in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, our students and their families, and the larger Rochester community.

The Rochester Organization of Rank and File Educators (RORE) values and supports the needs of our students, their families, and their communities. As educators and unionists in Rochester, we see first hand how decades of racist policing and immoral policy decisions affect the youngest community members. A partnership between the RCSD and the RPD further perpetuates systematic racism, the school-to-prison pipeline, and increased trauma for our youth. Like others who have begun to speak up, we have had enough.
 

RORE believes that Black Lives Matter. We will continue, alongside our union sisters and brothers, to stand in solidarity against systemic racism. We demand justice and equity for our students and their families.

 

See and Sign Full Petition Here