Educators will hold a public rally outside Bridgeport City Hall tomorrow to expose a crisis in the district’s public schools and demand the resources students need and the respect teachers deserve.
The public and media are encouraged to attend.
“While schools across Connecticut reopened with a spirit of energy and enthusiasm,” says Bridgeport Education Association President Jeff Morrissey, “teachers and students in Bridgeport were thrown into an environment of chaos and distress, with no end in sight.”
Confusing, inconsistent new schedules have left little time for learning or joy. Unreasonably paced, scripted curricula were introduced without training, notice, or input from teachers. Professional development was described as ineffective, and educators who participated felt disrespected. Many—including school social workers and psychologists—were left out completely.
Worst of all, students throughout the district’s 36 public schools have started the year lacking the very basics—including desks, lockers, books, transportation, technology, and certified teachers.
“Clearly, we are in a climate that is bewildering to us,” Morrissey says. “To say the beginning of this school year has been difficult would be a gross understatement. Trying to function in a chaotic atmosphere is simply impossible, and the lack of effective and vital communication from our superintendent has put undue stress on our teachers and students. They all deserve better.”
Efforts to enlist help and receive information from Bridgeport’s central office have been challenging, he adds, noting, “Our union has been persistent in its attempts to put the brakes on impulsive decisions by the district’s superintendent. We will press on and fight every single day, and our next step is ensuring our community understands what’s going on.”
To gain a full picture of the crisis in Bridgeport’s schools, Morrissey says, “We called a meeting of all our members to really understand what everyone is experiencing and get a sense of how widespread and deep the problems are. What we learned was shocking.”
More than 500 BEA members traveled to neighboring Fairfield last week, where their colleagues provided a space to gather and discuss specific challenges and next steps. Teachers from each Bridgeport school were invited to step up and describe key issues in their building. Here is some of what they shared.
- We do not have working computers or technology.
- All our computers are broken, so we have no devices going out to students.
- We have students with seizure disorders, and our school has one part-time nurse.
- We have one autism spectrum disorder-certified school psychologist for the entire district.
- We have a lack of social workers and counselors.
- We have a lack of certified special education teachers—and we’re a special education school.
- We are out of compliance; most classes have 30 or more students.
- My classroom doesn’t have enough seats for all my students.
- We don’t have enough desks. We are all packed at 29.
- We have classrooms that don’t have teachers in them.
- Special education teachers are being asked to be both administrators and paraeducators.
- Special ed, multilingual learning, and social work caseloads are massive.
- Our special education teachers are now teaching random grade levels ranging from K to 8.
- We have one special education teacher for 70 students.
- Last I checked, the IEP was a legal document. We don’t have a special education teacher in our K-4 building.
- Special education teachers were told to hold PPTs to lower hours so that they would fit into this new schedule.
- Most of our special education students are not getting their mandated support hours.
- Some teachers are responsible for areas they’re not certified in.
- I am certified in a subject area but am now teaching special education, for which I’m not certified. I feel bad for my students. This seems like a total violation of IDEA.
- Our special education supervisor hasn’t even been in our school.
- I’m the only certified teacher in my wing.
- Ten years is the longest tenure for any teacher in our school.
- We have not had an English language tutor for the last seven years.
- We have no certified art teacher.
- We have unbalanced classes with ten in one period and 25 in another.
- We haven’t had a director of social studies—every history teacher knows this—in over six years.
- Kindergartners have eight minutes to get in line, get their breakfast, take their seats, open their milk, open their cereal, clean up, and get out the door. This is ridiculous.
- Even though it’s the law, we have no play-based learning.
- Our full-day preK students have no recess or specials on the master schedule.
- Our kindergartners and first-graders are forced to use the public park for recess, and all they have time for is to walk there and back.
- We have 90 kindergartners and first-graders on a small playground at one time with no playscape, no slide, no anything.
- We were given a new curriculum 48 hours before day one.
- The new curriculum out of Texas is merely a scope and sequence with slides and canned instruction, and it’s below grade level. It’s matching and multiple choice, replacing the rigorous curriculum we had in place. We had higher-order thinking; now we have students filling in the blanks. Our own students are complaining about the lack of rigor.
- Our school is home to over 500 English language learners. None of this curriculum is tailored to them, and we are overwhelmed.
- None of us has had any training in this new curriculum.
- I’m told if I don’t follow the curriculum script, I’ll be written up.
- The curriculum has not been adapted for our humongous MLL and special education population. At our school alone, 40% of students are multilingual learners, and we are a school of 1,000.
- Our bilingual program used to be really good. Now our parents and students are going into schools where no one can speak their language. Teachers are using Google Translate to try to help them. Is that what we want for our children?
- Our curriculum doesn’t work when you have kindergarten, second, and third grade in the same classroom.
- We are not able to make any connections with the students in our classrooms, which—isn’t that the point of teaching? We have no time for those connections.
- At the end of last year, when we were given our teaching assignments, the majority of us spent the summer preparing for those classrooms and our upcoming students only to find out the Wednesday before school started that we were now going to be teaching a different grade level at a different school.
- We have teachers with double the number of students they were planning for, many of whom are nonverbal and need help toileting.
- All my colleagues are under extreme duress.
- I’ve seen some of the strongest teachers I know break down and cry.
- We have five open positions. Two teachers resigned on the first day of school.
- This new curriculum and schedule strips away authentic teaching and goes against everything that research and best practices tell us.
- You know that teacher who made learning come alive for you, who inspired you to go into the profession? That’s done this year. Learning is no longer fun. We’ve got no time.
- Everything is scripted.
- There’s no room for project-based learning.
- I’ve been teaching 20 years, and now I’m supposed to be a robot.
- We are robotizing our students and teachers.
- We don’t have the right books.
- Science materials are not even here.
- The schedule has so many transitions between classes with no built-in time for those transitions, which cuts into kids’ instructional time, recess, and lunch.
- This is all so detrimental to our students.
- We’re lucky to get 10 minutes of planning time.
- My 35-minute prep is spread throughout the day, not all in one shot.
- I can’t use the bathroom until after noon.
- There are no novels in English language arts.
- Special education buses are not showing up until 3:45 or later every day.
- Medically fragile students are left waiting for buses that are not arriving on time. We have students who are not getting picked up until 4:22.
- There isn’t enough parking, and it can take 30 minutes to get out of the school driveway. Many of us are parking four blocks away. Some are paying to park in paid lots so that we can pick up our own children on time.
- It’s my 25th year in this district, and this year is off to the worst start.
- Afterschool programs have been cancelled with no explanation. The teachers who worked hard to create those programs are stuck breaking the news to students.
- All the things that made our school special are gone. I don’t want to be here anymore.
“Back-to-school should be our sweet spot,” CEA President Kate Dias told the hundreds of Bridgeport teachers who gathered in Fairfield to tell their stories. “Back-to-school is our moment, one we should be able to savor, and you were robbed of that. Despite everything going on in this district, you have all put on a brave face, you have set up your classrooms, and you’re trying to ensure goals for your students are not lost. You have a whole squad behind you, ready to stand up and make sure you succeed. Change happens with unity, and change happens when you continue to show up to meetings like this.” She added, “Bridgeport deserves better.”
Fairfield Education Association President Mick McGarry also offered his support.
“We were happy to host this meeting, because to disrespect one teacher is to disrespect all teachers. You are going to win this.”
BEA will hold a rally outside Bridgeport City Hall on Tuesday, September 10, at 4:30 p.m.
