April 2021 Advisor

2 CEA ADVISOR APRIL 2021

LEADING

Leading: Our Perspective

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic upended our lives. Maneuvering around the many obstacles and adversities associated with a pandemic has meant struggling to find ways to reach our students and help our communities every day while also keeping ourselves and our families safe. As always, we are proud of your extraordinary efforts in all of these areas. You have every reason to were not as dedicated to this task as we were. CEA’s staff and leadership team has been there with you, in the fight for you and your rights from the start, and our advocacy has paid off. Our vaccine prioritization campaign and push for district-based vaccination clinics allowed educators and school staff easy access to receive their shots and experience the first glimmer of hope and relief— and an important first step to safety. See story on pages 8-9. As we look ahead, we see federal COVID relief funding heading to Connecticut (see page 4). Those funds must be

working to ensure that no child falls through the cracks; students praising their overworked, overextended educators for helping them succeed; and community advocates describing everyday struggles with food insecurity, transportation, and homelessness. Lending a strong voice to the cause that day were legislators who are staunch advocates for equitable school funding and a state budget that works for everyone—Sen. Julie

WE’VE COME A LONG WAY IN ONE YEAR

Jeff Leake, CEA President

take pride in the tremendous work you have done to provide the best possible educational experience for Connecticut’s students under some of the most trying circumstances. There was no playbook to follow. And yet, teachers excelled at keeping their schools and classrooms as safe as humanly possible, sometimes struggling with districts and district law firms that

Kushner, Rep. Bob Godfrey, and Rep. Ken Gucker, who support our schools and our profession and understand that resources are needed to help all students achieve. The pandemic didn’t create the inequities we’re seeing, but it has exacerbated the systemic underfunding problems and is shining a bright light

Tom Nicholas, CEA Vice President

on the disparities between the haves and have nots. Recovery

will require significant investments of time and

THERE IS NO DOUBT THATWE HAVE COME A LONG WAY IN THE PAST YEAR, AND TEACHERS’ ENDEAVORS HAVE BEEN NOTHING SHORT OF HEROIC. BUT THE HARDSHIPS CREATED BY THIS PANDEMIC AREN’T OVER, AND NEITHER IS OUR WORK.

resources. We urge all of you to make the time to stand with your colleagues, join the Recovery for All events, and speak out for a state budget that creates fairness and opportunities in our schools and communities, giving everyone the chance to succeed. See story on page 5. Not every legislator is in our corner, and with the legislative session in full swing, we need to educate our elected officials on the issues that impact how you teach, how your students

Donald E. Williams Jr. CEA Executive Director

CEA GOVERNANCE Jeff Leake • President Tom Nicholas • Vice President

used to keep our students and school staff safe. They must enable the consistent implementation of strict safety guidelines, address indoor air quality, and provide for children with special needs, English learners, and the social and emotional well-being of all students. As we think about why this is so critical, we are going to borrow some thought-provoking words from our colleague to the north, Vermont NEA President Don Tinney, who said, “We often refer to a school as a learning community, but we must now see school as a healing community, an extension of our public health system. Every school must be a sanctuary for every student. From the time students step onto their school bus each morning, they must feel welcomed, included, and protected throughout their school experience.” To ensure that our schools are, in fact, healing communities as well as learning communities requires a strong support system that includes school nurses, school counselors, social workers, paraeducators, community members, legislators, and so many others. It will truly take a village. One such village, in which CEA leadership and activists are actively involved, is a coalition of educators and their unions, faith-based leaders, community members, elected officials, and civic- minded groups—Recovery for All—whose mission encompasses equitably funding our public schools, reducing income inequality, and ensuring that Connecticut’s economic recovery is shared by all. Nowhere was this partnership more evident than outside Danbury’s Rogers Park Middle School, where educators, nurses, lawmakers, religious leaders, and others came together in the rain to call on the state to lift all boats so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Telling their personal stories were teachers

learn, and what needs to be done to ensure schools are adequately funded and supported in a post- pandemic world. What was born out of necessity at the height of the pandemic cannot be policy moving forward. We need to be vocal about ending the harmful practice and unrealistic workload of dual instruction—teaching simultaneously to remote and in-person students—which has proven disruptive, inequitable, and unsustainable. See story on page 7. As educators, our primary responsibility is to the whole child and making sure that the academic as well as the social emotional needs of every student are met. That’s why it’s so vitally important that you sign the  #CancelTheTests petition to demand that federally mandated standardized tests are not administered this year. We know how much our students have been through and how much time has been lost. Taking away precious time needed for students to reconnect, learn, and rebuild and forcing a stressful, unreliable test on them after a year of isolation, anxiety, and trauma is inconceivable. See story on page 10. There is no doubt that we have come a long way in the past year, and teachers’ endeavors have been nothing short of heroic. But the hardships created by this pandemic aren’t over, and neither is our work. We still have much more to do, and we need every CEA member to stand with colleagues, union staff, and leaders and make our collective voice heard in the virtual halls of our legislature. Many critical education policy decisions are being debated in the state legislature, and teachers’ voices must be a key part of those conversations. We need to build back better—for our students, for our communities, and for ourselves. March 29, 2021

Stephanie Wanzer • Secretary David Jedidian • Treasurer

Tara Flaherty • NEA Director Katy Gale • NEA Director

CEA ADVISOR STAFF Nancy Andrews • Communications Director Lesia Day • Managing Editor Sandra Cassineri • Graphic Designer Laurel Killough • New Media Coordinator Eric Ahrens • Web Designer and Developer April 2021 Volume 63, Number 5 Published by Connecticut Education Association 1-800-842-4316 • 860-525-5641 cea.org CEA Advisor The CEA Advisor is mailed to all CEA members. Annual subscription price is $5.72 (included in membership dues and available only as part of membership). Institutional subscription price: $25.00. Advertising in the CEA Advisor is screened, but the publishing of any advertisement does not imply CEA endorsement of the product, service, or views expressed. CEA Advisor USPS 0129-220 (ISSN 0007-8050) is published in August (regular and special editions), October/November, December/January, February/ March, April (regular and special editions), May/June, and summer by the Connecticut Education Association, Capitol Place, Suite 500, 21 Oak Street, Hartford, CT 06106-8001, 860-525-5641. Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, Connecticut. Postmaster: Send address changes to CEA Advisor , Connecticut Education Association, Capitol Place, Suite 500, 21 Oak Street,

Hartford, CT 06106-8001. Production date: 4-1-2021