Where's the Plan?

WHERE'S THE PLAN?

Britt Dowdy, President of the Teachers Union (Nmft, Newport Mesa Federation of Teachers) is a pretty laid-back guy, not easily subject to anger, but on this particular day, he was angry. He wrote the over 1200 teachers a memo regarding school safety. In that memo he talked about the eight schools who had reported “grave concern” about their physical safety since January. The schools are: Newport Harbor High School, Newport Elementary, Corona Del Mar High School, Wilson, California, Newport Heights, and College Park. In five of those schools there were specific threats of bodily harm; some pretty alarming.

Britt’s concerns and anger revolve around the lack of communication between and among all people involved in these events. The teachers who felt threatened enough to not come to school, were not informed of any actions taking place and neither was the teachers union. Unfortunately, this behavior and obvious disrespect for the teachers and their union has been prevalent for a number of years, and is becoming dangerous for the students.

There seemed to be no uniform plan.

The emergency at College Park Elementary School was a different story, but with the same theme. There seemed to be no uniform plan. There is some dispute about when the district was notified that all electricity would be out on Wednesday March 7th, but it really doesn’t matter. As Britt says, "the district should prepare for worst case scenario in any event" There was no electricity the entire school day.

Some people might say...so what. no big deal. But here is why it is a very big deal. In the world we live in, which is apparently heating up as exemplified by the number of teachers who were threatened with bodily harm just this year, there was no way to communicate because the phones weren’t working. That means, for those of you who have not taught, teachers had no way to call the office or other teachers. Cell phones you say? Amazingly, not everyone has a cell, nor does everyone carry it at all time, nor do people keep their cells constantly charged. Also, teachers do not necessarily have the numbers of the other teachers.

In addition, the smoke detectors were out. Computers/wi-fi were not available for communicating the emergency to the district. And to top it off, it was a cold day and the temperatures hovered between 54 -60 degrees, so everyone was freezing. As Britt says “This was a violation of Education Code, Building Code, Williams Settlement, and our contract”

No matter how the district puts lipstick on this pig, the school was out of power for the entire day with no apparent plan. Dr. Britt Dowdy states “The problem is a the lack of a plan, and the lack of communication between the district administration, Nmft leadership, and the Csea (California School Employees Association ) to create a plan. Dr, Navarro stated at the board meeting March 13 that there is a plan, and according to him, the plan seems to be to push the decisions for the "low-level" emergency off on the principal.

Britt became the president of Nmft hoping the combination of Nmusd, Nmft and Csea would form a coalition that would create a “better environment for children and employees” but now feels “that it does not appear that the administration wants to work with us or the Csea, especially in creating safer working conditions”

In talking to him, his disappointment in the lack of cooperation was palpable. However, because of the districts lack of serious plans in almost every conceivable emergency, the teachers do have a plan. They are going to work on "action plans" themselves. Not only to attempt to alleviate their own fears, but to make sure that the children in their care are really safe.

Where is the plan?

Apparently the Britt and the teachers have the plan.