JCTA President's Update re: Current Situation (3.16.2020)

Last week, Dr. Pollio held a press conference and responded to media questions. At the press conference he said during the next two weeks JCPS will be following a snow day protocol, which means that unless you are directly instructed otherwise, the next two weeks will be just the same for teacher as if the district had closed due to snow.

If any of this changes, the district will have to provide specific guidance to everyone and they will have to work out any contractual details with JCTA. We do not anticipate that being the case during the next two weeks.

The district's academic services staff has developed some optional at-home lessons for the next couple weeks that students can use, but those are not classroom teachers' responsibilities.

JCTA has received a number of questions about why JCPS does not have a Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) plan in place.

In general, the district does not believe NTI is a very good option for a number of reasons, but probably the most significant concern they have is that in our district there is no way to implement NTI with equity and quality. My discussions with those in other districts using NTI confirm that the quality of NTI is generally not good.

Also, with the number of ECE students we have, NTI creates more significant problems for meeting IEP and 504 requirements in JCPS than in other districts.

In spite of these issues, if the district shutdown lasts long enough, NTI may have to be used in JCPS. If that is the case, our understanding is that the district's tentative plan is to have common assignments designed and posted by JCPS Academic Services resource teachers, so classroom teachers will not have to plan those lessons. The district is submitting an NTI request to KDE to allow for this option, if it is needed.

It is important to be aware that there is legislation working its way through the General Assembly that is designed to give districts greater flexibility in forgiving student and employee missed days, so one should not assume that every non-NTI day will have to be made up in the summer.  We also do not expect any JCTA member to have their pay interrupted.

At this point, there are many more questions than answers, and JCTA is actively involved in advocating with policymakers at the local and state levels to answer those questions in a way that makes sense for students and educators. For example, your JCTA President Brent McKim and Executive Director DeeAnn Flaherty are working with legislators in Frankfort on legislation to provide districts with additional flexibility related to COVID-19 closures, but the absolute earliest that legislation could be completed would not be until the end of next week, and likely not until later than that. Until then, most questions about when and how students and educators may have to make up this missed time really cannot be accurately answered.
 
If you have specific questions, please call or email your professional staff at JCTA.