This story is quite frankly, upsetting and amazing at the same time to us at Robin Hood Radio….it was sent to us by an employee of Region One, by the way, we also recieved three calls from concerned employees on this subject as well. What I do not understand is that the High School and town education budgets for this year were all approved…so it will cost nothing more to just pay these people and give them the OPTION to come in to work if it feels safe…well, anyway, read the letter and you decide..it sounds like a lack of consideration for the non certified employees to me..a “slap in the face”. See the letter below.
So given the corona virus Region One has decided to attempt in taking part in online learning. Rather than just closing for 2 weeks (as of right now, could be longer) they have sent in a waiver to the state for online learning which means the days we are out would count as school days and days would not be added to the end of the year.
Teachers would “teach” from home and have assignments posted daily on google classroom. They would be available from 8:30-3:30 which is what the online school day would be.
As for us non certified employee’s like paraprofessionals we are expected to report to work if we want to get paid. A meeting was held with members of the region, the union president and our rep. They discussed this and given the circumstances we would be assisting our teachers who are home by doing daily “chores”. However cleaning will be going on, and we have to practice social distancing meaning we all have to work in separate areas.
Not sure how that is going to work! A meeting was called at the end of the day for faculty and staff. The faculty meeting was the biggest joke! We are in a crisis and all faculty and staff are expected Monday for a “professional development” day to prepare for this “online learning” even though we have not even been approved.
We all have to enter this building when even the President has declared an emergency.
After the faculty meeting those of the non certified who were present then met with principal and assistant principal to be told our school would only be open from 8:30-3:30 and those were the hours we had to work (mind you the meeting days before with other members and union reps said we could work our hours however we choose to), the work we would be doing is odd and end jobs that haven’t gotten done over the years like filing, dismantling bleachers etc. (completely not in my job description. My job is to help kids!)
Ian said they are offering us up jobs so that we can not apply for unemployment (nice! Glad that’s how he feels about his employees) when Pam sent her email out she said for the safety of students, families and faculty and staff the school was closing for two weeks minimum!
We however must be an exception because we must report to get paid! Not sure how is entering the building everyday is going to stop the spread!
