MEDIA ADVISORY
OCTOBER 22, 2021
Following Superintendent Dr. George Arlotto’s rejection of our class action grievance, which indicates the refusal of AACPS to hear concerns about educator workload, TAAAC is filing a Level III grievance, and the President of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County Russell Leone released the following statement:
“AACPS leadership is directly responsible for the difficult circumstances educators experience in their school buildings. They continue to mismanage the working conditions of school staff, from a lack of clear and consistent safety guidance that supports the physical and mental wellbeing of our school community to the egregious and out-of-control workloads our educators experience. The behavior of AACPS is a top reason they face a teacher shortage, as well as a general hiring crisis across the school system. The fact that over 300 educators left the county or the profession entirely between the FY 21 and 22 school years shows how burnt out we are by rising workloads, and how intertwined the issues are.
AACPS continues to unilaterally change the conditions of our work without coordinating with educators, even as recently as this afternoon. We have asked for meaningful bargaining on changes to COVID leave, hybrid teaching standards, the rollout of the vaccination and testing mandates, and after-hours work, yet they have refused. The AACPS response is misleading, out-of-touch, and another example of failed leadership.
TAAAC proposes that we move to open bargaining so that the entire community and elected BOE can hear and see the fairness and honesty of our positions. AACPS is holding our wage package hostage to unfair, unsafe, and unsustainable asks at the bargaining table which we hope will be resolved through the impasse process. We will not work for less than we have rightfully earned. We will not work for free.”
