Colleagues,
For at least the first ten weeks of the 2020-2021 school year, and for all students and all grades, the Rochester City School District will have remote teaching and learning only. The remote teaching will be from home, not from the school or classroom.
We thank Superintendent Myers-Small and the District for working collaboratively with us to make this outcome possible. The attached Joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed just yesterday, strengthens our ability to serve our students well during the remote-only period. It includes no departures from our Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Fortifying remote instruction and postponing at-school and in-person teaching and learning for at least the first ten weeks is what RTA’s Resolution to Keep Our Students Safe, adopted unanimously last month by the RTA Representative Assembly, called for. The remote-only model for now protects the health and safety of our students and their educators – and, by extension, the health and safety of our families and communities.
Teachers do want to return to at-school and in-person instruction but only when it is safe to do so. We are happy that the District heeded the collective wisdom of parents and teachers on this critical issue. And we are especially grateful for your continued solidarity and for your unswerving advocacy for all our students.
Adam Urbanski, RTA President