Colleagues, Here’s a brief update: - Preparing For Tough Negotiations Ahead. While our current contract does not expire until June 30, 2022, the District is already signaling that they will seek to “right-size” the District at the expense of students and their teachers. Dr. Shelley Jallow, the state-appointed RCSD Monitor who appears to be the one to really call the shots at Central Office, recommended in her earlier reports and more recently on November 30th, that the District should hire an outside law firm to represent them in negotiations, demand a longer school day and school year, decrease our health benefits, max-out class sizes, lay off teachers, mandate more meetings, require more student testing, remove all contractual constraints on teacher evaluations and professional development, and outsourcing services, and fortify Central Office (she’s even proposing that the District hire a Charter Schools Coordinator). All this at a time that the District is swimming in money. She...