Colleagues, I hope you had a safe and restful Winter recess. The Rochester City School District is proceeding with reopening school buildings despite the fact that they are not fully ready to do so safely and effectively - not with mitigation, not with COVID testing, not with vaccinations and not with a doable instructional plan. Dismissing the legitimate concerns of the overwhelming majority of teachers and parents, the District is willing to put teachers and students in harm’s way and to subject both to a senseless educational strategy - their last-minute scrambling notwithstanding: - Simultaneous Teaching. To this day, the District has provided neither relevant professional development on simultaneous teaching nor, despite repeated requests to do so, have they been able to demonstrate credibly how simultaneous teaching is doable in a district like ours. Many teachers still report a lack of needed technology and support to even execute this ill-conceived strategy. Resultantly,...