Jackson-Madison County Education Association

Here is the electronic form of the petition -

Sign the Petition Health and Safety Petition For Masking In Schools

JMCEA is asking for your assistance in circulating the attached petition. Please sign this petition if you are a parent/relative of students, faculty, staff, and all local residents who want the Jackson-Madison County School System to adhere to guidance set forth by the CDC and the TN Department of Health which includes masks and isolating close contacts.

Petitions should be returned to JMCEA as soon as possible. You can scan them, email them, or get them back to us in person. Email [email protected] for details on how to return them to us. Thank you.

Discovery Park of America is celebrating educators during our free Educator’s Appreciation Evening on July 30.
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K-12 educators are invited to spend an evening of fun and inspiration at Discovery Park. There will be door prizes, heavy hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and demonstrations and programs.
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Doors open at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to all K-12 educators and administrators. Register here https://bit.ly/36uWO8a.

The JMCEA executive board met with Dr. King & his leadership team yesterday. There was a good discussion about employee & student needs. Dr. King brought ideas & asked for our ideas about how to make an eventual reopen of in person classes successful. Everyone agreed that in person instruction is best & teachers miss their students terribly, but allowing teachers time to become more comfortable with virtual instruction without students present in the classroom is needed. The system is looking to provide more support for online instruction & hopefully stipends for attending PD to improve online instruction. Hopefully, we can use the next few weeks to be on better footing when it becomes safer to open schools for in person instruction.

We also asked about portfolios & Dr. King said teachers should not stress over them right now. Dr. King said he would like to meet with JMCEA to have an in depth discussion about portfolios & the system might ask for some form relief or waiver from the state.

If you have ideas or concerns you would like presented please reach out to JMCEA leaders.

You can join JMCEA via the link below OR ask your building rep for a paper copy (which will allow you to have your dues paid through payroll deductions). New members will get a cash rebate. $50 for certified and $25 for paraprofessionals.

Message us if you have any questions.

Join the Tennessee Education Association! The Tennessee Education Association works to promote, advance and protect public education, the education profession and the rights and interests of our members.

Jackson-Madison County Education Association provides teacher input to JMCSS leadership The Jackson-Madison County Education Association released results of a two-question survey that shows an overwhelming majority of teachers are concerned about safety if JMCSS opens for in-person instruction, set for Aug. 24.

JMCEA is having a Zoom meeting at 4:30 today. Send us a private message with your home email if you need the link the join us.

Building reps (ARs) and executive board will have a Zoom meeting today at 4:30. EVERY school needs to have at least one person attend. Send me your home email address in a private message and I'll forward you the link. -Janis C.

These were the questions JMCEA asked. We were told we would receive more clarification from principals over the next two weeks and the board attorney suggested there might be a FAQ area on their website for employees only.

JMCEA questions for Dr. King:

We understand you might not readily have answers for all these questions. We raise them because they are the questions and concerns we are hearing from our members. We want to work with you and the Board to find good solutions for the myriad of questions and challenges that are coming. We also want to be sure to give complete and accurate responses. So, we pose these questions seeking answers to share with our membership and to help in finding solutions for unanswered questions that benefit our students, employees and our community as a whole.

Employee Protection/Health
▪︎What accommodations are available for employees with health concerns?
▪︎What are the medical protocols, temp screenings, and methods for removing sick students, teachers, or other employees?
▪︎How will faculty meetings and other group meetings of staff be conducted and how often?
▪︎Are we considered essential employees and if so, will we be expected to work if we have been exposed?
▪︎Will I be liable if a student in my class or in my care tests positive and I test positive?
▪︎If a person in a classroom is exposed or diagnosed does the entire class have to quarantine and how long? Who is in charge of making the decision of how long?
▪︎What supports or provisions are in place for employees who are exposed or exposed multiple times? Specifically, how are sick days, local leave and personal leave going to be protected if an employee must take more than 10 days due to COVID? What about after Dec. 31? Will employees continued to be paid if their sick leave is depleted? What is the policy?
▪︎What PPE will be provided for employees? Does the system currently have PPE on hand for all employees and how long should the supply last? How often will PPE be replaced?
▪︎Will there be a nurse in each building? What will be their responsibilities?

Building Safety/ Cleanliness
▪︎What are the plans for use of shared spaces? i.e. copiers, cafeteria, teacher’s workroom, etc.
▪︎Will plexiglass dividers be provided for teachers to teach behind and will there be plexiglass provided between students’ desks if the space does not allow for 6 ft. social distancing?
▪︎How many janitorial staff persons will be provided at each school during the school day? What specifically will be their duties during the school day and what supplies will be provided? What happens when they do not do those tasks? We have had times when we didn’t have soap or toilet paper or someone to clean up vomit.
What are protocols for cleaning? Will our teachers and staff be responsible for any cleaning? If so, will the cleaning supplies be provided?
▪︎Will there be visitors allowed in the buildings? If so, what will be the requirements or restrictions?
▪︎Will the school system be collecting data on how many are positive in a school and make it available?
▪︎Who will be responsible for notifying parents students are exposed in the classroom?
▪︎Who will notify employees if they have been exposed and how will they notify them?

Teacher/Employee Duties
▪︎Will JMCSS teachers provide all the instruction whether in person, virtual or cyber? Does this include PreK?
▪︎How will cyber teachers be chosen? Will those teachers with documented health concerns be given priority?
▪︎How many laptops are going to be provided and how will we distribute them?
▪︎If we have to shut down and go to all virtual, will teachers be allowed to go into classrooms and teach from there or will they teach from home?
▪︎Will there be cameras in every classroom? Will it be livestreamed? How are students’ and teachers’ privacy rights going to be protected if we are live streaming? If it is not livestreamed will the teacher have the ability to edit prior to uploading it?
▪︎What about FERPA and people being able to see students with disabilities, discipline issues and students who are struggling?
▪︎How will discipline be handled for virtual offenses?
▪︎We are very concerned about the physical and emotional health of our students and ourselves. Will flexibility, time, and support be provided to allow for teaching of new safety protocols, counseling, and socialization of students so they feel supported and cared for? ▪︎Many things that we will not be able to do are required in our evaluations such as group work and many things we need to do to help students through this pandemic are not part of the rubric and standards.
▪︎Will we be expected to provide feedback to in person, virtual and cyber students? How will that affect our evaluations?
▪︎How will evaluations be conducted?
▪︎Have you requested that testing and the TEAM evaluation/portfolio be thrown out this year? If not, will you do so?
▪︎How will students and parents be held accountable for virtual learning?
▪︎What about duty free lunch, duty free planning, stockpile days? ▪︎How will instructional time be protected?
▪︎What extra duties will be expected over and above classroom time?
▪︎How will you protect teacher time off the clock?
▪︎How many subs are available? Who will be responsible for acquiring a substitute if a teacher is out? What happens if we can’t find a substitute? What happens if there is no substitute?
▪︎What provisions are in place if a bus driver is exposed or sick? How will this impact other employees’ duties?

THE JMCEA ADVOCATE - August 2020

JMCEA Meets with Administration

Several of the JMCEA leaders met with Dr. King, Dr. Catlett and Board attorney Dale Thomas on Wednesday, August 5th. It was agreed that Dr. King will meet with JMCEA leaders and representatives the first week of each month to discuss issues and share ideas.

JMCEA presented a list of questions that members have asked and relayed that while the administration might not have answers to all the questions immediately, employees need answers and JMCEA is ready and willing to help work on solutions. Mr. Thomas told the group they were good, valid questions and the administration plans to develop FAQs and place them on the employee only portion of the website. Some of the questions will be addressed by building principals when teachers return to their buildings on Monday. You can find a list of the questions on the JMCEA page. (Questions submitted are in a followup post.)

The group discussed a few of these in depth. One thing the administration shared is that employees who have health concerns need to talk with their principal or immediate supervisor as there may be options around working in a virtual setting or different capacity. Also, they assured the group that cleanliness is going to be a priority. The system will have a deployment team of JMCSS employees who will be trained and available to provide additional cleaning in areas where there are positive COVID exposures. They are not expanding contracted services but instead looking to hire employees of the system.

Dr. King shared some good news, that there will be a Christmas bonus; $200 for non-certified and $250 for certified employees. JMCEA members complimented him and the board for putting money back in the budget for employees.

Additionally, Dr. King shared that it is his desire to openly communicate with employees and there is a newsletter called “The Teacher’s Lounge” just for employees. Look for it in your school email on Mondays. It was sent out this week, but several in the group said they had not received it. During the conversation it was discovered that it had gone some people’s junk mail file. So be sure to check your junk mail if you do not see “The Teacher’s Lounge.”

TEA UniServ Coordinator, Lorrie Butler said she had encouraged JMCEA to survey members to get a feel for where members are on returning to school so we could make informed recommendations. JMCEA shared that out of 717 emails sent out 427 members responded. There were two questions.

Do you feel 100% ready to resume in person class sessions with the various amounts of unanswered questions about safety concerning COVID-19?
92% said No.

Do you think it would be safer to reopen schools virtually for the 1st 9 weeks only and assess the situation on a weekly basis before returning to in person sessions?
89% said Yes

Dr. King and Dr. Catlett said they too are very concerned, and the safety of students and employees must come first. They assured the group they are closely watching the numbers and listening to the advice of the local health department, the CDC, and county/city COVID task force group. They will continue to watch the numbers daily and may have to make changes to plans based on the data.

The group agreed we must make plans for the eventual start of school whether it is now or later, and we all want the conditions to be as safe as possible. Dr. King and Dr. Catlett shared a few specifics:

•About 8,000 students are signed up for virtual or cyber school, which should allow for better options for social distancing in the schools.
•Classes will not be live streamed for safety issues; principals will provide details.
•A teacher will not be responsible for in person, virtual and cyber instruction.
•All types of instruction will be provided by JMCSS teachers and not outside contractors.
•Supplies such as masks and hand sanitizer have been ordered and will be restocked regularly.

JMCEA asked that collaborative conferencing resume soon as having an MOU would give teachers some peace of mind in such uncertain times.

It was a good meeting, and we are certain there are many more unanswered questions. JMCEA will continue to seek answers. Dr. King, Dr. Catlett and Dr. Williams will be visiting all schools starting next week and they will be at the bus garage August 18 at 1:00.

New Members Get $50 Rebate
If you know of a non-member now is a great time for them to join JMCEA/TEA/NEA. Active professional members get a $50 rebate and active support professionals get a $25 rebate. See your association representative for a membership form or go to www.teateachers.org and click on Join Now.

JMCEA Officers
Jeff Davis, President [email protected] 901-493-8392
Janis Carroll, Vice President
Tracy Johnson-Cooper, Secretary
Katie Spain, Treasurer

Tennessee Education Association | Great Public Schools for All Students

You can reach JMCEA at
[email protected]