While attending Widefield’s February 6th All In: Learning Together – WSD3 Secondary PD Conference at Widefield High School, I noticed that very few people wore the district’s “All In” t-shirts that were so present during the district kick-off event in August. The word had gone out, at least in some schools, to fly those colors at the PD conference.
Certainly, the t-shirt is a bad design — and I won’t even go into the visual layout problems. It carries multiple emotionally laden connotations, some of which are negative. Depending on how it lands, it can imply “no dissent,” “get on board or get out,” or blind loyalty. And by placing the district logo above a giant loaded slogan, the design drags the district brand into a vague message with uncomfortable associations. If the shirt had just been a clean Widefield logo in school colors, it would have been one of my favorite professional shirts of all time. Instead, it’s something I’ll wear only if pressured by administration.
But the problem with All In goes deeper than the vague connotations of the shirt. It also touches on a real problem in Widefield — and public education generally. Teachers are already beyond All In. We’re already beyond 100% committed with our time. Widefield teachers report a median of 1.5 hours per week of work beyond their contracted time (“to attend meetings or comply with other administrative expectations (after school meetings, open house, parent-teacher, programs, Title Nights, etc.”). For all teachers across the district, that’s 861 hours every week – 30,996 hours per year – of professional work being done without compensation. If valued at $50 per hour, that’s roughly $1.5 million annually in unpaid labor. And that doesn’t even include after school planning, grading, parent communications, etc., which account for a median of 5 hours per week per Widefield teacher.
To imply that our teachers aren’t already All In is to insult teachers. If the administrative vision of the district is one in which teachers aren’t giving enough and should be exhorted to give more, then those administrators are either incompetent or malicious. A district slogan should connect emotionally and positively, not gaslight teachers about an issue that deeply impacts our lives. Research demonstrates a strong connection between workload pressure and decreased engagement, emotional exhaustion, and burnout, which can negatively affect both teacher wellbeing and classroom quality. Teachers experience burnout at rates much higher than in other professions, illustrating that chronic stress and overwork are widespread and real.
Even though I had some excellent conversations at the All In conference — and enjoyed and benefited from all of the sessions — I couldn’t help but leave with a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps the next superintendent will bring a new vision to the district, one that doesn’t gaslight its teachers. Oh wait — through a rigged hiring process, we are almost certainly getting the same old vision as before. Let’s hope that the selected candidate actually has different ideas or is willing now to hear teacher voices.
Sincerely, Dustin Flesher, President of Widefield Education Association, mr.flesher@gmail.com