DEFEND TEACHER LEADER NICOLE CONAWAY and DEMAND HER IMMEDIATE REINSTATEMENT

Nicole Conaway has been teaching in Detroit Public Schools since graduating from Wayne State 2006. She is a highly respected and admired Science teacher who brought the joy of learning into her classroom (and online classroom) everyday. She makes learning fun, challenging, and relevant for her students. She loves her students and wants to continue to serve the Detroit community which she loves.

Ms. Conaway is also a bold teacher leader in the fight against the attacks on Detroit’s Public schools, starting with organizing in the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) to block the contract that allowed for so-called partnership schools and turnovers that gave our schools over to charters. As a founding member of the Equal Opportunity Now/By Any Means Necessary Caucus (EON/BAMN) in the union, Nicole has fought for the rights of DFT members. She also recognizes that united direct action is the key to victory. Her first action was marching with Southeastern High School students to save their choir class, chess club, and other extracurriculars. When Emergency managers Robert Bobb and then Roy Roberts threatened to close the Catherine Ferguson Academy for Young Women, she joined her students to build the movement to save their school. Together, they led marches down Woodward Avenue to the Fisher Building; they occupied the school and were arrested for doing so. Their courageous determination drew international attention and successfully saved the school from closure.

Within the union, Ms. Conaway has served as building representative, and an elected DFT delegate to the Convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the International union of the teachers. When fellow BAMN teacher leader Steve Conn was elected president of the DFT, she helped lead the movement within the union to rid DPS of Emergency Management and restore the right of the people of Detroit to elect our own school board. As a founding member of the Detroit Strike to Win Committee, she co-organized the wave of sickouts to end emergency management, culminating in shutting down the entire district in January 2016. Nicole and Steve prevailed in court when the District sued them for their role in leading the sickouts. Nicole’s leadership was vital to ending the state takeover of the Detroit Schools.

For months, Ms. Conaway has attempted to secure an accommodation from Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) to obtain an online-only teaching position with DPSCD. She is under strict orders by her doctors to teach online from home as a safeguard, given the severe risk to her health if she were to get sick with Covid-19. DPSCD has a growing online student population and is short of online teachers. But the administration refused to grant her that accommodation. On February 19, 2022, in flagrant opposition to the interests of Detroit students and of Nicole, the administration sent her a termination letter. Superintendent Vitti and his administration have denied Ms. Conaway’s accommodation requests, and they have now taken the unscrupulous action to terminate her. It is not by chance that just a week after Superintendent Vitti’s announcement of plans to close a dozen schools, Nicole received her notice of termination from the school district. They are discriminating against Ms. Conaway. They are retaliating against her efforts to receive accommodation from Vitti’s administration, from being an intrepid fighter for Detroit’s public school student and for the whole community. Vitti and his administration is hoping to shut her up and discourage others from challenging their policies. They clearly do not know Nicole Conaway, and they do not understand this community.

I am proud to stand with Nicole Conaway.

I demand that DPSCD School Board and administration immediately rescind Nicole Conaway's termination and grant Ms. Conaway’s right to her accommodation to continue teaching online from home.

Send to the following DPSCD School Board Members:

corletta.vaughn@detroitk12.org

sherry.gay-dagnogo@detroitk12.org

deborah.hunter-harvill@detroitk12.org

misha.stallworth@detroitk12.org

angelique.peterson-mayberry@detroitk12.org

georgia.lemmons@detroitk12.org

sonya.mays@detroitk12.org

cc: nconaway@gmail.com