Zoom in April 12 to the Detroit Board Meeting to Demand they Stop Ms. Conaway's Termination

Thank you for signing the petition! Please share it to get others to sign so we can as many signatures as possible and mobilize to the next School Board meeting. Info and Update below

Zoom in and SPEAK OUT at the DPSCD Board Meeting                   Tuesday, April 12 @ 5:30pm

Demand the Board Vote NO on Nicole Conaway’s Unjust Termination & grant her accommodation to work from home NOW!

To view the meeting: https://www.detroitk12.org/boardmeeting        Virtual Public Comment by Computer: https://bit.ly/DPSCDBoardMeetings

At the last Detroit School Board meeting March 8, the new civil rights movement won an initial victory in Round 1 of the fight to defend Detroit Teacher and EON/BAMN leader Nicole Conaway. The Board was originally scheduled to vote on Ms. Conaway’s termination after the district illegally denied her right to ADA accommodation and would not let her continue teaching her classes remotely when schools reopened in-person in the midst of the surge in COVID infections in January. Students and teachers had circulated petitions, and the public comment list was packed with supporters of Ms. Conaway, demanding her immediate reinstatement. It was clear from the display of community power and the reaction of the Board that the fight to defend Nicole Conaway’s job is currently at the center of our struggle to defend public education and save lives during the pandemic.

Superintendent Vitti was conspicuously absent from the meeting. The board announced a last minute change in the agenda: no terminations would be voted on at this meeting. Ms. Conaway’s termination was postponed until the next meeting on April 12th. We had already stalled their plan. Now we need to defeat it. 

The Public comment portion of the meeting was kicked off with a fierce statement by a parent from Sampson-Webber, one of the schools on the proposed list to be closed or “phased out”. After about half a dozen powerful statements demanding Ms. Conaway’s immediate reinstatement, her excellence as a teacher and the urgent need to return to virtual learning, the board began censoring comments by cutting off the mic of any speaker who uttered the name NICOLE CONAWAY! The speakers list continued undaunted, some experimenting to see how long they could speak without using her name, but as soon as they said the words “Nicole Cona - MUTED! It was a petty shameless attack on democracy by scared bureaucrats carrying out the plans of a wannabe tyrant - who didn’t even show his face - and whose policies are so hated they can't withstand the light of day. 

The very next day Channel 4 news called Ms. Conaway to find out what was really going on with the plan to close schools which came up in public comment at the board meeting. The reporter called her specifically to find out the truth because she has been an intransigent fighter for students and teachers and public education. Ms. Conaway was a prominent leader in the 2015-2016 teacher sickouts and joined the student walkouts that led to the ending of emergency management in Detroit Public Schools. 

We fought to win back our right to elect a school board that would act in our interests, not fire teachers and put our lives at risk. We must mobilize bigger and stronger to the April 12th School Board meeting to make them accountable by voting to reinstate Ms. Conaway and maintain COVID safety protocols.