August 19, 2020

To Crissy and the BFS board:

As a parent of two BFS students, I was dismayed to see that the school is attempting to decertify the staff union.

The union’s membership includes the teachers who have instructed, cared for, and bonded with my children over the past eight years. I have been continually impressed with their patience, intelligence, skill, and compassion, and I am grateful to them for making our experience with BFS such a positive one. During last year’s sudden plunge into remote learning, their commitment, diligence, flexibility, and aplomb made the best of a very challenging situation for all of us.

If those teachers and their BFS colleagues want to be represented by a union in their negotiations with the school, that is their fundamental right, and it’s disturbing to see a school that trumpets its progressive values attempt to thwart them in exercising that right. I urge you to immediately drop your petition to the NLRB, issue a public statement recognizing the staff union, and begin bargaining in good faith with the goal of signing a contract that will allow the staff to face next year’s challenges with security and confidence.

I recognize that BFS, like all of us, faces new and unprecedented challenges this year. I suspect that the misguided attempt to break the union has exacerbated those challenges by creating a great deal of unnecessary hostility and mistrust. I hope you'll quickly move to fix it.