The DFT will close at 5 p.m. on Friday, December 20, 2024 and we will return back to the office on Monday, January 6th. On behalf of the Executive Board, Trustees, and staff our best wishes for a Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.  

🛒🎁🛍️ Just a reminder for those who still have some holiday shopping left to do: Shop Union. We posted some pages in the November issue of The Detroit Teacher, pages 16-25. The list of union-made goods has been updated for December: Buy Union For the Holidays, Buy Union for Hanukkah and Buy Union for New Year's Eve.

On Thursday, October 17, 2024 the DFT hosted AFT National President, Randi Weingarten, and Executive Vice President, Evelyn DeJesus, to create a historic partnership and grant between the Biden-Harris administration and Micron to bring Microprocessing Pathways to DPSCD's Career and Technical Education. Several people, including Detroit Deputy Mayor, Todd Bettison, Deputy Superintendent, Alycia Meriweather, White House Domestic Policy Council, Neera Tanden, along with Weingarten and DeJesus, toured Southeastern High School as part of their visit to Detroit. After the tour of the high school, about 30 individuals were invited to the DFT offices for a roundtable discussion. More information can be found here: https://www.aft.org/microtechnology-education-and-aft. This grant, which has been piloted in New York, is now coming to southeast Michigan and Minnesota. Stay tuned for more information.

The DFT held a candidate screening for those who are running for office.  We recorded the conversations and have posted them here. There are six separate videos. Our members are encouraged to watch the videos so they can make informed decisions about the election process.

• Saturday Candidate Screening on Zoom (passcode is XDXeF6=k) candidates are Hill Harper at 00:00:50, Elissa Slotkin at 00:30:00, Rashida Tlaib at 01:03:00.
• Raphael Washington Candidate Screening (runs 14 minutes)
• Shri Thanedar Candidate Screening (runs 14 minutes)
• Thursday Candidate Screening candidates are 00:00:50 Macie Gaines, 19:00 Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, 45:00 Sherisse Butler, 1:10:00 Boyd White III, 1:33:00 Stephanie Young
• Mary Waters Candidate Screening (runs 20 minutes)
• Adrienne Scruggs Candidate Screening (runs 16 minutes)

Join President Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins as part of a Women's HERstory program!

The district and the union have agreed to a stipend rate for the newly created position of Head Coach Sports Reporter Producer. Click here for the letter of agreement.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District and the Detroit Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 231, are pleased to announce that they have entered into a tentative agreement for a successor collective bargaining agreement for the 2023-24 school year.  The DFT Executive Board went into special session this evening and unanimously agreed to present the tentative agreement to the membership for a ratification vote. All DFT bargaining unit members are expected to report to work, tomorrow, August 21, 2023 at the start of your work day.

According to the Constitution and By-laws of the union, only members who are in good standing may cast a ballot on the tentative agreement.