In its collective bargaining negotiations with the Washington Teachers' Union, D.C. Public Schools has denied an expansion of the city's athletic trainer workforce.
DCPS currently has just 14 athletic trainers who are overextended by their obligations to a student-athlete population that has tripled over the past 32 years. The WTU collective bargaining team says failing to hire more athletic trainers poses a danger to student-athletes.
A DCPS employee familiar with the negotiations says that the DCPS continues to D.C. Code § 1–617.08 in their refusal to negotiate this matter.
“This is nothing new. When DCPS added middle school sports in School Year 2004-2005, athletic trainers asked for more staff,” the staff member who requested anonymity told the Washington Informer. “Nothing has been done and we don’t know why.”
“This is nothing new. When DCPS added middle school sports in School Year 2004-2005, athletic trainers asked for more staff,” said the staff member who requested anonymity. “Nothing has been done and we don’t know why.”
The Informer reported that DCPS athletic directors have been trying to obtain more athletic trainers for decades but to no avail.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and Julia Hudson, D.C. Council member Anita Bonds’ chief of staff, joined recent meeting. Mendelson would later tell The Informer that DCPS is preventing negotiations from wrapping up before March 20, when D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) is expected to present her budget proposal to the D.C. Council.
