The global pandemic has impacted all aspects of life but perhaps none more so than the teaching and learning. In our inaugural episode, co-hosts Tina Dunbar and Luke Flynt sit down with a Cristal Atlas, a teacher from Broward County and Alachua County school bus driver Tarfanisha Phillips. Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union (BTU), and Carmen Ward, president of the Alachua County Education Association (ACEA),  join the conversation as well.

You’ll hear firsthand how educators are working against all odds to keep students safe and healthy while also providing the best education possible. All that, and more as we tackle how to grapple with this Covid Conundrum.

In This Episode:

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“People have a right to know. They should have a choice to come back to work or go get tested. Or if they really had close contact to be quarantined. It's, it's not fair to everyone else. And how about the parents? Don't they have a right to know that the child in her class tested positive and their child was next to them.” — BTU President Anna Fusco

“I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I don't sleep through the night because I'm worried about what's going to happen the next day or what I'm going to do. What's going to happen to my children. What's going to happen to my mother-in-law. What can happen to my husband? We each have our own health issues.” — Cristal Atlas, teacher

“Nobody tells us anything. We have to find out either from the person that transportation that was positive or, you know, gossip, or, you know, just. Other people, the news, I found out, uh, several cases for me, the news, and I'm like, Hey, wait, I transported them to the football game. If the whole JV and varsity and the coaches are out. What about the bus driver that took them to the game? You understand what I’m saying.. Uh, I'm, I'm always on pins and needles. I'm scared. I'm always stressed out about going to work and it's never, ever been like this.” — Tarfanisha Phillips, bus driver

“We've lost many, many employees too, to this pandemic. Because they have in their own safety over there, their jobs, and we've lost many educators from teachers to support staff, to bus drivers. Many people have stepped away from there, from their career.” — ACEA President Carmen Ward