Education, taxes, housing, immigration, politics, and other issues that affect the people of New Jersey
(Bob Braun’s Ledger presents the text of a statement read by John Abeigon, NTU president, and directed to state-appointed superintendent Christopher Cerf at the last school board meeting.)
Of all the lies, half-truths, canards and other deceptions the new state boss of Newark schools dumped on the people of Newark at his first public appearance Tuesday, to me, this was the most repugnant: He said that, to comply with seniority rules, he had to lay off some of the most “beloved” teachers who worked for the city.
The Newark school board Tuesday night ordered an end to the “One Newark” enrollment plan that has resulted in the dispersal of children throughout the city, the closing of public schools and programs, and a brave new future for charter schools. Of course, the Newark school board doesn’t have the power to do that and the entrepreneurial educator who does–Chris Christie’s former boss, Christopher Cerf–said he would continue “One Newark” despite the board’s action.
1) Formally recommend to state Education Commissioner David Hespe that the school board receive a score of 80 on the QSAC accountability score, thereby returning the governance prerogative to the local board. Gov. Chris Christie and Newarsk superintendent Christopher Cerf also should apologize for manipulating past QSAC scores for political reasons to keep Newark schools under state control.
At the end of the last Newark school board meeting, the board president quietly mentioned she would introduce a resolution at the next board session, scheduled for Tuesday night, August 25. Ariagna Perello gave no details but did mention it would concern “One Newark,” the state administration’s often cruel dispersal of students throughout Newark’s schools. Perello’s comment creates the strong possibility of a confrontation between the board and the new state-imposed superintendent, Christopher Cerf.
The Newark school board has scheduled its regular business meeting at 5:30 pm today. It will be the first meeting the newly-imposed state superintendent of Newark schools, Christopher Cerf, will likely attend. He can take five steps tonight to prove he really is in favor of returning the district to local control and supporting neighborhood public schools. Here are the five steps:
The latest round of state-mandated school “reforms” imposed on the children, parents, and employees in the Newark public schools has created a bizarre situation in which virtually the entire staffs of so-called “turnaround” schools will be new and unknown to both neighborhood residents and to each other, many of these new teachers already have signaled their opposition to the changes mandated by the reform, and faculty will be working two different schedules in the same schools.
Nothing more dramatically shows the contempt the state-operated school district obviously feels for the residents of Newark than the way its leaders–first Cami Anderson and now Christopher Cerf–keep parents uninformed about even dramatic changes in their schools. Consider the strange case of H. Grady James, the on-again, off-again, vanishing principal of the Hawthorne Avenue School. Who has now reappeared.