Dear Parents!
We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the overwhelming turnout at Monday’s Special BOE Meeting on the Budget. PS16 was the largest combined group, comprised of our teachers, parents and students and our Assistant Principal Mr. Salgado. PS16 has really made it known to the BOE members and the people present that we are a Family that stands up for each other. Thank you all so much!
There were some great photos and videos from the meeting by Jersey Journal and Hudson County View live stream. (Livestream shows PS16 parents Tugce Yalt & Natalia Ioffe speaking at [47:50] & [2:17:10] respectively). You can also find the individual videos on FB: Tugce Yalt & Natalia Ioffe.
At the end of the meeting the Board of Education has voted to approve the budget that included the proposed layoffs, however with a promise from Board of Education Sudhan Thomas that the district will not fire hundreds of teachers who received layoff warnings.
Yesterday Channel 12 News reached out to us for comment on the fact that Mayor Fulop has pledged $27 million in payroll tax proceeds to the school district to help save jobs.
While this brings obvious relief, we do not plan to rest until the Reduction in Force Notices are reversed.
“We want them to hear us that we are not going to end this fight we will get our teachers back,” (T. Y.)
NEXT STEP: BOE Caucus (5/20) and General Board Meetings (5/23). We plan to attend one or both, with one simple message:
#ReverseTheRIFs ASAP
We need our PS16 staff to know that they will ALL still have jobs in September and we would like the BOE to be proactive in getting this information out to the RIF recipients as soon as possible.
We would NEVER get this far if it weren’t for PS16 Parent Community’s (YOURS) immediate, targeted, and tireless activism from day one! You guys have accomplished the impossible, and we are confident that we can see this through to the end, for the sake of our kids and their beloved teachers.
From the bottom of our hearts – THANK YOU!
Best Regards,
CPA Team