Rochester Teachers Rally Against School District’s ‘Christmas Massacre’ Layoff Plan, Receive Support From Students Who Walk Out Of Class, Saying: “We Will Be The Voice For Our Schools”
(ROCHESTER, NEW YORK) - Hundreds of students across the Rochester City School District protested the School District’s recently proposed layoffs of more than 200 district Employees on Monday (December 9th), just days after Rochester Teachers Association (RTA) Members rallied against what is being called a Christmas Massacre Layoff Plan.
On Thursday (December 5th), RTA Members held a public protest outside District Headquarters on West Broad Street, chanting: “Let Teachers Teach” and “Education Is A Right, That’s Why We Have To Fight” - in order to send the message: Stop the proposed layoffs of Rochester School District Teachers.
The Teachers Union organized the rally in response to Superintendent Terry Dade’s plan to lay off 218 District Staff Members, 152 of whom belong to the Union.
The Board of Education will vote on the cuts on Thursday, December 19th.
World of Inquiry Junior Maya Waller, one of two students who organized the protest at the school, was among more than 100 teens who walked from World of Inquiry at Scio and University to the District Office on West Broad Street.
"We ‘care’ about our Teachers," she said while walking on Main Street. "It's ‘not right that their mismanagement of money is negatively impacting Teachers, Staff and students (who) weren't there to make the decision anyway.’"
More than 500 East High School students, roughly half the student body, also voiced their concerns about the proposed layoffs on Monday morning.
Madison Smith, a Senior at East High who organized the school's protest with Eighth-Grader Sarah Adams, said when she saw Teachers crying about the news in school last week, she knew it was time to take action to try to change district officials' minds about the proposed cuts.
"Stay away from the classrooms ‘and cut from the higher-ups,’" she said. "Take cuts ‘from somewhere else - not our Teachers (who) we need.’"
RTA President Adam Urbanski has grimly referred to the proposal as a “Christmas massacre.”
“We have an ‘alternative proposal’ for the Board of Education we’re advancing – ‘don’t act until you can figure out how we got into this mess,’” Urbanski said. “The Teachers and students ‘didn’t cause this problem, they shouldn’t be punished.’”
Urbanski urged the School Board to delay voting on Dade's plan until June, a move that would buy time for the District to rally for additional funding from New York State.
The Staff cuts proposed by the superintendent would amount to a projected $10.4 million in budget savings.
Dade previously told the Board that under his plan, job cuts are expected to bridge about half of the School District's budget deficit, with cost controls, program cuts, and at least $20 million from the state covering the remainder of the gap.
The number of layoffs, he told them, was subject to change.
The School District’s mid-year budget cuts were prompted in part by overspending on the previous year’s budget.
The District’s former Chief Financial Officer told the Board of Education in May that the 2018-19 budget was on track to be balanced when it was not.
For More On This Labor News Story, Go To The Following Links:
www.nysut.org/news/2019/december/rochester-parents-teachers-spare-our-students
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