Educators at a New Jersey school district are outraged and say they were blindsided by the decision to eliminate nearly 100 jobs the week before Christmas.
Word of the layoffs came at Wednesday night's school board meeting in East Orange, where some like math coach Zania Saul learned they would be among the 90-plus set to be eliminated in the week before the holiday vacation.
"Even though I was upset, the third grade teacher was in tears when she found out, she’s got to find another job," Saul said.
Saul has tenure, so she will be reassigned — but dozens more will not.
The district superintendent did not return requests for comment Thursday. The district blamed the economy and what it called "budgetary reasons" for its decision. At the board meeting Wednesday, which got heated at times, the district said it had an estimated $25 million budget shortfall.
Families were left asking what happened to the budget and questioned why teachers were hired over the summer, only to learn just weeks into the school year that their positions would be eliminated ahead of the holidays.
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Parents and students said a number of teachers called out sick Thursday. The school district said in a social media post in the morning that "due to unforeseen circumstances, all schools will be on a half-day schedule." That left families forced to rearrange their schedules on short notice, only adding to the confusion and frustration.
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"Surprised. All of a sudden. We didn’t know this would happen — what’s gonna happen to the kids?" said grandparent Colette Johnson. "It’s a surprise, a complete surprise. They told us this morning when we dropped the kids off that it was gonna be a half day, but it wasn’t on the schedule, so parents had to scramble to pick their kids up."
"I have never in 19 years in this district ever seen this happen at this point in the year," said Saul. "We aren’t numbers, we’re people, we have lives, we have families. And you hire them in July and August then you claim you didn’t know you didn't have the money two months into the year?"
Students said they were worried the budgets cuts could have an impact on their learning.
"It’s really crazy, it’s so early in the school year. I’m just worried about my education I’m trying to graduate," said student A.J. Watts.
There was another school board meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday.
