September 28, 2016
Parents, Students, and Community Leaders,
The Newark Public Schools recently sent out a communication about their decision to close schools on Election Day, looking to blame teachers for any inconvenience that it may cause. The NPS seeks to blame everyone else for their mistakes and attempts to nullify a law that clearly states “No teaching staff member shall be required to perform his duties on any day declared by law to be a public holiday.”
Among the lies in their communication:
1) “[When presented with the calendar in June], NTU leadership raised no concerns regarding Election Day not being observed as a holiday this year.”
When NPS officials sat down with Newark Teachers Union leadership to discuss the calendar in June 2016, this very concern was brought up by NTU and dismissed by NPS. This issue has been raised many times as a concern of NTU, especially during a Presidential election, which results in a lot of people entering school buildings. This is a huge concern for the safety of students and staff. This issue was also brought up by the NTU Negotiations Committee and was summarily rejected by the NPS.
2) “This was not surprising given that NPS held school on this day just last year.”
Election Day 2015 was NOT listed as a state holiday. Election Day 2016 is.
3) “Mr. Abeigon recently directly communicated to the teaching staff to ignore our agreed upon calendar.”
NTU did no such thing. Directly in response to questions we received from school staff, we informed them of their rights under the law. We are required by law to inform members of their rights and defend them if they are punished for exercising those rights, which the NPS has stated that they intend to do.
NJSA 18A:25-3: No teaching staff member shall be required to perform his duties on any day declared by law to be a public holiday and no deduction shall be made from such member's salary by reason of the fact that such a public holiday happens to be a school day and any term of any contract made with any such member which is in violation of this section shall be void.
In no email did we encourage members to ignore the calendar or take the day off. In fact, we asked staff to give their administrators plenty of notice if they would be absent (which they are not required to do) to insure coverage would be available.
NPS’s arrogance, disrespect and refusal to respect the community of Newark, hatred of workers, and the rights of their employees is what caused this confusion. But, it is far easier for the NPS to point fingers at teachers rather than take responsibility for their own mistakes, or their disdain for us all.
Thank you, and please remember to go out and vote on November 8th.
In Solidarity,
John M. Abeigon
President
Newark Teachers Union