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

We are pleased to announced that the Newark Public Schools has decided to respect your legal rights and will be closed on Election Day.  NPS sent out the below letter this afternoon.  I will note there is quite a bit of mislead information in the below email.

1) At that time, NTU leadership raised no concerns regarding Election Day not being observed as a holiday this year.

When NPS officials sat down with NTU 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 since

We received the following notice from Joe Amabile, a Newark Teacher and Treasurer of AFT-NJ, and felt it was important to share:

IRS and Security Summit Partners Warn of Fake Tax Bill Emails

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit partners today issued an alert to taxpayers and tax professionals to be on guard against fake emails purporting to contain an IRS tax bill related to the Affordable Care Act.

The IRS has received numerous reports around the country of scammers sending a fraudulent version of CP2000 notices for tax year 2015. Generally, the scam involves an

Colleagues,

1)      DYFS Update – Recently, an arbitrator put out a pretty shocking decision regarding a teacher allegedly bullying students.  Definitely something you should read and take to heart when dealing with students.

2)      NPS Advisory Board Meeting

Tuesday, September 27, 2016       6:00 PM

Elliott Street School

721 Summer Avenue

Newark, NJ 07104

If you would like to speak at the Advisory Board  Meeting, please submit this form by 4 PM, 5 days before the meeting date!

3)      Reminder: Membership Meeting - On Monday, September 26, 2016, we will be having a membership meeting at the Newark

 To All Newark Teachers, Aides and Clerks:

           Please insure that you keep a copy of every observation and annual evaluation that you receive.  There is no guarantee that copies of your observations and evaluations will make it into your personnel file at 2 Cedar Street or not be deleted from Bloomboard.  Please always check Bloomboard to insure that the district’s records conform to observations and annual evaluations you have in your possession.

           Those staff who do not have in their possession observations and annual evaluations from past years should request a copy of their

Colleagues,

On Monday, the state Assembly Education Committee approved a bill to reduce the impact of standardized testing on teacher evaluations. 

http://www.nj.com/education/2016/09/dont_judge_teachers_based_on_standardized_test_sco.html

You must call and write your assemblymen to support Assembly Bill A4122!  Tell you friends and family throughout the state to add their voices to ours. 

In Solidarity,