Hespe to meet with Newark students
Acting state Education Commissioner David Hespe has agreed to meet with representatives of the Newark students who shut down a city school board meeting Tuesday night with their demands for the resignation of state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson.
Michael Yaple, a spokesman for Hespe, said he “can confirm that the commissioner and superintendent plan to meet with students. I do not have anything on the date or the time.”
The meeting, if it occurs, would represent a major coup for city forces arrayed against Anderson who initially refused to meet with the students who sat in at Tuesday night’s meeting and then staged an all night sit-in at board offices at 2 Cedar Street.
It also would represent a slap to Anderson whose immediate reaction was to criticize the students for allegedly allowing themselves to be “coached” by adults in what she called a “politically orchestrated” demonstration. Her comments set off renewed statements of protest from students who, in many, ways have been in front of adults protesting Anderson’s “One Newark” enrollment plan.
Anderson’s full statement:
“I am unequivocally supportive of our students expressing their opinions and positions on issues – and at every point last evening and this morning our team treated them with the utmost of respect. I, and many members of the board, are also adamant that the district must conduct business in a professional and respectful manner including when we disagree. The young people who were coached by adults to stage a sit-in last night disrupted the meeting where they would have had the opportunity to speak, shouted at members who tried to bring the meeting to order and refused my offer to meet with them because of other plans on their schedules. As adults, we must set high expectations for our young people and support them in expressing their views in a productive fashion. The politically Hespe to meet with Newark students | Bob Braun's Ledger: