Another Cami disaster–chaos at Barringer
Chaos hit
Barringer High School in Newark was in chaos today after scores of students and parents marched out of the North Ward school–the oldest high school in Newark–to protest teacherless classrooms, foodless lunch hours, and class sizes reaching into the sixties.
“The hallways are dangerously crowded with students–and so are the classrooms,” said Marco Huertas, a junior.
As part of superintendent Cami Anderson’s plan to provide more “choice,” Barringer was divided into two schools: Barringer STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and Art. Most of the problems for now are restricted to STEAM.
Anderson fired Wayne Dennis, the principal of STEAM for only one year despite good evaluations and Dennis’s loyalty to Anderson’s “One Newark” plan that has outraged students and parents throughout the state’s largest city. The newly appointed principal of the other Barringer, Muhammed Bilal, quit even before the new school year began.
Wilhelmina Holder, a parent leader who is head of the Secondary School Coalition, said Barringer has been in a state of “chaos” since school opened Sept. 4. Many students sent there under Anderson’s “One Newark” plan either have no schedules at all or temporary schedules that are changed every few days.
“Students don’t know where to go,” she said.
Grace Appiah, 16, a junior, says she has received temporary schedules and has Another Cami disaster–chaos at Barringer | Bob Braun's Ledger: