Christopher Cerf is a liar and a con-man who wants to divide Newark
Of all the lies, half-truths, canards and other deceptions the new state boss of Newark schools dumped on the people of Newark at his first public appearance Tuesday, to me, this was the most repugnant: He said that, to comply with seniority rules, he had to lay off some of the most “beloved” teachers who worked for the city.
With those few words, Christopher Cerf, a failed entrepreneur who lives in Montclair, clearly showed just how poisonous he intends to be as the man who finishes the job Gov. Chris Christie set out to do–destroy Newark as a united, cohesive community politically strong enough to play a role in state politics.
First let’s start with this: There is no measure of “belovedness” on any teacher evaluation form I have run across in more than 50 years of writing about education. Who knows which teachers are “beloved” and which are not?
Sure, we all have memories of teachers we loved, but that’s a far cry from the superintendent of schools–a former state education commissioner–declaring with the assuredness of fact that the Newark school district was forced by nasty old union rules to lay off “beloved” teachers.
Cerf admitted he knew very little of Newark and couldn’t get the names of his subordinates right–and yet he pretends he knows, for a fact, that teachers who were “beloved” were laid off while teachers who were not, or were somewhat or Christopher Cerf is a liar and a con-man who wants to divide Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger:
