Newark charter school fires half of its teachers
Newark’s Marion P. Thomas charter school has terminated the jobs of half of its teaching staff–just months after it raised salaries in a move supposedly designed to retain its best instructors.
“They said they wanted to keep their best teachers but what they really wanted to do is use the raises as a way of recruiting new teachers to replace those they are laying off,” said Maria Parelis, the president of the union representing instructional staff at the school.
Marion P. Thomas is one of the few charter schools where a union, an affiliate of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), represents teachers.
According to Edward Stevens, an NJEA representative, Marion P. Thomas administrators sent termination letters to 37 of the schools 79 teaching staff members.
That represented 20 non-tenured teachers whose contracts were not renewed and 17 pre-K teachers whose jobs were eliminated whether or not they had tenure.
“This is churning,” said Stevens. “They are getting rid of people before they achieve tenure.”
Under the state’s new tenure law, charter school teachers do not receive tenure Newark charter school fires half of its teachers |: