A proposed large-scale teacher layoff has incited a dispute between Superintendent Cami Anderson and the teachers union over the future of Newark's school district after a 2012 teachers contract emphasizing elimination based on performance was implemented, according to the Associated Press.
About 30 percent of Newark's 3,200 teachers need to be laid off over the next three years to close a projected $100 million budget gap, the AP reported. Anderson argues evaluations are the only way to make sure majority of those let go are among the lowest-performing teachers.
Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg was persuaded by then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker in 2010 to invest $100 million in remaking the Newark school district which until 1995 had suffered years of mismanagement, chronically low test scores and crumbling infrastructure in the city of 280,000, the AP reported.
Half of the money donated by Zuckerberg has been invested in the 2012 teacher contract praised by Governor Chris Christie as an example of adversaries joining forces to better the school district, according to the AP. The contract made Newark the state's first district to allow for teacher merit pay and peer reviews.
Since then, the contract's implementation has stalled and with both sides blaming the other for the failure to implement the teacher contract, the AP reported.
Anderson recently requested a waiver allowing her to circumvent state tenure rules and instead base layoffs on an effectiveness rating, causing outrage from the local teacher unions and the American Federation of Teachers, according to the AP.
Executive Director of Community Affairs and Engagement Ruben Roberts says "teacher layoffs are an inevitable consequence of bringing staffing levels in line with enrollment," which has declined from about 75,000 students in 2003 to about 36,000 in 2014, the AP reported.
"No one likes laying off teachers, nobody wants to, and in Newark, nobody has," Roberts said, according to the AP. "The position we're in now is due to the reluctance of past administrations to reduce the size of the workforce to mirror the shrinking of our footprint here in the district."
