Another outrage on the part of Epps. The JCBOE is bloated with administrators making six figure salaries. Many are cronies of Epps. So special education teachers have to get the boot.

I hope the Fulop block of Board members finds a way to get rid of Epps immediately.

Over 250 Jersey City public school teachers Wednesday protested BOE's 'thoughtless' layoffs of 42 special-ed instructors

Friday, May 27, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Over 250 Jersey City public schools teachers made their voices heard at Wednesday's Jersey City Board of Education meeting, protesting the 235 pink slips the school district sent out to teachers last week.

Jersey City Education Association President Tom Favia, who walked to the podium to cheers from the assembled teachers, told the board the layoff notices were "unprofessional."

According to Favia, 42 special-education teachers were sent pink slips, yet 22 special-education teachers have already put in their retirement papers.

Holding up a newspaper that he said was filled with ads from other school districts looking for special-ed teachers, Favia chastised the board.

"These 42 people have every right to take these jobs and tell Jersey City to stick it," Favia said, to cheers from the crowd.

When Favia left the podium - after refusing to stop speaking when his allotted five minutes were up - the teachers gave him thunderous applause and a partial standing ovation.

JCEA Vice President Bob Cecchini later told the BOE members that sending the layoff notices as a "thoughtless, insensitive, uncaring, uninformed and incompetent act."

Cecchini said he spoke to a teacher who is slated to be laid off despite satisfactory performance evaluations.

"Every single evaluation was satisfactory, every single one, and he gets a nonrenewal letter because he doesn't fit the school? What is that?" he said.

District spokeswoman Paula Christen said Tuesday's state Supreme Court decision that ordered the state to provide a total of $500 million extra dollars to the state's Abbott districts, including Jersey City, may change the district's plan to lay off teachers.