Earlier today, me and over 1500 other Minisink Valley students gathered outside on the athletic track to protest recent teacher layoffs. The Board of Education has proposed teacher cuts of over 31 teachers and 25 teacher aides, more than 10% of all teachers in the district.
The board says that the cuts would save 3 Million dollars, making up for the 2 million dollar cut the state is making to the schools aid. Most students believe that other areas of the budget should be slimmed down or cut before going after teachers, the most important part of the school.
We marched around the track wearing black and holding signs saying things like "Save our Teachers" and "This Hurts Us Too". The Times Herald Record was there to take pictures and video, which you can watch below. The Record has promised that you can read the full story in tomorrows issue of the record (Tuesday).
While other protests have been mentioned, I think the best course of action now would be to create a petition that we could present to the Board of Education, even if it won't do much. If we are going to be having any more protests, it should be at the boards meetings.
Here is the video, click the center to play:
To view a full screen slideshow of the photos, click here.
Shawn
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