Endangering Staff and Students

Administration Fiascoes Make "Children First" Slogan Meaningless

Despite protestations to the contrary by Glascoe/Rush front men, the record of the administration has come to light in the opening month of school, and it does not paint a pretty picture of the administration.

26 Paterson schools were shut down after one day of attendance for students on Friday, September 7 by Mayor "Joey" Torres. The Fire Department had been inspecting the City's school all summer as a result of violations cited in March and April of the 2006-07 school year, seeking evidence of corrective actions promised by the Glascoe/Rush administration.

The closures were ordered after the Glascoe/Rush administration failed to correct numerous fire code violations. Glascoe supporters on the Board of Education, including Andre Sayegh and Jonathan Hodges leaped to Glascoe's defense, charging that the closures were politically motivated. Torres claimed that he had tried to give the administration and Board "one last chance" to resolve the citations, but instead, when the Fire Marshalls went into the schools, they found more violations.

Glascoe/Rush responded by calling a press conference to announce that the administration would seek an injunction to stop the closures. Ironically, all of Paterson's schools were closed by the G/R administration because they did not want to cause confusion in the schools by only closing those school cited by the Fire Department. Many wondered why the vaunted "Robo-call" telephone system could not have sent out two messages to parents; the first telling the parents in the "closed" schools of that information, and the second telling parents in the remaining schools that they would be open. Instead, G/R made things worse, laving the parents of all 27,000 students in the lurch.

In a letter to the editor, which amazingly was never published by the Herald, P.E.A. President Pete Tirri said, "The current crisis in the Paterson schools is unprecedented, and the infighting and blame-placing is a further indication of how low this district has sunk in the recent past. The teachers, parents, and students of Paterson have known for MONTHS about the safety violations that exist in our schools. We've complained about health and safety violations in our schools for YEARS, and we've been IGNORED. These closings are the final indictment of this superintendent and the members of the Board of Education, most of whom were members of the Board when the former Superintendent was vilified for the same kind of fire and electrical citations with which we are faced today. While the citations may be "new", the problems have lingered without resolution."

In its statement, P.E.A. further said "The current superintendent and his top-heavy administration have had MONTHS, not days, to fix these violations, and they've done NOTHING. P.E.A. contacted his office in late August indicating that we had learned of the potential for the violations and closings with which we are now faced … Minimally, the administration should have sought clarification from the Fire Department about our letter." P.E.A. received a letter from the Superintendent's office, dated August 30. Ironically, it was delivered to P.E.A. on September 7.

Instead, Glascoe/Rush declared their threat to seek an in junction against the closings; an even greater threat to the students and staff in the schools. Glascoe/Rush wanted a judge to ignore the citations of the Fire Department, placing students in 26 schools in jeopardy. Farcically, Glascoe/Rush called the closures "political" in nature. Their demand for an "injunction against safety" as some called his actions, was made while politicians from the Board of Education, including Board President Sayegh and former President Hodges and some Council members, including former Board members William McCoy and Anthony Davis surrounded the Superintendent.

With regard to this entire situation, P.E.A. stated,

"This administration has consistently taken the position that unless it decided to take an action, no action would be taken, even when the Department of Labor ordered the corrective actions. Even now, instead of taking RESPONSIBILITY for this situation and seeking assistance, the superintendent and his supporters are playing POLITICS. That's a DISGRACE. My members, the people who work with Paterson's children every day, want to go to work. Our students want to go to school, and their PARENTS want them in school."

"The administration would like our community to believe this is a political issue; that these citations are part of some kind of grand conspiracy to make the administration appear ineffective. It is not. No conspiracy is needed to show that. Board members were up in arms about many of these violations several years ago. They did nothing. This Superintendent and administration knew about these problems when they entered the district and, from the news of yesterday, apparently did nothing either."

"This is a SAFETY issue for every single person, student staff member, parent or community member who comes into the schools. P.E.A. calls on the state Commissioner to step in and direct the Glascoe administration to take action not to avoid the problems we face, but to resolve them. If this administration is unwilling to immediately correct the serious fire safety violations we face, the Commissioner must immediately find someone who will".

Apparently the demand for the injunction never got before a judge. The Mayor and the Superintendent were forced to reach an accommodation in which the District employed people to work all three days (September 7-9) to resolve all citations that it could, provide weekly updates to the Commissioner of Education and the Mayor as to the progress of the ongoing repairs, and complete the repairs in one month's time.

P.E.A. has filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) demand seeking all reports related to this fire fiasco, and should receive those documents by the 2nd week in October. Legal action will be taken should the reports not be provided within the time frame established by law.

"The abject failure of the Glascoe/Rush administration and fully supported by Sayegh and Hodges, leads to even greater concerns about the safety of our schools for students and staff. We must be even more vigilant in identifying, and reporting safety violations," P.E.A. President Pete Tirri stated. "If we have to have the continuing presence of staff from the Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health Administration (PEOSHA) in the District, so be it. No one, not even the Glascoe/Rush administration, not even Andre Sayegh and Jonathan Hodges, has the right to endanger the lives of our students or our staff members."