Ex-Newark Teacher Says He’s On ‘Ineligible List’ For Speaking Out

NEWARK, NJ — The following letter to the editor comes courtesy of a reader in response to our article, “3 Newark Charter Schools Ordered To Shut Down” from March 2017. Patch reached out to Newark Leadership Academy and Merit Prep Charter seeking comment on the letter, but received no reply.

“In 2015, worked at Newark Leadership Academy and rarely if ever, were there consequences for bad behavior. Students knew they would get a meeting with a counselor, with no real consequences. I ended up getting assaulted there and two weeks later was given a pink slip. The motto of principal and assistant principal was, ‘Don’t call us unless there is a knife, gun or blood on the floor.’

“In 2016, I worked at Merit Prep Charter. The deans were excellent, but like the Newark charter, the students had more power than the teachers. Every student had a laptop, and most played video games and listened during the 90-minute classes. I pushed my students to do their class work, and they sent e-mails to the principal they did not like me as a teacher. My contract was not renewed. In other words, if I let the kids do what they wanted, I would have kept the job; that is not my definition of love.

“In my first six weeks at Merit Prep Charter, I was never informed who my special education students were, or the disciplinary ladder of reference to know what consequences for unacceptable behavior was.

“At my end of the year review my teaching coach said, ‘You are a professional, you know your content, and you implemented all my suggestions.’ The principal said, ‘Yea, but our clients (students) did not like you. We have to let you go.’

“At Merit Prep Charter, the grading rubric was 35 or higher was passing while a 75 or higher was an ‘A.’ This is helping prepare kids for college and for the hard knock world? Three classes did not have a subject teacher for six months equaling 132 days of no instruction.

“One study claims only 23% of charters do better than public schools. This means 77% of charter schools are failing. Other studies show the best performing schools in the country have unions. For me, charters about union busting. I also feel institutions such as hospitals and schools should not be about profit, but serving people.

“I sent two letters in the summer of 2016 to Mayor Ras Baraka and Senator Cory Booker, but neither responded to either of my letters. When I expressed concern to the Newark Teachers Union in 2015, I was informed until I reach tenure, a principal could blame me for it raining, and fire me for it.

“As a result of my sharing my experiences with Newark Charter Schools in my memoir that came out in January of 2017, my name has been placed on the ineligible list to teach in Newark.”

• See related article: Newark Students May ‘Lose A Home And Family’ If Charter Schools Close (VIDEOS)
• See related article: Newark Students Hold Huge ‘Save Our School’ Rally At City Hall (VIDEO)

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