American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

Newark Teachers Union

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Abeigon urges COVID-19 tests for Newark’s students

John M. Abeigon, president of the Newark Teachers Union (Local 481), is calling for students in the city’s public school district — the largest in New Jersey — to be required to get COVID-19 tests, the same as teachers and support staff.

“The Newark Teachers Union has strongly urged the Newark Board of Education and the state Department of Education to mandate student testing on the informed assumption that everyone in the city has come in presumptive contact with someone affected by the COVID [virus],” Abeigon said in a story by NJ Advance Media’s Kelly Heyboer.…

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Abeigon: Newark teachers need more remote-learning support

In the wake of the Newark Board of Education deciding to extend remote learning for all students until Jan. 25, Newark Teachers Union (Local 481) President John M. Abeigon is standing up for the needs of his educators.

“No teacher, especially new teachers, were prepared or trained for this,” Abeigon said in a statement. “If we are to improve our remote teaching, district administrators need to take their boots off our necks and help us instead of applying even more pressure [than] we are already under.”…

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Abeigon sheds light on Newark’s all-remote choice

Newark Teachers Union President John M. Abeigon spoke with CBS New York’s Jenna DeAngelis on Aug. 17 about the factors behind Newark schools going with all-remote learning through mid-November.

“There’s so much panic because of all the negative media about failed school reopenings … in this climate, we couldn’t reopen in September,” said Abeigon, a member of the district’s reopening task force.…

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For one Newark charter school not in session, the clock is ticking

Briana Vannozzi, NJTV News

The struggling charter failed to open on time for the 2019-2020 school year, and now its students are being bussed out to various community centers throughout the state. While the school is asking for parents’ patience and understanding as the situation is dealt with, the president of Newark’s teachers union is calling for an investigation, claiming a lack of oversight for charter schools is an ongoing issue in the state.…

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Merit pay was the heart of a ‘revolutionary’ teachers contract in Newark. Now the Cory Booker-era policy is disappearing.

Wall, Chalkbeat
[…]

Last week, negotiators for the Newark Teachers Union and the district struck a deal for a new contract that scraps the bonuses for top-rated teachers, allows low-rated teachers to earn raises, and gives teachers with advanced degrees more pay. It also eliminates other provisions of the 2012 contract, which were continued in a follow-up agreement in 2017, including longer hours for low-performing schools.…

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With contract about to expire, Newark Teachers Union says new deal with district is ‘very close’

Wall, Chalkbeat

The school year is over in Newark, but a big question lingers for teachers trying to budget for summer vacations or just pay the bills: How much will they earn this fall?

Union and district officials are still hammering out a contract for next school year that will determine how much Newark’s roughly 2,700 teachers are paid and how they can qualify for annual salary increases, which currently are tied to classroom performance.…

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In search of diverse educators, Newark will prepare students to become district teachers

Patrick Wall, Chalkbeat

Newark Public Schools is looking for a new crop of talented, diverse teachers — and it’s turning to its high school classrooms to find them.

The district on Tuesday announced plans to embed a new academy inside the city’s largest high school, where teenagers will take college-level education courses and practice teaching in local classrooms.…

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State’s most comprehensive teacher academy launches in Newark

NJBiz Staff

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León, Montclair State University President Susan Cole, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, Newark Teachers Union President John Abeigon, legislators, educators, and students took the first step toward creating a pipeline to educate, train and prepare future teachers – and to diversify the teacher workforce – with the launch of Newark Public Schools Teacher Education Academy on Tuesday.…

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Students Who Attend This Newark High School Could Soon Graduate As Substitute Teachers

Rebecca Panico, TapIntoNewark

NEWARK, NJ – Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger Leon is guaranteeing full-time teaching jobs to East Side High School students who begin their journey to become teachers at a new academy that prepares students to become educators.

The promise would apply to students who complete the new Teacher Education Academy at East Side High School and go onto to graduate with a teaching degree from Montclair State University.…

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We don’t have enough black and Spanish teachers. This will change that, district says.

Barry Carter, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Michelle Pena has known since kindergarten that she wanted to be a teacher, even though she didn’t have many, if any, who shared her Hispanic heritage as she moved throughout the Newark school district.

A senior at East Side High School, Pena, 18, is still set on working in the classroom, and being a role model for kids, whom she said rarely get to see a teacher that looks like them.…

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‘No secret agreements’: Newarkers demand details of district-charter enrollment deal

Patrick Wall, Chalkbeat

This week, the Newark school board approved a lengthy legal agreement spelling out the details of the enrollment system that thousands of Newark families will use to apply to schools for the coming year.

Didn’t hear about it? You’re not alone.

The board OK’d the deal at a hastily arranged meeting Monday that few people in the community knew about or attended.…

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Newark schools set to begin new era under local control

David Cruz, Senior Correspondent, NJTV News

“When you’ve had the state on your back for 20 years, you’re sort of like a beat dog,” said Newark Teachers Union President John Abeigon. “Every initiative that you’ve put forward that was positive for staff or students was vetoed or beat down by the state-appointed superintendent or the commissioners of education under Chris Cerf, and we’re hoping that there’s going to be a brighter and lighter future for us.”…

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Newark Teachers Union President Calls on New Administration to Fulfill 2012 Contract Obligations

Rebecca Panico, TapInto Newark

NEWARK, NJ – A Superior Court judge upheld an arbitrator’s findings in a six-year contract dispute between the former state-operated Newark Public Schools administration and the city’s teachers union.

The Newark Teachers Union filed grievances against the district a year after reaching a contract agreement in 2012 with the former administration. The arbitrator last year found that the district still owed employees certain retroactive payments that were promised in the contract, acording to court records.…

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NJ Teachers of the Year named in Middlesex, Union counties

Mike Deak, Bridgewater Courier News

TRENTON – A girls soccer coach in Perth Amboy and a dance teacher in Linden have been named Teachers of the Year in Middlesex and Union counties.

Matthew Wechter, a teacher at Robert N. Wilentz Elementary School in Perth Amboy, received the honor for Middlesex County, while Barbara Brady, a teacher at Linden High School, was honored in Union County.…

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Former principal Roger Leon chosen as Newark’s new superintendent

By Patrick Wall, Chalkbeat

Former principal and veteran administrator Roger Leon has been chosen as Newark’s new schools chief — its first since the city regained control of its schools.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the school board chose Leon — a Newark native backed by local elected officials — over two candidates with extensive experience in other large urban districts, but whose outsider status put them at a disadvantage.…

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