Dear New Yorker,
You may recall, as part of this year's budget agreement, the City Council and the United Federation of Teachers successfully negotiated with Mayor Bloomberg to save thousands of teaching jobs.
However, our schools still needed to absorb a $178 million or almost 2.5 percent budget cut, and it was up to each school to determine how to make those adjustments. The result is that over 700 school aides, parent coordinators, and other non-teaching staff are slated to be laid off.
Tomorrow, October 11th, the City Council's Education and Finance Committees will be holding a joint oversight hearing to examine the impact of these planned layoffs. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in the Emigrant Savings Bank, located at 49-51 Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan.
We've heard from a number of people who are deeply concerned about these layoffs and the impact they could have on our students and schools, and anyone who wishes to is more than welcome to attend this hearing.
If you would like to testify, please be sure to register with the sergeant-at-arms at the bank prior to the start of the hearing. You can also email your written remarks to us at speakerquinn@council.nyc.gov , and we'll be sure to forward them to the committees' staffs.
In planning your trip to the City Council that day, we strongly recommend checking our online calendar at www.council.nyc.gov (link to "Calendar") to confirm the date and time of this hearing, as hearings are subject to change.
If you have any questions about the hearing, please feel free to contact Jan Atwell in the City Council's Human Services Division. She can be reached by phone at 212-788-9116 or by email at jatwell@council.nyc.gov . Otherwise, we'll be sure to keep you updated on the outcome of our hearing.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Christine C. Quinn
Speaker
NYC Council
Robert Jackson
Chair, Finance Committee
NYC Council
Domenic M. Recchia, Jr.
Chair, Finance Committee
NYC Council