A day ahead of the superintendent’s scheduled presentation about their school budget, hundreds of Stamford educators organized walk-ins throughout the district. Wearing #RedforEd and carrying signs, they gathered outside multiple schools before the morning bell and entered together in a show of solidarity with each other and their students.
“The budget that’s being proposed would result in cuts to dozens of teaching positions,” Stamford Education Association President John Corcoran explains. “On top of that, our elementary schools would lose their kindergarten paraeducators—who provide critical support to classroom teachers and young learners—along with their instrumental music classes. Teachers in grades one through five are already working with outdated, piecemeal materials and curriculum, and now even more is on the chopping block.”
He adds that proposed schedule changes at the middle and high school levels would create an untenable burden for teachers while also reducing students’ instructional time.
Educators were joined outside their school buildings by parents and students who oppose the budget along with proposed cost-cutting measures that would change the schedules at the middle and high schools, to the detriment of educators and students alike.
“We care for our kids!” they chanted.
Several walk-in participants spoke to reporters, and many more plan to offer public comment at tomorrow’s budget presentation.
“From the budget to the schedule changes, these proposals shortchange Stamford students, and we will not be silent,” says CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey, a Stamford resident who has attended two rounds of Stamford walk-ins, including this morning at Westhill High School, Turn of River Middle School, and Davenport Ridge Elementary School. In addition to speaking with reporters from Connecticut News 12, the Stamford Advocate, and other news outlets, DeLancey has spoken on the public record at Stamford board of education meetings.
“We will continue showing up and speaking out as long as we need to,” DeLancey says. “Our students are counting on us.”
