ROWDY PROTEST RAISES HOT ISSUES
Protesting inside and outside of the Baltimore City Public School headquarters at North Avenue, 600 angry parents, union members, teachers, ACORN members, Green Party members and concerned citizens demonstrated their disgust with the recently implemented lay-offs of 710 Baltimore City Public School staff members. Organized by Community and Labor United for Baltimore (CLUB), the rowdy demonstrators staged a “takeover” of the seats of the current School Board members and declared the current board “fired” at 5:00 p.m.


Wendy Foy, an ACORN member and candidate in the 2003 City Council election, spoke for the newly installed Board. “We want to unionize contract workers. We don’t want to privatize. It’s time for a change, it’s time for us to represent the Baltimore City School System.” Shouts of “lay off the Board, lay off the Board,” rose from the audience.

Minutes after the demonstrators occupied the board seats, security guards began to remove the protestors. After refusing to leave, some were roughly pulled from their seats and shoved toward the door. It took several minutes for the security guards to clear the chairs at the front of the room. Chanting started again. “We’re fired up, we can’t take it no more!” and “Save our schools!” rang through the room.


By 5:30 p.m., the intended start of the actual board meeting, none of the City School Board members had appeared. One after another, people spoke about the failings of the school system. A teacher said, “They’re laying off cafeteria and laying off custodians. Where do you think they’re going next? Pretty soon you won’t be able to get a free education.”

One person stated that during the snow last week, “parents went back home, brought shovels back and cleared snow so their children could get into the school.” She said that not a single custodian was at the school.

Another speaker said that the Board had been ineffective. “We – the people need to elect the school board.” Another teacher compared the accountability of teachers to the lack of accountability of administrators. Many in the audience said that the lay-offs were supposedly not going to “effect the classroom” as promised by Dr. Bonnie Copeland, the BCPS’ interim CEO.


Others talked about the need to fund the Thornton Commission legislation, passed by the General Assembly to allocate state revenues to improve the Baltimore City School System. None of this money has materialized. Still another talked about the need to fight for public education. One person said, “Our students need to be number one. They need to learn. We don’t need Bonnie Copeland. We don’t need anyone to just take orders from the Mayor and Governor and lay people off. We need to fight this to the end.”

The community forum went on until nearly 6:00 p.m. and still the Board had not appeared.

On the outside of the building, angry protestors pounded on the windows. The demonstrators inside signaled to them to “Stop,” and they did.

Frustrations were expressed, with some folks wanting to sit quietly and hold a dialogue with the Board when and if they arrived. Other proposed using the time constructively to make positive proposals to remedy the situation.


When the Board decided to come back in, about 10-15 people sitting on the floor were forcibly removed by police and security guards to comply with rules regarding fire safety. Others left the room on their own accord. Soon after the Board took their seats, CEO Copeland changed the order of the agenda so community comments could be made directly after “an introduction.”

As the Board began the meeting, people outside could be heard yelling, “Fire the Board.” Soon after, a power point presentation was flashed up onto a large screen to explain the School Board’s approach to “Cost Containment.” The gist of the presentation was that the administration had no choice but to lay people off and they did so wisely and with careful thought and input from “diverse” groups. After January 1, further cost “containment” strategies are to be discussed and imposed. The School’s interim CFO said that the goal was to meet the budget.

Dr. Copeland stated that even some BTU building representatives had asked about “furloughs.” She told the representatives that “everything was on the table.”


One of the Board Members announced the rules for community comments. Community members laughed at the paucity of the “three minute limit” per person.

Some of the speakers came with hat in hand, hoping to reverse specific lay-offs. Others, such as Baltimore Teachers Union President, Marietta English told the Board that they were destroying the lives of the children of Baltimore City. She asked why the Board was opening new “area offices,” when heating plants are not working in the schools.

Teacher Allen Rebar took Dr. Copeland to task. He stated that he had been at the meeting with union workers to which she referred. Only a few workers had spoken positively about furloughs and almost all the union members present had vocally opposed to the idea. He spoke forcefully about what he described as a nation-wide attempt to weaken and destroy the teachers union and AFSCME and to privatize schools.

Little yellow pieces of paper were passed out, some fell to the floor. It was a “Citizens Report Card.” The Card read that the intent of Education 101 was to insure a thorough and efficient system of Free Public Schools. For their part in overseeing a dilapidated system, the report card gave the Governor, Mayor of Baltimore, School Board and Maryland General Assembly an “F.”