Montclair High students walk out over budget cuts

More than 400 Montclair High School students walked out of school Thursday morning, heading to the Central Office to protest the recently approved 2023-24 budget and transparency in the district.

The students gathered in the school’s amphitheater at 9 a.m. and the student organizers read the group’s demands – the resignation of schools Superintendent Jonathan Ponds, that the current high school schedule remain in place and that staff laid off last week be reinstated.

On Monday, the Montclair Board of Education approved the 2023-24 budget, after more than 100 students, parents and staff spoke in support for teachers fired from the district, questioned why the cuts most affected schools in the town’s southern half – located in the 07042 area code – and emphasized the need to seek school funding from the township.

To balance a $5.5 million deficit in the budget, the district cut 31 teaching positions – 22 certificated teachers and nine positions through attrition – along with 34 paraprofessionals employed by the district. The district will also not renew a contract that provided an additional 39 paraprofessionals during the 2022-23 school year.

On Tuesday, school district advocates spoke at a Township Council meeting, asking the township to provide schools with additional money, specifically from payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, that the township receives from developers.

At Montclair High School, three certificated teachers were cut, along with two additional cuts through attrition.

Beyond staff cuts, the budget cuts also mean the schedule at Montclair High School may change. Instead of a rotating drop schedule, with different classes meeting at different times each day, and students given the opportunity to take two electives each year, and have the option of a study hall period, the schedule could change to a traditional eight-period day, with no study hall, students attending each class each day and space for only one elective. 

The school employs substitute teachers to staff the study halls, and the cost of the substitutes has become prohibitive, district leaders have said.

For students who have already planned out their future year schedules, for those who are part of a small learning community and take an additional elective, for those who double up on subject classes or rely on a study hall period, the new schedule marks a drastic, and for some, detrimental change. 

The high school’s schedule for next school year has not yet been created, David Cantor, the district's executive director of communications and community engagement, said Thursday.

Accompanied by a police escort, the crowd of students headed down Park Street toward Bloomfield Avenue, chanting and holding up signs.

“No Justice, no peace, screw the BOE.”

“Save our schools.”

“What do we want? Our teacher’s jobs. When do we want them? Now.”

“Where’s our money?”

“We demand transparency, we demand the budget.”

“How do you spell crook? BOE.”

After about 30 minutes of picketing outside the Central Office, five protest organizers – sophomores Kiss Turner and Ava Read, juniors Bobbi Holtz and Gabi Dawson, and senior Roxana Foroughi – were invited inside to speak with Ponds. 

“It went better than I expected it to,” Read said of the meeting. “He seemed willing to work with us and work with our demands.”

The main issue seems to be that the administration does not really understand what goes on inside the schools, what the effect of the schedule would be, Read said.

“I am looking forward to being in communication with him and other people on the Board of Education,” Read said. “I believe that we will be able to hopefully create positive change.”

The whole meeting was mostly the students asking the administrators questions and the administrators saying they would get them the answers, Foroughi said.

Ponds invited the group to meet with him monthly moving forward. The group will also be meeting with Jeffrey Freeman, Montclair High School principal, and vice principal Reginald Clark, to discuss the schedule changes. 

"Today's rally provided valuable student perspective on the challenges imposed by the budget deficit,” Ponds said Thursday after meeting with the students. “I look forward to meeting with student leaders going forward to ensure their concerns are part of our ongoing work in this challenging budgetary environment."

Part of an educator’s role is to help students to be informed and engaged citizens, Ponds said. 

"I support our students' right to engage safely in protest and I am proud that they rallied peacefully and in an orderly manner this morning,” Ponds said Thursday after meeting with the students. 

At the protest, students took turns on the megaphone, voicing their concerns over the new schedule and the loss of their beloved teachers.

“The BOE is choosing money over people,” organizer Bobbi Holtz said to the crowd assembled on the lawn in front of the central office building.

Holtz demanded the line-item budget, which has not yet been available to the public.

“They’re lying to us,” Holtz said. “If they cared about transparency, they would publish the truth.”

The organizers were told by board members they would be given the line-item budget on Friday. 

At the protest, Cathy Kondreck, Montclair Education Association president, said she “couldn’t be more proud of kids standing up for their schools.” At the council meeting Tuesday, Kondreck asked if there was anything the town could do to help the district. 

Councilor-at-Large Peter Yacobellis also made an appearance at the protest, taking a turn on the megaphone to address the crowd. At the Tuesday council meeting, Yacobellis said he supported PILOT funds going to the school district. 

For too long, those in power have not properly cared for the Montclair schools, Yacobellis said to the students. 

“None of our leaders, our federal leaders, our state leaders, and us, your local leaders, have not taken your needs seriously enough,” Yacobellis said. “You should not be in this situation, you should not be in these conditions, and that is going to change.”

The budget cuts mean letting go of teachers that are crucial to the success of students, but also an attack on the schedule and students’ futures, junior Ben Shandler said to the crowd. And without a continued fight, the cuts will keep happening. 

“All these things come crashing down if we do not take a stand,” Shandler said. “This doesn’t end with a walkout. If it ended with the walkout, the board could be in there like, ‘Oh, we can just wait this through.’ They cannot wait this through.”

The persistence that Shandler outlined is essential to the success of the students’ mission, the organizers said. While proud of their classmates for showing up at the board and council meetings, and the walkout, the work continues, they said. As students listened to the speakers, the organizers circulated fliers with information about next steps – contact information for leaders in town, petitions to sign and more. 

Even with so many students involved in the walkout, Foroughi said the challenge will be keeping them involved moving forward.

“We need to maintain this passion we have,” Foroughi said. “It has to be a battle of endurance and people keeping up with it.”