Hundreds of local teachers packed the Minerva DeLand Elementary School in Fairport on Thursday night, speaking out in response to the education agenda Governor Cuomo laid out in his State of the State Address.
Superintendent of Fairport Schools, Bill Cala, said that Cuomo is holding the budget hostage in terms of state aid unless the governor’s reforms are approved.
Fairport English Teacher John Baynes told WXXI News that a chief concern is the erosion of local control and determination of schools.
That includes the removal from local schools boards, principals and superintendents of the ability to evaluate their own people..
Cuomo has called the current system in which he says 98 percent of teachers are rated at least adequate, "baloney."
There were similar protests Thursday night near Buffalo, Albany and Syracuse. According to Time Warner Cable News, Cuomo issued a statement in response to the rallies, which said in part, "You get evaluated in your job; I get evaluated in my job. Teachers haven't been evaluated in their jobs the way that they did before, but we want to design a fair evaluation system that is fair to the teacher and is fair to the student."
The rally in Fairport was followed by a town hall-style forum inside the Minerva DeLand school.
