Camden students and parents are rallying against deep school cuts: ‘They don’t care about us’

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Dozens of Camden City School District parents and students filled the library Tuesday evening at Forest Hill Family School to discuss the series of events that led to the district’s $91 million deficit.

The Parent Advisory Council meeting took place one day after students from the Camden High campus staged a walkout protesting the cuts.

Sasha Oglesby, a Creative Arts High School senior and walkout participant, said the cuts are affecting programs that help students, such as Women of the Dream, which she has been a part of since 8th grade.

“I was in their Girls Talk program, where I was able to talk about my trauma with other girls and actually connect with people to know that I’m not alone,” she said. “I’ve gotten therapy from women of the dream, and it’s ethical.”

A spokesperson for the district told WHYY News Wednesday that Women of the Dream is not among the programs being cut.

State District Superintendent Katrina McCombs announced in April that 289 jobs will be cut, including 117 layoffs, 38 reassigned positions and 97 eliminated roles. The changes impact teachers, attendance officers, behavior specialists, clerks, custodians, deans, family and operations coordinators, lead educators, managers, nurses, principals and security officers.

In addition, Camden High campus will have one principal for the site’s four high schools. Morgan Village Middle School, the district’s only standalone middle school, will be converted to an alternative school.

McCombs blamed declining enrollment and higher payments to charter and renaissance schools for the deficit and the fallout.

Alicia Mora, an active parent in the district, said essential staff positions are being eliminated. She works with some of the district’s family and operations coordinators and said she is hurting thinking about the employees who are losing their jobs.

“My personal feeling is I’m hurt,” she said. “I get to see behind the scenes the struggles and all the meetings and all the fundraisers and different things that we do with the budget we already have.”

Many in the audience are planning to attend the June 4 meeting of the New Jersey State Board of Education in Trenton. Participants discussed how they would be able to speak during public comments.

Kauthar Sumayyah, a junior at Creative Arts High School who participated in the walkout, said it was “exciting” to know that so many adults supported the protest.

“I felt like we had a support system,” she said. “The fact that parents are fighting, the parents do want better for us, our voices are actually being heard, that’s like amazing to me and my peers.”

Kauthar said the cuts are personal because her mother works for the school district.

“The fact that they can rift or let go someone with such love and compassion for the students, it shows to me that they don’t care about us,” she said. “It’s a sense of disrespect to us students, and it’s a sense … we’re only being used for, dare I say, money.”