\u201cFame, I want to live forever\u201d.\u00a0 These words sung by Irene Cara echoed off the walls of the School of the Performing Arts as talented teens strive for the stars. We all marveled at the brilliance of these performers.\u00a0 But for the brilliant and talented teens in Fort Lee, their dream appears to be dead. The APA dance program has been dismantled, a victim of budget cuts.\u00a0 Their inspiration, Ms. Claudia Cutler, a teacher with twenty years professional dance experience, has been given notice. The replacement teacher, Ms. Denise Beffre, who has been teaching gym for the last two years, may have the certification, but it is unclear that teaching dance is her forte.<\/p>\n
Twenty Seven students benefit from the APA dance program.\u00a0 How can we possibly justify a full-salaried teacher for only twenty-seven students in an era of budget cuts? How can we not?!\u00a0 The BOE must adhere to government mandates for the use of educational funding for \u201cspecial education programs\u201d and ESL programs, but there is no mandate for the gifted!\u00a0 So we, the community, must mandate for our talented students. \u00a0And if you viewed them at the Monday BOE meeting, speaking eloquently to the Administration, pleading to keep their program, you would feel very proud of these young adults, the \u201cbrightest and the best\u201d!<\/p>\n
The State of New Jersey has cut the Fort Lee School Budget by approximately $2 million over the last few years with a small part of the cuts returned through a one-time grant.\u00a0 The budget will be pared additionally next year, creating a need for additional cuts.\u00a0 Services and staff have to be reduced, but was it essential for this amazing program to be cut?<\/p>\n
The BOE is being sued by Jay Berman for \u201cwrongful discharge\u201d when he was suspended as the principal of Fort Lee High School.\u00a0 A conservative estimate of legal costs and\/or settlement costs would be several hundred thousand dollars.\u00a0 Surely these monies could have salvaged the program.\u00a0 Helen Yoon, newly elected BOE member, could withdraw her vindictive \u201cethics charge filing\u201d if she really cared more about the students than her personal indignation. \u00a0The potential cost of her legal action could be in the thousands of dollars.\u00a0 The BOE now may face a potential lawsuit over the recent Rice notice given to the School #1 principal, Kristine Cecere; another potentially damaging expense to our school budget.\u00a0\u00a0 Conclusion: Poor BOE decisions may have forced the demise at Fort Lee High School of one of the finest programs implemented in years.<\/p>\n
We have to try harder!\u00a0 Our BOE members have to try harder.\u00a0 We need community leaders to step up to the plate and make their voices heard.\u00a0 To quote the Valiant 27: \u201cWe want to learn!\u00a0 We want a quality education\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cHELP US\u201d!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cFame, I want to live forever\u201d.\u00a0 These words sung by Irene Cara echoed off the walls of the School of the Performing Arts as talented teens strive for the stars. We all marveled at the brilliance of these performers.\u00a0 But for the brilliant and talented teens in Fort Lee, their dream appears to be dead. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}