Dozens of current and former students of Bayonne Educational Network TV Studio Manager Carolyn Macchia pleaded at a Board of Education meeting on May 19 for her job to be reinstated.
Wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan “Save Cali,” students and alumni crowded the Board of Education chambers as Sal Iannaci, fellow station manager, read a prepared statement urging the board to reverse its decision.
Macchia, a tenured teacher who has worked in the district for eight years, was among 16 teachers laid off as a result of budget cuts.
The district made cuts in the program partly because of a drop in enrollment.
Iannaci and several students pointed out that enrollment has dropped because students in the ninth and 10th grades have to take additional math classes and do not have the option to take the TV course until they are in the 11th grade. In previous years, the class was open to all students.
As an education program, BEN-TV allows students to work on development of shows for the school’s public-access station, providing broadcasts of high school sports, concerts, special events, documentaries, and quiz shows.
Elaine Kiza, who graduated from Bayonne High School in 2005, said she was inspired by Macchia and that many students often returned to seek Macchia’s advice.
Stephanie Torres, a senior at BHS, said Macchia is a key part of the program’s success and that future students of the program would suffer without the teacher.
Iannaci described BEN-TV as an excellent program. He said a significant portion of its success was due to the unique combination of talents he and Macchia brought to the class, each providing a different aspect that allowed students to excel. Without Macchia, Iannaci predicted, the program would decline significantly.
Students were very critical of the school’s priorities.
Danielle Coffing said the school spends $175,000 each year to drain the swimming pool but can’t find money to save Macchia’s salary.
Students said that while classes were about programming and technical matters, discussion often took up other areas, such as history and current affairs.
Over two years, students learned by doing nearly every aspect of TV production, and many were inspired by Macchia to continue broadcasting careers after leaving high school. The students credited Macchia with helping shape personal projects such as moviemaking by offering suggestions of where to market the completed projects. School Board President Will Lawson thanked the students and teachers, but made no other comment.
Macchia, who was not present at the meeting, is scheduled to be released at the end of the school year.
Board members angry at test report
Meanwhile, Board of Education officials are hopping mad about a preliminary report that said the school district failed to meet minimum standards in last year’s testing.
Based on early numbers, the State Department of Education listed the Bayonne School District as “in need of improvement” last October, but later withdrew the designation.
“We’ve sent the state a letter saying they should not make a designation until they are certain,” said Schools Superintendent Patricia McGeehan in a report before the Board of Education on May 19.
Board of Education Trustee James Flynn said the district was not “in need of improvement,” and he said the report unfairly put the schools in an unfavorable light.
The initial designation halted the hiring of three teachers using professional-development funds.
The report, issued last October, said the district had failed to meet the standards of the federal No Child Left Behind act.
To deal with the situation, the Board of Education had taken money designated for hiring teachers and used it to develop strategies for rectifying the deficiency.
Report on uniforms for high school students
Also at the meeting, Bayonne High School Principal Richard Baccarella issued a report from a committee looking into expanding the school-uniform program to the high school.
Baccarella was asked to develop a committee in late 2006 to study a possible uniform policy for the high school. Learning from some of the problems the school district faced when developing the uniform policy earlier in 2006, Baccarella said he was determined to have a clearer idea of how teachers and parents felt.
Survey results showed that out of 768 parents who returned forms, 530 said yes and 238 said no to uniforms, for about a 69 percent approval rating. Of 213 teachers surveyed, 193 voted yes and 20 voted no.
The policy, if approved by the school board, would require students in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades to begin wearing uniforms in September.
The committee offered more choices in the uniform’s design for high school students, including golf or polo shirts, crew necks, turtlenecks, or even sweatshirts, provided the clothing is of the right color and bore the school logo.
A public hearing on the uniform policy is scheduled for June 4 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.