According to a NJ Advance Media report, if teacher vaccinations are a requirement to reopen schools, then schools will likely remain closed for the rest of the school year. That’s what the head of the Association of School Administrators is saying, and, more importantly, that is what the NJEA is saying.
What does that mean for Montclair, where schools remained closed and the superintendent and school board are suing the Montclair Education Association to end their boycott of the reopening plan? Recall that NJEA VP/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller publicly sided with the MEA in calling for all teachers to be vaccinated. Since then, Spiller has straddled the fence, but the damage is done. Schools remain closed and the MEA is calling for all teachers to be vaccinated. Now it looks like the vaccination requirement would shutter schools for the rest of the school year. Thanks to Montclair’s conflicted mayor, it looks like the MEA will indeed exercise veto power over Montclair schools.
Montclair’s teachers are ably represented by the MEA and a NJEA VP/mayor who publicly sides with them. But who is standing up for the citizens of Montclair who want schools reopened? Not the mayor they elected to office.
Mayor Spiller, are you OK with Montclair schools remaining closed for the remainder of the school year? Where do you stand, Mayor Spiller, with your union or with your town?