Monthly Archives: June 2017

Thermometers are rising and more than 20,000 students in public schools in Plainfield, Trenton, and other districts throughout the state are being sent home early over the next two days. With the pressure of finals in the air, many students and school employees also have to contend with rising classrooms temperatures. Few examples so elegantly show the wide disparities in school conditions in New Jersey. In some districts, the rising temperatures won't mean much and the learning process will continue unabated.  In other districts, schools will be forced to shutter and students will lose precious hours of instruction. In what is often a clear divide between affluent and poorer districts, some students and school employees will learn in comfortable climate controlled classrooms, while others will struggle to learn and teach in classrooms with temperatures approaching and sometimes exceeding triple digits. This is unacceptable. Read the full Opinion-Editorial in The Star Ledger by Jerell Blakeley, campaign organizer for the New Jersey Work Environment Council and Eric Jones, President of the Plainfield Education Association. June 12, 2017         Full Op-Ed Sign the Petition Healthy Schools Now