Feltonville teachers protest award: 'We can't eat while our school is starved'

Teachers at Feltonville Arts and Sciences protested a School District of Philadelphia award congratulating them on increasing the number of students eating breakfast on site. They stood silently in front of a spread of food and held signs saying, "We can't eat while our school is starved."

Amy Roat, an English as a Second Language teacher and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers building representative, says her colleagues "will not play our parts in the theatre of the absurd."

"The representative from Food Service was surprised and told us 'You don't understand. This is for you for all of your hard work.' It is the people at 440 [District headquarters] who do not understand. We don't need a continental breakfast. We need books, supplies and staff to help our students."

Last fall, Roat told City Paper that their "staff is starting to fall apart," thanks to huge budget cuts imposed by Gov. Tom Corbett and unrestrained charter-school growth. "We probably have lost about 40 percent of our staff over the last three years."

At the time, she said the school had been forced to teach students from two different grades in combined classes, math instruction had been cut in half, there was no music teacher and only one art teacher. Cleaners, counselors and a police officer had been laid off and the nurse was part-time.

In a letter to staff calling for the protest, Roat wrote that "440 has done nothing more than pay lip service to the democratic concept of full-funding for EVERY school. They have failed to provide our students with an equitable education. They don't want to work with teachers. They want to 'impose' their will on us. They have nearly starved us out of existence with their budget cuts and have demanded more and more accountability."

"We agreed to feed the students breakfast for two reasons: To help the kids start the day in a healthy way and to help the FSAS Food Service increase their staffing. They were told that if they increased their breakfast service, they would get another staff member. This never happened, in fact, the rumor is that they will be cut one member for next year."