Scotch Plains-Fanwood In Person Education
Donation protected
MARCH 16, 2020>JANUARY 14, 2021... that's how long the majority of students in the Scotch Plains-Fanwood, NJ public school district were denied access to an in person education despite schools being safe to open since September 2020. Without the significant efforts of a federal lawsuit, we believe our schools would still be closed today.
Please support our efforts that resulted in our schools being opened safely for all students in mid-January and as of today, opened further to 5 1/2 days! We are continuing to push for getting our schools open safely 5 full days this school year.
This has been a massive undertaking and has come at a significant financial cost, one that we -- two Scotch Plains parents -- are ultimately responsible for. Many in our parent community have already donated which we are extremely appreciative of and cannot thank them enough for! We are calling on others... those who are happy about and/or positively impacted by our schools being open to please donate and spread the word. Any amount helps!
**For those who would like to know more about our lawsuit or see a copy of our federal filing, please leave a comment below or send a PM on Facebook; GoFundMe doesn't allow us to share our email addresses.**
How we got here...
Our efforts to get our schools open safely started back in August 2020 and haven't stopped since. Endless emails and calls to our district administration asking for parental inclusion, sharing data with them about school safety and begging them to plan and "follow the science", attendance at every Board of Education meeting, two rallies, one petition, countless hours reaching out to government officials ranging from our towns' mayors, county superintendents, assembly men and women, state senators, Department of Education Commissioner, Department of Health officials, and Governor Murphy himself. We received a lot of positive press for our initiative but nothing moved the needle for our Superintendent to do what was best for our children: open our schools. There was nothing left to do other than file a federal lawsuit to force the opening because our schools should have been open already. The data and research were clear and compelling: schools could and should be opened safely for students, teachers, and staff, and harm was happening to students NOT being in a physical classroom.
As we moved forward through the legal process, we continued to email, call, and vocalize at Board of Education meetings, along with hundreds of other parents, in order to put continued pressure on our district administration.
We strongly believe that our lawsuit has been the catalyst that forced our district to (finally) pay attention to the data, research, guidelines, and best practices of surrounding districts, and ultimately, to open our schools AND continue to open them further. Our district administration simply had no data or founded reasons to support their decision to remain closed. Thankfully our efforts have not only helped our students get back into physical classrooms but are also helping other districts do the same for their students.
While our attorneys have been instrumental in the success of our efforts, they did not do this “Pro Bono”. It is for this reason we are asking you, the larger community of parents, family, and friends to help lessen the financial burden.
We will happily donate any overage raised to our schools and/or send funds back to those who have donated!
Thank you very very much!
Danielle Wildstein and Vicki Dembiec
Please support our efforts that resulted in our schools being opened safely for all students in mid-January and as of today, opened further to 5 1/2 days! We are continuing to push for getting our schools open safely 5 full days this school year.
This has been a massive undertaking and has come at a significant financial cost, one that we -- two Scotch Plains parents -- are ultimately responsible for. Many in our parent community have already donated which we are extremely appreciative of and cannot thank them enough for! We are calling on others... those who are happy about and/or positively impacted by our schools being open to please donate and spread the word. Any amount helps!
**For those who would like to know more about our lawsuit or see a copy of our federal filing, please leave a comment below or send a PM on Facebook; GoFundMe doesn't allow us to share our email addresses.**
How we got here...
Our efforts to get our schools open safely started back in August 2020 and haven't stopped since. Endless emails and calls to our district administration asking for parental inclusion, sharing data with them about school safety and begging them to plan and "follow the science", attendance at every Board of Education meeting, two rallies, one petition, countless hours reaching out to government officials ranging from our towns' mayors, county superintendents, assembly men and women, state senators, Department of Education Commissioner, Department of Health officials, and Governor Murphy himself. We received a lot of positive press for our initiative but nothing moved the needle for our Superintendent to do what was best for our children: open our schools. There was nothing left to do other than file a federal lawsuit to force the opening because our schools should have been open already. The data and research were clear and compelling: schools could and should be opened safely for students, teachers, and staff, and harm was happening to students NOT being in a physical classroom.
As we moved forward through the legal process, we continued to email, call, and vocalize at Board of Education meetings, along with hundreds of other parents, in order to put continued pressure on our district administration.
We strongly believe that our lawsuit has been the catalyst that forced our district to (finally) pay attention to the data, research, guidelines, and best practices of surrounding districts, and ultimately, to open our schools AND continue to open them further. Our district administration simply had no data or founded reasons to support their decision to remain closed. Thankfully our efforts have not only helped our students get back into physical classrooms but are also helping other districts do the same for their students.
While our attorneys have been instrumental in the success of our efforts, they did not do this “Pro Bono”. It is for this reason we are asking you, the larger community of parents, family, and friends to help lessen the financial burden.
We will happily donate any overage raised to our schools and/or send funds back to those who have donated!
Thank you very very much!
Danielle Wildstein and Vicki Dembiec
Organizer
Danielle Wildstein
Organizer
Scotch Plains, NJ