By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — Manhattan public school parents warned that teacher layoffs will spell disaster in already-crowded classrooms Thursday, a day after more than 1,000 rallied in Albany against proposed cuts.
"We're incredibly frustrated," said Upper West Side mom Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, 39, whose 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter attend P.S. 199 on West 70th Street.
The city is planning to eliminate more than 6,000 teaching jobs — mostly through layoffs — to close an estimated $4.6 billion deficit. Pink slips are expected to be sent in the spring.
But Ciulla Lipkin and others who rallied on City Hall steps despite the rain said that concerns over the impact of the cuts have been lost in the heated back-and-forth between the mayor, the governor and the teacher's union over reforms to the state's seniority-based firing policy.
"We're busting at the seams already," said Upper West Side mom Rebecca Woodard, whose daughter, Samantha, is in third grade at the Computer School on West 77th Street. She said that if implemented, the cuts will have a devastating impact, not just on class sizes, but also programs like the arts.
Upper City Councilman Robert Jackson, the chair the Education Committee, who has spent the past two days in Albany lobbying state lawmakers, said he and others will continue fighting to restore the funds.
"The drum beat is getting louder and louder," he said.
Parents plan to gather again Thursday at 6 p.m. to discuss the impact of the cuts at the High School of Fashion Industries at 225 W. 23th Street.
