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Parent coordinators in the public schools focused on a new class project yesterday — stopping Anthony Weiner from becoming mayor.
About 25 parents picketed outside Weiner’s Park Avenue South apartment to protest his proposal to wipe out their paid positions.
Weiner estimates the city would save about $9 million a year by dumping the coordinators.
“I’m going to do things differently,” Weiner said.
“The parent coordinators are a nice thing to have, but they’re employees of the city. You need independence if you want to be a parent coordinator.”
He first presented the idea of eliminating the positions in his “Keys to the City” policy handbook.
“Parent involvement is important, and participation in the Parents Association should be a rite of every school mom and dad. But the current policy of having paid parent coordinators is a waste of money and misunderstands the importance of parents being part of oversight of a school — not the staff,” Weiner wrote.
Holding signs that read, “Parent coordinators are the middle class,” and, “Don’t let the sexting perv be mayor,” many of the coordinators called Weiner a hypocrite for campaigning on a promise to protect the middle class while trying to eliminate their middle class-level jobs.
“It’s like his name — he’s a wiener,” said parent Yvette McClamb, 43. “He’s not trying to do anything right for us. He’s not for the poor. All he wants is his way or no way. I think he’s doing a lousy-ass job.”
Judy Milo, who said she makes a $37,000 base salary as a coordinator, is concerned about losing the income and the connection to her son’s school: “I can’t even let my son know. He’ll lose his mind from worry.”
The program was started in 2003, and has grown to include about 1,600 coordinators citywide. Most make between $25,000 and $40,000 a year.
“He has his head in the sand and he’s just determined to cut these jobs without really knowing what they’ve done for the families and the kids,” said Mona Davids, 39, the president of NYC Parents Union, which has created StopWeiner.com, dedicated to defeating his run for mayor.
Davids, 39, from Parkchester, who has a 5-year-old and a 15-year-old in school, said the group invited Weiner to a mayoral forum, but he didn’t show up.
According to the city’s Web site, parent coordinators “are charged with identifying issues of concern to families and working with school leaders to ensure that these issues are addressed in a timely manner.”