Public Employee Press

Grim holidays for laid-off members
"There will be no gifts under our tree."

As an eight-year veteran at the Bronx Academy High School in Soundview, former Parent Coordinator Marilysi Garcia was not expecting the layoff notice, especially as the holiday season approached.

"I was in shock," says Garcia, who lives near the school with her two daughters, Emy, 5, and Milly, 2. "With even a month's notice, I could have starting looking for another job sooner," said Garcia, who started as a School Aide.

She attended the union's job fair to search for work and has applied for unemployment benefits, but financial problems hit her fast. She was late with the November rent, she worries that there will be no gifts under a Christmas tree for her daughters.

"The holidays are going to be really hard," she says. "I just don't know what I'm going to do."

While she searches for a new job, Garcia has some time to care for her 2-year-old, instead of paying for child care, and she takes her oldest daughter to her kindergarten class every day and picks up her in the afternoon.

Garcia was the only Parent Coordinator at the school, which she hears will be closing in two years. "The students have been performing a lot better the last couple of years, so I'm not sure why they're closing it," she said.