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GE Manufacturing Plant

New York City’s school board voted 6-1 in favor to open a school on the site of the new General Electric manufacturing plant, as members were convinced this idea would save the board money. Superintendent Greg Hubbard recommended the “pilot program” to mix companies and classrooms at a meeting held by the New York Department of Education Monday night.

The plant will employ more than 600 employees, many of them women with young children, who will work on assembly lines helping make small appliances for GE.

To attract and retain these working-class women, the plant’s “satellite school” will have three classrooms serving about 60 kindergarten and first-grade children of employees.

“It’s the wave of the future,” Hubbard told the school board last night. “Its a win-win situation.” Hubbard went on to explain that the school is a good employee benefit, and it will help ease crowding in the local district schools.

The program is thought to reduce turnover and saving companies the cost of training new employees. Hubbard said if the program is successful, it will expand to other companies.

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GE Manufacturing Plant