Lottie Almonte Leaves Murry Bergtraum HS In Shame

Another Principal from Hell is given a promotion, raise, or both. The DOE attacks good principals and supports the bad ones. Goodbye, Lottie.

Betsy Combier
Murry Bergtraum HS principal leaves following Post report

By Michael Gartland and Susan Edelman

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Murry Bergtraum HS



Two years after The Post first exposed horrible conditions and mismanagement at Murry Bergtraum HS, its principal has left the building.

Lottie Almonte, who has presided over the F-rated downtown school since 2012, wrote in a farewell email that she’s “taken on a new challenge in our city to support students and families in different communities.”

Almonte, who made $144,777 last year, will become a city adult-school principal.
Bergtraum, just two blocks from City Hall, has weathered a slew of scandals in the last two years.

The school’s “blended learning”, launched by Almonte, let hundreds of students take it at home in place of they failed or didn’t want to attend, prompting a state Education Department investigation.

The state found the school failed to provide required services for special-ed students. Teachers reported constant threats and assaults by out-of-control kids during Almonte’s tenure. Dozens of staffers fled.

“The memories of our days together and all of our work at Murry Bergtraum HS will forever resonate in my life,” Almonte wrote to staff. “I am confident that (Bergtraum) will become the flagship high school that it once was.”

The school had a 51.2 percent graduation rate in 2013.

“Teachers feel relieved,” said John Elfrank-Dana, a teacher and union chapter leader, referring to Almonte’s departure. “The school was turned into a nightmare for the staff and students, and the Post was there to shed light on it.”

‘Fail factory’ teacher churns through 475 students per year

By Susan Edelman

 

Alexis Pajares (left) teaches 475 students this semester under principal Lottie
Almonte's 'blended' online programs

On paper, he’s a super-teacher. To critics, he’s the poster child for academic fraud in New York City.
Alexis Pajares “teaches” 475 students at Manhattan’s Murry Bergtraum HS for Business Careers in all grades and all disciplines — including algebra, biology, chemistry, Chinese, earth science, economics, English, government, health, history, law and Spanish.

Students failing any of those subjects get dumped on Pajares, who signs them up for an online course they can do in a computer lab or at home. Students can snag full credit without attending class.
“There’s little to no traditional instruction going on, which makes the whole thing a farce,” said history teacher and union chapter leader John Elfrank-Dana. “It’s a credit-recovery trick, in most cases, to move kids along and get them out.”

Principal Lottie Almonte started the program last year, appointing Pajares the “blended learning” teacher. But staffers charge that it violates state rules that online programs must include “substantive interaction” with a teacher certified in the subject. Pajares is certified only in social studies.
Elfrank-Dana, citing complaints from teachers and students, said he has repeatedly asked Almonte to explain the program but got no response.

Two blocks from City Hall, “F”-rated Murry Bergtraum has struggled in recent years as a “dumping ground” for overage or held-back students who lack credits. The school had only a 51.2 percent graduation rate last year.

Almonte referred questions to the Department of Education. A spokesman admitted Pajares doesn’t teach all 475 kids, but “is running the blended learning program,” that other certified teachers “support students” and students are required to be in classes with traditional instruction.
Teachers and guidance counselors dispute those claims. Schedules show students in blended learning without an equivalent class.

“You don’t learn a lot,” said a 21-year-old senior — a recent immigrant from the Dominican Republic — who takes an online chemistry course.

“We just sit down, sign on to the program and that’s it,” he said.

He watches a video of a teacher giving a lesson, then has to answer questions in a quiz. If he doesn’t know the answer, he watches the video again — or uses Google. He takes notes, but “nobody checks our notes.”

Another senior took blended learning English after failing the class in her junior year.
“There’s no attendance. You just log on when you feel like it,” she said.
The online course, which she did at home, took three weeks — while a classroom semester lasts 4¹/₂ months. She said she got no feedback on the one essay she was required to write and doesn’t know who grades it.

Other kids take the online classes purely as a convenience — instead of a regular class that starts early and requires a lot more work.

A math teacher said the program is flawed because kids take tests at home — not under school supervision — raising the possibility of cheating.

Staffers have heard that some students pay friends $80 to $100 to take the online exams for them.
Another math teacher had a student who “sat there doing nothing all semester,” the teacher said. “He told me, ‘I don’t have to do any work in your class. I can take blended learning.’ ”
After flunking out, the kid scored 82 online.

But students who pass the online courses stumble in subsequent classes. “I have not seen any kid who can handle material at the next level after blended learning,” the teacher said.