Saturday, May 27, 2023

PS 145 on the Upper West Side is So Overcrowded With Migrants, Students Are Left Without Programs and Services

We all know the argument. NYC is a sanctuary City where we accept any and all migrants who need safety, a warm bed, and services.

Definition of "Sanctuary City":

(in North America) a city whose municipal laws tend to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation or prosecution, despite federal immigration law.
But where can citizens draw the line?
In NYC, which is under one-party control (Democratic Party), there is no discussion allowed. Migrants must be taken care of, no matter what damage is done to people who already live in the City. As a matter of public policy, migrants must come first.

At least, that's what seems to be the state of affairs in New York City right now, May 2023. Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul are politically bound to care for the thousands President Biden has allowed into the United States, no matter the cost locally.

And remember, there is no recall of any elected official permitted under New York State law.
Balletopedia Recall overview
Ok, my politics are showing. You don't have to read this blog, move on if you don't like my view. But on this issue no one who has children, works in education, and sees how NYC residents have become secondary citizens under the newly arrived migrants should stay silent. There is something wrong here.
Just saying...
Betsy Combier
betsy@advocatz.com

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UWS school so overcrowded with migrants that it can no longer provide popular programs: parents

Georgia Worrell,

Susan Edelman and

Rich Calder, NY POST

May 27, 2023

The city Department of Education is ignoring pleas to help an Upper West Side public school so overwhelmed by an influx of migrant kids that it can no longer provide popular programs due to a lack of space, angry parents told The Post.

With 535 students currently crammed into PS 145 – nearly 100 more than what the West 105th Street school is designed to hold – parents said all students, including newcomers from Ukraine, Russia, and Latin America, are suffering for it. Last year, the school had 393 students.

Since the fall, after the city enrolled scores of young asylum seekers – many housed in a former shelter at the nearby Park West Hotel – rooms previously used for a music program, a TV studio where kids produced videos and a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics [STEAM] lab had to be converted into classrooms.

The former school library was partitioned into multiple, tight spaces for kids with special needs to receive services.[photo: Naveed Hasan]

Science equipment, musical instruments, books, and other supplies bought with taxpayer dollars and grants now sit in a cluttered storage closet gathering dust, next to desks for displaced science teachers.

Science equipment, musical instruments, and other supplies sit in a storage closet next to desks for displaced teachers. [photo: Naveed Hasan]

With the former library partitioned into multiple, tight spaces for kids with special needs to receive services, all PS 145 students lost an after-school sanctuary for reading and homework.

“It’s just unacceptable,” fumed Anna Azvolinsky, who has a daughter in third grade and a son in pre-K. “These kids deserve better.”

Citywide, an estimated 16,000 migrant kids have enrolled in city public schools since the fall — far exceeding about 1,700 who arrived the prior academic year and started school in September.

Many PS 145 parents — who live in one of the city’s most liberal neighborhoods, overwhelmingly voting for Joe Biden for president in 2020 — insisted they welcome the newcomers, but are furious with the DOE for blowing off their repeated pleas for more space.

That includes a proposal – pitched by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and City Councilmember Gale Brewer to Chancellor David Banks – for the DOE to rent two floors available next door at the Romemu synagogue community center.

“I can’t get an answer from the city – nothing. They don’t respond,” said Naveed Hasan, the Manhattan parent representative on the city’s Panel for Educational Policy with a third-grader at PS 145. “We have the perfect space next door – get it for us. We have a solution – do it!”

Some parents were especially peeved after city officials paraded a production crew from “60 Minutes” through PS 145 for a November news segment on the Big Apple migrant crisis that cast welcoming public schools as “the one bright spot.”

Since then, however, the city has ignored the cramped classrooms and lost programs, they said. The DOE is “not competent,” Hasan said.

In February, 207 parents signed a letter to Kamar Samuels, schools superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3, calling on the DOE to immediately re-evaluate PS 145’s “distribution of space” in light of a class-size reduction bill for Big Apple schools passed in July by the state Legislature.

The package included hand-scribed notes to Samuels from second and third-graders.

“I am happy that we have a lot of new kids, but it’s not okay that we don’t have enough space,” wrote Lucy Weingarten, 8. “Please work with our school to help get more space this year!!”

The DOE’s response: It sent “space management” and “district planning” bureaucrats who blamed the classroom crunch on PS 145, parents said because the school increased enrollment before the migrant influx by adding two highly popular programs: universal 3-K and Russian dual-language.

“They didn’t offer any solutions,” recalled Lauren Balaban, whose kindergartner is in the Spanish dual-language program, which started six years ago. “They said, ‘There’s nothing we can do about it and it’s your problem.'”

A City Hall spokesman said reps of the School Construction Authority and other officials visited the synagogue center on May 11 but “unfortunately” found the space “not viable for use” because most rooms don’t meet DOE guidelines for full-size classrooms, requiring “significant” construction.

The spokesman insisted Banks and the DOE have been “highly engaged” with P.S. 145 parents and are “committed to partnering… to alleviate crowding and support enrollment growth” at the school.

A stunned Hasan said DOE officials never told parents about a May 11 visit. “Why are we getting this information from The Post?” he said.

He questioned the DOE’s reasoning: “They come up with justification when they don’t want to act.”

The city has poured more than $25 million into cash-strapped schools hit with swelling enrollments, and promised more “adjustments.”

But parent patience hit a breaking point this month when the city began putting cots for newly-arrived migrant families in school gyms.

(See my post: NYC Mayor Turns Over Public Schools' Gyms To Migrants -Ed.)

Amid loud protests, officials quickly rescinded the move.

Sunday, May 14, 2023

NYC Mayor Turns Over Public Schools' Gyms To Migrants

What an outrageous act by Mayor Eric Adams: displacing public school kids from their gym time/physical education classes, so that migrants who are entering this country without proper procedures can take valuable spaces in public schools without parents and staff allowed to say "no". We have information that the following schools have been used: elementary schools in Brooklyn. PS 172, PS 189, PS 188.

The move by the city has caused outrage in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Paul Martinka

See here:

Students and parents protest outside Public School MS 577 at N. 5th and Roebling Sts. Tuesday morning in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

Parents challenge Adams claim housing migrants in NYC public schools won’t affect students as number of schools grows to 20

Bt Cayla Bamberger and Michael Gartland, NY Daily News, May 16, 2023

Mayor Adams claimed Tuesday that his new policy of housing migrants in public school gymnasiums won’t directly impact students s — even as parents protested his latest effort to find ways to shelter the more than 60,000 migrants who’ve come to the city since last year.

“They will not be impacted directly,” Adams said during an interview on 1010 WINS. “They’re not going to be impacted. I’m never going to put our children in harm’s way.”

The Daily News reported Monday that Adams was either housing or attempting to house migrants in seven public schools, but on Tuesday he sketched out a broader plan that could potentially impact 20 or more public schools.

“This is not something we want to do,” Adams said. “What we did was identify 20 standalone gyms — this is not every gym in every school — 20 standalone gyms as one of the potential locations as we have exhausted our hotels and other locations.”

But parents disagree with the mayor’s assessment of how children may be affected.

More than 100 parents and students protested at the building that houses PS 17 and MS 577 Tuesday morning. According to event organizers there, migrants were housed in the building overnight, but cleared out ahead of the demonstration.

The city’s repurposing of the gym at the school is particularly fraught because it just opened in January, after years of parents advocating for it.

“We have a new building that we fought for so our children could have a gym,” said Stacy, whose 10-year-old son receives special education services. “They worked hard to get these activities. They have a carnival next week, and they may not have it now.”

“I don’t want my child to be locked up because he was locked up for two years,” said Melida Rodriguez, a parent and the middle school’s PTA president, referring to the COVID lockdowns. “Now’s the time he’s coming out, socializing with other kids — and then this. It’s not fair.”

The policy comes more than a week after Camille Varlack, Adams’ chief of staff, directed all city agencies to identify city-owned buildings that could be used to house migrants and as the city braces for an even bigger influx of asylum seekers from south of the border with the expiration of Title 42, a federal border policy enacted during the COVID pandemic that permitted for the expulsion of migrants coming into the U.S. from Mexico.

The schools that already have been used to house migrants under Adams’ new policy are PS 188 in Coney Island and PS 17 and MS 577. Other schools being considered include PS 189 in Brownsville and PS 172 in Sunset Park, as well as PS 18, PS 132 and MS 577, all of which are in Williamsburg.
For the second day in a row, a spokesman for Adams refused to make public a full list of the schools that are being considered to house migrants.

“As the mayor has said for months, we are facing an enormous humanitarian crisis, having served more than 65,000 asylum seekers in New York City since last year,” said Adams’ spokesman Fabien Levy. “As Title 42 lifts and we see the numbers of arrivals climb, no option is off the table. We have already opened approximately 150 sites to shelter asylum seekers in New York City.”

Migrants arrive at temporary shelter in Brooklyn elementary school gym

Bernadette Hogan,

Reuven Fenton and

David Propper, NY POST,

May 14, 2023

At least 75 migrants will temporarily stay inside the gym at PS 188 in Coney Island, two NYC councilmen confirmed — with one of the pols calling the temporary site a “puzzling” move by City Hall.

Dozens of migrants will be housed at the gym outside the Brooklyn elementary school with no timetable on how long the building will be used as an emergency site for migrants, City Council members Justin Brannan and Ari Kagan said Sunday evening.

“Unclear how long they will need to stay. This location remains puzzling to me,” Brannan tweeted.

Kagan, a Republican, also said in a tweet there was no “timeframe when this gym would be returned to the Coney Island community.”

The school is currently in Kagan’s district, but following the redistricting of council seats, both pols are fighting for the seat that would cover PS 188.

The migrants’ arrival comes just two days after the principal at PS 188 warned the city to choose the school facility as an emergency, temporary site for migrants.

Several migrant families were supposed to be sent to the stand-alone gym adjacent to the rest of the school building late last week, but the plan was put on hold amid community outrage.

The Big Apple continues to struggle mightily to house and care for the flood of migrants arriving from across the southern border – with many of them bused from border states like Texas. Over the last year, tens of thousands of migrants have reached the city.

Migrants could be seen milling around the Sandra Feldman Gymnasium Sunday night.

Antuan, a 21-year-old migrant from Venezuela, told The Post that officials informed him and others they were only staying at the building until Monday.

“They put us here because they don’t want us out on the streets,” he explained. “They’re processing us, giving us our paperwork and then we leave.”

Antuan, who reached New York on Sunday after eight months in Texas, said all the migrants were given a psychological assessment to determine whether they were dangerous before being sent to the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Brannan said in an interview Sunday that City Hall informed him the migrants began arriving at the school gym Sunday evening.

He questioned why city officials chose the Coney Island neighborhood for a migrant site because the area lacks services for them and public transportation is poor.

“And I think overall just housing folks in a public school setting, a public school gym, is just concerning and I think the location is just puzzling,” Brannan said.

The Democratic lawmaker also criticized how City Hall has communicated to the community about the site.

“I think people in the community are obviously compassionate and understanding but the way you find out about something, that colors everything,” Brannan said.

One neighbor asked why the school was the best place to house migrants.

“Why a school? That’s the part I don’t get. There’s always other options. A lot of the buildings around here, they have fallout shelters that are spacious, and used for emergencies,” a woman on the block told The Post.

School safety agents who work at PS 188 were also concerned about what their role would be with migrants there.

“School Safety Agents are trained to protect children, not migrants. National Guard and federal assistance are needed. We protect City school children. That’s our responsibility. Not migrants,” said Local 237 Teamsters spokesman Hank Sheinkopf in a statement to The Post Sunday.

City Hall press secretary Fabien Levy said the city is opening emergency shelters and respite centers daily, “but we are out of space” in a statement Sunday night. More than 4,200 migrants arrived in the last week with the city receiving hundreds of asylum seekers daily, he added.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams has said repeatedly the city is running out of options with even more migrants expected thanks to the end of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allowed for the quick expulsion of some border-crossers over COVID-19 concerns.

The policy ended last week.

City Hall has also faced uproar over its plan to bus migrants staying in city shelters to hotels in upstate Rockland and Orange counties. More than 80 migrants – all single men — were shipped to Newburgh hotels in Orange County, last week.

Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus filed lawsuits Friday to stop the hotels from housing migrants.

Rockland County also took legal to thwart the city’s plan.

More than 140 sites and eight mega-shelters have been opened in the city.

***************************************************************

We are all, I guess, aware that the NYC Department of Education has very little interest in kids getting their gym time, anyway. This is what public education looks like under Mayoral control. Parents and stakeholders in public education in NYC have no voice. That is abominable and must change.

Parents in NYC want to end Mayoral control, and have made that clear for 20 years.

Several years ago I was outraged when I attended and submitted a statement to Assemblyman Michael Benedetto at a hearing on Mayoral control, and before the parent advocates were able to give their speeches for 2 minutes or less Benedetto warned each and every person about to speak that he did not want to hear anything negative about Chancellor Richard Carranza, the person who used to be the lead "VIP" at the NYC Department of Education. But that is exactly what we were there to do, with all that Carranza did not do "right" - for the kids (and see here: Carranza resigns). We wanted him to stop playing politics and cite the reasons why the Chancellor and Mayor should continue to rule the public schools without a valid opposition - a vote on the school board.

In fact, there has not been a day since October 2003 that I have not protested the disenfranchisement of parents and stakeholders of public schools in NYC due to Mayoral control.

In 2019, I wrote an update to my 2007 post on Parentadvocates.org:

Editorial: Mayoral Control Of The NYC Department of Education Must End by Betsy Combier

In this post I copied and pasted the discriminatory argument made by then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg on the reason that the vote needed to be removed from the black and Hispanic parents of NYC:

Michael Cardozo's introduction to his submission which removes the constitutional rights of NYC citizens
Pages index -11
Pages 12-25
Pages 26-41
Pages 42-58
Pages 59-80

I will highlight the claim made in the last paragraph:
"As we have demonstrated above, Chapters 91 and 123 have neither the purpose nor the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language group."

My opinion: the City of NY didn't discriminate, but took the Constitutional rights away from everyone who has been given those rights (are citizens over the age of 18). This is a crime. But someone might ask, "Well - what about the Community Education Councils, set up to encourage parental participation in public school education?"

Adams says NYC looking at housing migrants in school gyms

Julia Shapero, Tue, May 16, 2023

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that the city is considering housing some migrants in school gyms as it struggles to accommodate those arriving in the city.

Adams told New York 1 that the city is considering about 20 school gyms, each of which are separate from actual school buildings. However, he emphasized that it would be “one of the last places we want to look at.”

“We have an order, almost an order, of where we have to go as the crisis continues,” he said. “This is one of the last places we want to look at. None of us are comfortable with having to take these drastic steps. But I could not have been more clear for the last few months of what we are facing.”

Adams warned last week that New York City would not be able to handle the expected influx of migrants following the end of Title 42. The pandemic-era policy, which allowed U.S. authorities to rapidly expel asylum seekers, expired Thursday.

In the days since the expiration, however, a border surge has not materialized, and in fact border encounters dropped, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Some Republican governors of Southern states have been putting migrants on buses and sending them north in recent months, though, contributing to the influx in New York City.

Adams said Tuesday that the city has received more than 65,000 migrants. Ahead of Title 42’s expiration, the mayor eased the city’s longtime guarantee to provide shelter to all residents and also began busing some migrants to counties in northern New York.

Betsy Combier

betsy@advocatz.com

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Saturday, May 6, 2023

Special-Education Teacher Marina Golfo Gets 3-Months of Paid Sick Leave While In Federal Prison Camp For Fraud

Special-ed teacher Marina Golfo tricked her DOE bosses into paying sick leave
during her three-month prison stint for fraudTwitter

Special Education teacher Maria Golfo evidently was found guilty of defrauding the Department of Education, and then was put into Federal prison for 3 months, but got paid by the NYC DOE for "sick leave". See the article posted below that was published in the NY Post.

When I think about all of the wonderful, decent, honest teachers, Assistant Principals and Principals who have been charged with misconduct and then forced into a 3020-a and terminated, and then read a story like the one below, I get upset that the NYC DOE is so random and arbitrary when dealing out fines, suspensions and terminations as punishment for wrong-doing.

The Special Commissioner of Investigation Unit, SCI, is largely responsible for punishing the wrong person, or not punishing the right person.See Veronica Hernandez Case. The so-called "investigators" are anything but that, and tout themselves as "independent" from the DOE yet get paid heaps of money by the NYC DOE. Whenever someone gets a lot of money from their employer, do you really believe that they would go against what the employer wants? No.

For example, consider Gerald Conroy, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District. He filed an Affirmation in the Supreme Court in a case I worked on, and he wrote in that Affidavit that he "believed" that anyone who went to Wild Child was guilty of fraud and deceit when they handed in vaccination cards 'without' (he wrote) actually getting the shot. He was never able to prove anything against these people, and now everyone accused by him are back to work (except several who resigned and moved on to other jobs).

Gerald Conroy's salary 2020-2021, SCI (Seethroughny.net/payrolls). In 2022 he made $190,554.

Yet no one at the NYC DOE caught Marina Golfo and her three months of sick pay while in jail?

There you are, proof of incompetency, political dumbness, whatever.

Betsy Combier

betsy@advocatz.com

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NYC special-ed teacher collected 3 months of sick pay from prison

By Matthew Sedacca and Susan Edelman, NYPOST, April 22, 2023

A special education teacher tricked her clueless bosses at the city Department of Education into giving her three months of paid sick leave — while she served a federal prison sentence for defrauding taxpayers and stiffing students, The Post has learned.

Golfo spent three months at Federal Prison Camp Alderson in West Virginia.

Speech therapist Marina Golfo, 49, collected $24,367 in salary last year while sitting in a cell at West Virginia’s all-women’s, minimum-security Federal Prison Camp Alderson, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools found.

“You’ve got to admire her nerve, if you don’t admire her stupidity,” said Ellen McHugh, a member of the Citywide Council on Special Education.

In October 2018, Brooklyn federal prosecutors charged Golfo and seven other employees with defrauding the Early Intervention Program, which serves developmentally challenged children and is overseen by the state Department of Health.

Golfo, a Long Islander, was accused of bilking taxpayers of $156,000 over the prior three years by submitting fake treatment notes and invoices for more than 1,500 therapy sessions she never provided. Many sessions were scheduled to occur in the homes of children or caregivers.

She pleaded guilty in July 2021 to healthcare fraud, was sentenced to three months in prison and ordered to pay restitution for all the money disbursed, according to court documents. But she inexplicably remained on the DOE payroll.

Weeks after entering the clink in September, Golfo submitted an online request to her DOE managers for paid sick leave. She included a doctor’s note explaining that she was too ill to come into the office and should remain at home.

Golfo also submitted requests to prison and court officials for “compassionate release” due to health risks she faced from COVID-19, along with her elderly parents’ need for a caretaker, according to court records. She was denied on Oct. 6, with US District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto writing that neither her health conditions nor her parents warranted a reduced sentence.

On Nov. 1, the brazen educator asked DOE for an extension of her sick leave through Dec. 1, which was two days after the end of her prison term.

Shockingly, the city approved the request, apparently not realizing its employee was a jailbird. In total, she raked in a quarter of her $97,469 annual salary from behind bars.

But the DOE was initially well aware of her criminal case, which was jointly announced in 2018 by the city Department of Investigation and the US Attorney’s Office. A week after she was charged in Brooklyn federal court, DOE even rubber-roomed Golfo — reassigning her to a Committee on Special Education office in the Bronx while awaiting trial, according to SCI and a letter from a former colleague.

The DOE’s Human Resources division told SCI investigators it was unaware that Golfo was requesting time off from the slammer — despite her 2018 arrest having been widely reported — because she never informed the agency or her managers about her sentencing.

Delivering a lesson in unabashed chutzpah, Golfo told SCI investigators she did not know she had violated DOE sick-leave rules, claiming that she did not think her location mattered because she could not have come into the office, regardless, due to her illness. She suffered complications from shingles, court records show.

Golfo did not return messages from The Post.

SCI said it first received a complaint about Golfo’s improper use of sick pay from a tipster in December 2022. The DOE finally fired her on Jan. 31 — about a month before SCI gave its findings to schools Chancellor David Banks on March 6.

It’s unclear whether Golfo returned to work for the two months between her prison release and her firing. The DOE would not answer any questions.

Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman recommended that DOE require Golfo to return the pay she pocketed while incarcerated. She also said DOE should bar her from any further work with the department.

“Her actions were clearly more deliberate than she acknowledged to investigators,” Coleman wrote.

Ken Girardin, a fellow with the Empire Center for Public Policy, a government watchdog, blasted the DOE for failing to keep track of an employee’s incarceration — and enabling Golfo to collect her salary on top of it.

“In the private sector, three days of sick leave raises concerns. Three months should’ve been setting off flashing red lights and sirens,” Girardin said.

DOE’s wasteful spending on Golfo’s salary outraged special education activist Fatimi Geidi, who ripped the city for failing “the students that need the most support” — even as it warns of cuts in public-school spending.

“Everybody involved needs to be ashamed,” said Geidi, 37, the mother of two developmentally challenged students, one of whom attends public high school. “We’re arguing about the budget and you’re literally throwing it at somebody that committed fraud.”

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Contact me with a concern or issue

I assist anyone who needs help, so email me your problem to start the ball rolling! I am a teacher/parent advocate, and I am the editor/writer for this blog and the website parentadvocates.org. I also write about court corruption on my blog "NYC Court Corruption". I am interested in random injustice and the criminalizing of innocent people. If you want to chat you may email me at: betsy.combier@gmail.com and I'm on twitter and have a facebook page too. I'm not an attorney and do not give legal advice.

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This blog is about the denial of Constitutional rights by the Mayor, the New York City Department of Education and the Chancellor, New York State and Federal Courts, New York State legislature, and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), as well as PACs and all parties participating in the business of public school education in New York City, to harm and in neglect of parents, children, and staff of public schools in the five boroughs. These thoughts are not simply mindless conclusions reached out of thin air, but a result of 14 years of research into the NYC DOE and the Courts as a reporter and paralegal. I am an advocate of Unions and union rights, public schools and charters, and learning online as well as outside of the classroom. I cannot and do not support anyone, whether they be union management, government, private members of the political or legal system, or simply retired teachers with an agenda, if he or she tramples, discards, or rebuffs anyone's individual civil rights. As a reporter, journalist, advocate, researcher and paralegal, I have created this blog to inform the public about my experience working for the UFT and being the parent of four daughters who went through the public school system in NYC, as well as examine issues that flow from the massive denial of due process rights that I saw and have documented. The two most important points you should remember: first, everyone at the New York City Board/Department of Education and all Union bigs are motivated by power and money, and looking good. If anyone dares to blow the whistle on these racketeers, retaliation follows, so be a strategist; second, I am not an Attorney and nothing I write or say is legal advice, simply my thoughts. Take 'em or leave 'em. Betsy Combier, Editor NYC Rubber Room Reporter http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com New York Court Corruption http://newyorkcourtcorruption.blogspot.com Parentadvocates.org http://www.parentadvocates.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/betsy.combier Twitter: http://twitter.com/BetsyCombier The NYC Public Voice http://nycpublicvoice.blogspot.com/ betsy.combier@gmail.com Lawline July 27, 2011 http://www.teachem.com/lawlinetv/learn/lawline-tv-teachers-unions-the-last-in-first-out-rule/

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Alexandra F.

Dear Betsy,

I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for CONSTANTLY being there for me throughout such a tumultuous time in my life. I have been battling severe harassment at my place of work for months now, and you have advised me through every single second of it. I would not have had the strength or confidence to battle such an evil administration without your help. You have answered my phone calls from 7AM through nearly midnight with any and all of my concerns. I have called you countless times to just vent, or even cry, and you have been there with open arms to pivot my negative anticipations into positive advocacy. You have gone above and beyond your line of duty to help me, and for that, I can never repay you. You have changed the outcome of my life, and led me to justice. More importantly, you have led me to happiness again, for which I am eternally grateful. As I am getting older, I am realizing that there are many bad people in this world, but you are TRULY one of the good ones. When one finds a great person in life with their true best interest at heart, they should hold onto that and take their word as bond. My last statement truly defines you, an expert in what you do, as well as a 24 hour support system. You are amazing Betsy, and my life would truly not be the same if you had not stepped into it!!!!!

Thank you again for EVERYTHING you have done for me. Your advisement and care will be carried in my heart for the rest of my life.

Alexandra F.

Performance Management - Office of Labor Relations

From Betsy Combier

The NYC Office of Labor Relations, with the support of the UFT, has issued to principals a document called
"Performance Management" on how to get rid of an incompetent teacher. Who is an "incompetent teacher"? Anyone the NYC Department of Education wants to remove from the system because he/she is too senior (makes too much money), is disabled (and therefore cannot be deemed factory-perfect) and/or is other impaired (is a whistleblower, cannot be intimidated, is ethnically challenged - not the 'right' race, etc).

ATR CONNECT

Tenured Teachers who are found to be guilty of misconduct or incompetency at 3020-a but are not terminated, who have blown the whistle on the misconduct of politically favored NYC Department of Education employees, and/or who are simply disliked for any reason can suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool - employees without rights or voices, and without chapter leader union representation.

This new group of people are the "new" rubber roomers without representation at the UFT and denied the protection of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, because basically they have been pushed out of their jobs unfairly and under color of law by Mayor Bloomberg and the Chief Executives of the Department of Education who call themselves "Chancellors", "Network Leaders", "Superintendents", etc., consistently without any facts or evidence to support the false claims.

A group of teachers who are, or were, made into ATRs, ATR Polo Colon, and I, Betsy Combier, an advocate for transparency and labor/employment rights, have joined together to expose the denial of due process, civil and human rights by chiefs of the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE), certain arbitrators at 3020-a, leaders of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the "investigators" -agents who work for the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI), Office of Special Investigation (OSI), and the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) - and the Attorneys who work for the New York United Teachers (NYSUT), and the New York Law Department (Corporation Counsel).

In order to protect the safety of those who join this group to promote an end to the "Rubberization" process described on this blog since 2007, names of those who tell their stories will, for now, remain anonymous if the person so desires, and Polo and I will be the gatekeepers. So if you are an ATR, or know a story involving an ATR or someone re-assigned or about to go into a 3020-a, please use the email address advocatz77@gmail.com and give us your contact information. We will protect your anonymity and hold onto your privacy.

Betsy Combier and Polo Colon, Editors

The Re-Assignment Overview by Betsy Combier

The New York City Board of Education decided in 2002 to rid the public school system of staff who interfered with their takeover and control. The criteria for a "good teacher" is now, more often than not, a "silent teacher", a person who never asks questions, is younger than 40, is making a salary below $50,000, does not care about kids and what they learn, or whether or not money (books, supplies, equipment, etc) is missing. When a teacher or staff member of a school dares to do the right thing and speaks out about wrong-doing - this person is often called a "whistleblower" or "flamethrower" - or, simply is not liked for any reason by the Principal/NYC personnel, suddenly he/she is accused of something by somebody ("given a label of "A", "B", "C", and so on) and whisked away to a drab room called a temporary re-assignment center or "rubber room". Members of the offices of the Special Commissioner of Investigation or the Office of Special Investigations then start work on building a case against the person to justify their being thrown in prison, declared "unfit for duty", or, as Mr. Joel Klein has said, characterized as "guilty of sexual activities and corporal punishment" against the children of New York City.The stories of the people I have met who sit every day in the 8 rubber rooms of NYC prove to me that Mr. Klein is very wrong about his assessment, and this blog is created to prove it to you.

NYC EdStats You Can Use

New York City Schools by the Numbers
By John Tarleton
www.indypendent.org

$12.5 billion: Annual New York City Department of Education (DOE) budget (2002)

$21 billion: Annual New York City DOE budget (2009)
1,719: Number officials employed by the DOE central administration in June 2002

2,442: Number of officials employed by the central administration as of November 2008

2: Number of DOE officials earning more than $180,000 per year in 2004.

22: Number of DOE officials earning more than $180,000 per year in 2007.

5: Number of DOE public relations staffers in 2003.

23: Number of DOE public relations staffers in 2008.

944: Number of contracts approved by DOE in 2008, at a total cost of $1.9 billion.

20: Percentage of contracts that exceeded estimated cost by at least 25 percent.

$67.5 million: Annual budget of Project Arts, a decade-old program that was the sole source of dedicated funding for arts education. It was eliminated in 2007.

86: Percentage of principals who said in a 2008 poll that they were unable to provide a quality education because of excessive class sizes in their schools.

100,000: Number of seats DOE plans to provide for charter school students by 2012.

25,000: Number of seats DOE plans to build under 2010 to 2014 capital plan.

66,895: Number of K-3 school-children in classes of 25 or more during the 2008-09 school year.

15,440: Average number of seats per year built during the last six years of the Rudolph Giuliani administration.

10,895: Average number of seats per year built during the first six years of the Bloomberg administration.

27.2: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2001-02 who were Black.

14.1: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2006-07 who were Black.

53.3: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2001-02 who were white.

65.5: Percentage of newly hired teachers in 2006-07 who were white.

76: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Latino students in 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) in 2003.

75: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic students in 8th grade ELA in 2008.

77: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic 8th graders in math in 2003.

81: Percentage of white and Asian students who performed better than the average Black and Hispanic 8th graders in math in 2008.

54: Percentage of New York City public school parents who disapproved of Mayor Bloomberg’s handling of education, according to a March 2009 Quinnipiac poll.

Sources: New York City Council, New York City Comptroller’s Office, New York Daily News, New York Post, Eduwonkette, Quinnipiac Institute, Black Educator, Class Size Matters, New York City Schools Under Bloomberg and Klein.

NYC Whistlers, Winners of the NYC Whistle Award

...are those individuals in New York City who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. Whistlers ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up.

These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions.

Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

Betsy Combier

A great teacher

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said: 'Let me see if I've got this right.

'You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

'You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

'You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job 'You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.

'You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

'You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletinboard, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps. 'You want me to do all this and then you tell me. . . I CAN'T PRAY?

Joel Klein's famous statement about rubber room teachers and staff

On November 27, 2006, temporarily re-assigned teacher (TRT) Polo Colon asked Joel Klein, the "pretend" Chancellor of the NYC public school system, if he had voted to terminate teachers at the secret Executive Session held just before the public meeting of the Panel For Educational Policy.Mr. Klein answered,
"We did not vote to terminate you. We did vote to terminate a teacher in executive Session...in fact, we voted to terminate two teachers. It's perfectly consistent with the law.Many teachers have been charged with sexual activities and some are charged with corporal punishment...I have no interest in removing people who are qualified to teach, I can assure you, because I dont get any return...and in fact, I have complained publicly about how long this process drags out. But our first concern will always be and, as a former lawyer and somebody who clerked on the United States Supreme Court I will tell you, there is no violation of due process whatsoever..."- extracted from the audiotape of the PEP meeting bought by Betsy Combier after filing a FOIL request to the NYC BOE

Teacher, what do you make?

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.

One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie .
Be honest. What do you make?"

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make? (She paused for a second, then began....)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.

You want to know what I make?
(She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)

I make kids wonder.

I make them question.

I make them apologize and mean it.

I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.

I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything.

I make them read, read, read.

I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America.

Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life ( Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant.

You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

What do you make Mr. CEO?

A Review of Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools by Betsy Combier

Lydia Segal's book puts the NYC, Chicago, and California Departments of Education on notice....we who have read this book know more about how the system is not there for our kids than "you" want us to know.
Lydia Segal's book Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools changes the public school reform movement forever. We can no longer assume that more money allocated to our schools will "fix" the disaster that is our public school system.

Lydia Segal draws on her 10 years of undercover investigation and research in over five urban school districts, including the three largest, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the two most decentralized, Houston and Edmonton, Canada, to provide, in her new book Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools, the details of the corruption, theft, fraud, and patronage that has overrun our public school establishment for several decades. There is no question that anyone who is interested in school reform -this means anyone who pays taxes, is a parent or guardian of a child attending school and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first - must read this book. Ms. Segal's research and information on the education establishment's 'dark' side outrages the reader, and incites us to demand change. Her book therefore, is much more than a book, it is a call to action. We cannot be bystanders any longer to the systemic abuse she so vividly describes, and we will never be able to listen in the same way ever again to school Principals, Superintendents, school custodians or district board members as they request more money "to help the children."

The book's detailed reports on the corruption and crime in our public schools, supported by 52 pages of interview notes, references and specific examples, provide irrefutable evidence that the current failures of our nation's public schools are not due to the lack of money but the impossibility of getting the money to the children who need it and for whom the money is allocated in the first place. Recent statistics show that students of all ages are not learning what they need to know, schools are overcome with violence, teachers are demoralized, and yet billions of dollars are literally shovelled into the system every year. The New York City school system receives more than $16 billion every year; Los Angeles, $7 billion; and Chicago, $3.6 billion. Where does this money go? We have all asked this question as we have walked through school hallways dodging the paint falling off the walls and ceilings, watching our children sitting on broken chairs, using bathrooms without running water or toilet paper, and struggling to achieve their personal best without the services and resources they are supposed to have. Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools is the first book ever to systematically examine school waste and corruption and how to fight it. Ms. Segal, an undercover school investigator turned law professor, documents where the money goes, how waste and fraud embedded in the operation of large school bureaucracies siphon money from classrooms, distort educational priorities, block initiatives, and what we can do to bring badly-needed change. She describes in detail how only a small percentage of the money allocated to students in our public schools actually gets used by them due to corruption and waste, and how city school systems scoring lowest on standardized tests tend to have the biggest criminal records and most payroll padding. Coding problems, the procurement process, compartmentalization and opacity of information leave administrators with only two options: good corruption (which ultimately helps the kids) and bad corruption (which never helps anyone but the perpetrator and his/her allies and accomplices). Indeed, the system fights those who try the good corruption route.

Ms. Segal argues that the problem is not usually bad people, but a bad system that focuses on process at the expense of results. Decades of rules and regulations along with layers of top-down supervision make it so hard to do business with school systems that they encourage the very fraud and waste they were designed to curb. She tells us about how the "godfathers" and "godmothers" (the school board members) obtain jobs for their "pieces" in order to protect the systemic waste and fraud from being dismantled or exposed. Fortunately, she writes, there are good people involved in the corruption as well who must violate the rules in order to get their jobs done. Nonetheless, absurdities abound: school systems following rules to save every penny spend thousands of dollars hunting down checks as small as $25; it takes so long to pay vendors for their work that some have to bribe school officials to move their checks along; caring Principals who want to fix leaky toilets may have to pay workers under the table because submitting a work order through the central office could, and often does, take years. Meanwhile, those who pilfer from classrooms get away with it because the pyramidal structure of large districts makes schools inherently difficult to oversee. What makes Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools a must-read is not only the fascinating - and depressing - details of the systemic wrong-doing but also Ms. Segal's suggestions for reform, based on the proven track records of school systems across North America that have successfully reduced waste and fraud and have pushed more resources into schools.

The pathology of the corruption suggests the remedy, Ms. Segal says, which is decentralization of power into the schools and the hands of the Principals. Distilling what successful school systems have done, Segal advocates new forms of oversight that do not clog up school systems and recommends giving principals more discretion over their school budgets as well as holding them accountable for job performance. She argues for "autonomy in exchange for performance accountability" as part of a bold, far-reaching plan for reclaiming our schools. Her conclusion is logical and convincing. Everyone who reads this book will find his or her perception of public school education changed forever. We cannot accept any longer that a generation of children has been abused by a system that is so full of greed and corruption without screaming "stop!" and "Your game is up!"

Segal reveals how systemic waste and fraud siphon millions of dollars from urban classrooms and shows how money is lost in systems that focus on process rather than on results, as well as how regulations established to curb waste and fraud provide perverse incentives for new forms of both. Anyone who is interested in school reform--this means anyone who pays taxes, is a parent or guardian of a child attending school, and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first--must read this book. --

Lydia G. Segal is Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Public Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

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NYC Rubber Room Reporter and ATR CONNECT