Governor Andrew Cuomo Orders The Schools To Close For 24 Hours If A child Or Staffer Gets The Coronavirus

Governor Andrew Cuomo orders a school to close for 24 hours and the school get treated before the.school can reopen if a child or staffer gets the coronavirus.  How that affects NYC schools is uncertain but I can't see the NYC schools being exempt from the Governor's order but time will tell.

I believe the Governor's action is prudent and appropriate but let's see if the Mayor follows the Governor's example.

The Department of Education is hiring 85 contract (temporary) nurses during the coronavirus epedemic.  However, these nurses will not be full time employees and will have no direct access to student records.  To me this is merely a public relations ploy by the City rather than to alleviate the school nurse shortage.

Some good news.  The City has ordered all schools to install no touch hand sanitizers.  How many and how soon is still a question.

Why Don't Schools Have Hand Sanitizers?

The DOE is responsible not only in funding and hiring school nurses but should be supplying all schools with adequate toiletries and especially hand sanitizers.  Again if the DOE is failing in their mission to supply hand sanitizers, then principals should be using their budget to pay for them. They should folow the example of the hospitals with no touch hand sanitizes strategically located throughout the building.

I have many colleagues in various schools and few, if any, have hand sanitizers in their schools.  Manny teachers and other staff bring their own personal hand sanitizers to their classroom and offices but few share it with their students.  Moreover, what about school cafeterias, bathrooms, auditoriums, and locker rooms? These common areas are a hotbed for germs and viruses and hand sanitizers are a necessary measure to limit the spread of various germs and viruses.  Let's not forget that many children take mass transit to and from school, buses or trains good places to contract germs and viruses.

While the coronavirus appears not to be fatal for school-age children, that does not stop them from getting sick and the virus can potentially spread. throughout the school. .   However, the precautions for the coronavirus can be effective for the common flu which can be fatal to school age children. In addition, history has shown us that closing schools before a pandemic takes hold saves lives.

Will Mayor de Blasio close the schools?  I highly doubt it since the schools are a babysitting and food service and it would take a pandemic in the City to do so.  Of course some communities have put the students health above their education funding Here.and Here

Note:  The Mayor has ordered the DOE to hire 85 school nurses to partially cover (about 50%) of the shortfall.  Let's see if the DOE follows through.

10% Of Schools Lack A School Nurse

The DOE and Principals have contributed to the school nurse shortfall as 10% of the schools lack a school nurse and with a potential coronavirus epidemic on the horizon.   The DOE is responsible to supply every school with a certified school nurse but has failed to do so.  Compound this with principals, who control their school budget, who refuse to use their precious school funds to hire a school nurse and then ask the DOE to reimburse them.


 The DOE has required some school nurses to rotate among schools that have no school nurse, meaning that many of the schools are not covered with proper medical personnel during the school day.  The lack of a full time school nurse is unconscionable and the DOE should be sued and those administrators responsible should be fired.  However, don't look for that to happen.

Considering that the DOE budget is nearly 27 billion dollar, they certainly can afford to supply every school with a full time school nurse.  Read the New York Post article Here.

Class Size, ATRs, And Fair Student Funding

The City Council held a meeting on class size and advocates, like Class Size Matters, recommended that 1,000 additional teachers be hired to reduce class sizes.  Interestingly, there are approximately  1,000 ATRs, who are already being paid.and they can be put back into the classroom to alleviate class sizes, without hiring new teachers and paying additional funds.

 The reason that the ATRs have not been put back in the classroom is simply based upon the Bloomberg ideology that permeates the DOE policy making apparatus that Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellors Carmen Farina and Richard Carranza has failed to remove from office.  The second reason is the 800 pound guerilla called school based Fair Student Funding that discriminates against veteran teachers since schools must pay for staff and since most ATRs are veteran teachers, principals will not hire them.

The City has a small pilot program that allows the worst schools to hire an ATR free of charge for as long as they stay in the school but has not expanded the program for all schools. Moreover, the De Blasio administration only funds the schools at 90% of their fair funding.  No wonder principals try to save scarce funds by hiring the cheapest teachers and short change their school by having a bare bones support staff.  Finally, ATRs who were accused of discipline issues are "red flagged" and principals are encouraged not to interview them for vacancies.

The bottom line, is the DOE does not need to spend more money to reduce class size since it's their Bloomberg ideology that leaves 1,000 ATRs without a classroom which can significantly reduce class sizes to the State average.

Chancellor Carranza's Folly

Chancellor Richard Carranza oversaw the well deserved demise of the ill-fated "Renewal Schools" program but he has replaced it with a more undeserving program called the "Academic Response Team" (ART).

The ART was formed in September to provide struggling schools with administrative supervision to help the Principal with strategies to improve student academic performance.  The DOE provided 10 million dollars for the school year.  However, for the first three months the 69, six figure salaried  person ART group never set foot into a school as the CSA objected to the surprise visits and what they saw was a wasteful allocation of money, with no tangible academic improvements.  Many principals rather had the money spent in the classrooms for more teachers and paras.

One of the Deputy "Leads" is the infamous Ben Sherman who alienated staff when he was Principal of Forest Hills High School and was forced to resign due to the publicity in the media.  Few, if any, of the 69 person staff are teachers and I suspect they are administrators who were removed from their school positions due to incompetence, discipline issues, or could not get along with school staff that caused morale problems. I wouldn't be surprised if they came form the Renewal Schools program.

Susan Edelman of the New York Post has a complete article on the ART program and is a must read on Chancellor Richard Carranza's folly..

The TDA Withdrawal is Exempt From State And City Taxes

This post is a reminder that once the educator reaches 55 years of age and retires, all TDA withdrawals are exempt from New York State and City taxes. Just like our regular teacher pension, the retiree only pays Federal taxes.   However, if the retiree moves out of State, the retiree would need to pay State and Local taxes for any TDA withdrawals..

For educators under the age of 72 you can leave all your money in the TDA and can keep on appreciating tax deferred, unless you choose to annuitize the TDA.  However, if you have reached the age of 72, you must withdrawal at least the percentage that the Required Minimum Distribution mandates.  Finally, some people believe there is a $20,000 limit on withdrawals that are exempt from State and City taxes.  That only applies to non-public sector pensions and not to our pension or the TDA withdrawals.

Teachers may be underpaid and not appreciated bit we have a good pension and a great TDA when they are exempt from State and City taxes..

School Arrests Are Down But Are Schools Safer?

The De Blasio administration was happy that the NYPD reported a decrease of 55% in arrest of students.  However, that does not make the schools safer since the decrease was based on school reforms.

These school reforms decriminalizes many actions such as drugs, insubordination, threats and many other actions.  Moreover, principals were no longer were ale to suspend students without the approval of the DOE at Tweed and were encouraged to handle misbehaving students "in-house", which included "warning cards" and restorative justice instead of suspension and arrest.  Finally. the NYPD reforms that reduced misbehavior by the public also apples to the students which also reduced criminal charges.

Obviously, statistics can lie when criminal student behavior is reduced to a non-criminal offense, giving the false impression o reduced criminality.  Does this makes schools safer?  Of course not and can increase school safety issues as students who made otherwise be suspended or arrested are free to cause havoc in the schools.  Just look at the disconnect between weapons found in the schools and suspensions.

The New York Daily News has an article about this Here.

The Pan American Discrimination Case Finally Ends

The DOE settled their last case that totaled $1.2 million dollars to discrimination lawsuits against Black educators who then Principal Minerva Zanca of Pan American High School in Queens discriminated against.  The last case was against a theater teacher who now teaches theater at the award winning LaGuardia high school.  You can read the Chief article Here.

If you remember Principal Mirnerva Zanca was defended by Superintendent Juan Mendez and were both sued for racial discrimination by the U.S. Attorney of New York. The DOE legal Department and leadership backed both the Principal and the Superintendent.and while Ms. Zanca was eventually removed as Principal and ended up as a guidance counselor in Brooklyn before retiring (forced?)in 2016.  Superintendent Mendez remained in his position for another few yeas.

You can read more about Munerva Zanca Here and Here.  For Superintendent Juan Mendez you can read him Here and Here.

Homeless Students Increase Nationwide

The homeless population has increased nationwide, with California leading the pack, dramatically increased by 50% over the last five years.  However, less noticeable has been the corresponding rise in homeless students.   Over the last two years homeless students nationwide increased by 15% and 50% in the last 15 years!

The question is what caused the rise in homeless students?  The answer is complex.

First, there are natural disasters, like hurricanes, wild fires, and flooding, which have become more destructive in the last few years.  Second, is the terrible rise in drug use by parents who end up homeless  Third, is the rise in housing costs that make it difficult for low income families to have stable housing.  Finally, more restrictive zoning enforcement and school residency requirement enforcement limits multi-family housing and remove non-family members from single family homes.

To a lesser degree is domestic violence and the rise in single mother households with little or no emotional or financial support from the ex-spouse.

There are 1.5 million students who are homeless nationwide in the 2017-18 school year and this has continued to increase over the years. Will this number continue to increase?  Under the Trump administration, I see little reason to look at the Federal government to help the situation.  How the States and Local goverment5s address the homelessness issue is dependent on the allocation of funds and community support, any iffy proposition at best.

The New York Times has a nice article on the causes of the student homelessness issue...  Here

Bloomberg's Stop And Frisk Policy Caused A Negative Educational Effect on Black Males

Chalkbeat has an article on a study that showed that "Stop and Frisk" under Mayor Michael Bloomberg resulted in a rise in Black  male dropout rates.  The study was for the years 2008 to 2012, when Michael Bloomberg was Mayor and concentrated on middle school students.

The study showed that Black male middle school absences increased by 1..4% in communities where police pushed "stop and frisk" policies.  Moreover, Black high school graduation rates were 1,8% lower in communities where "stop and frisk" were pushed.

One good result was that communities that had a "stop and frisk"  policy had lower disciplinary problems in school.  However, the policy made Black male students feel less safe going and leaving school for their homes.  Moreover, "stop and frisk" seemed to have no effect on felony crime. Read the article Here.

Read my post on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's legacy when it comes to New York City schools.



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Another Example Of Academic Fraud

It seems every month there is an article in the newspapers dealing with academic fraud and this month there is an article by Susan Edelman of the New York Post about school administrators at Parkside Preparatory Academy, a middle school in Brooklyn as the latest example of cheating in the New York City public schools.

If you read the article there appears little doubt that academic fraud is occurring at the school but despite the evidence the DOE's OSI found no evidence.  Unbelievable!

Until the DOE seriously addresses the academic fraud issue, stories like this will continue to be written about and makes real academic achievement impossible. Read the New York Post's editorial page on the city's lack of effort to curb bullying and academic fraud.

School iscipline Policy Continues To Be A Joke

One of the sore points in the NYC school system is the school safety issue.   Under Mayor Bill de Blasio's school safety has deteriorated dramatically and continues to do so.  Just look at MS 158 in Queens.  Of course the statistics don't show it since many incidents go unreported or are quietly handled in house by school administrators who don't want to have the DOE penalize them as a dangerous school/

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio you have less student suspensions, not because there are less incidents but because principals are told not to suspend students for things like student misbehavior, insubordination, and drug use.  Instead, school safety officers and Deans are told to give out "warning cards" or refer the student to restorative justice  sessions that the students find as a joke.

Another issue is the use of cellphones in school.  In some schools the cellphone use was so bad that Principals have decided on their own to collect cellphones at the door, despite parent and student complaints.

Take a look at my four part series on school safety Here

Good News! TRS Will Soon Add A ROTH Option

Over the years I have praised the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) for it's low administrative fees and their unbeatable Fixed Income Fund that gives an annual dividend of 7% for UFT members and 8.25% for other educators, with no fees!  However, the one weakness TRS has is their lack of a ROTH option.

Unlike TRS funds which are tax deferred where appreciation is not federally taxed until the educator withdraws funds, usually after retirement. The Roth option allows the educator to pay taxes upfront and any appreciation accumulates tax free and is not subject to the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) at age 72.

For educators near retirement the ROTH option is not as attractive since the educator would have to pay taxes upfront for any funds that are converted to a ROTH option.  On the other hand newer and younger educators who have a long time to retirement, the ROTH option is very attractive since they make less money and the existing tax rates are historically low and can only go higher in the future.

Use this calculator to decide which is best for you once TRS offers a ROTH option.  You can also see a comparison table between our tax deferred TDA and a ROTH option.

Amy Klobuchar For President

I watched the New Hampshire Democratic debate and was very impressed with only one candidate on the stage.  Amy Klobuchar, Senator from Minnesota.  She is a moderate and has shown throughout her political carrer that she can get rural farmers, suburbanites, and urban voters to support her. 

Moreover, the minority urban core of Minneapolis overwhelmingly supported Amy Klobuchar   She is the only candidate that has widespread appeal and I believe she is also the only one of the Democratic candidates, except for Michael Bloomberg (ugh) who can get independents to vote for her.

 Finally, she is not a millionaire or is supported by millionaires like the rest of the Democratic candidates.  All three major New Hampshire newspapers support her as well as the New York Times.

Her one real weakness is her education policy which I graded her as a "C-" but she strongly supports teacher pay and improving our traditional public schools.  However, she also supports publicly funded charter schools if they don't take funding from traditional public schools and that's a no, no in my book.

To me only Amy Klobuchar, with her soft touch and sharp focus on the issues has a chance to beat Donald Trump.

The Different Tiers For UFT Members

One of the questions I was asked was how many UFT members are in the various tiers.  Below is a table that shows the various Tiers and the percentages of in-service UFT members which includes teachers, paras, guidance counselors, and Social Workers.  The total amount of UFT represented in-service members is approximately 127,500.


Tier.......Number.......Percentage

I..............195..............1.5%
II..............81...............0.6%
III..........1,200.............0.9%
IV.........78,000..........61.2%
VI.........48,000..........37.7%,

Tier III members almost always end up in Tier IV since Tier III requires a Social Security offset of $1 for every $2 dollars of pension ncome.

Tier IV has different iterations, depending when the educator joined the NYC school system Here.

There is no Tier V for UFT members.

To play the Tier VI game read my post Here.

Biden Or Bloomberg For President? Neither One

It increasingly looks like the Democratic center will be between Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg and if the moderate wing of the Democratic party wins out from the progressives, the question is who would I vote for, assuming that moderates  Buttgieg or Klobuchar do not get the Democratic nomination?

Despite some people (Randi Wiengarten) who believe Joe Biden has mended his ways and is pro public schools I don't believe him.  He was instrumental in supporting Barack Obama's pro charter school agenda that also blamed teachers for student growth using "junk Science"as his vice President.  Moreover, he still supports public charter schools.  Finally, he was a strong advocate of all charter schools back as a U.S. Senator Here. While some naive people believe that Joe Biden has changed his ways, I don't and he will not get my vote for President.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and education deformer darling is unapologetic for his past and present support of charter schools.  He has shown contempt for teachers, parents, and schools by under funding public schools and  using existing school buildings for new charter schools.  He is a disaster for public education in New York City and was responsible for closing 156 schools, despite community opposition..  I'd rather vote for Donald Trump, who's education agenda has been ineffective as long as the Democrats still hold the House of Representatives than Michael Bloomberg,

If either Joe Biden or Michael Bloomberg become the Presidential candidate, neither one will get my vote.

Integrating The Schools - A Tale Of Two Districts

Chalkbeat correctly pointed out why integrating Brooklyn's District 15 middle schools had different roots than District 28 in Queens.  According to Chalkbeat, District 15's integration program was parent led and resisted pushback from other parents.  Moreover, the parent advocacy in District 15 is quite liberal and supports the Mayor and Chancellor when it comes to eliminating the standardized test for the specialized high schools.  Finally, the middle schools had a districtwide middle school screening program that saw many students leave their neighborhood to other middle schools in the district.

By contrast, the proposed District 28 integration plan was spearheaded by the now departed Superintendent who didn't bother to ask her parents what they thought.  The DOE actually promoted her for her incompetence  Moreover District 28 parents in the Forest Hills and Rego Park communities are strongly opposed to any integration plan that require their children to be bused out of their neighborhoods.  Finally, these parents also support standardized testing for the specialized high schools.

The District 28 working group was selected in secrecy, without parent input.  Moreover, the large Jewish community was not represented in the integration working group when, under pressure, the working group was named.

In summary, what might work for District 15 is a potential disaster for District 28 when it comes to integrating the middle schools.

Note:  The DOE has delayed (cancelled?) the District 28 middle school integration plan due to intense parent backlash.

Maspeth High School In The News Again

Maspeth high school which has been identified for a massive cheating scandal, finds itself in the New York Post as a Dean and Math teacher was quietly removed from the school in December.  The teacher was identified by the New York Post as Danny Sepulveda.  According to the DOE, Mr. Sepulveda was removed for reasons unrelated to the academic fraud at the school.

According to the article by Susan Edelman, Mr. Sepulveda was identified as one of the teachers that supplied students with answers to the Regents.  He was alleged to have sent a text message to another teacher and wrote the following:


 “Having someone fail and not graduate HS because of a state exam that colleges never look at is more of a failure than anything else. I look at state tests as the anti-christ,” Sepulveda wrote.

In the Maspeth cheating scandal no administrators have been punished so far and no teachers who were identified as part of the cheating scandal were removed.  One would think the DOE has basically closed their collective eyes to the academic fraud at Maspeth high school and the many other schools in New York City  In fact, the FBI has started an investigation on the widespread academic fraud of the NYC school system as OSI and SCI has failed to seriously investigate the academic fraud issue

You can read my articles on Maspeth high school Here and Here.

Governor Cuomo's Steath Charter Cap Expansion

 
Governor Andrew Cuomo has buried in his proposed budget an expansion of the charter cap in New York City. This shows that the Governor is still beholden to the Chharter industry and their education reform supporters despite his claims that he supports public education in the State..

Buried in budget documents released late Tuesday was a proposal to make room for more charter schools in New York City. In 2015, the state set a limit on how many charter schools could open in New York City in the years ahead: 50. Authorizers hit that cap last year. But the total number of charters available has actually been slightly higher, since a 2017 deal allowed authorizers to reissue 22 charters originally issued to charter schools that closed before July 2015.

This week, Cuomo proposed expanding that number, offering a new pathway to open charters as state lawmakers show no signs of wanting to increase the charter cap. His plan would allow authorizers to re-issue as many abandoned or leftover charters as they have available, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many that amounted to.  Is it 10, 25, 50?

In addition, the Governor's budget once again short-changes the schools by only increasing funding less than what the State Board of of Regents proposed.  His proposed spending increase is less than half of what the state’s education policymakers and advocacy groups have called for. It also fell $175 million short of the year-over-year increase the governor suggested last year. 

Chalkbeat has an article about the Governor's proposed budget Here.

Mayor De Blasio And Chancellor Carranza's Student Discipline Policy Is A Disaster

One of the worst policies of the Bill de Blasio administration is his student discipline policy.  Principals are no longer are allowed to suspend violent and misbehaving students without approval by Tweed and since the Mayor and Chancellor frowns on suspensions, far too many students are sent back to class to continue the reign of terror,  Instead the violent or misbehaving student is required to attend the useless restorative justice session which they find as a joke.

To hide the unsafe climate at schools, the Mayor and Chancellor have made it clear that school administrators are not to report incidents and to quietly handle it at the school.  The result is that fewer incidents are reported and the Mayor and Chancellor can claim that the schools are safer.  Of course, if you ask students and teachers you would hear a different story. They would tell you that there is widespread bullying and intimidation as well as threats to students and staff.

The latest incident that school administrators tried to cover up was a middle school girl fight in the cafeteria at MS 158 in Bayside Queens.  The school administration never reported the fight and it was only after a parent of the girl who was beaten up and reported the attack to the police who then arrested the other girl, did the school administration report the incident.  You can see the fight Here.  In another incident, last year,at the same school a girl was sexually harassed numerous times and groped by a boy who exposed himself to her and the school administration did not take any action.  The boy decided he could sexually harass the girl whenever he wanted and finally the girl told her parents who called the police and he boy was arrested.  The school also failed to suspend a male student who sexually molested another male student.

At the District 26 meeting, a teacher cited the new discipline code for lowering morale and leaving teachers unable “to effectively manage classrooms,” adding that staff are “no longer respected and supported.”  Even the head of the usually dead-quiet principals’ union, Mark Cannizzaro, recently sounded the alarm, writing Carranza: “In many schools, misconduct is on the rise, leading some students to believe there are little or no consequences for disruptive, openly defiant and even violent behavior.” Principals and staff feel “unsupported” by system higher-ups, he complained.

Chancellor Carranza went to the District 26 Town Hall at MS 74 and when parents confronted him about the lax student discipline policy he refused to respond and quickly left the meeting without addressing the parent concerns.  The Chancellor's cowardly action shows that it may be time to find a new Chancellor who puts school safety first.  Read the New York Post opinion article on the Chancellor's cowardly action at the MS 74 Town Hall.