From the NY Post:The city plans to spend up to $14.5 million a year to have school custodians simply lock and unlock schoolyard gates.
As part of a PlaNYC initiative to give the public access to 290 schoolyards and give kids more open space by 2030, custodians get an extra $50,000 per school to cover annual expenses of opening the gates at 8 a.m. and closing them at dusk seven days a week.
While park advocates are happy the city is opening the playgrounds -- the City Council reported in 2006 that 81 percent of yards were locked after school hours, relegating 1,170 acres of public land inaccessible -- they bristle at the $50,000 price tag.
"It makes no sense," said Geoffrey Croft, president of watchdog group New York City Park Advocates. "The custodians are already there during the school week, and they have to clean the schoolyard regardless. So they're really just getting paid to open and close the gates."
Croft pointed to the 269 already existing "joint operated playgrounds," or schoolyards opened on weekends by Parks Department employees.
"Why can't they do it that way?" he asked. "If you need more staff, take the $50,000 and hire employees who can open several gates."
10 comments:
Since when has anything in our school system made sense?
as i write the gates at P.S. 159 q. in Bayside are still
padlocked 24/7.the play space is quite clean,so the custodian should not get paid one extra cent. no humans in the play space ,no debris. but you taxpayers
paid $1-2 million to newly refurbish a community facility. but somebody will not allow the teens to play basketball at the new glass backboard,half/courts. a 30' X 60' astro turf carpet covers ,what should be a full/court. the ball diamond has been destroyed. 15 of the 19 sibling trees died, that were planted in the center of the ball field.
our city government in action!!!!! no common sense!!!
Our government and I suspect our unions at work. Doing their best to
feather their nests.
Make these political positions a volunteer job. NO PAY. We will get a better class of people.
Carpetbaggers are alive and well in the 21st century
I'll do it for $40,000!
Strange.
When i was a kid, the schoolyards were ALWAYS open, year round.
I've played many games of hockey and baseball in PS91, 119, Grover Cleveland, etc, etc
Something was free.... they took it away ... now it will cost money to bring it back....
Something is not right here. POOR ASSET MANAGEMENT!!!
Make these political positions a volunteer job. NO PAY. We will get a better class of people.
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Bloomberg does it for $1.
Unfortunately, it takes money to be a politician, and to have money, you often have to get it by screwing over other people.
New York City is an absurd place where common sense rarely makes sense.
Why do we still have this "custodial" system.
At present, DOE is the only system in the country saddled with an antiquated, graft-prone system that treats head janitors as independent contractors -while affording them Civil Service protection.
The average salary is now above $100k/yr NOT including benefits and "activity" money that they get from renting the school's facilities.
I'am not talking about the cleaners and handymen but the head janitor who job description is to be of "general utility"..oh, and make the payroll out for as few as two employees.
All of the characters live outside the city..(Rockland,Westchester,Suffolk, etc)areas where their shenanigans and presence would never- be tolerated.
So, why are we still saddled with this ridiculous system?
The answer is simple..raw union power -spineless government.
Taxpayers pay for schools. There is no reason why these school yards can't be open 24/7. They were open years ago. What is the reason for them locking them? I'm sure the school doors are locked and secured and there are cameras in the school yards in case of foul play. There should be no problem keeping them open and no reason why anyone should get paid to keep them open. Custodians have some racket. Let them sweep these yards on a daily basis, like they are supposed to and take care of snow removal. If someone falls on the property, there should be a mandate that they give up the right to sue the city.
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the principal and custodian should be fined $100./each day that they prevent the community teens from using our public financed play spaces. enough is enough!!!!!
UNLOCK THE GATES IMMEDIATELY !!!!!!!!!!!
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