Mayor Big Slow decides to suspend in person learning at schools again a few days from re-opening

 Politico

New York City schools will not fully reopen on Monday as planned, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday — agreeing to another delay in his push to bring back in-person education in the nation’s largest school district.

Teachers and principals had raised a host of objections to the city’s reopening plans, including safety concerns and a shortage of teachers.

“They had real concerns about specific things that had to be done to make sure our schools could effectively start,” de Blasio said.

Only pre-kindergarten, early education classes for 3-year-olds, and special education classes will open in person on Monday.

Elementary schools and K-8 schools will now open on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Middle and high schools will open on Thursday, Oct. 1.

That cheesy photoshop? A children's book I'm working on. 

Faculty and students are guinea pigs for the city's indoor dining policy

Eater

 Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed Thursday what some NYC restaurant owners have suspected all along: A return to indoor dining is contingent on how the city’s schools perform when they reopen on September 10.

When a reporter pointed out to the mayor again Thursday that a return to indoor dining had been postponed indefinitely, de Blasio was more measured in his response than earlier in the week when he indicated that indoor dining might not return until next year.

“As more and more people come back to work, as schools begin, you know, we’ll get to see a lot about what our long-term health picture looks like, and that’s going to help inform our decisions going forward,” said de Blasio referring to the administration’s wait and watch approach on making a decision on indoor dining.

While the rest of the state has allowed indoor dining to proceed at half capacity for the last two months, New York City restauranteurs have been waiting indefinitely, despite the fact that the city has largely brought the spread of the COVID-19 largely under control. Still, New York leaders like de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have expressed concern due to the city’s density and population. 

The Blaz is a sick mofo. 

It's becoming more clear that Maspeth High School discriminated

The principal

From the NY Post:

A Queens public high-school principal excluded 500 Catholic-school kids from a list of 4,000 students applying to get into his school, raising cries from furious parents of foul play.

While more than 4,000 eighth-graders applied for a seat in the school, its principal failed to forward all 500 applications from Catholic-school kids to the Department of Education for possible placement.

Maspeth HS is a “limited unscreened” school — one of 225 in the city — which gives admission priority to students who live nearby and attend its information sessions or open houses.

These schools send a list of those applicants to the DOE, which gives them priority in a “random” lottery.

The system is ripe for abuse by principals who want to exclude certain students or favor others, critics say.

Principal Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir told parents at a Juniper Park Civic Association meeting on March 16 he made a “clerical error” in omitting all Catholic-school kids from the list.

But Abdul-Mutakabbir told civic leaders in a prior phone call that parochial applicants pose a “problem,” Juniper Hill president Bob Holden told The Post.

“He said, ‘In all honesty parochial schools are a problem because many of the students opt out and don’t go to my school. That leaves a seat [empty] and it costs the school funding,’” said Holden, who called for an investigation.

Mystery of the missing money

From the NY Post:

Teachers and parents at William Cullen Bryant HS in Queens are demanding an accounting of more than $195,000 collected from students for gym uniforms, paddle locks and food.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, the city Department of Education said it could find no receipts for such purchases from the school store from 2011 to 2013 — and only some from 2014.

Gym teacher Peter Maliarakis said Principal Namita Dwarka has refused to account for the sales — the profits from which are supposed to pay for student activities and phys-ed equipment.

Bleachers in a school gym are cracked and missing sections, and mats for wrestling and gymnastics are mildewed and peeling, Maliarakis said.

Principal accused of changing grades

From the Daily News:

Changes on final transcripts from failing to passing grades under principal Namita Dwarka have roiled W.C. Bryant High School parents and students.

Hot off a rally at the Astoria high school on Monday to protest Dwarka’s decision to cancel math and science programs and neglect special needs students, teachers have now come forward with allegations of rampant grade fixes.

“It’s all because she wants to increase graduation rates,” Gus Prentzas, president of the school’s Parent Association, told The News. “She would do anything to make herself look good.”

Gym teacher Peter Maliarakis, who claims he has a binder full of documents outlining Dwarka’s inappropriate behavior, was dumbfounded when he learned that one of his students had passed gym — even though he gave the senior a lowly 55 on his report card.

Bloomberg looks like really big asshole

From Gotham Schools:

An arbitrator has ruled that the city’s plans to reform 24 struggling schools by shaking up their staffs violated its collective bargaining agreements with the teachers and principals unions.

The arbitrator’s decision adds a new and abrupt twist to months of uncertainty at the schools. It also guarantees that the city cannot claim more than $40 million in federal funds that the overhaul process, known as “turnaround,” was aimed at securing.

The turnaround rules require the schools to replace half of their teachers, and the city was trying to use a clause in its contract with the teachers union, known as 18-D, to make that happen. In recent weeks, “18-D committees” told hundreds and possibly thousands of teachers and staff members at the schools they could not return next year.

Under the arbitrator’s ruling, all of those staff members are now free to take their jobs back.

The decision is a shocking blow to the Bloomberg administration, which turned to turnaround in January in a bid to win the federal funds without negotiating a new evaluation system with the United Federation of Teachers.

Parents lying to Dept of Ed to enroll kids in schools

From the Times Ledger:

Parents are forging documents to get their children into a sought-after but swelling Glendale school, and the practice could edge out longtime residents who actually live in the district, a principal said to a tense meeting last week.

The school is popular due to its dedicated staff and high calibre of education, but it is so popular it also attracts students who do not live in the district, a number of distraught parents said.

“I can pick out 15 faces right now whose children do not belong here,” said Jennifer Bonowitz, who attended last Thursday’s meeting because she hopes to send her young children to the school, at 78-23 87th St.

A set of city Department of Education rules called the Chancellor’s Regulations requires that parents must prove they live in a certain district if their children want to attend a locally zoned school.

But those regulations are far too lax, Pranzo said.

Once Pranzo sent out an attendance officer to check up on a student whose parents he suspected of using a false address. Instead of being commended by the DOE, he was rebuked when the city found out, he said.

The problem could mean families who actually live in the district would have to go somewhere else.

Principal's war on sports?

From the NY Post:

Insisting her "edict" is to get kids graduated, Martin Van Buren HS Principal Marilyn Shevell has declared war on athletics, outraged students, parents and coaches charge.

Last week, Shevell stormed out of a PTA meeting in the Queens school's auditorium after announcing the girls and boys basketball teams could play no games at home this fall. Last year, she slashed home games to one for the girls and three for the boys.

Shevell also barred classmates and their par ents from attending last year's games to cheer for their "Vee Bees." And just in case any specta tors showed up, she had the bleachers bolted to the gym wall so they could not be used.

Parents and students packed last Monday's PTA meeting, where Shevell ousted a Post reporter.

"She was upset. The subject was sports, and the parents wanted home games," said Diana Payne, whose daughter plays basketball. "Ms. Shevell made a statement that her edict was to get the students graduated in four years."

When parents continued to question Shevell, she walked.

Parents say Shevell has used various "excuses" for the cutbacks -- including a broken gym divider, asbestos in the gym ceiling and fights at prior games.

But when questioned by The Post, city Department of Education officials said the wall had been fixed a month ago, there is no asbestos problem, and there have been no melees -- or even any home games -- this year.

Principal fired for inappropriate sexual conduct with students

From NY1:

A Queens principal is being fired after an investigation uncovered that he allegedly solicited oral sex from some students and forcibly touched others.

Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard J. Condon released a report Wednesday which states that Quintin Cedeno, a Department of Education principal at the High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture in Queens, solicited oral sex from at least four male students at the school.

The investigation also found that Cedeno inappropriately touched and attempted to touch those four students, along with other male students, on their private areas.

"He actually admitted to just about everything but soliciting sex from the boy. He admitted that he might have touched some boys in the crotch area, admitted he might have hit some boys on the buttocks, Condon said.

Moreover, Cedeno is accused of engaging in electronic communications and inappropriate conversations with at least eight male students.

"When we subpoenaed the cell phone records, there were 67 cell phone calls from Cedeno to one of the students and there were 140 or so text messages," Condon said.

Principals refuse to hire experienced teachers

From the NY Times:

Less than two weeks before the start of school, about 1,800 teaching jobs in New York City remain open as principals appear to be resisting orders to fill vacancies with teachers whose previous positions were eliminated.

Facing steep budget cuts, the Education Department enacted a hiring freeze in the spring, requiring principals with openings to hire teachers who are already on the city’s payroll but who have no permanent position, often because their schools were closed for poor performance.

But many principals prefer new teachers. So in an act of quiet defiance, they are allowing jobs to sit vacant, leading to one of the most difficult hiring seasons in recent history despite the large number of vacancies and the thousands of candidates who could fill them.

Teachers who lost their old posts are frustrated about the scarcity of job offers. New teachers who cannot get hired are furious after upending their lives to begin careers they must now delay. And principals are upset that after years of choosing their work force, their options are being drastically limited.