Back-to-school anxieties are mounting at P.S. 398 in Queens in an ongoing standoff between its faculty and principal, at a school named after a revered local labor leader.
The school’s United Federation of Teachers chapter filed a grievance complaint in January alleging anti-union actions by the principal of the Héctor Figueroa School, where teachers have complained about what they call a “hostile” and unhealthy environment they say affects students.
Several teachers quit after they were advised by school principal Erica Ureña-Thus to transfer schools, they said. Another teacher was dismissed over the summer.
In 20 letters sent to schools chancellor David Banks in June, staffers called out what they described as a “downward trend of disorganization and lack of communication that brings along with it disrespectful comments.”
The main complaint: They say Ureña-Thus second-guessed and micromanaged their work while making erratic decisions, making it difficult for them to serve their multicultural students.
In their letters to Banks, two staff described witnessing Ureña-Thus personally calling the state’s child welfare hotline with what they described as a “fabricated” story involving a student. They alleged she did so to prove that a social worker at the school was incompetent after the social worker had called in a report that the state concluded didn’t warrant opening a case.
Another staff member wrote Banks to say that Ureña-Thus had announced through the school’s public address system that “We have a doggie in the hallway” because a young student had innocently used a urinal for his bowel movement.
A third said Ureña-Thus asked students performing in a concert to not recite remarks they had prepared in Bengali — a language spoken by many in Jackson Heights — leaving some students and their parents feeling ostracized.
Ureña-Thus and the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the principal’s union, did not respond to THE CITY’s questions.
One of those hostile environments was the infamous 34th Ave. Open Streets...
She also insisted on having kids play on the 34th Avenue Open Street, he added, over his objection that kids were injuring themselves on the rough road surface.
“You give her an inch and she takes a yard,” Thai said, adding: “She put the students at risk — their safety at risk — for her own aims.”
This is why you don't hire lobbyists to plan cities Jim.
