Comments on: Klein pressures schools to hire excessed teachers

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:53:23 +0000

The answer to “why” is…union contracts. Teachers can’t, contractually, be asked to do a completely different job.

I’m not saying I agree with it, I’m just saying that’s the way it is. The teachers union is exceptionally strong.

By: brooklynjane

brooklynjane — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:21:29 +0000

My children’s school has CTT classes now, but does not use paras (which they should) and could certainly also use more aids for lunch coverage, etc. I agree with the parent/teacher who throws out the idea from the 60’s, that if these people are being paid they should be assigned to schools and fill voids as necessary. Maybe one could even finally fix the copy machine that is always on the fritz.

By: Jesf

Jesf — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:53:12 +0000

If teachers are excessed and they still get paid, but they were not picked up by other schools; Can the DOE place them in schools to work as extra teachers? Many schools could use excessed teachers as steady substitutes instead of fly by substitutes. When they are not substituting, they could work as assistant teachers to designated teachers in an assigned school. This practice could be even better if they are assigned to work with teachers in subjects relevant to the education of the excessed teacher. Many excessed science teachers could assist preparing labs and working with a designated science teacher and so forth and so on with other subjects

Since the excessed teacher is still getting paid why no place them where they are earning such salary and working on a regular basis. I feel that it is insulting to the hardworking teachers to have such situation in the system. As a taxpayer and parent, it is a disgrace that the leadership on the education front of our State and City can never have a balance budget in education. I don’t know of any year in which we were not over budget, or did not have cuts in some services at our schools. Our leadership keeps missing the target every time. We should find out in which University they got their masters, PhD’s and so forth and so on, because we should not hire from those institutions anymore. Our children are getting the fruits of their mediocre; leadership, planning, forecasting, projection, quality, financial and administrative training in education.

By: bkparent

bkparent — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:15:58 +0000

The principal at my son’s middle school had the same experience as that reported by CEB (comment 16) - interviewed teachers from the pool but the teachers gave somewhat lame reasons for not taking the position offered. To me, the school seems fantastic, so this is hard to understand. I am sure many teachers are in the pool not because they did anything wrong, but just because the schools they taught in were shut. But if someone is offered a position at a good school, why not take it? I believe the principal by the way.

By: FJ

FJ — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:14:50 +0000

This situation presents a myriad of problems for administration and teachers. When you whittle all the problems down to their root, you can point the finger at Bloomberg and Klein. They have gone into the DOE with a bulldozer and recklessly “reformed” (in their opinion) it without thought or consideration for the problems that their reforms might create. Also it was the chancellor and the mayor who negotiated a contract with the UFT that made provisions for the unassigned excessed teachers to get paid. All roads lead back to Klein and Bloomberg.

By: JJLNYC

JJLNYC — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:40:14 +0000

“WHEN IS EVERYONE GOING TO UNDERSTAND THAT THESE EXCESSED TEACHERS WERE NOT EXCESSED BY ANY FAULT OF THEIR OWN” decries a poster above.

Okay - fine - UNDERSTOOD - but when is RRG going to understand that MOST of the TENS OF MILLIONS of unemployed Americans did not lose their jobs “by any fault of their own” Imagine how much worse our economy would be if our country’s taxpayers had to foot the bill to pay FULL SALARIES to these unfortunates.

It is audacious of these ATR’s to hold themselves higher and holier than anyone else looking for work (or NOT looking, as many casaes are…) and insulting to those of us footing the bill for them. I repeat THOSE OF US FOOTING THE BILL FOR THEM! (Do they think their salaries come from The Salary Fairies or are plucked from The Salary Tree or what?)

And the worst is that the dollars they are plucking are dollars that COULD be going to schools and benefiting our kids - whose interests Teachers and UFT CLAIM they have at heart…. ha ha… the interest is and always has been “Whatever I can pluck for MYSELF” Lazy pluckers….

By: CEB

CEB — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:52:23 +0000

Our principal says she interviewed excessed teachers who answered her ad and they refused the job. The school is producing well-behaved high-level students and is in a gentrifying location accessible by all forms of transportation. She fears the school will experience cuts even though she has made an effort to hire from within the pool.

By: frances

frances — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:48:33 +0000

Please realize that ATRs are not sitting in their apartments, updating facebook and collecting a paycheck. They are assigned to schools where they are either teaching or serving as substitutes. In some cases,the ATRs are in the schools from which they were excessed, teaching the same classes they taught before being excessed.

The “problem” of the excessed veteran teachers is one created by Klein et al. Now that schools are responsible for teacher salaries, it’s in their interest to higher newer and cheaper teachers. Furthermore, the current climate is one that fetishizes newness, and disparages experience (see; The Leadership Academy’s cohort of aspiring principals with less than three years teaching experience).

The pendulum will swing back; it always does.

By: Phyllis Nathan

Phyllis Nathan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:11:50 +0000

Each teacher should be assigned to a school as an above quota teacher to fill the daily void created by absent teachers. We did this back in the 60’s and it worked beautifully. Since you are paying these people to stay home, you may as well send them to work every day. I think it is an abomination that people are getting full salary, not unemployment and are doing nothing at all. My husband was an above quota teacher. I was excessed and nobody offered us a penny to stay home and wait.

By: a parent

a parent — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:02:18 +0000

My experience from two schools as a parent is that the teachers that end up excessed are usually the ones the principal doesn’t want. Principals can be creative with the budget from year to year in which “department” they are cutting back on. (esp. in middle school). So they shrink the dept where they want to get rid of a teacher. then a year or two later they all of a sudden realize the need to expand that department by a teacher again. Yes, good teachers in the excessed pool will be snapped up in a heartbeat. The bad ones are there because nobody wants them. I’ve seen such shenanigans with this process by both school admin and teachers who abuse the privilege of being paid while excessed it is sickening. But the answer is NOT to force principals to hire from that stinky pool. The answer is to get rid of the union policies that force the NYC system to pay teachers who are not needed and/or wanted. No one else in our economy has this sort of protection. It is impractical unrealistic and ruinious to our school system to allow this to continue.