This is the first paragraph of Chancellor Meisha Porter's letter to parents announcing her resignation:
Since March, I have had the honor of a lifetime to serve as Chancellor for the incredible schools, educators, communities, families and most importantly, your children who make up the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). Today, I am sharing the bittersweet news that I will be stepping down from my role as Chancellor at the end of this calendar year.
New mayor= latest DOE bending to the political whims of the mayor. This has gotta stop. We need some stability. Mayoral control is up for renewal in Albany in June. End it; it can't be mended. We need an elected school board like around 90% of the districts in this country have.
For more on Porter's resignation, this is PIX 11 coverage.
51 comments:
The new Chancellor is David Banks, the leader of the city wide network of Eagle Academy public schools.
From what has been reported—he is pro-charter—so here we go again with all the political drama between the the pro-public school stand of the UFT and the new Mayor.
Stability? The DOE puts one incompetent fool after another in the position. One incompetent fool over a long haul won’t change a thing.
Honestly, in twenty years, porter was the best one we had.
Heck, she told principals to put atrs to work. As a rotating atr, I have been thrilled to actually do real work again.
She told principals to use atrs and that was a victory in itself.
My assumption is banks tries to go after teachers and work with colleges at developing young, naive neophyte teachers and the ATR returns.
Keep your eyes on the prize, which is making charter schools from the resources previously provided for the public schools. The financial backers of Eric Adams are exiting about making more money from NYC government education funds.
So will we be forced to work next summer?
Everyone complains how broken the DOE system is and how terrible charter schools are. The data suggests otherwise , students perform better in charter schools in all areas . ( Thomas Sowell ) I am a NYC teacher, if this means more schools open so I can have less kids with more focused learning why not ? I am just tired of hearing charters schools will ruin our jobs. Sorry to break the news , can it get any worse with our terrible Union plus Deblasio . Let’s go Banks ! I am rooting for him , charter school have success, bring it to the DOE .
Its a matter of time before the atrs go back in the pool. I have to survive five more years. THey will put us back in with field supervisors again to get rid of us. Porter was the only one who gave us an ounce of respect.
Charter schools in NYC are not yet as corrupt and disingenuous as the DOE Central and the DOE schools. Once the charter schools sell themselves to the education gurus: Gates, Buffet, Bloomberg, etc. they will succumb to the same fate as the regular public schools.
841. We certainly need more schools, but there is no reason for them to be charters. The money should be going into more public schools.
Was Meisha the one for atrs?I thought it came about due the shortage during remote learning.if not for that, likely nothing would have changed.dont give that phony racist, dublasio puppet any credit.
651,
You make me laugh. Doing this for 20 years, each time a new mayor takes office we always hear someone go,’well, I guess we are working the summer.’
No. No. No. these mayors say so much bs to get elected. Then, nothing changes w calendars etc.
What I do fear is the excessing going up again and atrs rotating and not having a home again.
This worries me bc I finally have a place I enjoy going to each day after a decade as an ATR. I have a parking permit, a real program and colleagues I get along with.
The rhetoric by some is that atrs we’re happy to do nothing all day. Well, for a time I was happy doing nothing all day, but it got really boring after a while. I hated being viewed as ‘just a sub’ by admin, kids and other ‘real teachers’. I accepted it bc I have bills, but it was aggravating and demoralizing after a year or two.
Porter made principals use atrs and complimented atrs. If you don’t think that went a long way, just ask an ATR.
So many principals would talk down to rotating atrs. Trust me, I can name a few who have and it sucked.
Sadly, I think the days of the rotating atr will return bc a pro-charter chancellor won’t make a principal be ‘saddled’ with anyone.
8:59: How is that possible when we are not ATRs anymore. The email I got said I was permanently placed with full seniority rights. They may bring it back, but for new people who are excessed.
6:51. What part of this post can I infer that I will have to work next summer?
Make charter schools service special ed and ells, then in all for it. But if they get to play by different rules and we pick up their slack, while they keep the money.. Then no
The ATR agreement is permanent. You are not ATRs any longer.
I am glad the ATR agreement is permanent. Hopefully, the union does give this back bc I am extremely happy not being an ATR any longer.
I would also like to clarify that although I was an ATR for a while(being that I couldn’t play the game of interviewing and not getting called back) I always showed up to work.
It was not my fault that on some days I did nothing but sit in a lounge and sleep or read or watch Netflix. Sorry to disappoint anyone.
Removing ATRs from the fire and throwing them back into the frying pan is not respect. It was economics not a conscience moral decision. Meisha needed you to lower class size when it was an issue during pandemic. She’s a pos just like the chancellors that came before her. No loss watching her sorry ass walk away. Buh-bye and good riddance.
I don't see how atr pool will be again because there are critical shortages.a sub I know said that doe sent a list with 1000 teacher vacancies...not sure if just queens or citywide.also very short on parad.remember when the joke wad if the mirror fogs up, u get the job!
And the line:we just need a body...they are turning to alternate recruitment instead of making the pay and working conditions more attractive.so teaching might be the next step up for the minimum wage job workers who resigned!our qualifications are cheapened.they will use doe to get free education and then leave for a better job.can u blame them?
Adam's is a vegan.Let's see if he cares about people as much as the farm animals! lol!!
Porter did fundamentally transform the ATR pool but that left many veteran educators stuck in less than desirable schools. She does deserve some credit for making them regular teachers again.
Charter schools pick their students just like religious schools. Both have dumped on my work sites.
10:40: I had the same experience. I would drive from Long Island into Long Island City only to find I had nothing to do and just sit in a lounge all day. When the pandemic closed the schools in 2020, since I did not have any classes, all I was required to do was attend the once a week faculty meeting on zoom. I also had to do some grading for a teacher that had excessive students, but that was it. The ones who should have been complaining are the teachers who had to work hard each day while we did nothing and got paid top or close to top salaries. I respect Porter for realizing what a sham the ATR pool was and I'm happy too being in a permanent placement. We also never have to worry about being excessed since our pay comes from central not out of the school budget.
Only to address the shortage.not because she cares
For whatever reason, Porter put most ATRs back in the classroom permanently. Chancellors Klein, Black, Walcott, Farina and Carranza did not. Give Porter some credit though she certainly didn't totally solve the problem.
12:36,
From the closing of schools in spring of 2020 until the last day, I was asked to do very little. Honestly, looking back, I could have taken full advantage, but I didn’t.
I emailed my principal asking what an ATR should do. It took her around 6 weeks to get back to me. I followed up was the only reason I was given ‘tasks’ which were to come up with some ‘enrichment’ assignments for some of the teachers aka coming up with busy work.
I gladly did this and went on with the rest of my day.
Honestly, I did not enjoy this or take pride in doing little work. My days would have been much more mentally satisfying had I been asked to do real work.
To those few who feel atrs all wanted to do zero work, I can only speak from how I feel and that is that I am glad to be doing work again.
Maybe Porter was just trying to fill vacancies, but I am in a school with fair admins. On a side note, the neighborhood is not great, but having good leadership is better.
Once again, sorry to ruin the narrative that atrs were happy doing no work.
2:13: Yes good leadership even in a school with low functioning students makes all the difference.
@2:13 pm...You're right. But keep in mind that not every has a strong work ethic or will do the right thing when no one is watching. I can work with people like you everyday. Happy holidays.
12:36
You are free for a year.then over the next few years, the school pays increasingly more...I think in increments of 25% maybe.then they pay you.
James, true, at least she did it.klein and the like were horrible.but what happens now to 3020a people? Get forced placed?
Glad I am in a good school.they gave me shit school for my first 4020a placement.that is years behind, but it wasn't fair to pay a fine for something I didn't do.i hope the witch AP rots in he'll for her lies.
Maybe there is a payback unit in he'll for the unscrupulous doe admins and the cronies they enlisted.
I give Porter no credit. She’s a paper pushing loser like every other school administrator.
11:11,
They information is false. Doe takes on ATR salaries, not individual school budget. That was part of agreement unless the person transfers. Principals would not have agreed to this if they had to take on a veteran salary.
For years, James and Chaz have been banging the drum about the FSF. That’s what really needs to change.
Enabling principals to think they are these miniature ceos is laughable. I wouldn’t trust some of these principals to manage my kid’s piggy bank they are that inept.
11:11: Not for the ones that were permanently placed by Porter. We are free into perpetuity. That was an incentive for principals to hire out of the ATR pool. I know someone who was found guilty in a 3020a but still kept her job and is still in the ATR pool. Yes, the ATR pool still exists but only for people found guilty in a 3020a.
I also can support Ms. Meisha Porter. The past chancellors were a complete disaster - starting with Klein and lets never forget Kathy Black - in the sense that you have a work force and you use the people you have to maximize efficiency in the classroom and the school in general - The atr pool consisted not only of teachers however there were guidance counselors, social workers, secretaries and even APs who were in the pool.
Something so simple like using your entire force was left to just lay dormant with other chancellors while they wasted that money not utilizing their work force. Why? Political hacks or chancellors? Whether you want to think Ms. Porter did it for lack of workers or not she did it and many past ATRs are now where they belong - in schools working with the students AND - seniority within the school. Thanks Ms. Porter Merry Christmas!
Ms. Porter
If you are reading this bless you because although you have had a distinguished career working in just about every faucet in the business, the one magical thing that you did was to give people their lives BACK free from the political bullies like Cuomo / Bloomberg who gave charter schools the run of the city literally running over our schools in our own buildings!
Merry Christmas Ms. Porter Happy New Year!
I know two people who had 3020a hearings(one guilty, one beat it). Both are still atrs.
There is a new sort of segregation. Excessed people with 3020a and those without.
One person I know had huge attendance issues, so I can understand the labeling. Being excessively absent without documentation or an excused FMLA leave makes life hard for a school so no principal should have to be forced to have someone they cannot depend on.
But, a person who faced 3020a bc a principal just didn’t like them is wrong and that person should not be subjected to being labeled. Just my opinion.
In this system, nothing is perfect, but I have to give credit to porter for trying to fix the ATR situation.
9:44 I agree. I am grateful to Ms. Porter. The ATR pool never worked the way it was supposed to. I never understood why principals didn't give us full or partial programs since we were free help to the school. They could have lowered class sizes in some departments by making classes for them, but again if it makes sense, administration tends to do the opposite. I really hope Ms. Porter read the Post articles or some of these blogs and realized what a mess and waste of money the ATR pool was.
Dear Ms. Porter,
You were useless. Don't let the door hit ya on the ass.
Can't agree because she did change the ATR so most ATRS are actually teaching now. Give credit where it's due. She did more than the last chancellor and the one before that and the one before that.
Its funny everyone. The fact that there are some posts here which are negative toward Meisha Porter shows that no matter what you do in life there will always be the haters no matter what. You can cure cancer and there will be people critical of you. Its truly sad however the human race has regressed into a species that is filled with negative juices evident in the news whereby only the outrageous BAD stories are what humans are interested in.
1:05: Tell me something useful Klein, Black, Walcott, Farina or Carranza did.
Klein, Black, Walcott, Farina, Carranza were all useless DOE scum. Meisha Porter is same.
Granted but Porter did something right and she deserves a little credit for placing most ATRs permanently. That is all we are saying.
She was supposed to unravel an entirely dysfunctional system in all of 10 months, during the grips of a pandemic no less.
@9:26am. Yes. And cure all of the other ills of this system. There are educators who don't give a care about the kids or the profession but demand Meisha fix the problem. Lmho. Makes you wonder what some people are drinking.
They are drinking some cheap beer which still tastes a whole lot better than DOE-UFT Kool-aid.
Give Porter credit where she earned it on the ATRS and note that those who said the permanently placed ATRs are permanently free to that school's budget as long as they don't transfer are right.
Ok credit for atr but still racist and full of herself.
Don't forget also, Porter was chancellor for less than a year too. She didn't have much time to effect changes.
Not convinced. Meisha is doe scum just like the rest and a racist to boot.
do 3020a 's still exist
Agreed, Porter's racist past is well known in the Bronx.
3020a is an education law, proceedings.so yes, people can always be brought up on charges.too bad the corrupt admin pick on the dedicated ones to get rid of them and protect young assessors who do not much...I'm not saying all newbies are lazy.just saying what I witnessed.hard workers getting harassed and goof offs being protected...maybe we should join and get the corrupt losers on 4020a charges!
3020a is an education law, proceedings.so yes, people can always be brought up on charges.too bad the corrupt admin pick on the dedicated ones to get rid of them and protect young assessors who do not much...I'm not saying all newbies are lazy.just saying what I witnessed.hard workers getting harassed and goof offs being protected...maybe we should join and get the corrupt losers on 3020a charges!
Typo: ass kisses, not assessors.predictive text sucks.gotta proofread all
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