Friday, July 29, 2022

CITY LOSES APPEAL TO HALT TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER STOPPING BUDGET CUTS; DOE TELLS PRINCIPALS THEY ARE FREEZING SCHOOL BUDGETS (Update: DOE UNFREEZES SCHOOL BUDGETS)

 I never know where the incompetence ends and the bad faith starts with the city-Department of Education. You decide which is which after examining the latest DOE news.

The Department did not do too well in court again today as an appellate judge refused to lift the Temporary Restraining Order in the lawsuit seeking a second City Council vote on the school budget.

This is from Advocates for Justice. It was on Leonie Haimson's Twitter:



The email from the DOE to principals freezing budgets that was in Gothamist:

 

Freezing principals out of Galaxy Budgets today comes just nine days before the Open Market Transfer period is scheduled to end. If a teacher transfers between April 15 and August 7, he/she does not require the approval of the principal from the school he/she is transferring from, only the new principal must accept that teacher. The rules change after August 7. Leave it to the City/DOE to mess with this process. 

They are creating the chaos they say they want to avoid.

The DOE talking about savings is insane. This is also from Leonie:


An excess is not a layoff. The DOE-City doesn't save a dime by pushing a teacher's salary from a school budget to a central Absent Teacher Reserve budget. 


Update:

This came our way this evening.


I can't even attempt to analyze this to find some logic.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

So does this mean everyone will not receive pay from this day forward? Or is this as far as hiring staff? Either way, this seems to be more of a spite situation. This is a very eye opening situation to how far the rabbit hole really is.

Anonymous said...

Who cares? How does this help or harm us? The budget was $38B and it was the same disaster. You want 40 or 42 billion?

Anonymous said...

When there's no other explanation
it's about power and control. They get off on it. I really think it's that simple.

Anonymous said...

“At least we aren't in a famine" is an actual argument the White House is making… is like the uft telling you that you are lucky to have a job is like saying we have the highest grad rate ever while students all need remedial classes…What is the $40B for again?

Anonymous said...

Interesting that this is happening during the year we need to negotiate a new contract.
Why do I feel the UFT is going to tout this as a big "win" for members in lieu of an actual raise in our paychecks.

Anonymous said...

UFT has nothing to do with this case.

waitingforsupport said...

...."Get the SUPPORT you need to deliver to students and parents." Wth? So the DOE believes cutting the budget is being supportive. Man this is a system that has gone even more haywire. One way to tackle a broken system is to expose its weaknesses. I'm still waiting.

Anonymous said...

I see the logic in what the DOE is doing. They are actively trying to destroy traditional public schools. They are doing all they can to get parents to remove their children from traditional public schools so they can then justify cutting budgets further. What will charter schools look like when traditional public schools have been dismantled?

Anonymous said...

The DOE is going to spin this as the classic, "Greedy teachers out to destroy schools".

Anonymous said...

Not surprised by the DOE reaction. It’s pretty obvious that under the Mayor’s control and the Chancellors complicity, either they are more incompetent than past administrations or at their request they’re intentionally causing chaos, fear, and intimidation to control superintendents, principals and therein Teachers. By causing a divide, admins fall in line, and turns educators against one another and causes parents to distrust public schools ability to educate leaving the door wide open for privatization of education. Parents and Teachers across the nation must come together to demand funding of public education. NYS needs to demand investigations and audits of NYC Chancellor, Mayor, Superintendents and Principals. Audit where the money really goes. Look for connections—the nepotism is real both in the hiring process, contracts, and spending) because teachers aren’t the ones making the decision on how the $$$ is spent.

Anonymous said...

If you look back to every budget cut since early 1970s layoffs, they never touch a single administrator. High schools and multischool buildings are generally overrun with them, varies at other levels. I predict no change. Just think of all the Bloomberg cohort hanging around downtown for several decades. Maybe we can pension them off soon and be rid of them.

Anonymous said...

Glad the uft is so strong.

With high rates of inflation making headlines this summer — recent data shows the June 2021 to June 2022 inflation rate hit a staggering 9.1% — Santa Monica school staff have worked to ensure wages are keeping pace.

On Thursday, July 21, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board of Education approved new rates for contracts going into the 2022-23 school year, with teachers earning 10% wage increases. Teachers will also see a 0.57% salary increase as part of “step and column” increases, which essentially provide increases to salaries in a “step” program to incentivize teachers to retain employment with the District. The raises are retroactive back to Jun 2021.

waitingforsupport said...

I agree

Anonymous said...

The DOE is maliciously destroying public education in NY city.
It is being done by plan; not by incompetence. Mayor Adams and his stooge Banks are continuing this process which was initiated by Billionaires with a privatization agenda. These folks include Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch and other
greedy plutocrats.

Their plan has been to privatize NY City Public education by not providing the level of support that it needs to survive. By putting in place structures that are ideologically driven, ill-conceived and impractical, the DOE is maliciously destroying the NY city public school system.

Anonymous said...

Privatization and gentrification, sort of like trickle-down economics, this is trickle or pour sideways economics. Make it appear the neediest are the focus when only a few lifelines are thrown in their direction, a modicum of highly conditional support and for an industry of return on investment.

Anonymous said...

I may be one of the few NYC DOE teachers who thinks the DOE has more than enough money to successfully manage a school system in which education is the goal. As a few contributors here have pointed out, education is not the goal for the NYC DOE.

The corruption, incompetence, self-serving leadership and the monetary waste are the real problems. A cut of $250 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the monetary waste that starts at Tweed and goes all the way down to individual schools. Millions can be cut from "offices" and there would be no change in the schools. My school could easily be cut by $1,000,000 and yet retain all staff and still educate students if, and only if, education was really the goal. Since education is not the goal, if my school does have any kind of budget cut, the waste will stay and teacher positions eliminated.

Money is very often at the root of corruption. As long as the DOE continues to be given billions from the city budget and produce very little, the corruption will continue and education will continue to be the cover.

waitingforsupport said...

Whaaaat. Absolutely. Bingo. High five. And Yes @731 am.

Anonymous said...

The DOE certainly is its own bureaucratic unreality, but there’s also the City, State and big money influencers, local and national.

Anonymous said...

And fed

Anonymous said...

The defining characteristic of DOE policymakers is cruelty.

Anonymous said...

How much of the $28,000 per student that NYC spends benefits the students? My guess not much. The DOE needs to be gutted. We don’t need more money. We need less bureaucrats. Unfortunately NYC politicians will always keep the pork that has no effect on student learning. Doesn’t matter how much the budget is, at least half of it is pork that feeds the bureaucrats.

Enough is Enough! said...

7:59-Nice to see 1 district giving COLA increase to keep up with inflation and an actual raise small but still a raise. We will be offered 2% making us at a 7% loss.

It's time for the city to get rid of extended day and go back to 6:20 for all. They claim they can't afford to pay us-ok then 2 percent and get ride of the 2:35 extra AND make all elementary schools 7 periods saves money and less work/planning for professional periods

JR said...

I'll give up all that to get 8.25% TDA back.

Or...As stated, small raise and then balance the inflation difference by having a shorter workday. Of course, none of this will happen because the uft and the teachers are stupid.

Teachers will vote for any contract put in front of them.

James will ask why.

Everyone will wait for change.

Anonymous said...

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/new-report-finds-funds-to-solve-nyc-school-budget-crisis/3803657/?amp=1

New Report Finds Funds to Solve NYC School Budget Crisis