Huge budget cuts released for our schools; call the City Council to tell them no!

 June 7, 2022

Yesterday, school budgets for next year were released, and many if not most schools are facing MILLIONS of dollars in cuts compared to this year.  A good article about these proposed cuts is here.

You can find out how much your school’s budget has been cut by plugging its 4 digit DBN code into the DOE webpage here; and compare your school’s total Galaxy budget from 2022 to 2023 by scrolling to the bottom of the page and checking the Grand Total. (If you don’t know your school’s 4 digit code, you can find it by putting its name on the school search page here.  The first letter refers to the borough; then there is a three digit number that follows.)  Some schools, like Fort Hamilton HS in D20, will be cut by as much as $8 million; Forest Hills HS by $4 million.   

Now DOE has been telling reporters that some budget lines will be added later in the summer and fall -- but those are for small and specialized programs, and principals are told to plan staffing based on this budget now.  Already, we're hearing of teachers being excessed as a result, and the DOE itself projected the loss of thousands of teaching positions based on these cuts in the Executive budget.

If enacted, these cuts will make class sizes increase sharply and cause the loss of essential services to kids.  Clearly, neither the Mayor nor the Chancellor are planning to abide by the language or the intent of the new state law passed last week requiring smaller classes.    Meanwhile, it has been reported that the Council may announce a budget deal with the Mayor as early as this week that would cement these cuts in place. 

What can parents and teachers do?

1.Call your Council Members today and tell them to vote against any budget deal that includes these egregious cuts, and to let the Speaker know now that they will vote against a city budget that contains them.  These cuts will tremendously hurt schools and the kids in their districts, and especially in light of the new state class size law, they are potentially illegal. You can find their phone nos. here.   

2. Then call the Speaker Adrienne Adams and leave the same message: 212-788-6850.  

3. Then ask your principal if they are willing to talk on or off the record to me or a reporter about the likely impact of these cuts. So far, many teachers are expressing their outrage on twitter, but so far, I’ve seen no principal speak out. If they are willing, have them email us at info@classsizematters.org Their confidentiality will be protected.

But please make those calls today!

Thanks, Leonie

 

As teachers are excessed, the bureaucracy continues to grow....

As news spreads of large numbers of teachers are being “excessed” throughout the system because of the budget cuts, DOE is still hiring new “teams” of “talent coaches” (under the titles of Senior Educational Research, Evaluation & Program Planning Specialist, Liii-Ea40),: each of whom  will coach school leaders (6-8 schools) on implementation of a pilot teacher evaluation and development system, under the supervisions of “lead talent coaches”.  Salaries will be $97,199 per year. 

Talent “coaches” will engage with “network-based Talent Managers” to “inform development of systems and tools to support teacher evaluation and development across a network of 20 schools.”

• · DOE is also hiring  “lead talent coaches” (under the title  of Senior Educational Research, Evaluation & Program Planning Specialist, Liv-Ea40)  to “coach school leaders” and to “Facilitate principals’ communication with teachers regarding the pilot teacher evaluation and development model. This will include information on how to create materials, agendas, and talking points to help principals communicate with their teachers around expectations of teacher practice and student learning.”  Salaries at $106,201 per year.

• They also are hiring “achievement coaches” (under the heading of Senior Network Team Achievement Manager - Instruction Specialist, Achievement Coach, Liv-Ea20) to be part of the Children First Network teams,  to help teachers “align their curriculum, assessment, and instruction to the Common Core” and to “serve as a change agent across his/her schools, providing support that integrates the DOE’s instructional initiatives around the Common Core and teacher effectiveness and guidance to school-based instructional teams while simultaneously establishing a standards-based culture of continuous growth in service of student achievement. Performs related work.”  Salary at $106,201 per year.

Some of these positions may be paid for through Race to the Top funds, but this will be temporary, and like the millions spent on new tests, the city taxpayer will be left holding the bag.  Meanwhile, DOE is creating whole new levels of bureaucracy, whose headcount will probably be hidden at the school level, to obscure the growing expense, as teachers continue bleed from the system and class sizes grow ever larger.