I have a routine on Sunday mornings. I get up, get dressed and go out and get myself a breakfast. Usually it's a breakfast burrito and black coffee from McDonald's or I substitute the burrito for a bagel. But it's good alone time. The one thing that never changes is picking up a copy of the Daily News. Even at $3.50 and the sports section a shell of what it used to be, old habits are hard to drop. 

Today's News had an interesting article. Apparently, PS 211 in District 12 has an abusive principal and things on in an uproar. 

According to the News...

Parents and teachers are calling for the ouster of a Bronx elementary school principal they say has bullied educators, denigrated kids and parents, and turned a once warm and loving school culture into a hostile and chaotic environment.

And even more important...

...principal Tanya Drummond has waged a years-long war with teachers, sparking a mass educator exodus and prompting 55 of the school’s 64 unionized employees to sign a scathing letter of no confidence in 2019 blasting the “toxic work environment,” according to records reviewed by the Daily News.

I did a Google search on the school and found that James Eterno blogged about this school two years ago. So think about this. Let's do a timeline. 

In 2019 eighty five percent of the unionized employees of 211 voted no confidence in the principal. 

On February 27, 2020, James Eterno blogged about this school.

Today, Sunday, March 13, 2022 the Daily News reported basically reported information that is over two years old. A wee bit late, but better late than never. 

Anyone notice something? Or something missing? Not sure? Read the Daily News article again. I'll wait. 

OK, I'll tell you. There is not one person quote from the UFT. Nothing. Nada. Bupkus. Where is the outrage from OUR (REMEMBER THIS! IT IS OUR UNION. THE RANK AND FILE.) union? OUR union that should be rolling up its sleeves and supporting the staff, and just as important, the students and community of CS 211. 

Where is the outrage from 52 Broadway for this...?

That same year, 18 classroom teachers, a full third of the school’s teaching force, left the school — a turnover rate nearly 20 percentage points higher than that year’s city average, according to figures provided by the United Federation of Teachers.

Since 2014, 78 of the 127 educators who worked at P.S. 211 had left by the start of this school year, according to the UFT.

Does this kind of turnover not have an effect on the learning outcomes of students? If the UFT won't be there for the staff of the school at the very least be there for those at the school who are most vulnerable.

Will Mike Mulgrew be at CS 211 tomorrow morning to support the teachers and the community? Hell no! If this were a police precinct, you can bet your life that Pat Lynch would be in front of the precinct before the crack of dawn showing his support. 

This is all the more reason why a change is needed. Camille Eterno would not only be at the school first thing tomorrow morning, but she would be working all day on a Sunday coordinating with local UFT leaders on how to address this issue. She would be reaching out to staff and the community to give her support, while hitting the media outlets like there was no tomorrow. 

This is what a leader does. A leader doesn't hide out on Staten Island. We need a leader that is proactive and takes the bull by the balls and leads. At what point do the members of the UFT 

It's time for a change. Time to say UFT President elect Eterno and say goodbye to UFT President Potemkin. The time of smoke and mirrors is over.

Yeah, the DOE does seem to be run by a bunch of imbeciles. So purports Chaz when he wrote about former Beacon High School science teacher Anna Poole. Anna Poole, you may recall, set several students ablaze in 2014 in a science experiment gone awry back in 2014.

Personally, Anna Poole used the resources available to her, as is her right, to keep her job. I do not have a problem with that. However I do have several issues.

If she had been a tenured teacher would SCI have gone harder on her and not left her discipline up to the chancellor? If this had been a tenured teacher is it not fair to say that E4esaid teacher would not only have been brought up on 3020-a charges but possibly criminal charges as well?

According to a commenter on Chaz's blog there were some irregularities in her right to representation. Is this not a right as teachers that we see as inalienable?

Again, Mona Davids (She's still around????) has to stick her ignorant nose where it should not be and as always without having full information to base her inane comments on...

“I think that’s outrageous and ludicrous. It’s actually insulting, but it’s typical DOE. That’s what they do, reward poor performance.”

Mona, while not condoning nor condemning Anna, there is a difference between an accident and poor performance. Mona claims she she's smart. Prove it.

The way the Daily News implied that she got rewarded with a raise...

...currently makes a $79,484 a year — up from $56,048 on the day of the explosion.

No, she got was was contractually due her. That is it. 

What I want to know is if Anna Poole has a rabbi within the DOE. Why did she get a nice cushy gig within Tweed? How did she get it? Why did she get it? I have speculated that she must be with Educators 4 Excellence or Teach for America. Maybe she's Teaching Fellows?

I have no problem with what Chaz wrote. I disagree with him somewhat, but I respect his opinion. What he wrote was on his blog. He was not going to the, for lack of a better phrase, through the MSM to bash a teacher (yeah, I know. I have done the same, but only to TFA, E4E, and other rats. Poole, as far as we know is not a rat). Chaz did not have to go through a reporter. He was adult enough to do it on his own. Some weren't.

It pained me to see another teacher, a teacher who purports to claim to be on the side of teachers, playing both sides of the fence.

Too many teachers have been brought up on BS charges for leaving pee on a toilet seat, to carrying a cup of coffee, to leaving the toilet seat up, to not passing gas according to the way mandated in Chancellor's Regulations.

I have no problem with Anna Poole staying employed by the DOE. I have a problem with how the DOE kept her. There is something just not right about this "promotion."

What a whirlwind couple of days it has been!

Tonight, I had the pleasure to listen to Diane Ravitch speak at my alma mater Purchase College and yesterday I got to read this written by Juan Gonzalez and see how Governor Andy really operates.

Really, is anyone surprised?

This man has accepted, taken, pocketed, call it what you wish, $4.8 million from hedge fund managers as they lobby Governor Andy to see it there way and raise the cap on charter schools in New York State.

Remember last year when Cuomo threw DeBlasio under the bus in regards to limiting Success Academy's co-locations? It just so happens that a pal of Eva's,  the Chairman of the Board of Success Academy, Daniel Loeb, has "given $62,000 to Cuomo." ***COUGH COUGH*** Something smells fishy here. ***COUGH COUGH***

Would it not behoove our better judgement to believe that the same hedge fund managers that Juan Gonzalez mentioned in in column have also deeply--as well as softly--whispered in Governor Andy's ear to change tenure to five years, base 50% of evals on tests, incorporate the stupid 35% eval on an outside entity, and all the other craziness Governor Andy has proposed?

How can we as teachers compete against Governor Andy and $4.8 million?

That's what we thought at an emergency meeting of The Crack Team which was convened last night at the Candlelight Inn in the Edgemont section of Greenburgh. 

We put our heads together. We had to come up with a way to grab Governor Andy's attention and be assured he gives us what we want in the same method the hedgies have co-opted him. But, and we all agreed, $4.8 million is somewhat out of the reach of ordinary teachers.

So we had to improvise, adapt, and overcome.

We came up with some great ideas. For instance a great idea was sending a Hickory Farms gift basket to the Executive Mansion. Or perhaps a Vermont Teddy Bear, or a dozen red roses (We nixed that, we thought he might get the wrong idea), some Omaha Steaks, or some nice jewelry from Kay.

But when it came down to following through we just couldn't Yes, Govcrnor Andy would be appreciative of such gifts, but they are just gifts. As we collectively rubbed our chins we had to think what is it that would get all the teachers of New York State into his office.

We figured it out. Cold. Hard. Cash. In small bills equaling $4.8 million.

Yes, that is what it will take, we believe, for Governor Andy to leave the Dark Side and do what the teachers and families of New York State want.

So The Crack Team has set up a Go FundMe page and between today and March 30 we hope to raise $4.8 million for Governor Andy's PACs. If we do not raise the money it will be returned or if the giver wishes, donated to charity.

Donations are to be only $1. We want to ensure all New Yorkers to contribute.

Let's do this for Andy. He needs us more than ever. 

By now we should all know who Errol Louis of NY1 and the Daily News works for. Not for truth, but for
those that distort the truth.

I at one time had thought the Errol was above the fray, that he had integrity and wished to give both sides of the education debate equal time. I will never forget when he had Julie Cavanagh on his NY1 show debating Little Evan Stone of E4E in 2011. I watched and felt that Errol had sifted through the BS of Evan and allowed Julie to give her side.

But lately he has become a shill of the deformers. A badly misinformed shrill. I guess this is par for the course for someone who grew up in New Rochelle, went to a great high school, went to Harvard, Yale, and Brooklyn Law, and mingles with the hipsters in Park Slope. Yes, Errol is just oozing educational cred. Do we dare say that Errol is an elitist?

Errol this past Thursday wrote a column for the Daily News in which he shows just how clueless and ignorant he is when it comes to education.

Errol blabbers forth; Thursday’s sure-to-be raucous education rally, to be held within shouting distance of the Tweed building and City Hall, is a timely reminder of a civic force that many of the city’s progressive leaders seem incapable of understanding...

We here at SBSB believe they understand it. These aren't the parents that are forming these protests, nor is it the communities. These protests are led by inane, self-absorbed, me first, **cough cough** EVA MOSKOWITZ **cough cough**. When we see these parents clamoring for a better education ON THEIR OWN ACCORD, as the people protesting for democracy are doing in Hong Kong, or the students in Colorado clamoring for a real AP social studies curriculum  in Colorado, then we'll talk.

Errol says; Wednesday’s speech by Chancellor Carmen Fariña, centered on an announcement that the Education Department will scrap the old method of assigning letter grades to individual schools, could be a step in the right direction 

We here at SBSB are proud of Errol for not flying off the shrilling from the mountain top like ignorant others over at Mona Davids Parents Union.

...but the administration appears to be dragging its feet on attacking the urgent problem of turning around schools that are badly broken

Broken? How so? Specifics. Real specifics. Yes, the test scores suck, but why? Is it just the teachers or is it the crappy curriculum teachers are forced to deal with? Is it the cycle of poverty and mental health issues that never get addressed that our students have to deal with every day? Is it crime? Is it a lack of funding? Is it a lack of leadership at Tweed and at the schools? Tell us Errol in your own words, using your own investigatory facts, WHY ARE THE SCHOOLS BROKEN??

While Thursday’s rally isn’t pushing specific demands, it’s clear the organizers are warming up for a battle to raise the current limit on charter schools in the city.

That's what it is all about. Not the broken schools, not the teachers, just more and more and more and more charter schools and more and more and more and more halves against the have nots.

But the main thrust of the gathering is to show that there is a large and vocal number of New Yorkers fed up with poorly-performing schools and impatient with the litany of excuses for why we can’t do better.

But Errol just said the rally was all about charter schools, so why is he contradicting himself? Again, is this movement organic? NO!

The chatter from those defenders on social media sites and letters to the editor usually includes talking points about how poverty is the true culprit

Yeah it is. See above, it is one of many. Think about this Errol. Take the teachers Albert Leonard Middle School in New Rochelle and switch them out with teacher from IS 162 on 149th and St Ann's Ave in the Bronx. What do you think will happen? 

But Errol has more to say on this and he feels he must insult teachers; Those old arguments, repeated year after year, have grown stale. Most airline passengers don’t know how to fuel and fly a jet or run an air-traffic control tower. But they do know when plane after plane is dirty and cramped, arriving late at the wrong destination and occasionally crashing.

This isn't fair. My cat can take apart this argument. But what the hell.

Please do not compare what teachers do to fueling a jet plane. Yes, these guys work hard and I am sure there is a learning curve, but really? Now, if we were compared to these guys fueling a plane than I might say, "touché."

But how about this? Does Errol want a pilot or an air traffic controller that has had only 50 hours and five weeks of training when he is jet setting around the USA? Doubt it. Does he want constant turnover of air traffic controllers and pilots? Doubt it as well. 

But his argument that the public does know when a plane is dirty or cramped or late has a lot to do with how an airline is run, yes, the MANAGEMENT! Why not then does Errol and his ilk kvetch about WHO IS RUNNING THE SCHOOLS? And Errol is being quite specious with his last argument. Seriously, how often does a plane land at the wrong destination? And crashes? How many crashes of American commercial jets have there been the last ten years and what is the ratio of mechanical vs pilot errors?

What Errol fails to point out is that the people who fly our planes, design our planes, and guide our planes have training in planes. Also, flying, designing and guiding is evaluated by OBJECTIVE MEASURES, not the whim of some untrained, irrational human being. 

Come on Errol, tell us all how to fly a jet, or guide a jet over LaGuardia, or design one. Yeah, I hear crickets too.

And let's not forget that pilots, air traffic controllers, and flight attendants are all proud union members.

Families for Excellent Schools, the group organizing Thursday’s demonstration, has compiled a number of damning reports 

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We know, and we care. But see above arguments. Again, FES is a front organization for FormelyMichelleRheeFirst. Yet refuses to put into context and show how it came to this statement; 

A school where nine out of 10 kids can’t proficiently read or do math does not simply ‘need improvement,’

A recent Associated Press report notes that the nation’s top 10% of income earners have increased spending on their kids by 35% in recent years — pouring a fortune into private-school tuition, bidding up home prices in districts with high-performing schools and paying so much money for extra help that some SAT tutors now make over $50 an hour.

SAT tutors are only making $50 an hour? I guess the ones making that kind of dough are getting hosed. But I will like to see this AP report. Where is it? But if true, I can guarantee that the parents sending their kids to private schools are doing it to keep the Common Core away from them, to keep them from testing, and for smaller class size. Why isn't Errol advocating for what parents really want? For what Errol wants for his own kids yet won't admit it to others. 

I used to have respect for Errol. I thought he was objective and can see and respect both sides. But he has drank from the Kool-Aid trough for too long and is useless. Nothing more than a shrieking shrill.

One more thing. The problems Errol is whining about are the same problems that permeated the 12 years of the Bloomberg reign. Where was he during those 12 years? Bought off by Bloomberg? 

We don't have Bloomberg to kick around anymore when the Daily News publishes anti-teacher columns like it did today. I mean does Mort still fear the wrath of Uncle Mike?

So just who is this Katharine A Stevens that wrote another ill informed hit piece against NYC teachers today?

Kathy it seems is super duper smart. She is great at telling others how to do things yet never implementing and practicing anything she spews to actually experiencing it. Like a priest who can give marriage advice, Kathy is a professional students and policy wonk who can't and won't put her money where her blue blooded money comes from.

But wait! She does have skills according to her LinkedIn page;

Excellent written and verbal communication skills with exceptional talent for building relationships with diverse stakeholders.
♦ Demonstrated ability to conduct original, relevant policy research, with special expertise in legislative and regulatory analysis.
♦ Strong entrepreneurial and project management skills.
♦ Quick learner with well-developed critical thinking skills; ability to operate effectively in complex environments.
♦ Creative, resourceful, big-picture thinker with demonstrated capacity to bridge worlds of practice, policy, and research.
♦ Fluent in Spanish.

But let's take apart her arguments from today's article.

...the premise of a groundbreaking lawsuit now being heard in Los Angeles Supreme Court that challenges entrenched California state laws protecting the jobs of public school teachers who are “grossly ineffective.” The nine student plaintiffs, Vergara vs. California, argue that laws protecting even abysmally incompetent teachers violate the guaranteed civil right of the state’s children to access a decent education.

 What Kathy fails to share is that this lawsuit is spearheaded by a group known as Students Matter led by research scientist David P Welch. Dave's expertise in education is that he is a parent. Dave has a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University. 

Now The Crack Team does not know too much about Vergara v California and we are hoping that our brethren in the Golden State can shed some light. What we do know is this is a method to usurp collective bargaining and to end tenure.

Does Kathy know of the provenance of the law suit or is she just ignorant? We'll let Kathy share. 

Despite the state’s highly visible new teacher evaluation law and a perception of radical change under the Bloomberg administration, a scandalous reality remains: Here, as in California, it is virtually impossible to dismiss a grossly ineffective teacher.

"it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be." 

Hypocrites be damned.

But isn't it scandalous that as Newsday reported today that state officials are finding flaws in the new teacher evaluation system?

New York State law governing teacher dismissal, 3020-a, was left essentially untouched by both the contentious new teacher evaluation legislation and recent city reforms. Under that law, only the state can dismiss a teacher — and it rarely does.

On Friday after the horror that I had gone through I received a DM from ace reporter Ben Chapman of the Daily News inviting me to comment on a article that was to appear in yesterday's Daily News concerning the Rubber Rooms.

I had to think about it. My spidey sense was telling me that something is up. I mean what happens
with the same regularity of the cherry blossoms blooming, the swallows returning to Capistrano, or the Jets not making the Super Bowl? Teacher bashing stories at the beginning of each and every school year in the Daily News and the Post.

And sure enough in today's Post there was an article slamming teacher's who dared to take advantage of the 14th Amendment. For shame.

But Ben, here is what bugs me and others. One, with your story on Saturday and today's story in the Post, there is no way this is a coincidence. It's a plant by the DOE, in particular Uncle Mike.

Come on, when we all know that Uncle Mike walks in the same social circles as Mortimer and Rupert what is one to think? Yes, we know that is standard operating procedure. Of course one will leak stories to those that they know will cooperate and share the same warped views (not you Ben, but the others). Yes, you and other reporters have editors to answer to and teacher bashing is sexy and sells papers, but can you understand from our point of view how it seems so unbalanced?

I'll give you credit, you do seem to balance it out more and do show administrators that are doing bad, very bad things. You and yours at the News, IMHO, do come across less sensationalistic than the Post and for that thank you. But there are, IMHO, things that have slipped through you and other's fingers at the News.

I mean one of the things we talked about is the spoon fed news I gave you about the shenanigans at IS 162 in the Bronx. It's there for you. The who, what, where. The SCI investigation, the hand slap, and the people involved. Want to speak to others to confirm it? I'll give you names. You need to put a little elbow grease into putting all together.

You did bring up a good point. Why did only 7% of students in District 7 score proficient in the state ELA exams.

There are many reasons. Common Core. The fact some schools, including my own PS 154 still believe that Reader's and Writer's Workshop will save the day even though neither are aligned to the common core.

Of course there is the superintendent of District 7, Yolanda Torres. How long has she been in power and how long has District 7 been going downhill? McDonald's would not stand for one of it's managers having her record, why should the District 7 community?

Why not look into the lousy curriculum that teachers are given. The overcrowded classrooms? The lack of support from above. The pathological lying from administrators? The lack of books and supplies? The skewing of numbers from Tweed? Why not sit down with the teachers in the Rubber Room and listen and learn from them? Why not hold Tweed accountable?

I hope things change on January 1. De Blasio doesn't seem like the type to have weekly schpritz with Mortimer and Rupert.