A secretive new program by Chancellor Richard Carranza to boost under performing schools stumbled badly out of the gate and squandered millions, educators say.<\/p>\n
In September, the city Department of Education quietly launched the Academic Response Team, a group of 69 six-figure staffers with a $10 million budget. Officials say it is one of several programs to follow Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s three-year, $773 million \u201cRenewal Program\u201d for struggling schools,\u00a0which was deemed a failure.<\/p>\n
The ART is led by senior director Clarence Williams Jr., who makes $161,364 a year, the DOE said.<\/p>\n
Williams has two deputies, called \u201cleads\u201d and a third to be hired working under him at DOE headquarters. One of them is Ben Sherman, the ex-principal of Forest Hills High School, who left the school in June 2019 after his faculty complained\u00a0the building reeked of pot\u00a0and voted \u201cno confidence\u201d in him. He now makes $173,693 a year. Those top officials oversee nine ART directors in borough or city wide offices.<\/p>\n
The directors supervise 56 ART specialists dispatched to schools to coach teachers in subjects where test scores are dropped.<\/p>\n
The program came to a crashing halt for nearly the first three months of the school year after the principals\u2019 union complained it was dumped on them without warning.<\/p>\n
The specialists sat in offices with nothing to do for nearly three months while the DOE worked out a deal with the principals\u2019 union.<\/p>\n
One principal called the program a waste of money that should be spent directly on kids\u2019 classroom educators.<\/p>\n
All these new initiatives are completely foolish and absurd. That money could be better spent on kids, the principal said. I have five children that require a one-on-one paraprofessional in their IEP (special-education plan). They have not given me the funding for those paras.<\/p>\n
Principals were also taken aback by the lack of coordination and cooperation.<\/p>\n
They couldn\u2019t just show up like a SWAT team, a union source said.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not going to have somebody come into my building, put me under a microscope and tell me what to do, a Brooklyn principal.<\/p>\n
One colleague told a specialist who couldn\u2019t explain the purpose of the visit to leave, the principal said.<\/p>\n
The DOE finally agreed to schedule the ART visits, and send just one or two instead of a group.<\/p>\n
Even now, with the program finally off the ground, Carranza\u2019s vision remains fuzzy, staffers say.<\/p>\n
They hired all these people and they haven\u2019t been able to map out a school improvement strategy, a specialist stated. We\u2019re all very confused. There are no directives.<\/p>\n
The specialists visit each school two to three days a week for six to eight weeks, and come up with an assistance plan with the principal.<\/p>\n
Some schools are in such disarray. What can we do in six weeks? the specialist asked. It\u2019s not what we signed up for.<\/p>\n
Linda Chen, Carranza\u2019s chief academic officer, came from Boston Public Schools, where an Academic Response Team sends veteran educators into low-performing schools for two-month periods to coach teachers.<\/p>\n
Some staffers think the program was first meant to be run by Abram Jimenez,\u00a0Carranza\u2019s friend he recruited from California,\u00a0who joined the DOE in September 2018. Jimenez was named \u201csenior executive director for continuous school improvement\u201d with a $205,416 salary and a staff of 40.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0Jimenez abruptly quit\u00a0in July 2019 following reports about his disciplinary history and a\u00a0financial stake in a vendor\u00a0doing millions in business with the DOE.<\/p>\n
A DOE spokeswoman said ART was a different program, but did not explain what happened to Jimenez\u2019s 40 staffers.<\/p>\n
In February 2019, Carranza announced the DOE had ended the Renewal Program but would launch a new approach called \u201cComprehensive School Support\u201d.\u00a0A DOE spokeswoman did not explain that happened to that concept. Williams and other ART staffers did not return requests to discuss the program.<\/p>\n
DOE officials denied the program is top-heavy or wasteful.<\/p>\n
When schools need to improve their instruction, we send support. This is a common-sense strategy that schools and districts use across the country, said spokeswoman Danielle Filson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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