Approximately 2,000 city sixth graders will stay an extra two and half hours at school beginning this September. The city has named 20 schools that will get a pilot program that extends the school day for high-needs students.

The schools include six in the Bronx, six in Brooklyn, five in Queens and three in Manhattan, the city’s Department of Education announced.

The students in the program will receive intense literacy training during the extra hours.

The program is a part of the expansion of the Middle School Quality Initiative. Launched in 2011, the initiative focuses on deepening instruction for students in grades 6 through 8.

An additional 20 schools were also added to the initiative without the extended-day model, the DOE announced on Monday. The total number of schools in the initiative is now 89.

“We are committed to ensuring that all students are prepared for college and 21st century careers, and the Middle School Quality Initiative has been central to this mission,” said Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott.

The expansion is being funded by the Robin Hood Foundation, the City Council, the DOE and others.

The schools that will receive the extended learning day pilot are:

Juan Morel Campos Secondary School (Brooklyn)
M.S. 223 The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology (Bronx)
Waterside School for Leadership (Queens)
PS/IS 116 William C. Hughley (Queens)
Queens United Middle School (Queens)
Eagle Academy for Young Men (Bronx)
The Highbridge Green School (Bronx)
East Flatbush Community Research School (Brooklyn)
P.S. 043 (Queens)
J.H.S. 143 Eleanor Roosevelt (Manhattan)
South Bronx Academy for Applied Media (Bronx)
I.S. 30 Mary White Ovington (Brooklyn)
Renaissance School of the Arts (Manhattan)
Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change (Manhattan)
I.S. 340 (Brooklyn)
Andries Hudde (Brooklyn)
Frederick Douglass Academy V. Middle School (Bronx)
P.S. 109 (Brooklyn)
J.H.S. 123 James M. Kieran (Bronx)
Village Academy (Queens)

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New York City public school teachers are the kind of people who aren’t afraid of a problem. Case in point: Natasha and Adam McCabe — a husband and wife pair of teachers — recently founded edPeople, a site geared toward helping teachers network and build their professional communities.

On the surface, the site allows teachers to create profiles, upload their portfolios and make professional groups that can link teachers across the city. Principals can also post jobs, free of cost — different from other networking sites like LinkedIn. More important than that, they say, is improving the quality of education by allowing teachers to find the kinds of schools they most want to work in.

“Teacher quality really matters at a school, but paradoxically, teachers don’t have the same professional networks as people do in other fields,” says Natasha, who struggled to find information about teaching jobs when switching careers from fundraising. “It can be an isolating field. Your ability to find jobs that suit you and to network is fairly limited.”

Adam, who has taught high school math in the Bronx for seven years, said he faced a similar challenge when searching for the right teachers to hire at his school. “I took part in some interview processes, and it was hard to find the best candidates for certain positions.”

It is possible for teachers to find jobs through the Department of Education, teachers unions and other online resources, but the McCabes hope that edPeople will help get those in their field to take initiative. “Teachers are active, goal-oriented, assertive people. We want them to have the ability to make choices for themselves and not be passive in their careers,” Natasha said.

Another problem the website seeks to address is the high rate of teacher attrition, which is climbing according to 2013 data from the United Federation of Teachers. Nearly 10 percent of new teachers in New York City quit before their first year was finished in the 2011-2012 school year, and nearly one-third of teachers hired in 2008 are no longer in the city’s schools.

“Teacher turnover is a huge problem,” Adam said. “I’ve witnessed teachers who may have been happy at one school, but because of what seems like a lack of options they either leave NYC schools or leave teaching all together.”

EdPeople is a labor of love for the pair, and also one of hope. The site was recently launched in beta, but their ultimate mission is to have more of their colleagues end up as they are — happily teaching in schools where they feel supported and in step with their schools’ teaching philosophy and administration.

“If we could create a thriving, supportive professional community among city teachers, it’s a great thing for everyone — especially students,” said Natasha.

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New York City public schools finally have a teacher evaluation system, handed down by Commissioner James King at the State Department of Education.

Governor Andrew Cuomo charged the state DOE with coming up with a plan by June 1 after the city Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers failed to agree on a plan on their own by January 17, even though failing to meet that deadline meant losing hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding to city schools.

At the Celebrate Israel Parade today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called King’s plan “a huge rebuff to the UFT’s obstructionism” and said it was “crucial” that the commissioner “rejected the UFT’s demand for a sunset provision.”

However, the teachers’ union does not appear to feel rebuffed, as their president, Michael Mulgrew, expressed satisfaction at the plan.

“The New York City Department Ed will not be able to fire its way to a great school system,” Mulgrew told NY1.

The teachers’ union had wanted to institute a “sunset provision” that would expire in 2015. Bloomberg balked at that, as the proposed evaluation system worked such that it takes two years to remove a teacher who is deemed ineffective. The two sides had been arguing about the evaluation plan for three years by the time Cuomo’s January deadline rolled around.

King’s plan will not expire.

With King’s evaluation system, 40 percent of teacher evaluations will be based on student performance, and 60 percent on other measures, more than half of which must involve multiple classroom observations by a principal or administrator. At least one observation visit much be unannounced. Teachers may opt for one of two assessment processes, which differ largely in whether the observation sessions are formal or informal. The Common Core will also be instituted.

According to NY1, teachers who get the lowest rating two years in a row can be fired, even if they have tenure.

“There are strong measures to help remove ineffective teachers and principals, but let’s be clear: New York is not going to fire its way to academic success,” King said. “The key to this plan is the training, support, and professional development that must be put in place to help teachers and principals improve their practice.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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A program that delivered popular children’s books to 20,000 children in low-income neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs was abruptly ceased last fall, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The program was a partnership between the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and the city Department of Education to boost literacy rates in low-income households with children up to the age of five.

It apparently took months for confused parents to be notified, and then only by email from the Dollywood Foundation on April 22, despite parents recounting several phone calls to the Department of Education that went unanswered.

Bronx mother Melissa Kim said she and her 18-month-old daughter, Lauren, were perplexed and disappointed by the sudden cut-off.

“We had read the books together every night,” Kim said. “Even if she couldn’t read them, she loved looking at them.”

According to the Dollywood Foundation, the city paid $2 per book. City officials reportedly told the Journal that the project was initially funded by a $750,000 grant from the state Department of Education.

A spokesperson for the city Department of Education reportedly said it was a pilot program to be handed over to a nonprofit organization “considering the unpredictability of state funding and in order to make the program sustainable for the long term.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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New York City public school principals were notified by Department of Education Chancellor Dennis Walcott in a weekly online message that starting next school year, all schools will be required to conduct two yearly soft lockdown drills.

The program, projected for the 2013-2014 school year, is part of the DOE’s work on emergency readiness, said DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg.

Feinberg said many schools have already been conducting such drills.

The program Walcott announced will also involve training for school officials.

“To ensure that all principals are trained to appropriately implement these drills and procedures as well as effectively respond to emergencies, the Office of Safety and Youth Development is providing a two-hour mandatory training focused on emergency readiness during this summer,” Feinberg reported.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Former Schools Chancellor Cathie Black had a brief tenure that began and ended with heavy criticism of her lack of education experience. Now, a series of emails released by the city reveals that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s staff scrambled to gather support for the publishing executive by seeking the support of prominent female celebrities.

The emails between City Hall staffers and Black were released after a journalist filed a request for them under the Freedom of Information Act. An appeals court rejected the city’s request to keep the emails private, The Daily News reports.

City officials compiled a list of notable women from whom they would seek endorsements as well as talking points to be used to convince them, according to the emails. Among the listed women were Oprah Winfrey, Gloria Steinem, Whoopi Goldberg, Donna Karan and Caroline Kennedy.

When they successfully earned the support of Winfrey, they emailed about the Daily News cover which had the headline, “O BACKS CATHIE.”

When Black asked Micah Lasher, previously Bloomberg’s director of state legislative affairs, if she should be concerned about a New York Times article that highlighted her lack of experience with handling the challenges of the New York City public school system, he replied, “All our focus needs to be on getting allies to come out in support and on getting you prepared for a debut as soon as possible.”

Black, who was previously chairman of Hearst Magazines, stepped down from her role as schools chancellor after just 95 days on the job.

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Thousands of New York City middle school students will have more than two hours added to their school days come this fall.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced a pilot program that will extend the school day for high-needs students at 20 middle schools.

“Improving our city’s middle schools is vital to helping close the achievement gap and putting kids on a better track toward educational success,” Quinn said.

The program is a part of the expansion of the Middle School Quality Initiative. Selected schools will be able to offer students an additional 12 hours per week and offer literacy-focused training during the extra hours, according to the city’s Department of Education. An estimated 2,000 students each year over the next three years will participate.

Schools will be randomly selected for the program from a pool of applicants. The $6.2 million effort is being funded by the Robin Hood Foundation, the New York City Council and the DOE.

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A Queens teacher has been charged with rape after he allegedly had a sexual affair with a 13-year-old girl.

Daniel Reilly, 36, was arrested Monday evening at I.S. 237 in Flushing, where he taught. Reilly allegedly had an 8-month sexual affair with a teen that began when the girl was 13 years old, The Daily News reports.

The girl, now 14, was Reilly’s student when she was in elementary school, The News reports. He was later transferred to teach at I.S. 237 where he taught sixth grade English.

Reilly and the girl began a sexual relationship last August after he began sending her text messages. The victim’s sister recently discovered text messages between the teacher and her sister and showed them to her parents.

The teacher faces multiple charges of rape and endangering the welfare of a child, according to police.

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state leaders have created a plan to ensure that teacher evaluation systems remain in place until they’re renegotiated.

The deal comes in the middle of an impasse between the city and the teachers union, who have failed to come to an agreement on a new teacher evaluation system. The plan ensures that expired evaluation systems remain effective until an agreement on a new system is reached.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday that the new plan is “helpful” but that the city still needs to negotiate with the teachers union, the New York Post reports.

The city lost approximately $240 million in state aid this year because it failed to make a deal on the evaluations by the Jan. 17 deadline. Cuomo’s new plan is part of the new state budget that also requires the city to have a new evaluation system in place by May 29, or it will received a state-imposed one on June 1.

State lawmakers also added nearly $390 million in extra aid for city schools in the new budget, which the legislature is expected to finish voting on by Thursday, the Post reports.

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A 13-year-old girl has a broken collarbone after being shoved out of the back of a moving school bus by another student, according to reports from the Daily News.

Amore-Virginia Peterson was reportedly shoved “straight into the path of oncoming traffic” in Brooklyn, and the boy who pushed her tumbled out after her.

The two children managed to escape the oncoming traffic, but the boy continued to chase Peterson into a nearby barbershop. Employees stood between the children until paramedics arrived, the News reported.

The Daily News did not identify the name or age of the boy who shoved Peterson off the bus.

The incident started with a classmate spitting on Peterson and throwing books at her, the Daily News said. One of two bus matrons on board the bus reportedly told Peterson to go to the back of the bus “for safety.”

Then, Peterson told the Daily News, the boy “jumped over the seats and pushed me to the back door, then he pushed the door open and pushed me out.”

“I thought I was going to die,” Peterson reportedly told the News in tears.

Peterson, who is reportedly bipolar, attends the Brooklyn Children’s Center, a school for disabled children, the News reported.

Department of Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg told Metro that this is a private school and that the principal of the school “is reaching out and setting up meetings with all parents whose children were involved.”

Education officials said they are looking to put the attacker on another route, and that he is facing disciplinary action.

Peterson’s mother reportedly wants to put her daughter in a different school, even if only to be on a different bus route.

“My daughter doesn’t deserve to be treated this way,” Peterson’s mother told the News.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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The Panel for Educational Policy voted on Monday night to approve the closing of 22 city schools, The New York Times reports.

Twenty schools in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan will be phased out over the next few years. Two schools–M.S. 45 in Manhattan and Freedom Academy High School in Brooklyn–will be shut down this June, instead of being phased out. 

The panel, which consists of five members appointed by the borough presidents and eight members appointed by the mayor, rejected a proposal to stop the school closings. The proposal would have also placed a moratorium on the issue, which some of the mayoral candidates have rallied for.

The schools were selected for closure based on low-performance ratings.

“The goal is to have more quality choices for our students and we cannot just sit on our hands and allow poor performing schools to just exist for the emotional sake,” Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott told reporters on Monday.

Devon Puglia at the Department of Education told Metro, “Our policy is working.”

“Across the city, new schools are delivering resounding results, graduating students at roughly 20 points high than the schools they replaced,” Puglia said. “Families deserve great schools — and we’re delivering.”

According to Puglia, in 2006, all of the high schools that were phased out had a graduation rate of 38 percent. In 2011, all new high schools had a graduation rate of 70 percent, he said.

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Beginning this fall, students at 20 New York City middle and high schools will have the chance to add courses such as web design, 3-D printing and animation to their class schedules.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced on Monday the names of the schools selected to receive a comprehensive computer science and software engineering curriculum. First introduced in the mayor’s State of the City address earlier this month, the Software Engineering Pilot program is a part of the city’s efforts to prepare more students for careers in the growing technology sector.

“The tech industry in New York City continues to expand significantly under Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership, and our public schools are rising to meet the challenge,” said Walcott. “The Software Engineering Pilot will provide students with the foundational skills they need to compete for high-paying, career track jobs in a variety of professional fields.”

The announcement was made at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, one of the selected schools. One thousand students are expected to participate this fall. By 2016, the program will grow to 3,500 students.

The program will give students grades 6 through 12 access to courses covering topics such as computer programming, embedded electronics, web design and program, e-textiles, robotics and mobile computing.

The pilot also provides teacher training and ensures school have access to technology resources to support the courses.

The schools were chosen after a competitive application process. They are:

• High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology
• Brooklyn Technical High School
• The Bronx Compass High School
• The Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation
• Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology
• Queens Vocational & Technical High School
• Cambria Heights Academy
• Ralph McKee High School
• New Dorp High School
• Ditmas Intermediate School 62
• I.S. 30 Mary White Ovington
• Mark Twain I.S. 239 for the Gifted and Talented
• Bronx Park Middle School
• M.S. 223 The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology
• Tompkins Square Middle School
• Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School 74
• J.H.S. 185 Edward Bleeker
• Pathways College Preparatory School
• J.H.S. 157 Stephen A. Halsey
• Eagle Academy for Young Men

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A state supreme court judge ruled this week that the state cannot withhold $260 million in aid from the city’s Department of Education as punishment for the city’s failure to finalize a teacher evaluation plan, the New York Times reported.

The preliminary injunction comes after city school parents filed a lawsuit this month arguing that the loss of funds would only hurt students.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would withhold the money after the Bloomberg administration and the teachers’ union failed to reach an agreement on a teacher evaluation system by Jan. 17. Though the governor’s decision was made to motivate the city and the union to meet the deadline, Judge Manuel Mendez agreed with the parents, saying innocent children who need the money could be hurt by the cuts.

The city and the union have blamed each other for the delay to reach agreement.

Cuomo said earlier this week that the state Education Department would impose an evaluation system on city schools if the two sides cannot reach a deal by June 1.

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After the teachers union and the city failed to reach agreement on a teacher evaluation system for city schools by the deadline last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that schools will get a state-imposed system by June 1, the Daily News reported.

Cuomo said that State Education Commissioner John King will take ideas from the union and the city into consideration, and use his own discretion to create a final plan.

The governor will include the teacher evaluation bill in his 30-day budget amendment that will be formally submitted on Thursday.

The mandatory plan will prevent the city from losing hundreds of millions of dollars in school aid. The Department of Education already lost $250 million in state educational aid last month when it did not reach an agreement by Jan. 17.

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School buses will be back on the roads when students return to school from winter break on Wednesday, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said on Monday.

After a month-long strike that began on Jan. 16, drivers and matrons of Local 1181 of Amalgamated Transit Union return to work on Wednesday. Parents of more than 150,000 students who were affected by the strike no longer have to worry about how to get their children to school.

Walcott said parents and students should expect some normal delays on Wednesday, similar to the first day of school, DNAinfo.com reported.

The city spent more than $20 million as a result of the strike–reimbursing parents for transportation costs and providing free MetroCards–but it still saved nearly $60 million.

The city has received 65 bids to run the 1,100 bus routes for special needs students.

The DOE estimates the new contracts may save the city more than $100 million over the next five years, DNAinfo.com reports.

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The Department of Education wants to sell two schools on the Upper West Side to developers, to be demolished and replaced with high-rise apartment buildings, DNAinfo reports.

The DOE apparently advertised the locations via a request in Crain’s New York in November, but did not mention that the “prime development sites” being hocked were P.S. 191 and P.s. 199.

Officials reportedly said students will be relocated during construction, and developers will be obligated to include a new school at the base of the towers.

The DOE is also offering up the School of Cooperative Technical Education, attended by 11th and 12th graders at 321 E. 96th Street. Developers can purchase all three schools as a package deal, or just one.

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The school bus strike that affected more than 150,000 city children for a month has ended.

Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, the main union for New York City school bus drivers, ended the strike Friday evening. Bus drivers will return to work on Wednesday when students return to school from winter break.

The ending of the strike signals a win for the Bloomberg administration, which had refused to agree to the union’s demands for job protections.

Union Leader Michael Cordiello said the union was encouraged to end the strike when a group of 2013 mayoral contenders expressed in a letter that they would revisit the issue of job protections if they are elected.

The strike began after the mayor’s decision to take away employee protection provisions from contracts with bus companies. The provisions had protected drivers from losing their jobs by requiring companies to hire drivers in order of seniority. The city had argued that such requirements are actually illegal and that bus drivers should negotiate directly with the companies that hire them.

The strike, which began on Jan. 16, took a toll on both drivers and students. Drivers were out of work for nearly five weeks earning only a small stipend from the union.

Students received free MetroCards and reimbursements for alternative transportation costs, but attendance was still down and many parents had to take time off work. The strike was especially hard on special education students who rely heavily on the buses to get to school.

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A school bus crashed into a car in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, leaving 14 people injured, including 11 children.

According to the FDNY, all injuries were minor, except for those of the driver of the car. The driver was listed as seriously injured but stable. The injured were all transported to area hospitals.

The accident occurred at 8:10 a.m. at the intersection of Myrtle and Wilson Avenues, the NYPD reported.

With most of the city’s school bus drivers still on strike due to a dispute with the Department of Education (DOE) over a request for bids for bus company contracts, local organization Parents to Improve School Transportation (PIST) checked with the Amalgamated Transportation Union Local 1181 and received confirmation that the bus in question was a non-union bus.

The new bids were due in to the city on Tuesday, the same day as the school bus crash.

Sara Catalinotto said this accident shows the danger posed to children being driven by non-union bus drivers.

“I would not put my child on a bus with crew that is not vetted or screened or certified like the people who are now mostly on strike,” Catalinotto said.

Catalinotto has heard reports, she said, that the DOE told companies who aren’t on strike to use a second bus driver in place of a matron on buses that usually have an attendant. This would primarily affect special needs students; matrons are attendants trained to work with disabled children.

“It is a life and death matter,” Catalinotto said, “as well as a matter of education, and especially the rights of kids with disabilities.”

PIST is calling for an independent investigation by the Bushwick community into the cause of the accident.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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The Department of Education announced that it has received 67 bids from school bus companies wanting to win contracts to transport city school children. Monday was the deadline for bids, according to NY1.

Bus drivers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 have been on strike since Jan. 16 to ensure that all new contracts include Employee Protection Provisions, to protect senior drivers from losing their jobs.

Three bus companies have also filed a new lawsuit against the city because the bids for new contracts do not include EPPs, it is illegal for the city to continue working from ongoing contracts that keep the protections.

City officials have said that the protections that the union wants are illegal. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott has stated that the bus drivers and matrons need to negotiate directly with the companies that hire them.

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The Finance and Education Committees of the City Council held a hearing Friday morning with Chancellor Dennis Walcott of the Department of Education on the cost of student transportation, in light of the on-going bus driver strike over the city’s request for bids on school bus contracts. The strike is now in its fourth week.

Councilman Robert Jackson, as chair of the Education Committee, largely led the hearing, during which he repeatedly accused the Bloomberg administration of attempted union-busting.

Jackson scolded Bloomberg and Walcott for misrepresenting statistics, pointing out that the given cost of transit per pupil — which Bloomberg and Walcott have reported as nearly $7,000 —  is actually averaged between the cost for special needs students, which is $15,000 “due to the need for escorts and other requirements,” and the cost for general education students, which is about $2,600, according to Jackson.

The bus contracts in question are for the bus routes for special needs students.

As for the mayor and chancellor’s complaints that the city pays more for busing than cities in other states do, Jackson scoffed, “I don’t know why anyone would be surprised by that.”

“Don’t we spend more for everything here?” Jackson asked, noting the higher cost of living in general.

Other speakers at the hearing included parents of special needs children, as well as a special needs bus matron of eight years, who broke down crying as she spoke of her charges.

“We love those kids,” she said “It’s not only about the money, it’s about those precious kids.”

Chancellor Walcott noted that the bids for bus contracts are due today, Monday February 11, and will be opened tomorrow.

Department of Education spokesperson Marge Feinberg told Metro the bids “will be reviewed and then awarded to the lowest responsible bidders.”

Why are they striking?

The bus drivers’ union is demanding that an Employee Protection Provision be included in the new request for bids, so that current drivers will maintain their positions and salaries regardless of new management. The union alleges that EPPs would assure that the drivers and matrons be trained to care for special needs children.

One mother of an autistic child talked about the bus matron on her child’s bus, “a wonderful woman named Maria.”

“The idea that she would make even less than she’s making now horrifies me,” she said.

Walcott said repeatedly that the city is maintaining a rigorous training program for all bus drivers, but Jackson argued that the request for bids only asks that the company have 20 months of prior management experience, and does not include requirements for bus driver experience.
Support from city falls short

The city has provided MetroCards for parents and promised reimbursement for those who need to take car services or taxis during the school bus strike, but the parents at the hearing said that nobody has been reimbursed yet, and that the city-provided list of car services is useless.

One mother reportedly had to call 20 different services off the list, and was denied service by all of them.

“Twenty different services said we shouldn’t be on that list or we’re not doing that anymore,” reported Maggie Moroff, Special Education Policy Coordinate at Advocates for Children. Moroff also noted that until recently, the city was not reimbursing parents for their trips back home after dropping their child off, or back to school to pick their child up, only covering the trips for which the child was actually present. Some students have reportedly been asked to attend different schools for locational convenience.

Moroff and Councilman Jackson both emphasized that special needs students who cannot make it to school are not only missing classes, but also critical services including behavioral, occupational, speech and physical therapy.

One of the mothers present read a statement from another mother who reported that her autistic child was so exhausted by the over-stimulation of a two and a half hour bus ride to and from school that he had already missed three days over the course of the 12 day strike.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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