Plan for worst schools okayed

By ALISON GENDAR

August 25, 2000 Web posted at: 11:00 AM EDT (1500 GMT)

NEW YORK (The New York Daily News) -- Students in the city's worst schools will have a better chance of being taught by a licensed teacher when classes begin Sept. 7.

In a court order signed yesterday, the Board of Education agreed to fill all elementary vacancies in the poorest-performing schools with licensed teachers. And beginning today, all licensed junior high, high school and specialty teachers hired must first be assigned to fill vacancies in the city's 94 Schools Under Registration Review.

"It is a sea change in how the city recruits and staffs its lowest-performing schools," said state Education Commissioner Richard Mills.

"The kids in these schools were always the last in line for teachers. It is a clear win for them," he added.

Board of Education officials and union leaders were less optimistic, saying the nationwide shortage of licensed teachers will make it difficult for city schools to live up to the agreement.

Only half of the 3,000 new teachers hired for September are state-licensed, according to Board of Ed statistics.

"That is a smaller proportion than last year, so we are in big trouble," said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

The agreement, hammered out by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Joseph Bruno, resolves the suit filed by the state to force the board to purge nearly 600 unlicensed teachers from the city's worst schools.

Local school officials were relieved the order did not require the board to transfer state-licensed teachers from other schools into the low performers, as initially suggested by the state.

"I'm very grateful the commissioner did not insist on his original position, which would have been very disruptive right up against school opening," Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said in a phone call from Maine, where he is vacationing.

"The state blinked," one school official said.

In addition, the judge ignored City Hall's suggestion to order publicly-funded vouchers for students in the worst schools to transfer to private and parochial schools.

"We missed a real opportunity to make substantial and fundamental change," said Deputy Mayor Anthony Coles.

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