$150M TEACHER SINKHOLE

Tab for ‘sit arounds’

The city spent $151.6 million on unassigned city teachers last year — far higher than prior estimates of roughly $100 million, according to a Chalkbeat report on city Independent Budget Office data.

Educators in the Absent Teacher Reserve pool are fully compensated despite not having a permanent classroom gig due to downsizing, disciplinary issues or incompetence.

According to the Department of Education, there were 822 teachers in the ATR at of the end of the last year. The IBO’s overall spending figure would mean each ATR instructor received $116,258 in salary and benefits.

In a controversial move, the DOE plans to give between 300 and 400 ATRs permanent school positions beginning in October.

But critics have ripped the plan, arguing that teachers with questionable backgrounds should not be forced on principals.

Schools with job vacancies that persist into October of this year will be considered for ATR hires, according to the DOE. Once assigned, teachers who get positive reviews will be hired permanently.

Prior to that, principals will retain full employment control.

“This administration has shrunk the ATR pool 27 percent, and dou- bled down with common-sense reforms to deploy licensed, qualified teachers effectively and responsibly use taxpayer funds,” said DOE spokesman Will Mantell.

But a group of parents angered by the ATR placement plan jeered Mayor de Blasio after his daily Park Slope workout Wednesday.

“We all know Mayor de Blasio won’t be forcing ineffective teachers back into classrooms here in Park Slope,” said Monell Birkett, one of 20 parents gathered by the pro-charter advocacy group StudentsFirstNY.

StudentsFirstNY has highlighted the DOE’s failure thus far to answer Freedom of Information Law requests seeking information on ATR teachers and the circumstances of their placement in the pool.

Backers of the DOE plan argue that many teachers land in the ATR due to financial downsizing or conflicts with principals, and say teachers booted for reasons other than disciplinary or performance issues deserve another chance.

But StudentsFirstNY said parents are concerned about the quality of teachers, and suggested the United Federation of Teachers bears some blame.

“A significant portion of teachers in the ATR pool have been poorly rated or face disciplinary review,” the group said. “The ATR exists because the UFT has fought to protect weak teachers from quality-based layoffs.”