Reluctantly Doing the Right Thing

Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Fariña are finally doing what they should’ve done three years ago by having all teachers and staff at two low-performing schools reapply for their jobs.

Education blog Chalkbeat reported Friday that teachers and other staff at the storied, but lately struggling, DeWitt Clinton HS in The Bronx and Queens’ Flushing HS — which has had six principals in six years — will have to reinterview for their jobs next spring.

Both failing schools are in de Blasio’s expensive, woebegone Renewal turnaround program. A few other Renewal schools got similar treatment in prior years — but the students have had to suffer as the mayor and chancellor delayed pulling the trigger simply to avoid disrupting the adults’ lives.

Fariña’s statement sounded good: “Having a strong leader and the right team of teachers is essential to a successful school, and this restaffing process is the necessary next step in the work to turn around these schools.” But that was true for dozens of Renewal schools long ago.

In three years, she has re-staffed just eight of the original 94 Renewal schools, while fully closing a few more — mostly because enrollment had fallen too far.

Even now, the schools’ rehiring decisions will be done by committee, with the principal joined by appointees from the United Federation of Teachers and Fariña’s DOE. Teachers not making the grade will wind up in the Absent Teacher Reserve — where another Fariña policy will force other schools to take them.

The chancellor insists ATR teachers are high-quality. But she has exempted Renewal schools from having to take forced placement of these educators. How does that square?

What’s really called for is a restaffing at DOE’s Tweed Courthouse offices — and at City Hall.