CLASS HALF FULL
Mayor touts school reopenings — but only 15% of kids show up
Before recently reopening city high schools, Mayor de Blasio cited the “great relief” of parents sending their kids back to school. Yet 85 percent of students in the system last week were still not learning inside school buildings each day, internal city data show. And of those high schoolers enrolled in in-person classes, the absentee rate was 17.5%. “It’s a ghost town. It’s depressing,” said one Queens high school teacher.
Forget pay-to-play: For high schoolers, make it campaign-for-credit.
An e-mail seeking teen volunteers for the mayoral bid of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams — and promising bogus “classroom credit” in exchange — was blasted out to parents from Tottenville HS’s official e-mail account this week, despite Department of Education rules strictly prohibiting such political appeals.
“Absolutely outrageous,” furious mom Liz Cutler told The Post. “How desperate of a person do you have to be that you need to enlist teenagers for your own political gain?
“Just call it what it is: a kid pro quo.”
Cutler and the rest of Tottenville’s 3,694 school families received the e-mail Tuesday morning from the school’s dedicated IO Education messaging account. An introductory line explained that it was sent on behalf of Connor Martinez, an Adams campaign consultant and former aide to Mayor de Blasio, according to his LinkedIn page.
The e-mail and an attached flyer were simultaneously posted to the school’s restricted data portals: Pupil Path, where students and parents can monitor tests and assignments, and Skedula, a teachers only scheduling and grading site.
“We are building out a robust program where students . . . will help us elect Eric Adams to become the next Mayor of New York City!” Martinez wrote.
If it wasn’t bad enough that Adams campaign officials were breaking rules for campaigning inside schools, its offer of “classroom credit” appeared to be a complete fabrication.
Martinez’s missive claimed that for those chosen as unpaid “campaign fellows . . . we are offering classroom credit for participation in the program.”
Assistant Principal William Reynolds, who oversees programming and assessments, said of the credits-for-campaigning deal: “This is the first I’ve heard about it. It’s not a program set up by the school.”
And in fact, Adams’ spokesman Evan Thies admitted, the promise was one the campaign can’t directly fulfill.
“Our campaign is offering young people . . . the opportunity to gain invaluable experience, which schools and teachers can offer as class credit if they choose,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tottenville’s post ran afoul of DOE rules that have been in place since 2009.
Tottenville Principal Gina Battista — who, under the DOE’s no politics rules, “is responsible for ensuring that unauthorized material is not posted, distributed or displayed” — did not respond to a request for comment.
The school sent a follow-up message to parents late Friday, saying that the campaign e-mail “was sent in error” and apologizing for the “confusion.”