Madder of principal
Bergtraum teachers & parents rip HS boss
Teachers at troubled Murry Bergtraum HS on Sunday blasted its principal and p.r. guy for bungling a student letterwriting campaign to The Post — and one parent group said the school should be shut down.
“This school has been so poorly managed, and the principal takes no responsibility,” said John El-frank-Dana, a history teacher at Bergtraum, joining a chorus of educators there.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all that they would screw this up, too.”
Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union, which advocates for students and parents, added, “Schools like Murry Bergtraum that continue to fail in educating our children should be closed.”
The botched letterwriting campaign came after The Post exposed a scheme at the lower Manhattan school to usher failing students through the system by letting them routinely watch videos and take tests online for credit.
The school’s “blended learning” method pretends to incorporate online learning in the classroom, but simply substitutes computer programs for actual teaching, critics say.
“It’s not real blended learning. They click on a computer and rack up credits,” said ElfrankDana, who is a chapter leader for the United Federation of Teachers.
“It cheapens the value of their diploma, and everybody loses.”
The high school — rated “F” by the city Department of Education — had a dismal 51.2 percent graduation rate last year, and hundreds of its students are overage.
Multiple students said the school’s $52,232ayear “community coordinator,’’ p.r. consultant Kian Brown, organized the letterwriting campaign to The Post to protest the paper’s exposé.
Insiders describe Brown as Principal Lottie Almonte’s righthand man.
An email from Brown to students shows that he encouraged them to write letters defending the program, and even provided them with email addresses.
The students’ ensuing emails — many riddled with errors — also were sent to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.
One student wrote, “What do you get of giving false accusations im one of the students that has blended learning I had a course of English and I passed and and it helped a lot you’re a reported your support to get truth information other than starting rumors.”
Another student defended the blendedlearning program by saying, “You can digest the information in your own paste.”
Yet another called it a “very awarding program.”
Reached by phone Sunday, Brown denied he hadd any iinvolvel ment in the mail campaign.
“I don’t know about the letters. I haven’t seen the letters. I don’t know where they originated from,” he said.
Davids, of the New York City Parents Union, called the school’s blendedlearning approach a “farce” and said the students’ letters defending it were simply the result of the failed policy.
“It’s truly tragic. It’s outrageous,” she said. “How could they allow the students to send those letters? It’s obviously a lack of common sense.”
Almonte did not respond to requests for comment.
The DOE also did not respond to The Post.