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UFT files 1,324 class-size grievances
Mar 4, 2010 6:08 PM
The UFT filed 1,324 class-size grievances in 41 schools citywide on Feb. 24, as an estimated 46,968 high school students began the school year’s second semester in oversized classes for all or part of each day.
Figures compiled by the UFT show that several of the same high schools that were guilty of stuffing their classrooms with more students than are allowed under the UFT/Department of Education contract last fall are again up to their old tricks, despite coming into compliance following grievances filed by the union last September.
“Since issuing our initial findings, there are still thousands of kids in overcrowded classrooms,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “The Department of Education must get overcrowding down so teachers can give our kids the individual attention they need.”
Repeat offenders from the fall, when the union reported nearly 7,500 oversized classes, are John Dewey HS in Brooklyn; Curtis HS on Staten Island; and Hillcrest, Cardozo, Long Island City, Forest Hills, Bayside and Francis Lewis high schools in Queens.
According to UFT Special Representative Michelle Daniels, all eight schools came into compliance in October only after the union filed grievances and the arbitration dates had been set.
“Miraculous things happen when we file grievances,” Daniels said. Suddenly, she said, there were no more oversized classes.
“It’s unfortunate that, despite having a 10-day resolution period specifically for this issue, some principals wait until they are notified of the hearing dates to even begin to try to resolve the overcrowded classroom situation,” Daniels said.
As of Feb. 24, Brooklyn schools had 485 oversized classes. Queens was a close second with 407, Manhattan had 263, the Bronx reported 84 and Staten Island had 85 — in just two schools.
McKee HS, just a stone’s throw from the Staten Island Ferry terminal in the St. George section, is at under 70 percent of capacity, yet reported eight oversized classes.
Less than a quarter-mile away, Curtis HS — which new City Councilwoman Debi Rose said was at 170 percent of capacity in October — has 77 oversized classes.
For years, community activists on Staten Island have been asking the DOE to rent empty space in nearby office buildings, one of which housed Richmond College, part of the City University.
“In the best of the education world, chapter leaders can work out oversized class issues with principals who are not recalcitrant and, in many cases, avoid arbitration,” said UFT Grievance Department Director Howard Solomon. “In fact, the union encourages chapter leaders to work with principals.”
The school with the most oversized classes in the city — 143 — is Murry Bergtraum HS in Manhattan.
The first in a series of arbitration dates were scheduled for March 2, 3 and 4.
