Testimony of UFT Vice President for Middle Schools Richard Mantell before the New York City Council Committees on Education and Finance
My name is Richard Mantell, and I’m vice president for middle schools for the United Federation of Teachers. I am here to offer thoughts about the draft capital plan on behalf of the UFT and our 200,000 members.
Let me begin by thanking Councilman Dromm, as well as members of the education committee, for this opportunity to testify before you today. I also want to thank all of you for consistently standing up for public education — that means a great deal to our members and parents.
This new capital plan draft, which is a revision of the plan outlined in November 2013, represents a turning point from years past. This new plan, which increases capital spending by nearly $1 billion, includes three major changes that we believe will have a positive impact on our schools.
First, the de Blasio administration and the Department of Education plan to reallocate $210 million to create thousands of much-needed universal pre-kindergarten seats. That money had previously been slated for charter schools. This is a welcome shift in resources that will benefit tens of thousands of additional four-year olds, and we applaud this effort to give children a great academic start.
The de Blasio administration has also committed $480 million in this new capital plan draft to tackling the longstanding problem of removing all Temporary Classroom Units (TCUs or trailers). It’s an effort that is long overdue, considering the space issues that some of our districts face. Getting these displaced students seats in actual classrooms must be a priority, especially when you consider some of the 350-plus “temporary” classrooms that have been in place for more than two decades; many are riddled with rot and mold and have faulty heating and cooling systems. What’s more, schools have lost their schoolyards to these trailers, leaving students without a place to run around and play. We strongly encourage the DOE and the SCA to outline their plans for the removal of the current classroom trailers and to develop a timeline to complete the work. Some experts have estimated that more than 10,000 seats will need to be created to properly place all the students now in trailers, but it’s not clear how the DOE plans to address that issue. We also strongly encourage the DOE to create a policy for handling future space needs that doesn’t require using trailers.
Lastly, this new capital plan draft also includes an additional $800 million from the governor’s proposed $2 billion New York State Smart Schools Bond Act. Of that, $490 million is slated for much-needed technology enhancements, including wiring and Wi-Fi upgrades. We as a union strongly support the Bond Act. Not only do the new Common Core Learning Standards represent an opportunity to bring more technology into lessons, but the 21st century job market demands that students graduate with exposure to technology and hands-on technology skills. Yet in a recent UFT survey, half of the teachers reported that internet connections in their schools were either too slow or too unreliable to properly support instruction or the teachers’ own online work responsibilities.
Mandated Programs
We are pleased that the new capital plan draft indicates that the DOE and the SCA are accelerating the replacement of thousands of PCB-contaminated lighting fixtures. The new deadline to complete that work is December 2016, and $480 million has been set aside for that effort. The faster pace is in direct response to the strong advocacy by parents and elected officials — including many members of the City Council — as well as the UFT and other unions.
Last year, we estimated that between 655 and 800 schools contained these PCB-laden fixtures, including more than 200 schools that had reported leaking fixtures in need of immediate removal. The new capital plan draft puts the number of schools still needing work at 314. At a minimum, the DOE and the SCA should issue an interim report at the end of the first year of the capital plan so we can measure the progress on this important work.
The danger of PCBs can’t be overstated. Exposure to PCBs is particularly toxic for children and pregnant women. The sooner we can get these decades-old ticking time bombs out of our schools, the better.
What’s less clear in this capital plan draft is how much work has been done with regard to replacing the boilers that burn the highly polluting #4 and #6 heating oil. This is an area where we need more transparency and an accelerated timetable. It’s been more than three years since the DOE announced that it intended to convert these boilers, and 380 buildings currently using #4 heating oil have been identified.
The city estimates it will take until 2030 to replace the boilers in all the buildings; that timeline does not well serve our students, staff and fellow New Yorkers. These boiler conversions are important to the health of students, staff and the local community and will produce real environmental benefits as well. We urge the SCA to detail its timetable and explore opportunities to accelerate this work. DOE and SCA should be leaders in this work.
Hurricane Sandy Recovery Efforts
The UFT wants to again recognize the good work that was done in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to repair damage to our school buildings and get students back in their classrooms. More than 200 schools were affected by the storm, including 50 where storm damage forced them to close their doors for weeks.
Of the schools that suffered flooding or structural damage, a handful — including PS 276 and IS 211 on Staten Island and PS 52 and IS 2 in Brooklyn — can still only get heat and hot water through temporary boilers parked outside their buildings. These auxiliary boilers use a tremendous amount of oil and are not as powerful as permanent boilers, so heating in these buildings is uneven and for some, the water never becomes hot. We understand that permanent fixes are on the horizon for the nine affected buildings, but work on these projects is not due to begin until 2015. We urge the DOE and the SCA to make these projects a priority in 2014, before next winter sets in.
Some schools also need repairs to electrical components and other physical plant infrastructure, and we would like to see these made a priority as well. PS 105 in Queens and PS 195 in Brooklyn are several of the schools that still do not yet have a fire system in place. In the interim, the teachers in these schools use a ‘fire watch’ system. The Beach Channel high school complex is without both its fire alarms and its public address system, and it, too, relies on an auxiliary boiler system.
Capacity Building
At its most basic level, the capital plan is about creating seats for students, and this plan includes a modest increase in the number of new seats. These new seats — more than 32,500 — are largely slated for elementary and middle schools. The plan projects construction costs of $3.3 billion, down from the $3.9 billion projected in last year’s capital plan draft — a great example of finding cost savings and efficiencies that can, in turn, help fund other projects. This savings, coupled with a $490 million increase in capacity funding, is expected to be used to reduce class size and further alleviate overcrowding, a stubborn problem that continues to plague many of our schools.
It’s important that the new seats be created in the places that most need them. Of the more than 32,500 seats, 4,400 are in developer projects including Hudson Yards, Crotona Park/West Farms, Atlantic Yards, Greenpoint Landing, the Domino project and Hallets Point, yet no details are given about the need for these seats in those projects.
With class sizes continuing to increase across all grades year after year, the UFT still believes the unmet need for seats is far greater than the number being funded. The city’s own estimates put the need for seats closer to 45,000, many in Queens, where a lot of schools are already overcrowded. The city needs a comprehensive strategy to reverse this trend.
A frank discussion of the construction programs underway and the successes and problems will give the communities that are so eager for this work a better understanding of how challenging it is to get it done. This kind of frank dialogue with overcrowded school communities can help build support for the SCA’s efforts. If we are serious about solving these chronic problems, more information is also necessary to evaluate where we are on alleviating overcrowding, reducing class sizes, removing temporary classrooms and creating prekindergarten seats.
Additional Needs and Concerns
We strongly recommend that the DOE and the SCA take a more comprehensive and efficient approach to upgrades on school building exteriors. We have received many reports about how limited work scopes have resulted in schools experiencing chronic water leaks from roofs, windows, parapets and masonry while scaffolding goes up and down and up again over the years. This piecemeal approach is inefficient and expensive, creates prolonged periods of damp, unhealthy school buildings, and guarantees that a student is surrounded by construction through his or her time at the school. A more comprehensive approach would save money and shorten the time when schools are affected by construction.
While the new capital plan draft includes money for asbestos and lead paint abatement, it leaves out dedicated funding for mold cleanup. We have seen significant water damage and related mold problems in a dozen schools over the last year that required water mitigation (structural drying) and cleanup. Leaking roofs and exterior masonry as well as episodic flooding from pipe bursts or plumbing overflows have resulted in moldy schools, prompting health complaints from students, parents and staff. Damp, moldy buildings are a risk factor for asthma and other respiratory problems. The cleanup costs in some of these buildings have been substantial. The SCA should be tackling the mold problem at the same time that it is doing work on the exterior façade of school buildings experiencing chronic roof and masonry leaks. Nearly all of the classroom trailers also have mold problems.
The DOE should also take a comprehensive approach to reviewing and upgrading science labs. We have seen many high schools where lab equipment, such as hoods, does not work. Upgrading a lab doesn’t help if the new equipment doesn’t work or was not installed.
On a final note, I want to thank the Council, the DOE and the SCA for their support of capital projects in our Community Learning Schools. Thanks to our successful collaboration, we’re moving ahead with plans to put health and vision clinics in several buildings. Once in place, the clinic will service not only the students inside that building, but also students from the surrounding neighborhood.
These clinics will be invaluable for many families and will give teachers and administrators new tools to help meet the needs of their students. We are extremely proud of these capital projects, and we hope the Council and the city will continue to support the Community Learning Schools Initiative so we can help even more schools.
That support could take many forms, including technical assistance for schools and the Community Learning Schools staff as they navigate the bureaucracy during the design and construction phases. The city and the DOE could also modify existing building permit requirements to allow schools to keep their doors open longer each day and be a venue for more community programs and services.