Carlos Rodriguez and his brother, Antonio, who are both teachers at the Michael J. Petrides School on Staten Island, were talking shop one day, wondering if there were ways to improve how they were reaching their students.

Knowing the collaborative environment of their K–12 school, they thought that the Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence — better known as PROSE — program negotiated in the new UFT contract a year ago could be the answer.

“The flexibility of being a PROSE school allows us to do what it takes to meet the needs of the children,” said Rodriguez, a physics teacher and the school’s chapter leader, at a press conference to announce that Petrides would become one of 64 schools to join the PROSE program in September. “We’re committed to an environment of learning that nurtures the whole child.”

Rodriguez was joined by UFT President Michael Mulgrew, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chancellor Carmen Fariña and others on May 26 at Petrides for the announcement.

The expansion is going to more than double the total number of PROSE schools from 62 to 126.

“To put that in some context, that would be either the third- or fourth-largest school district in the state,” Mulgrew said.

The PROSE program creates an opportunity to go outside normal work rules and experiment at the school level. Petrides, for instance, will implement larger seminar-style classes in its high school similar to the lecture-style classes that the students are likely to experience in college.

Educators will work one on one with students as well as team-teach in classrooms.

“I was just talking to Mr. Rodriguez and I said, ‘That’s a lot of work,’” Mulgrew said. “He said, ‘It’s OK. We’re up for it. This is something we wanted to do.’”

Fariña said she had high hopes for the program. “Student achievement and teacher retention are two byproducts I expect to see from PROSE,” she said.

The mayor agreed. He said that educators see PROSE as “the best way to serve the children who their lives are devoted to. Teachers all over the city welcome the opportunity to do it their way. To work within a school community to figure out what works best for them.”

All of the applications by the new PROSE schools were developed by school faculty, reviewed by a joint UFT-DOE-Council of School Supervisors and Administrators panel and approved by principals and at least 65 percent of the teachers in each school.

The contract called for the creation of 200 PROSE schools over five years. “But at the rate we’re going,” de Blasio said, “we’ll have 200 by the end of next school year.”