[ad_1]
The city’s education ministry is looking to fill nearly 3,700 substitute teacher positions as the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public school staff takes effect Monday, The Post learned.
The 3,659 vacancies average about two subs for each of the approximately 1,800 schools in the system – although the needs of some schools, including in Brooklyn and Queens, are far greater, according to an email. sent Saturday and obtained by The Post.
The start dates for the replacement concerts are Monday through May 2022, although most roles begin in October, according to the email sent to the public school substitute teacher pool.
As an “additional financial incentive,” the DOE is offering subscribers an extra $ 50 per day to work at least 10 days between Sept. 20 and Nov. 24, the email says.
The DOE is also seeking to cover an additional 3,020 places for paraprofessional substitute teachers – helpers who work with special education and students with disabilities.
The call for submarines came two days before all DOE employees were required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to enter school buildings.
The roughly 15,000 DOE employees who refused to get the jab before last week’s deadline – including about 5,500 teachers – have a choice of either taking a year of unpaid leave with health insurance or leaving the DOE with severance pay.
In order to fill the gaps, the DOE has made a commitment to have 9,000 vaccine replacements, 5,000 replacement paraprofessionals and “qualified” central staff.
DOE spokeswoman Sarah Casasnovas said on Sunday that the nearly 3,700 substitute teaching positions “track the average number of subscribers that fill up daily” and that there was “nothing out of the ordinary “.
But David Bloomfield, professor of education at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, warned that the particularly high need for submarines in some schools is “of great concern.”
“The needs are not distributed evenly,” he said.
Data obtained by The Post shows that, for example, Shell Bank High School in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn has 10 sub-positions to fill. In Queens, PS 87 and 128 have nine and eight openings, respectively, far more than the two sub-school average.
“I expect to see a lot of stress among principals, a shortage of instructors and a number of kids without mandatory services,” Bloomfield said.
But Eric Nadelstern, former New York vice chancellor for tutoring and instruction under former mayor Michael Bloomberg, said the need for DOE submarines “doesn’t seem like much.”
“It doesn’t strike me like a lot of people,” he said on Sunday. “I don’t think there will be many open classrooms tomorrow. I don’t think it will be a major problem.
According to DOE data as of Friday, at least 90 percent of DOE employees, 93 percent of teachers and 98 percent of principals are vaccinated.
The vaccine requirement for all public school staff, announced on August 23, follows weeks of legal proceedings over the warrant, which was originally scheduled to go into effect on September 27.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Friday rejected a latest effort by four city teachers to block the shooting warrant.
Before Monday, the DOE asked directors to prepare a list of staff marked as “no entry allowed.”
“If they don’t have a vaccination record, they can’t enter the building,” a Brooklyn manager previously said.
Officials also warned that the disproportionate number of unvaccinated school security officers – about 20% of the city’s 4,848 forces – could lead to security concerns in and around schools.
Mark Cannizzaro, head of the city’s principals union, recently said its members should expect only one agent per school.
“The overwhelming majority of schools, we were told, would only have one security guard coming next week,” he said at a press conference at the end of the month. latest. “Can you imagine an emergency evacuation drill with just one security guard? “
According to Greg Floyd, the leader of the School Safety Officers Union, some high schools in large cities normally have as many as 20 school safety officers.
“It creates crisis and danger for students, teachers and school security guards,” he said.
Additional reporting by Susan Edelman
[ad_2]
Source link