Sunday, October 18, 2015

Losing It

When a principal loses it, this is what it looks like:
A Bronx principal ordered her teachers to give up their desks last week, and had the furniture dumped at the curb — telling staff she doesn’t want them sitting in class.

Donna Connelly, principal of PS 24, the Spuyten Duyvil School in Riverdale, also told teachers to empty their filing cabinets, which she then discarded. With class in session, teachers were told to push their desks and cabinets into the hallway. Custodians then hauled them outside and piled them like trash on the blacktop of a school across the street.

“It’s the 21st century — you don’t need desks,” Connelly said, sources told The Post.

The diktat demoralized staff at the K-5 school, where diverse students perform well above the city average on state exams.

Connelly told teachers she “does not want them sitting,” an insider said, although though no chairs were tossed.

“Figure it out,” she snapped when staffers asked where to store their supplies, a source said...

“How the f–k does someone with so little good sense become a principal? What kind of policy allows this to happen?” another posted (on Facebook)...

Word spread to District 10 Superintendent Melodie Mashel, who on Friday ordered the furniture returned to PS 24 — and out of public view. But it was stacked in the basement, sources said.
Note that it was another administrator who stepped in to reverse the bad decision.  No mention at all of the teachers union, which is among the strongest and most militant in the country.

1 comment:

Ellen K said...

I am tired of the idea that teachers have to be running all the time. Sometimes teachers and students need to sit and be quiet. I'm nearly 60. I have a bad ankle and knew as the result of standing on hard concrete floors for too many years. While teachers should not develop nests, teachers can be effective sitting on stools, sitting on the edge of their desks addressing the lessons at hand. I have also spent time at my desk working with students individually. This idiot is a dictator and I have no doubt this is some "magic" solution he or she picked up at any of a number of dinner seminars addressed to administrators.