First Test Next Year
School Agents Hail CS Status

By HOWARD MEGDAL

City Councilman Joseph P. Addabbo and representatives of the union for the approximately 4,000 School Safety Agents gathered on the steps of City Hall Sept. 13 to hail the Council's decision to grant civil service status to SSAs.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow A MAJOR MORALE BOOSTER: Teamsters Local 237 Secretary-Treasurer Gregory Floyd, center, thanks the City Council's Joseph P. Addabbo, right, for giving School Safety Agents civil service status. Local 237 represents SSAs, who will begin taking competitive tests for their positions in 2007.

First Exam in 2007

"The Civil Service and Labor Committee held a hearing that brought this issue to my attention," said Mr. Addabbo, who chairs that committee. "This decision was of great importance to the workers who serve as the front line of protection to the over one million students and school staff in the New York City public schools."

The change in status will begin with those taking the new, competitive exam in 2007. Filing for that test will run from Feb. 7-27, 2007, and the exam will be given on May 26.

"This change has been long overdue," said Teamsters Local 237 Secretary- Treasurer Gregory Floyd, whose union represents SSAs. He described the shift as "a major morale booster."

Civil service status will confer additional rights on the SSAs while eliminating any "hint of impropriety" in the hiring process, according to Mr. Addabbo.

The Councilman went further, however, demanding that the current SSAs be grandfathered into the civil service protection.

'A First Step'

"Today marks a first step, and an important step," Mr. Addabbo said. "But we need to honor and recognize those with years of service."

Jean Downing-Smith, a 25-year SSA from M.S. 216 in Queens, said the recognition was important, but she wasn't looking for the change overnight.

"I hope everything happens," she said. "But you know, everything like this takes time."