Klein to Principals: Hire More Excessed Teachers

JOEL I. KLEIN: 'Work with me on this.'

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein warned Principals July 30 that more excessed Teachers had to be hired for the coming school year to avoid "unacceptable financial consequences," affirming that the Department of Education would probably not lift its hiring freeze in the near future because of the swollen Absent Teacher Reserve.

The ATR, a pool of Teachers who have no permanent position but earn full salary, currently stands at 2,340, a budgetary burden on the DOE in a tight fiscal climate. Both the DOE and the United Federation of Teachers have struggled to shrink the excess pool.

Pool Deep Despite Freeze

But while 300 Teachers excessed last year and 390 excessed this year have escaped the pool, its numbers have not shrunk, despite 2,400 vacancies in city schools and a hiring freeze in effect. Only schools in their first three years of operation can hire new Teachers, and even then only 40 percent can be new recruits. Special education and other specific therapist and counselor positions are also exempted from the freeze.

The DOE also has a program in place that compensates Principals for the difference between a new hire and an ATR hire, as excessed Teachers often have much-higher salaries that make them unpalatable to budgetstrapped schools.

But Mr. Klein issued his letter because he feared Principals were concealing some of their job openings during the DOE's "open market" hiring period, in the hopes that the hiring freeze would be lifted at the last minute, before school began. The "open market" period, which posts all jobs available on-line in a DOE database, ends Aug 7.

In his letter, Mr. Klein told Principals that he was "aware that these restrictions limit your choices, but this policy is the only way to preserve your ability to select your own staff, a hardfought change in school hiring that we sought and achieved."

No Plans to Defrost

He continued, "We need to work together before the start of the school year to avoid any year-to-year increase in the number of teachers in excess," adding, "I am sure some of you are waiting to either declare or fill vacancies with the hope that hiring restrictions will be lifted soon. While I understand your desire to staff your schools with the candidates you feel will be the best fit, you should be aware that excessing conditions make it unlikely that we will lift hiring restrictions across the board in any other subject areas."

Mr. Klein even threatened to re-impose hiring restrictions in currently exempt areas if the situation did not improve. "To the extent that vacancies are not scheduled or that the process of filling them is being delayed, the actions of individual schools have the potential to negatively impact all of our schools. I am deeply grateful for all that you are already doing to make the best choices for your school under difficult circumstances, but I ask that you please move expeditiously to schedule and fill your vacancies," he said.

Council of School Supervisors and Administrators spokeswoman Chiara Colletti called the hiring of ATR Teachers "understandable, important and temporary during this economic crisis," saying, "our Principals are still in the hiring process and will pick up many more of them."

'Struggling to Fill Jobs'

When asked about the possibility that Principals were hiding vacancies, she said, "Principals tend to wait, they tend to hire through the summer. I don't think they're out-waiting the freeze; I think they're struggling to fill their positions and this takes most of the summer, historically it has."

"As schools finalize their programs for the opening of the school year in September and additional personnel needs are addressed, the number of educators awaiting placement in schools will drop," added UFT President Michael Mulgrew in a statement. "We will continue working with the DOE to ensure that all the personnel needs of the school system are met."