I'm sure this will not surprise my many readers or ATRs but I was told by a very smart and motivated summer school student that he failed second semester Living Environment (Biology lite) because his teacher was in a car accident and never returned. Apparently, the school, Metropolitan High School, didn't bother to interview ATR Living Environment teachers to cover the class and help the students pass not only the class but the Regents. Instead the school administration decided to have day to day substitute teachers cover the class and the result was predictable, lots of failures.
My question, if the student is being truthful, and I believe he is. Why didn't Metropolitan High School hire an ATR certified to teach Living Environment? Moreover, where were the school's Chapter Leader and the District Representative in allowing such a travesty to the students? Finally, how can the school be allowed to hire day to day substitutes for long-term vacancies? Didn't the ATR agreement prohibit this?
Of course the answer is that the DOE ignores these abuses of the contract and our disconnected union leadership buries their collective heads in the sand rather than fight for the students and their members. Both the DOE and UFT rather than ensuring every classroom has a certified teacher teacher in the subject that needs a long-term replacement, its better to ignore the violations of the contract and pretend everybody is doing what's best for the students. However, the truth is far different as students suffer without quality teachers. In other words both the DOE and UFT are complicit in what Metropolitan High School apparently did and continues the Bloomberg policy of "children last"....Always.