meet my future

Exclusive
Subs, but paid tops
Scores of teachers earning 70G & up working as fill-ins

BY ERIN EINHORNDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, March 11th 2007, 4:00 AM

Hundreds of tenured teachers whohave failed to land permanent jobs in city schools are on thepublic payroll earning hefty salaries to work as substitutes andfill-ins, the Daily News has learned.While most substitute teachers make $141.70 per day, 236 of the564 teachers whom nobody wanted to hire currently pull down morethan $70,000 a year, plus benefits, to do the same work,according to a News analysis of Education Department data.Forty of those teachers make more than $90,000 - and some areslated to get raises next year, bringing them to the six-figurelevel."It's outrageous - an example of where teachers unions justaren't in the real world," said Jason Brooks of the Foundationfor Education Reform and Accountability, a conservative Albanythink tank. "Anytime you can get a better-qualified teacher,whether a sub or full time, that's outstanding. But for a systemthat's continually looking for more money, to be payingsubstitute teachers so extraordinarily much is ridiculous."The teachers union blames Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, sayinghe undermined the teachers' ability to find jobs by publiclycriticizing them. Klein has argued teachers who can't find jobsdon't deserve them.The 564 teachers on the department's unwanted list as of Feb. 1are not necessarily bad teachers. Only 24 received unsatisfactoryratings from principals last year.But none was able to find a permanent job, despite thousands ofteaching positions available every year for teachers in everylicensed area, said DOE labor policy director Dan Weisberg."The majority of teachers [who applied] did get hired," Weisbergsaid. "These folks did not. ... There are market forces at workhere."As many as 54 of the teachers also were on the unwanted list lastyear at this time, the data show. Under current union rules, theycan stay on the list indefinitely, receiving regular contractualraises.This situation is the product of a compromise the department madewith teachers in 2005.Teachers union President Randi Weingarten said she had warnedKlein that the contract change was a bad idea, and said theadministration made it worse by bad-mouthing teachers on theso-called excess list."These folks are good teachers, and they deserve to be employed,"she said. "I fault management 100% for this because they neverpicked up a finger to say to principals that these are goodpeople. ... They put an incredibly unfair taint on teachers inexcess."Before contentious contract talks in 2005, tenured teachers wholost jobs because a school closed or a position dried up wereassigned to new positions in the school system - regardless ofwhether the new principal wanted to hire them.Veteran teachers also had bumping rights, enabling them to takejobs from teachers with less seniority."It did huge harm," Weisberg said. "We had many, many multiplehorror stories from principals who would talk about five or sixexcesses walking into their buildings in September and claimingjobs they had intended to give to other candidates who were agood fit for the building."Having those teachers work as overpriced subs is a vastimprovement, he said. "We do get some value from them in subbing,but there's no question it's a cost to the system."Some of the teachers on the list say their years of experiencehas hurt them in trying to get jobs."Some told me I was too old. Some told me I was too expensive,"said Judy Cohen, a teacher who makes $90,472 a year.She said she sacrificed job security two years ago when she lefther classroom to become a mentor in a program that was eventuallyeliminated. "I had an excellent career, and I'm a good teacher,"she said.Others have been hurt by their less than stellar reputations -deserved or not.Eva Chejfetz was touched by scandal when a schools investigatorfound that she was having an affair with her boss, former Region4 Superintendent Reyes Irizarry.Teacher Enid Ximines, who also makes $90,472, said she couldn'tget a job because she was fighting an unsatisfactory rating shesays her principal gave her after she filed an age discriminationsuit against him.Now she's teaching a different class every day at Tilden HighSchool, not using her skills as a math teacher, even thoughthat's a shortage area. "To me, it's really demeaning toexperienced teachers to be treated that way," she said.Shop teacher Warren Katz, who earns $93,416, said he couldn'tfind a permanent job because he was fighting allegations hefailed to properly monitor an autistic student at a time when hisshop room at a Staten Island high school was short on teacher'saides. He's now working as a long-term sub in a Brooklyn specialed shop class.Others, like Simon Pluda, a $93,416 Queens Spanish teacher,landed on the unwanted list after a stint away from the classroomawaiting a disciplinary hearing on charges he refused to discuss."I teach anything they send me to teach," Pluda said, adding thereal problem is principals who "gave me [unsatisfactory ratings]for no reason."