Video: PS 50M Plus Teacher Stories of Abuse by Principal and Supt Estrella

PS 50M Students Call on DOE to Really Support Them

This is a follow-up to my earlier School Scope column on PS 50 -- School Scope: Similarities in Proposed Closing of Local PS 42, PS 50M (East Harlem) Expose DOE Misinformatio.

Here is some video I processed from that hearing. A parent, a former student, as is his wife, pleads for his 3rd grader in the school and a teacher checks off how the DOE officialdom intionally destroyed PS 50 mainly by putting in a destructive principal, then replaced her less than a year ago with someone who seems competent but had the rug pulled out of her - she was not even given a chance to improve the school. We know this is about dumping teachers and most kids and making room for gentrification and charter invasion. The teacher points out how renewal money was wasted on school cosmetics. I include emails below from former staff.

For years we've known that some principals are put in as closers -- PS 50 is a prototype.



https://vimeo.com/256967332

========

Ps/Ms 50 got a new principal, Ester Quiñones, after being designated a renewal school. That first year, they got resources and upgrades to the school. Attendance went up. Kids did better on the tests — and then Ester started taking people out. Harassing and retaliating against teachers, withholding information from SLT, telling fams they would not enroll children in the school. Now, the schools is under enrolled and staff is mortified because they have had several teachers put through 3020a’s. 

The same week Monika Garg was taken out of CPE1, Ester was also reassigned — and Ellen Johnson was put in. Ellen came from the district office. Some people say that she is there to finish off the job, while others say she is just as frustrated as they are w Estrella and she feels like she was taken advantage of. They had a C30 but Estrella still has not appointed her. Supposedly HR is taking forever.. I don’t trust any of them!

=======

I attended a PA meeting with the PS/MS 50 families and all I say is that they are really hurt... hurt by the system... hurt by their community. I want to very clear that our support of their community has nothing to do with CPE2 and CPE2 acquiring their building. I would go hard for CPE2 to get a building where all of their families fit... but the question here is, who has access, where is the equity/opportunity, what process/protocol was followed, are these families receiving support and/or information to make this transition. My questions lies on how the DOE chooses and supports leaders that don't include the community. 

The CEC3 has the same questions when it comes to the closing of Wadleigh.

The CEC5 has the same questions when it comes to the charter take over and lack of choice for their families. 

We can't disappear because we won. We have to keep raising our voices when it comes to these educational injustices. 

I hope we can keep the momentum going and live up to our name.

=====
I  went to the Department of Education (DOE) and the United Federation (UFT) of Teachers asking them "whom/who do I go to in order to obtain a transfer from P.S./M.S. 50M?" Several persons at both places suggested my UFT District Representative. I do not feel safe under the supervision of the Principal (Ester Quinones) at P.S./M.S. 50 M. Ms. Quinones placed several distressing acts against me. My principal ignored and complained about my disabilities, Teaching Licenses and teaching abilities, She bullied, retaliated and humiliated me in front of students and faculty members. Finally she threatened my future employment as an appointed DOE employee. I am extremely uncomfortable with her unprofessional supervision. Please help me Ms. Silva in working in a less threatening atmosphere so I can teach my students in a peaceful  and safe environment.

------

I am a teacher at P.S/ M.S. 50, The Vito Marcantonio School, for seventeen years of excellent work with the children I service. I have been continuously being harassed by the principal, Ms. Ester Quinones, under the direction of the superintendent, Ms. Estrella Alexandra.  I've filed  grievances and harassment paper work which the superintendent declined to entertain.  I love the community I work in, however the administration is trying destroy my dignity and undermine my expertise. Please help me and others who are being intimidated in our school.


My experience at PS. 50

Good evening , I was a teacher at PS 50 from 2014 to 2015. My experience at  PS 50 was horrid.  I came into the school with lots of energy and enthusiastic ready to teach. Little that I know that I would have the worst experience as a new teacher at the Department of Education working under Quinones.

I left PS 50, because of the way she had treated me. She discredited me as a person I felt threatened and bullied.  Great  leaders don't  put people  down.  Great leaders  teach  so some day they can follow  their foot steps.

In Spring 2015 , she came into my classroom to observe me. At this point in the school year I understood what I thought she wanted to be seen in the classroom. However, I was wrong. She  called me in the office a couple of days after the observation.   I  stated to her "should I have my UFT representative with me. "   She replied  "should you?"  I sat down as she closed the door behind her and proceeded to chastise me about my hand written  lesson plan  She took my lesson  put  it towards my face back and forth and told me "you call this a lesson." She stated she showed my lesson plan to the superintendent.  She  said that the  superintendent wanted me out the building.   She also told me  to look for another  career  or go to the open market.

When she told me the superintendent wanted me out the building I didn't know how true that was.  When she dismissed me out of her office I immediately went to the UFT rep and complained about what she did to me.  Working at PS 50 was a living hell for me. I'm now suffering  from  anxiety.   I am working  building my self esteem.  Unfortunately, this was one of many incidents I had with Ms. Quinones.

Which I  thank God everyday that I was able to find another school that appreciates me and and realizes that I am a good teacher.      PS. 50  deserves a great leader, not a bully. 

-----

Good Morning Esteemed Council Members

My name is xxxxxxx and I am a licensed, special education teacher who has worked for the NYCDOE for 18 years. I have dedicated my whole life and career in teaching those who really need the extra assistance, only to have my complaints be ignored by the superintendent Alexandra Estrella.

I am at PS/MS 50 also known as Vito Marcantonio School which is a renewal school supervised under the same superintendent Alexandra Estrella. Ms. Cynthia Rochez was the principal when I arrived to PS/MS 50 and she was fired two weeks before Christmas in December of 2014. Ms. Estrella promised the staff that she would find a suitable principal in which she replaced Ms. Rochez with Ms. Ester Quinones. Enclosed please read the following attachments which outline the events that I have experienced by Principal Ester Quinones and how the superintendent is aware of them and has done not one thing to resolve any of these issues.

Another Dist 4 Supt Estrella Disaster Project: Help Us Save Our School! (Vito Marcantonio P.S. 50)

What irony -- A school named after Vito Marcantonio being closed. Read more in the most radical politician in the 20th century,

Rebel in the House: The Life and Times of Vito Marcantonio | John J ...

https://monthlyreview.org/.../rebel-in-the-house-the-life-and-times-of-vito-marcantoni

I'll be there tonight to tape the hearing and support them. I have some interesting info to share about what was done to the school. The MORE-CASCADE group is trying to get to as many hearings as possible. CASCADE stands for: Coalition Against School Closings, Colocations, and Displacement Everywhere - WOW, if I could remember that I wouldn't feel like someone about to hit 73 years old. Or is it 74? 64?

We need your support at the joint public hearing being held to determine the future of P.S. 50. Please join us to help protest the proposed closing of our school. A school that has been around for over 3 generations for some families.

This school has served students, families, and the community alike. Having over 21 partnerships including The Children's Aid Society (after-school, summer camp, and holiday programs), a school-based health clinic (eye exams and dentist on site), Parent Job Net (helping parents, guardians, and family of students, to obtain G.E.D's, jobs, free workshops and classes, etc).

Basing a school on test scores alone is unfair. You don't give up on a school when it is "failing", you show support and do what it takes, as a Superintendent, a Chancellor, a Mayor, to ensure that time, money, and resources are given to the school in the RIGHT way, so that these kids strive and have an equal opportunity, without losing their second home.

I hope that as a community we can come together and prove that we will not go down without a fight. These kids, our kids, deserve our support.

School Scope: PS/MS 42 Closing Drama – NAACP Jumps into the Fray

I wrote both of these pieces for the Feb. 9 edition of The Wave. I went on the bus with the PS 42 people going to the NAACP press conference Thursday afternoon. They had a spirited group rally in front. A UFT official from the Queens office showed up and somehow we got invited to go in as there as a monthly meeting of the boro pres education advisory council taking place at 6. So the press conf never did take place and will instead take place this Tuesday (Feb. 13) at 5PM at the school before the 6 PM hearing.

As part of the CASCADE group to fight closing schools, we have been attending hearings and offering support. The UFT has shown some activity - Leroy Barr came to PS 42 on Thursday and is supposedly coming to speak on Tuesday - and probably Amy Arundel and others from the Queens office will be there. I can raise issues about what the UFT is not doing but will leave that alone pending the outcome --- there is hope they can play a role in saving the school. If they do I will praise them to the sky.

-->

School Scope:  PS/MS 42 Closing Drama – NAACP Jumps into the Fray

By Norm Scott

Last week I pointed to the political, not educational, irrationality of closing schools that are viewed to be performing poorly. In this follow up I hope to demonstrate there are other factors than mere educational performance behind the decision to close PS/MS 42. I’m writing this on Feb. 6 so I can’t report on the outcome of the NAACP press conference at Queens Borough Hall on Feb. 8 at 5PM. A bus is leaving from the school at 3:15. Email rvernam66@yahoo.com to reserve a seat. And come to the hearing at the school on Tuesday, Feb. 13. There will be food at 5PM and sign-up to speak at 5:30.  It should be some evening, better than the political battles on cable TV. PS 42/MS 42 community vs. the DOE --- more exciting than the Super Bowl.