Anthony DelMundo/for New York Daily News
Most staff members at Long Island City High School will return to work this week after a court ruled the city could not shut it down along with six other Queens high schools. The staff include (l. to r., back row) social worker Sandra Neznamy, paraprofessional Dana Shearn, teacher John Garvey, (l. to r., front row) paraprofessional Norma Bradshaw, UFT chapter leader Ken Achiron and bilingual support services Johanny Arias.
After months of uncertainty, many teachers at seven Queens high schools previously slated for closure are going back to work.
Hundreds of teachers at the struggling schools, which will re-open Thursday, had initially lost their jobs in the city’s failed bid to to rename the schools and replace up to half of the staffs.
“We want to put last year, which was a terrible year because of all that went on, behind us,” said Ken Achiron, the union rep at Long Island City High School. “We want to focus on helping our kids graduate.”
But the school still had to get rid of at least eight teachers, Achiron said, because enrollment dropped by 200 to 300 students.
“Our incoming class is smaller,” he said. “How many times do you have to read it’s a failing school to decide you should send your child elsewhere?”
Christopher Hartmann was one of the teachers who lost his job after 14 years at William Cullen Bryant High School.
In June, he and half of the staff were told they wouldn’t be returning to the Long Island City school. Two days later, after an arbitrator ruled the city couldn’t shutter the schools, everyone was re-hired.
Then in mid-August, he learned via email that he would need to find a new position.
“I feel disappointed,” he said. “I loved Bryant High School.”
Incoming Bryant senior Vanllely Galvan, 17, of Astoria, said she was pleased that most of her teachers will stay on and the school will retain its name.
“I became a freshman under that name and I want to graduate with that name on my diploma,” she said.
A Manhattan Supreme Court ruled in July that the city was not authorized to shutter 24 schools, including seven in Queens. The court agreed with a June arbitration decision that the closures violated union contracts.
The city plans to appeal the court decision and is expected to head back to court later this year.
Department of Education officials did not immediately return requests for comment Tuesday.
But officials previously said the city lost significant federal funding after the city and the teachers union didn’t come to a speedy agreement on teacher evaluations. Closing the schools would have allowed the city to apply for up to $60 million in federal funds.
Jane Reiff, president of the Queens High School Presidents Council, which works with PTA groups, said some of the schools should have been closed.
“You can blame some of the teaching for the lack of success in some of the schools,” she said.
Other schools that were up for closure were Richmond Hill High School; Flushing High School; August Martin High School, in Jamaica; John Adams High School, in Ozone Park; and Newtown High School, in Elmhurst.
