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High teacher turnover draws hundreds to protest principal


Hundreds of Bronx teachers turned out on Friday to protest the high school principal they say is responsible for a 70 percent teacher turnover rate. In record time over the weekend, the Bronx division of the United Federation of Teachers produced a video about the event, which it coordinated.

Teachers charge that in the four years since Iris Blige has been principal of Fordham High School for the arts, a small school that opened in 2002, the school has run through nine assistant principals, four business managers, and more than 100 teachers. (This data point is in clear view on a protester’s poster in the video.) Blige replaced the founding principal, Sal Mazzola, who was removed after two years in charge because of poor performance, according to the school’s Insideschools review.

Fordham High School of the Arts' teacher turnover figures from its 2006-2007 state report card

Fordham High School for the Arts' teacher turnover figures from its 2006-2007 state report card

According to the school’s most recent state report card, more than a quarter of all teachers left the school after the 2005-2006 school year, and the previous year the school lost more than half of all relatively new teachers. The UFT says turnover has only accelerated since then, with more than 70 percent of teachers leaving during the 2007-2008 school year.

  • rick mangone

    Great video kudos to the UFT leadership which comes at a crucial time as mayoral control of the schools will be debated and acted upon by the state legislators.

  • http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/ Norm

    But Rick, the UFT supports mayoral control and even opposed the ICE proposal that the mayor not have the right to appoint the chancellor nor the call for the chancellor to be an educator. How did you vote at the Delegate Assembly?

  • rick mangone

    I support the UFT proposal on mayoral control that was the product of committee work that included members from every caucus. I do not believe that ending mayoral control can be accomplished and the UFT proposal offers a check on the unbridled authority of the mayor. I was not present for that vote however.

  • Pogue

    The UFT leadership should show this kind of protest and support outside of each Rubber Room in the five boroughs. Who knows what the public may think after finally being exposed to these age discriminatory relocation rooms?

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