Is Anyone Listening? An Open Letter From An Excessed E.L.A. Teacher Who Is Now An ATR

What follows is an open letter from Michael Thyfault, an excessed English Language Arts teacher who had taught at Canarsie High School, a school which is being phased out. We reproduce it here because Thyfault’s eloquent statement is a powerful illustration of why the Department of Education needs to let the ATRs teach.

I am a third generation educator who entered the teaching profession at age 37.  I have been teaching at Canarsie High School for the last four years.  I am now working under my 4th principal and third assistant principal of English. Last June I was excessed as the school was beginning the process of being phased out.  This year I am an ATR, Active Teacher in Reserve.  I teach one class a day and work as a substitute when needed.  Regardless of my assignment I work five periods a day, tutoring in the library when I am not covering classes. I run a chess club and have been teaching Regents and SAT preparation classes after school. I am deeply disturbed when ATR teachers are labeled as burden on the system.  I am making a difference in many young lives, regardless of my label. That is why I teach. My passion runs deeper than politics or the mismanagement of our schools.

The fact is that principals are restricted by budgets and can not afford to hire the best qualified teachers. Vacancies are filled with lower paid new teachers. Two new teachers can be placed for the price of one qualified experienced teacher.  I do not doubt the need to bring fresh teachers into the system. Yet proven experienced teachers are essential. As a new teacher I would not have survived without the guidance of my extraordinary colleagues who will soon join me in the ATR pool.  Mayor Bloomberg is a business man. What business would pay experienced and immensely qualified employees higher salaries to not work and then add many lower salaried employees?

The City rightfully has to pay our salaries, regardless. The restricted hiring budgets are costing principals the freedom to hire the best teachers. The answer to the problem is not the Union and the Mayor’s Office going to war over our next contract. The answer is we need leadership to remove the budget restraints that prevent principals from employing the best teachers. Stop adding more teachers than are needed as wonderful experienced teachers are left to rot. Let the best qualified teachers back into the classroom to fulfill their life purposes.  The stories about the City spending millions of dollars paying teachers not to work are unfortunately true.  The City could save millions of dollars by not tying the hands of principals and encouraging the best teachers to get back into the classroom where they belong.

Since I have been teaching English, I have promoted copious amounts of writing as a moral imperative. I have watched the English Regents scores at my school rise significantly. This is due to the efforts of an extraordinary team of teachers who have tirelessly worked so that all of our students have the opportunity to succeed regardless of what level they were tested at before entering our school. Politics closed our school based on a fraudulent grading system that ignored our achievements. In the last four years I have been a part of a team that has worked to increase our English Regents passing rate by as much as 30%. English scores were blamed for the demise. Any successful business would thrive on our success rate, curiously ignored by the City.

I am aware that many students struggle to take advantage of the gift of education due do social ills and crumbling family support. Last year I worked with the two school social workers, as the teacher for an after school English class, The Write Stuff. With funding from the United Way, it was an innovative writing program where life stories were recorded and performed in spoken word essays. Twice a week after school I saw the bravery and fortitude of students surviving unspeakable horrors.  Gunshot wounds, abounded children, witnesses to parents dying of AIDS and mental disorders, children prostituting themselves for survival, these incredible young people taught me more about life than I can ever teach.

What our average student goes through is not always as traumatic. However, regardless of whether these students are the norm at our school or not, they are not forgotten. Canarsie High school is about helping these and all of the young people who walk through our doors to embrace a brighter future.  The City may have given up on us, but we will not give up on our students.

It breaks my heart that a school moving in the right direction, servicing a beautifully diverse community, offering hope to many hopeless young people is being phased out.  Small elite minded schools are moving into our space. The new schools are in refurbished, luxury spaces, leaving our students to feel like unwanted step children.  Our school is not allowed to intermix with the new school, as if we are poison. What if the resources put into the new schools were shared with all the students, not just the hand picked few lucky enough to be in a new school. I too could be a more successful teacher with a smaller teacher to student ratio. It is extremely interesting that if these new schools would have hired me, with four years of experience, I would be one of the most experienced teachers.

I will likely be forced out of the school soon.  In three years the community I love will be only a memory.  Please publish the truth and help stop the insanity that is robbing our teachers and more importantly our students of the gifts that our society owes them.

Tagged: ATR, Brooklyn, ELA, high school

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