They have trouble with spelling, grammar and showing up to class on time — and we’re not talking about the students.
The city tried to expel 26 teachers from the classroom last year for gross incompetence — such as English teachers who couldn’t write or speak the language properly.
But officials maintain that stringent union rules prohibited them from succeeding in just half those cases — even when hearing officers actually agreed with the principals’ assessments.
That’s because the city has to prove not only that the teachers can’t do their jobs but also that they have no shot of ever improving.
“What happens is every single thing is litigated or grieved or had a fuss made about it,” said Mayor Bloomberg, who, along with Gov. Cuomo, has demanded statewide adoption of new teacher evaluations.
The new rating system would reward the best teachers while speeding the removal of the worst — including those who rate near the bottom for at least two consecutive years.
Among the teachers who escaped dismissal last year, according to state records obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Law filing, were:
* Secondary School for Research teacher Olga Beylis, who was written up for poor grammar and for misspelling words on the blackboard — even while preparing students for a spelling test.
She wrote “thin” as ‘lhin” and “thick” as “thik,” according to a hearing report — something that was even more problematic because she was teaching English to immigrants.
Beylis’ supervisors charged that she “constantly interrupted her students to answer her own questions and spoke over her students.”
The arbitrator even confirmed that “the Department proved that Beylis is presently not capable of providing a valid educational experience for her students, and is thus incompetent.”
But, incredibly, he let the Brooklyn teacher off with a 30-day suspension — because the DOE didn’t do enough to help her learn English.
“In sum, the Department’s remediation efforts do not get an overall passing grade,” he wrote.
Beylis blamed her poor record on administrators who had it in for her and said she was denied language help for years.
“My students passed their Regents and received awards. They brought credit to the school for their achievements. If I’m incompetent, how can that happen?” she asked The Post.
* Metropolitan Diploma HS teacher Linda Whitfield, who was absent from work 39 times last year and late 16 times. There are about 180 school days in a year.
She documented 18 of those missed days with a doctor’s note for a wrist sprain.
“I had serious issues with [Whitfield’s] credibility,” wrote the hearing officer.
But because she had 15 years in the system, Whitfield was punished with a $25,000 fine, instead.
In his State of the State speech this month, Cuomo set a January 2013 deadline for districts to implement the new teacher-evaluation system.