US News

CLASS DISMISSED – BOOTED MUSIC TEACHER SINGS BUREAUCRACY BLUES

Rookie music teacher Elizabeth Trez said she’s abandoning the city – after getting tuned out by Board of Education administrators.

“They were not nice to me at all. They were condescending. I was treated like a student in the principal’s office,” Trez charged.

“People need to know this crap is going on.”

She said she’ll likely teach in Pennsylvania, where her family resides.

Only a few weeks ago, she was happy in the Big Apple.

Trez, 24, was simultaneously teaching and taking courses at New York University to complete her master’s degree and obtain her certification.

Trez said she had a dream job as a music teacher at William Bryant HS in Long Island City, Queens. And she was close enough to Manhattan to make her classes in late afternoon at NYU’s downtown campus.

“I loved Bryant. It’s a great school. We had a great camaraderie,” she said.

But then she got caught up in the Board of Ed’s bureaucratic nightmare, which tore up her tight schedule.

The board said she was “excessed” from her job at Bryant HS. Translation: She was out of a job because her position was eliminated.

Classes had to be cut because Bryant’s enrollment dropped by 300 students in the spring term. Trez, low in staff seniority, was given her walking papers.

She met with the Queens high-school district’s personnel staff in Flushing to find other work. From there, she was referred to the District 25 office, located in the same building on Linden Place.

District 25 officials offered her a job at JHS 189 in Flushing. But Trez said the commute was too far to make it back to her classes in Manhattan.

She said she was caught in a catch-22, either take the job and delay obtaining her master’s degree, or complete her graduate courses and temporarily quit teaching.

A top District 25 official confirmed the situation, and stressed Trez was treated professionally and fairly.

“She turned down the job,” Deputy Superintendent Harvey Scherer said. “It’s like any other workplace. If you want a job, you have to rearrange your life. She has to make the commitment to work the hours. She couldn’t do it. I can’t reprogram the school to suit her day.”

And Scherer said the trek to Flushing didn’t add much time to her commute. “It’s a big town, and people travel all the time,” he said.

The United Federation of Teachers said it’s looking to help Trez find a job closer to NYU.

Schools Chancellor Harold Levy’s office also said it would review Trez’s plight.

Trez said the bad vibes were unnecessary. “The Board of Education always complains they don’t have good teachers,” she said. “When they treat people like this, what do they expect?”