An essential resource for parents struggling to navigate the city’s school system is on the chopping block, The Post has learned.
Education officials have proposed cutting more than one-third of the system’s 64 district family advocates – many who were hired less than a year ago.
The advocates deal with problems that parents often are not able to solve in talks with teachers and principals – such as transfers, summer-school enrollment and placement in special classes.
Advocates, paid about $43,000 a year, were told last month that 24 of them would be cut by the end of August. That would leave most of the city’s 34 districts with just one advocate to handle the questions and problems of thousands of parents.
“This is a very vital position [because] we serve parents,” said one advocate. “You’re going to cut down their customer service.”
The advocates are represented by District Council 37, which is negotiating the proposed cuts with the Department of Education.
“We take the threat of layoffs very seriously,” said Dennis Sullivan, the union’s director of research and negotiations.
Schools officials said the proposed cuts are part of $200 million being trimmed from the DOE’s central bureaucracy to offset shortfalls in the 2008-09 budget.
They would not confirm how many jobs they’re seeking to eliminate – although a budget document issued before a June meeting indicates that 19 advocates were initially slated to be chopped at a saving of $821,000.
The 19 were among a total of 181 proposed staffing cuts.
Parents for years have criticized what they say is the DOE’s lack of commitment to their needs and say they’re angry that the department would eliminate workers who have ably served as troubleshooters, even as it seeks to hire staff for data and accountability openings.
“I am livid! They’re getting rid of the voice of the parent,” said Jeannie Tsavaris-Basini, president of District 30’s Community Education Council in Queens.
“It’s a shame because it was one of the best things that [Schools] Chancellor [Joel] Klein implemented – so to cut back on it now doesn’t make any sense.”
A DOE spokeswoman insisted the advocates’ program is just being “reorganized” and “there will not be any reduction in services to parents.”