Teachers at troubled Murry Bergtraum HS on Sunday blasted its principal and p.r. guy for bungling a student letter-writing campaign to The Post — and one parent group said the school should be shut down.
“This school has been so poorly managed, and the principal takes no responsibility,” said John Elfrank-Dana, a history teacher at Bergtraum, joining a chorus of educators there.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all that they would screw this up, too.”
Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union, which advocates for city students and parents, added, “Schools like Murry Bergtraum that continue to fail in educating our children should be closed.”
The botched letter-writing campaign came after The Post exposed a scheme at the school to usher failing students through the system by allowing them to routinely watch videos and take tests online for credit.
The school’s “blended learning” method pretends to incorporate online learning in the classroom but simply substitutes computer programs for actual teaching, critics say.
“It’s not real blended learning. They click on a computer and rack up credits,” said Elfrank-Dana, who is a chapter leader for the United Federation of Teachers.
“It cheapens the value of their diploma, and everybody loses.”
The high school — rated “F” by the city Department of Education — had a dismal 51.2 percent graduation rate last year, and hundreds of its students are over-age.
Multiple students said the school’s $52,232-a-year “community coordinator,’’ p.r. consultant Kian Brown, organized the letter-writing campaign to The Post to protest the paper’s exposé.
An e-mail from Brown to students shows that he encouraged them to write letters defending the program and even provided e-mail addresses.
Brown is described by insiders as Principal Lottie Almonte’s right-hand man.
The students’ ensuing e-mails — many riddled with grammatical errors — also were sent to Chancellor Carmen Fariña.
“What do you get of giving false accusations im one of the students that has blended learning I had a course of English and I passed and and it helped a lot you’re a reported your support to get truth information other than starting rumors,” one student wrote.
Another student defended the blended-learning program by saying, “You can digest the information in your own paste.”
Yet another called it a “very awarding program.”
Reached by phone Sunday, Brown denied he had any involvement with the letter campaign.
“I don’t know about the letters. I haven’t seen the letters. I don’t know where they originated from,” he said.
Davids, of the New York City Parents Union, called the school’s blended-learning approach a “farce” and said the students’ letters defending it were simply the result of the failed policy.
“It’s truly tragic. It’s outrageous,” she said. “How could they allow the students to send those letters? It’s obviously a lack of common sense.”
Almonte did not respond to requests for comment.
The DOE also did not respond to The Post.