It’s no lesson in leadership.
The city teacher union’s bid to show it could run a charter school as well as any non-unionized shop has blown up in its face, the latest school results show.
Fewer than 10 percent of eighth-graders at The UFT Charter School in Brooklyn passed this year’s state English exams — the worst performance among charters citywide.
Just 28 percent of the East New York school’s eighth-graders passed the most recent math exams — also a bottom-dwelling mark.
Overall, the school earned a D grade on its city-issued report card last week — with a score that put it in the bottom 5 percent of all K-to-8 schools in the city.
While the school’s elementary grades have improved a bit after early struggles, its upper grades have been plagued by questionable leadership — including a current principal who quit his Department of Education post because of sexual-harassment charges.
The DOE substantiated a claim against former District 19 superintendent Martin Weinstein in mid-2010 that he had encouraged a female employee to join parents in a ménage à trois, according to court papers.
He filed a lawsuit against the DOE, claiming he had been forced to resign against his will, but the case was dismissed in November 2011 — the same month he was hired to run the United Federation of Teachers’ middle- and high-school program.
Earlier this year, reviewers from the SUNY Charter Schools Institute — which will vote in January on whether to extend the UFT school’s expiring charter — expressed a host of concerns about the school.
They found that the school was breaking federal law regarding services to students learning English and that its trustees had violated open-meeting laws numerous times.
“The UFT Charter School has limited time to demonstrate that it has met or come close to meeting its Accountability Plan goals, the criterion for renewal,” the reviewers’ April report said.
The concerns come after the struggling school managed to get a only three-year — rather than the typical five-year — renewal when its charter came up for a vote in 2010.
Shelia Evans-Tranumn, the director of the school, pointed to “important signs of progress” — like better student retention rates — that she intends to bring to SUNY’s attention during the renewal process.
The school’s current woes were first reported by Gothamschools.org.