Nearly 9 percent of the school system’s unassigned teachers and other staffers who had been working as roving substitutes have accepted a one-time buyout offer, officials announced Thursday.
The 115 staffers — including 97 teachers — had been part of a costly pool of 1,300 workers bounced over the years from shrinking or closing schools, but who had been unable to find permanent gigs in the system.
Department of Education officials pegged the one-time cost of the severance deals — which were negotiated as part of the new teachers-union contract — at $1.8 million, or an average of $16,000 per staffer.
They said with fringe benefits, the reduction was expected to cut roughly $15 million from the annual price tag of maintaining the pool — which has hovered close to $150 million.
“We are pleased that . . . we were able to develop a process that is mutually beneficial for the DOE by reducing spending and for the teachers who have chosen to leave,” said Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.
While the teachers union has argued that the vast majority of workers in the pool lost their assignments through no fault of their own, critics tagged teachers who lingered in the pool as lemons who should be tossed.
“It is surprising that the Department of Education would celebrate the return of 1,100 ineffective teachers back into the classrooms of our most vulnerable children,” said StudentsFirstNY director Jenny Sedlis.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates that the DOE is not serious about ensuring that every child is taught by a quality teacher. Had they been, there’s a simple solution: limit the time unwanted teachers can collect a paycheck.”
Her group cited reports that 41 percent of teachers in the pool had lingered for more than three years — and that one-third had been rated unsatisfactory at least once.
Under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the DOE attempted to pressure so-called ATRs into taking buyouts of 25 percent of their salaries — or as much as $25,000.
But bad blood between the teachers union and City Hallthwarted any hopes for a deal.
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew characterized the buyouts as a win for teachers who took them.
“We want every teacher who should be in the classroom to land a permanent classroom assignment,” he said.
“And for teachers who decided teaching was no longer for them, the buyout process was a way to leave the system.”