MTRO
XCLUIV
Teacher who earn nearl ix figure to do nothing
ue cit to get ack to work
 usan delman
Novemer 6, 2016 | 6:38am | Updated
David uker
A teacher who sits in lounges and liraries doing nothing all da — sometimes even napping — is challenging the cit to make him earn his
$94,000 salar.
“I come to work ever da, sit down and do nothing,” said David uker, who spent 15 ears helping “at risk” teens in the ronx earn a
general equivalenc diploma, or GD.
uker, 48, complains he is “warehoused” in the Asent Teacher Reserve, a pool of educators without permanent jos that costs an
estimated $100 million a ear. Right now, there are 1,304 mothalled cit Department of ducation staffers in the ATR.
The DO fired the Arm veteran, who suffers from PTD, after he made news as an Occup Wall treet protester who clashed with cops. He
appealed his firing in court and won, paing onl a $7,000 fine.
ut instead of returning uker to his old jo or a similar one, the DO anished him to the ATR, where teachers, guidance counselors and
others who can’t get rehired move from school to school as sustitutes.
At least 200 educators who have een fined or suspended for misconduct or incompetence are currentl stuck in the ATR.
The pool was meant for “excessed” teachers who lose jos when their schools are downsized or closed, ut it has ecome a dumping
ground for those the DO fails to fire in termination hearings.
uker and others in the ATR sa the mostl sit idle, sustitute in sujects outside their expertise or do grunt work like lunch dut. The ATR
staffers receive full pa and enefits.
At the Academ for Language and Technolog in the Morris Heights section of the ronx last week, uker spent all da in a corner of the
lirar ut said the stress of eing isolated got to him.
After a dispute with the principal’s secretar Wednesda, he was rushed  amulance to a VA hospital for a panic attack. On Frida, he
said, “I took a nap.”
efore eing dumped into the ATR, uker spent two ears in a DO “ruer room” — where he also napped — while awaiting disciplinar
decisions.
uker has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan upreme Court that challenges the ATR sstem, contending the DO has no right to impose this extra
form of punishment on teachers.
“The DO is not legall permitted to discipline tenured teachers without giving them the right to a hearing,” said uker’s lawer, Maria
Chickedantz. he called the ATR a “drastic demotion” ecause teachers in it can’t earn overtime pa, and the lael carries a stigma.
The DO maintains it has the authorit to assign teachers to the ATR after the have een found guilt of an misdeeds or ineptitude.
Judge Alice chlesinger, who will decide the issue, rejected a similar complaint  Cind Mauro and Alini rito, teachers at James Madison
High chool in rookln who were fired after getting caught trsting in a classroom. chlesinger reinstated them ut did not force the DO
to remove them from the ATR.
The DO said it never sends teachers who escape the ax ack to the school where the were charged. The can e rehired onl if a
principal agrees to do so.
FILD UNDR
DPARTMNT OF DUCATION, DUCATION, PULIC CHOOL, CHOOL, TACHR
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