A Staten Island high-school principal testified yesterday at the first day of the City Council’s hearings on school union contracts that it took her 18 painful months to get rid of the custodian from hell.
New Dorp HS principal Deirdre DeAngelis described her Herculean efforts to fix up a school that resembled a pigsty.
“The building was dirty. It was unpainted. The materials and cleaning liquids weren’t bought. The bathrooms were dirty. Garbage wasn’t picked up in the mornings,” DeAngelis told the council’s Education Committee, chaired by Eva Moskowitz (D-Manhattan).
The opening day of four days of hearings focused on the custodians’ union contract – and included an anonymous taped interview with another principal who feared retaliation if she spoke in public.
“This system seems to be designed for adults – I want it designed for children and learning,” said Moskowitz, whose hearings continue today.
DeAngelis, who became principal in 1999, said the straw that broke the camel’s back was the disaster surrounding her first graduation ceremony.
For months, she had requested that custodial staff paint the bleachers at the athletic field, which also is used for graduation ceremonies. But staffers waited to paint the bleachers until the eve of the ceremony. When DeAngelis inspected the work, the paint was still wet “where my parents were supposed to sit the next day.”
After that, the fed-up principal took on the laborious process – required by the union contract – of documenting “piece by piece” all the work that the custodian had refused to do to finally get rid of him.
After 18 months, the custodian finally retired and DeAngelis said the new custodian is outstanding.
Council member Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan) was outraged by the Staten Island principal’s story.
“Pressure has to be put on people to either do their job or get out,” Jackson said.
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is considering dramatically increasing contracting out school custodial services to private firms, a plan that drew fire from some council members yesterday.
Another principal, who testified anonymously through a taped interview, complained about wacky union rules that prevent custodians from doing even basic maintenance.
This principal said custodians can replace light bulbs but not the ballasts – the part that enables lights to switch on.
“We need an outside electrician to do it. If you have lights out in your classrooms, it becomes a nightmare because then you have kids sitting in the dark,” the principal said.
Marty Oestreicher, the Department of Education chief executive of support services, said an overhaul of custodial services is in order.
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TALES FROM THE FRONT
“The building was dirty. It was unpainted. The materials and cleaning liquids weren’t bought. The bathrooms were dirty. Garbage wasn’t picked up in the mornings. The exterior of the building was not presentable.” -Testimony from New Dorp HS principal Deirdre DeAngelis about her custodian from hell
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Excerpts from taped interview with unnamed principal who discussed problems with custodial staff and their union rules:
“When I speak to them, ‘How much money is allocated for that?’ It all becomes very unclear . . . No one has ever met with me as principal to say, ‘This is the [budget] allocation for your building. This is how the money is being spent.’ ”
“Now we have carpets. They need to be vacuumed . . . Custodians are making issues that it’s not their job. That it’s not in their contract . . . They agreed to do it only once a week . . . Once a week is not enough.”
“In the summer, I wanted the gymnasium painted. And I was told by my [custodian] that it wasn’t in my budget. I said, ‘Well, I need to speak to the [district] plant manager because it should be in the budget. It hadn’t been painted in ‘X’ number of years. Suddenly there becomes money in the budget.”
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Are you a New York city school teacher or employee who has run into problems because of ridiculous rules in union contracts? Email us your story at tvenezia@nypost.com or call 212-930-8619.