No Interviews for ATR Teachers at Fort Hamilton H.S.

Alexander Hamilton was one of this country's earliest financial geniuses.  Jo Ann Chester, the Principal of Fort Hamilton High School, which is named after old Alex, also seems to have a way with dollars and cents.  She has been accused of a complex scheme of underpaying more than a dozen teachers at her school. 

Jo Ann Chester (second from left)  accepts a check

 for $250,000 from State Senator Marty Golden (L).  

If that's not dastardly enough, Ms. Chester also figured out a way to circumvent the DOE's requirement that teachers from the ATR should be interviewed for any open positions. Gotham Schools reports: 

A union source said Chester had not interviewed a single member of the Absent Teacher Reserve for vacant positions, even after the city began requiring schools to interview any teacher in the pool who put in an application for an open position. 

By making it appear that full-time teachers were assigned to every class, the school avoided being assigned members of the ATR pool in the last year, after the city began cycling them weekly into schools with vacancies. 

The city wants principals to hire ATRs whenever possible, because their salaries are already on the city payroll. But schools that hire the teachers, who lost their positions when their schools shrunk or closed, must foot the bill for their salaries. It is less expensive for principals to pick up brand-new teachers whenever possible.

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