City releases list of possible teacher layoffs by school

City officials released a list Sunday showing how many teachers each of New York City’s public schools could lose to layoffs this year if the state’s current seniority law does not change.

The release comes at the same time that the state legislature is considering a bill that would end the current “last in, first out” layoff policy, which requires districts to dismiss teachers based on seniority. The list shows how Mayor Bloomberg’s planned-for 4,675 potential layoffs would be distributed across its nearly 1,600 schools and the city’s different neighborhoods. The list was first reported by the New York Times.

No teachers who work in special education, bilingual special education, English as a second language, or speech improvement would be laid off. Math and science teachers would also be less affected than their colleagues who teach other subjects. About 3 percent of math teachers would be laid off, whereas 9 percent of social studies teachers would lose their jobs.

More than half of the school employees who would be laid off under this plan are elementary school teachers. The layoffs carried out under this plan would also disproportionately affect newer schools. Of the 20 schools that would lose the greatest percentage of their teachers, all of them were opened between 2007 and 2010.

While most schools would lose at least one teacher to layoffs, about 320 would not have any teachers laid off.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew denounced the city’s decision to release the list.

“This is more fear-mongering from Mayor Bloomberg and it is clearly the mayor’s strategy to create a panic among parents, teachers and communities,” he said. “Not only is this fear-mongering irresponsible, with a $3 billion budget surplus he doesn’t need to do layoffs at all.”

Department of Education spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said the list reveals how hard some schools with many newly hired teachers will be hit.

“This arbitrary standard means that some schools will lose up to half of their teachers, just because they have chosen to hire teachers new to the profession,” Ravitz said. “There is a better way to do this — we can change the law and keep the best teachers for our kids.”

Schools with the greatest percentage of possible layoffs:

  1. Columbia Secondary School: 14 of 20 teachers
  2. Brighter Choice Community School: 5 of 8 teachers
  3. Spruce Street School: 3 of 6 teachers
  4. High School for Excellence and Innovation: 6 of 12 teachers
  5. Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship: 8 of 16 teachers
  6. Brooklyn Brownstone School: 5 of 10 teachers
  7. The Academy of Talented Scholars: 7 of 14 teachers
  8. P.S. Q290: 3 of 6 teachers
  9. Rockaway Park High School for Environmental Sustainability: 2 of 4 teachers
  10. Cornerstone Academy for Social Action: 17 of 36 teachers
  11. East Fordham Academy for the Arts: 7 of 15 teachers
  12. Khalil Gibran International Academy: 4 of 9 teachers
  13. Young Leaders Elementary School: 10 of 23 teachers
  14. Esperanza Preparatory Academy: 11 of 26 teachers
  15. KAPPA International High School: 13 of 31 teachers

Schools with the greatest number of possible layoffs:

  1. New Rikers Island School: 21 of 69 teachers
  2. Sunset Park High School: 20 of 51 teachers
  3. P.S. 157 Grove Hill: 20 of 58 teachers
  4. P.S. 86 Kingsbridge Heights: 20 of 119 teachers
  5. New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math: 19 of 95 teachers
  6. Cornerstone Academy for Social Action: 17 of 36 teachers
  7. P.S. 1 Courtlandt School: 17 of 53 teachers
  8. P.S. 58 School of Heroes: 17 of 66 teachers
  9. Pioneer Academy: 16 of 41 teachers
  10. P.S. 139 Alexine A. Fenty: 16 of 71 teachers
  11. P.S. 85 Great Expectations: 16 of 101 teachers
  12. P.S. K134: 15 of 40 teachers
  13. P.S. 239: 15 of 66 teachers
  14. P.S. 176 Ovington: 15 of 73 teachers
  15. P.S. 70 Max Schoenfeld: 15 of 94 teachers