The Department of Education’s second-in-command has stepped in to hear complaints from parents at a Queens school plagued with organizational problems.
Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky spoke with a parent from Queens Metropolitan High School Wednesday, according to DOE officials and the parent’s wife. Polakow-Suransky promised John Sadowski that the department would give the school the “help you need,” according to Sadowski’s wife, Kelly.
The call happened the same day that I reported that the year-old school was suffering from ongoing scheduling conflicts and unexpected staffing changes that left some students without regular instruction:
Because of staff changes, space issues, and poor planning, Queens Metropolitan students have gotten new schedules as many as 10 times since September. On Monday, up to three periods of classes were canceled for many 10th-grade students, who sat in the auditorium and cafeteria as administrators feverishly worked to hash out new schedules, according to accounts from parents, students, and staff. At a PTA meeting Tuesday night, parents also complained that some classes are without teachers, physical education instruction isn’t happening, and that their students aren’t receiving grades for some coursework.
The couple had contacted District 28’s parent council and superintendent and the Citywide Council on High Schools, a parent group, multiple times in recent weeks, Kelly Sadowski said. But she said they had received only perfunctory, unsatisfying answers until their conversation with Polakow-Suransky.
“Mr. Polakow-Suransky patiently listened and was not happy with what he was hearing,” Kelly Sadowski wrote in an open email to parents and community members after the phone call. ”He acknowledged that it sounded like we have major issues and his response was “You are going to get the help you need.”
DOE officials said Queens Metropolitan administrators will hold a meeting for parents next week.
According to a teacher at the school, administrators called an “emergency meeting” for this afternoon about the schedules by email Wednesday night. But this morning Principal Marci Levy-Maguire sent a follow-up email canceling the meeting. Instead, administrators will meet with teachers individually throughout the day.
In a follow-up email to Polakow-Suransky after the phone call, Sadowski asked him to hold an emergency meeting with parents and school administrators, along with a formal review of the problems and plans for solving them.
“We would like a reasonable time frame placed on the school to correct this as well as the school to be held accountable if these deadlines are not met,” she said.