Alex Zimmerman of Chalkbeat reports that Success Academy is laying off employees and firing teachers. The layoffs, about 4% of “non-core” employees, were laid because of the financial crunch caused by the pandemic. The teachers were fired, the chain said, because of their performance.
SA has a board of billionaires and millionaires and is known for its lavish spending on test prep rallies (“Slam the Exam”) in expensive facilities like the Barkley Center in Brooklyn and its graduation ceremony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It regularly holds plush dinners where hedge fund managers and other moguls announce multimillion-dollar gifts.
One network employee who was laid off and spoke on condition of anonymity said employees were not offered severance, though healthcare benefits would extend into the summer.
“Success Academy is an incredibly well-resourced organization,” the staffer said. “For them to offer no financial assistance for laid off employees in these economic conditions speaks to what the executive office values, which is certainly not its employees.”
Success officials did not immediately respond to a question about severance packages.
One former Success official said the staff cuts could foreshadow staffing shifts in the rest of the city’s charter school landscape.
“I think Success does do a really good job of seeing around the corner,” said the official who still works in the charter sector and spoke on condition of anonymity. “Are they reading the moment a little bit more in advance and some of the difficulties that are coming down the line for the whole sector?”
Success, for instance, was the city’s first big charter network to announce its move to remote learning, making the call two days before the de Blasio administration closed the city’s district schools. The organization has also launched a more regimented approach to remote learning, with caregivers asked to help monitor hours of daily instruction even among the network’s youngest students.
The move to reduce staff is likely to raise eyebrows, as the network has a reputation for spending lavishly on everything from advertising and rallies to executive compensation. Moskowitz earns roughly $890,000 a year, according to the organization’s most recent tax filing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Pretty harsh.
Harsh? Eva Moskowitz’ spokesperson Liz Baker makes it very clear in the Chalkbeat article that Eva Moskowitz fired them “for low performance.” It’s not Moskowitz’ fault, it is the teachers’ fault. Just like it is the 5 year old kid’s fault when Moskowitz suspends that child from their kindergarten classrooms for – as Moskowitz implies – their violent behavior.
When Moskowitz decides that a child or a teacher is good or bad, she considers herself the supreme decider with perfect judgement. If that child needs to be “fired” — where it is made clear to the parent that the child must leave the school – then we must all trust Moskowitz’ judgement that the child deserved to be “fired” as a student.
We all remember that Eva Moskowitz has great judgement about people, don’t we?
Moskowitz demonstrated how terrific her judgement is when she personally endorsed Betsy DeVos as Sec’y of Education because of what Moskowitz’ deemed DeVos’ outstanding qualifications and performance. Not only did Moskowitz’ endorse DeVos, but she felt so strongly about DeVos’ outstanding qualifications that Moskowitz wrote op eds and gave interviews — taking time away from the students in her schools — to help the DeVos public relations efforts and demand that Senators confirm her. Moskowitz judged DeVos as meeting her personal criteria of excellence.
We all remember how the Success Academy Cobble Hill teacher that was handpicked to be the MODEL teacher epitomized the teaching techniques that got her rewarded and praised by the network — at least until she got caught on videotape demonstrating exactly what Moskowitz values in a MODEL teacher — haranguing and punishing low-income kids who struggle to learn. But remember, that teacher was a MODEL teacher, so she wasn’t fired. However, the teacher who did not agree with Moskowitz’ judgement that the model teacher’s techniques were not good did not stay.
Those who believe Moskowitz when she judged DeVos to be a superior nominee for Sec. of Education would no doubt believe Eva Moskowitz’ spokesperson Liz Baker when she justifies the firing (without severance) of other Success Academy teachers because they do not meet Moskowitz’ standards.
Of course, if the spokespeople who spout whatever nonsense Moskowitz orders them to spout actually mentioned that what apparently gets you admired and rewarded by Moskowitz is what Betsy DeVos and the model teacher who got caught on tape do, then maybe readers of Chalkbeat would understand that perhaps the teachers fired are just like the one who secretly videotaped the model teacher to show what kind of teaching techniques get a teacher promoted and not fired.
If you can’t trust the judgement of the charter CEO who told the country that Betsy DeVos MUST be confirmed as Secretary of Education, then you probably think that judgement was way off. If you love Betsy DeVos, you’ll love the charter CEO who was one of her biggest promoters.
It’s only “harsh” if you don’t agree with Moskowitz perfect judgement that everyone she harshly punishes – whether a teacher or a 5 year old child – deserved it. And who wouldn’t trust the charter CEO who told us all that DeVos was a terrific choice of Sec. of Education?
Toledo charters are laying off too. The Gulen chain.
I’m sure those employees are feeling very “empowered” right about now. Really reaping the benefits of all that market-based freedom ed reform promised them. They didn’t need any workplace/contract rights because charters were such wonderful employers that it would be all sunshine and rainbows and “empowerment”!
Unbelievable. Actually, for this company, all too believable.
yes: pretty much even predictable
Have there been any lay offs in the ed reform punditry/lobbying/think tank sector? Probably not – I don’t think the Waltons have suffered any setbacks.
They probably want to be “empowered” too. Allow the ed reform chamber to experience the excitement of no workplace rights too. Oh, right, half of them are tenured so don’t actually operate in the unregulated market they all espouse. Safe as houses.
The charity arm of Success that hosts the splashy fundraisers at Cipriaini is sitting on millions …..
My son’s public school is having guidance counselors call all parents. We only have two for the whole system (K-12) so it’s taking a while but I got the call yesterday. I really appreciate it. It’s a small enough school so the counselor actually knows my son and she was able to tell me what he might be able to do this summer – not as a “make up” but just what’s available. I suggest public schools do this. It’s really helpful as far as reassuring parents and I think the anxiety is just making people crazy.
Any outreach during this time of crisis would be appreciated by parents. It also lets parents know that the school community supports your child. It is important to build bridges, especially now.
Moskowitz earns roughly $890,000 a year, according to the organization’s most recent tax filing.
Several CEOs in Cincinnati have taken huge paycuts, including some in health care systems that rely on elective surgery.
My daughter, a public school psychologist and one of my my son-in-laws, a public school elementary teacher are the main breadwinners for their families. They are doing their best with zooming, and at the same time overseeing their 4 children’s (each) school work! Because of their contracts, they each continue getting their paychecks and medical insurance. THANK GOODNESS FOR UNIONS! Now do you young teachers still want to work in , non-unionized charter schools?
Rat’s jumping off a sinking ship.
From the New York Post, which, alas, was just purchased by Murdock the Morlock.
Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the 46-school Success Academy network, received a pay package totaling $782,175 in 2016.
The nonprofit network paid Moskowitz $195,000 in base compensation and she received another $255,000 in salary plus a $300,000 bonus from the affiliated Success Foundation.
Nice gig if you can get it!
Of course, this is precisely why I went back to teaching at the end of my career. I wanted to make the really big bucks. Trying, now, to figure out where to park all the money I made as a high-school teacher. Do I start some real-estate investment trusts? Buy a private island and a jet? Fund a venture to build rockets to colonize Mars? So many decisions.
Have you considered buying a carwash so you can launder it?
An excellent idea! Or I could do what the Russian oligarchs did and launder it by buying condos from Trump Enterprises.
It worked some (WW) high school teachers
LOL. Walter. A model to us all!!!
Hahahahaha! Excellent, Bob, and just what I needed to hear on this gray, chilly morning.
You are being astonishingly productive, Mark. I keep seeing all these superb materials posts on your site! You put us all to shame. Other readers of this blog: here’s Mark’s site. So much good stuff for use with students there!!!! https://markstextterminal.com/
The no-nothing that rail against (max) teacher salaries might have a different view if they cost averaged us old timers. I started at $12K in 1980.
Me too. 12K. About what was being earned by people who bagged groceries. When I married and had a family, I had to leave for a publishing job in order to be able to afford to support them.
I sucked wind, sealed driveways, and tended bar. Walter White wasn’t working at that carwash for four years for the fun of it.
When I first started teaching in Pennsylvania in 1970, my first contract was for $6,400.
My first was for $10,300. 1983. And that was with coaching the track team, the speech team, and the drama club!!!
Sounds like a classic behavior of gig business. They never fail to tell us who they are. What’s Eva’s next move? Asking DeVos for the bailout?
I hope that CA Virtual Charter Academy or CAVA goes down the tubes.
I’d be sorry for the teachers but not for the scam that CAVA has conducted here for many years.
For that matter, an impartial investigation of all these for profits should be conducted on a National level.
And follow the money.
Joan,
I agree.
The for-profit virtual schools are scams.
District schools should run their own programs for remote learning, staffed by their own certified teachers.