Melinda Hyer

Yes! Nightmares is what most of her staff experience. She has ran through several teachers throughout the years. Each year it gets worst. Even her veteran teachers that you would think would stick it out decided to retire or leave. Has had several first year teachers and instead of providing support and guidance she made them rethink their entire career. Gives all her staff poor evaluations so that she could justify everything going on in the school. Parents aren’t allowed in the building unless they are the very few that she likes and/or are part of the PTA. Teachers have gotten written up for talking to parents. Has written up teachers for stupidity like accidentally opening the emergency exit door which teachers usually use to exit the building for the day and dismiss students. Her AP is somewhat decent but is used to do her dirty work. The instructional coach will throw you under the bus and twist what ever you say you to her to make admin hate you even more she’s here spy. Don’t trust that bitch! The list goes on and on like I stated before just nightmares after nightmares. They will literally have you questioning your sanity.

She is unfair and straight up rude to teachers and students. The culture in the building is toxic and designed to make teachers fail. Little support is provided so teachers can be blamed for the failures in the school. There has been an almost completely new staff for the last few years; new teachers have quit by December because of what goes on in this school building. In a k-3 school you would expect to hear laughter and joy and see different types of projects around the halls; not here. It was SILENT and bland.

If ever there was a school that should be cited for educational neglect and closed permanently, it’s this one!! This principal is a cold calculating unfeeling person. She seeks to bully and intimidate ALL staff she deems to be a problem or not on board with running a school like a prison. She, the AP and the instructional coach, isolate and intimidate the students . Imagine a Kindergartener goes into the hallway to use the bathroom then comes running back inside the room too scared to go pee because the AP is in the hallway and will yell at him. Imagine the staff begging for instructional materials for their literacy program that they are being held accountable to implement and their emails are ignored!! Imagine a school where a child making true progress in a small setting class is thrown mid year into 2nd grade gen ed class ( when he’s only reading at a kindergarten level) because they changed his IEP and the mom agrees to it because she really doesn’t understand the language but can answer yes and no and no attempt is made to have a translator at the meeting. Imagine a Kindergarten classroom where 6 out of 17 kids speak only Spanish and none I MEAN NONE! Of them get any ELL or ELA services and the teachers are still held accountable and the children are tested as though they were getting extra help!!! I could go on and on and on about the horror stories at this school. It is a toxic, depressing, dysfunctional environment, and should be closed ASAP!

One of the pivotal necessities for insuring the success of ANY SCHOOL is having it take place in a least restrictive environment-one in which play is regarded as a part of learning, one in which the individual needs of children are respected, one in which children who require regulation tools are provided with them without hesitation. One in which flexible seating is embraced. Unfortunately, none of these imperative elements match the atmosphere of PS 88. When we received our first informal observation, we received a warning that there was a lack of classroom management because not all of our children were sitting Crisscross on the floor with their hands folded, and were not sitting upright facing forward like statues at their desks. Flexible seating is essentially viewed as a reflection of poor classroom management across all classrooms and in all environments. When the children go downstairs for lunch, they are separated from students who are their friends to ensure that there is no socialization. They then are made to sit quietly without moving in rows of red chairs for the duration of the lunch period. There is a select group of children who are chosen to color downstairs with Ms. Hyer during lunch but all other children are forced to sit quietly in their chairs. Some children are separated and isolated. Many of the children in our class were afraid to go to the bathroom in the cafeteria because they are nagged and verbally harassed to “hurry up”, and as a result most of them ask to go to the bathroom when they come back upstairs. This week one of our children asked to go to the bathroom during instruction and came back quickly. When asked why, he said that “He saw The VP in the hallway and was too scared.” There is no recess, and minimal opportunity for movement, with the exception of the movement breaks we make sure to exclude throughout the day in our classroom. Physical education, despite the presence of a PE room on the lower level of the school, has taken place in the classrooms since September. There is no room for the children to move, they have to maneuver themselves between desks and furniture. This situation also makes it impossible for teachers to have their prep periods in their classrooms. With regard to special services for ELL students, our literacy coach was told that the legal weekly mandate of 80 minutes per week for push in or pull out services was facilitated by the instructional coach. This is an absolute fabrication. Not once have our ELL students been provided special services. I also wanted to give a specific anecdote which took place the first week of school, when I was first introduced to a new student. Ms. Hyer introduced him to me, and I knelt down to introduce myself to him (eye level is paramount with children, especially a child who comes from an abusive background) and before I could say hello to him Ms. Hyer firmly and promptly told me “STAND UP.” I was honestly shocked at her lack of compassion regarding the sensitivity of this fragile child. Last year a student shared with us in the morning that she was yelled at downstairs in the cafeteria in the morning for “trying to help another student.” She was understandably upset and confused. Honestly I could go on. But I know I’ve written a lot. Ultimately, it is my belief that this school is not a healthy place for any child. The experience of working here has been traumatic for most of the staff members I have spoken with. There has been frustration, there have been tears. If it was up to me, parents and prospective teachers would be well advised to seek another school where psychological well being and socio emotional learning is respected and honored, where physical movement is understood to be integral for young children, and not hurriedly enforced as a reaction to pressure being put on administrators from an outsider. Schools should be run by people who SEE children as PEOPLE and RESPECT them and see their potential. And PS 88 is no such place. Children are systematically marginalized, scrutinized and demeaned. And so are the teachers and special service providers. BEWARE.

This school is HORRIBLE, and this is coming from a student. The principle and vice yells at the SMALLEST kids for the SMALLEST thing.