New Pathways Academy is a Bronx middle school that opened last year. Heading into Year Two, Principal Lyne James Turnbull needed to hire more teachers.

"Math and science teachers, and ESL teachers, even special ed teachers, it's difficult to staff," she said. "And sometimes in the Bronx, it's hard to get people to come up to the Bronx."

But she was able to get an earlier start on recruiting this year, and could offer those teachers a salary bonus of $7,200.

"Being able to have that enticement, where teachers know there's a salary difference, particularly in those areas, it's great."

It's part of "The Bronx Plan," an effort to boost struggling schools across the boroughs but particularly in the one it's named for. Announced a year ago as part of a new contract with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), it's aimed at recruiting and retaining teachers like Samantha Cruz, who teaches social studies in both English and Spanish.

"I was looking for where I could come and make a difference for our English language learners," Cruz said. "I feel at times we need to come out and push them and give them a lot of support due to the fact that they speak two languages. And a lot of times, there's not enough teachers that can handle both languages at the same time."

Her job is one of 360 "hard-to-staff" positions part of the plan — and 99 percent of them are full.

New Pathways is one of 60 "Bronx Plan" schools, along with New Millennium Bronx Academy of the Arts on the same campus. They are in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods. At one campus, 20 percent of students are homeless or in temporary housing.

"Teachers and administrators who are doing the hardest work in our system have oftentimes been denigrated as, 'Oh, their schools are failing because of their effort,'" New Millennium Principal Dorald Bastain said. "That's simply not true."

The plan also allows for fast-tracking repairs and improvements. Educators hope it'll also change minds about what schools in the Bronx can be.

"The families here are wonderful. They want the same as other families do for their children: they want college, they want beyond college, they want a good career, they want safe schools, they want welcoming schools," Turnbull said. "So I don't prescribe to what people think about the Bronx."

"The Bronx Plan" is expected to expand to up to 120 schools, with the new schools being named by the end of this school year.

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