Leaky crumbling ceilings, loose tiles in the bathrooms and broken handrails in the stairwells of New York City’s public schools are par for the course. With more than 1,200 facilities in five boroughs, many of which are over 80 years old, repairs are constantly needed. When school principals — responsible for more than one million students throughout the city — see such hazards, they know they can count on skilled trade workers to do the repairs correctly.

These Local 237 members — unlike cheaper private contractors frequently hired by the Department of Education — are background-checked by the FBI to ensure the safety of schoolchildren. The union’s skilled trades workers also qualify with years of experience and must pass civil service tests. In addition, they stay abreast of changes in their trades with annual training — especially in relation to handling hazardous materials.


Plasterer Dennis Agostino works on a scaffold to re-support a ceiling.

Twelve Department of Education (DOE) plasterers throughout the city often deal with live wires and pipe wraps that may contain asbestos. “We prioritize work orders to respond promptly to health violations,” says Supervisor of Plasterers Handal Mustafa, who has 12 years at the agency and covers schools in the Bronx, Manhattan and part of Brooklyn. Supervisor of Plasterers Joseph Scali, who covers Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn and has 10 years with the agency, says, “When we see hazardous material, we remove it, investigate it, and do a full repair.”

Mustafa and Scali supervise six plasterers and two laborers. They also estimate jobs, order materials, coordinate plans with principals and custodians, and survey work areas to assure safety. Plus, there’s “a lot of computer work,” says Scali, who handles time cards, travel sheets, and trucking forms. “We’re overwhelmed with paperwork.”

A huge job at I.S. 30 requiring plasterers, steamfitters, painters and electricians is Scali’s top priority today. “Each trade complements the next,” he says while on a visit to the school where a leak on the auditorium balcony damaged a large section of the ceiling. First, steamfitters found asbestos, then an outside contractor did the abatement and left an exposed live wire. The complicated repair takes “three separate coats of cement and five or six different procedures,” says Dennis Agostino, a 15-year plasterer who is re-supporting the ceiling.


Maintenance Workers Robert Mercado, Joseph Maddaloni and John Tarricone are tackling a huge job that started off small.

Looking up at Agostino on the scaffold, Scali notes that management allotted 42 hours, but actual hours of work so far have been 110. “I need about 200 hours and two men to do it right the first time,” says Scali, conceding that “management support is as good as it can be.”

A recurring complaint among skilled trade workers is the difficulty of getting materials. “I used to do my own ordering, now they brought in a private company to purchase and distribute materials,” says Supervisor of Bricklayers Lou Plumatillo, adding, “it’s not working.” A DOE bricklayer since 1993, Plumatillo oversees 10 workers, including cement masons and mason helpers who do everything from repairing sidewalks and brick work to installing door frames and tiles.

Privatization makes it tougher to secure materials and have them delivered to schools in the appropriate time, says Maintenance Worker Joseph Maddaloni. “In the past we had our own warehouse, now they gave it to a private company and it’s in turmoil.” Maddaloni, a shop steward and 15-year veteran of the DOE, and two other maintenance workers are feeling the pinch as they use broken tools to repair crumbling tiles in a boys’ room at Queens Academic H.S. in Flushing, Queens. About 80 percent of the tools they use are their own, explains Maintenance Worker Robert Mercado, a 17-year DOE veteran.

“A few tiles over the doorway turned into a huge job,” says Maddaloni, describing how a few loose tiles turned into a six-by-five-foot job. “It would take four trades to do the job we do: demolition, garbage removal, rebuilding a wall and retiling it,” says John Tarricone, a 17-year maintenance worker.

The maintenance workers also repair and install handrails, chain-link fences, stair treads, tiles and even basketball poles. Using their own cars, they travel to job sites throughout Queens and one third of Brooklyn. “When I tell my buddies in other trades what we do, they don’t believe it,” says Tarricone.

Supplies for skilled trade workers are kept at the DOE Bureau of Stores in Long Island City, Queens, which commands a spectacular view of Manhattan’s East River waterfront. Two workers at the site remember handling loads of stock only five months ago before the private company took over.

Darryl Porter, a stock worker for 20 years, remembers when there were nearly 20 stock workers at the facility, compared with only four now. “I worked with almost every trade,” says Porter, making it clear that he knows “exactly what has to be done.” The job entailed making sure stock was available by keeping an eye on the “target point” for reordering each item.

“I was in charge of 10 shops that supply trades people,” says Senior Store Keeper Sarla Tangri, a 21-year DOE veteran who oversaw stocks of paint, plaster, clocks, radio, locks, tools and much more. “We used to order, receive, count, enter data into the PC, shelve and ship” items, she recalls. “But now, since we were taken over by an outside company, when a shipment comes, we compare items against a list, count them and take them to the shops where they belong.”

Still, says Tangri, “We enjoy our jobs.”


Stock Worker Darryl Porter and Senior Storekeeper Sarla Tangri do their best to get supplies to trades people.