Nurses outraged DOE hires educrat to solve school medical crisis

School nurses are fuming the city Department of Education hired a longtime educrat to help deal with the nursing shortage — instead of spending the six figures on RNs.

Weeks after The Post reported dozens of school buildings were without nurses on any given day, the agency announced it hired Christopher Groll as senior advisor to the Office of School Health.

“Another figurehead that has no idea what is going on,” said a source in the Office of School Health.

The source said 100 new nurses were hired last month, “but the problem is we can’t keep them on,” because pay and benefits for Department of Health nurses pale in comparison to other nursing jobs.

“The DOH can’t keep nurses. None of them stay,” the source said.

Multiple nurses told The Post parents have kept students home this school year when there is no nurse available to administer medication, and in other instances, principals have been forced to break protocol and give students meds themselves.

Groll, who has been with the DOE for 28 years in various executive roles, most recently as chief operating officer for the Division of School Climate and Wellness, will help the agency determine “long-term solutions” through “increased oversight on our end,” spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said.

“We’re serious about this issue, which is why we now have a dedicated DOE staff person to focus on providing health services to all schools,” she said.

The nurses union blasted the DOE’s solution.

“At a time when we are negotiating to get our members, who work in the schools, equal pay for equal work, it’s disheartening to hear that the city is spending money to hire an official whose work will do nothing to solve the nursing shortage in our schools,” United Federation of Nurses & Epidemiologists Local 436 President Judith Arroyo said.

Groll, who made a $192,943 salary in his last DOE job, could not be reached for comment. The DOE refused to divulge his new salary.

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