PS 169 Principal EuJin Tang May Have Exposed 2nd Graders To Adult Nudity

Principal EuJin Tang of Brooklyn's PS 169 decided it was a good idea for her students, who are mostly low income,  recent immigrants, to learn to swim.  While that was a good idea, the problem was that the fitness center apparently did not isolate the students from the adult members and according to the New York Post, the 2nd graders were exposed to nude adults changing in the locker room as they waited to change into their swimsuits.

Some of the 2nd graders told their parents and the parents are very upset and rightly so.  The Principal, who was in charge of the outing should have made sure that the students were isolated from the changing adults but apparently didn't do so.  Moreover, many of the students were required to change in front of other students which upset their parents as well.

The Principal, EuJin Tang has been in the news previously when back in 2014 she banned Thanksgiving and Christmas  and celebrations, as well as the national anthem and made national headlines. Then she was known as EuJin Jaela Kim.  At that time she had one of the lowest teacher approval rating in the City at 32%.. While this has improved, the latest approval rating of 60% is still well below the City average of 86%.  She was made Principal of PS 169 in 2014 despite only having three years of school experience, when Chancellor Carmen Farina required all principals to have a minimum of seven years school experience.  As you can imagine, Ms, Tang is a graduate of the infamous Leadership Academy.


Ms. Tang (still known as Ms. Kim) also threw out nearly new desks  as well as other materials that cost $25,000 and replaced them with tables and was criticized by the media for wasting usable furniture when school budgets were tight.. I wrote a post about EuJin Jaela Kim back in 2015 and you can read it Here.  Furthermore, back in 2015 a petition to remove the Principal of a school that has 1,300 students generated 2,783 supporters but was ignored by the DOE.

The Union Must Negotiate With The Chancellor To Eliminate Danielson

New York City is one of the few New York State districts that evaluates teachers by using the Charlotte Danielson rubric. This evaluation tool, when used appropriately by fair-minded administrators, the Charlotte Danielson rubric is an efficient teacher evaluation tool.

However, there are far too many incompetent and vindictive administrators who use Charlotte Danielson as a weapon to rate teachers who are effective as developing or ineffective.  Moreover, approximately 33% of the principals are graduates of the infamous " Principal Leadership Academy".  These principals are selected, not by talent, but who they knew who can recommend them.  Finally, these Leadership Academy graduates are told that they should run their schools as a CEO and not as the instructional leader.

These Leadership Academy principals are told they should demand staff cooperation and not collaborate.  In other words it's "my way or the highway".  In addition, due to tight school budgets and Fair Student Funding, these principals are sure to target senior teachers.  Since they can save money if they encourage the senior teacher to leave and replace that teacher with an inexpensive "newbie".  The difference can then be used by the Principal to put in his slush fund and use it as he or she sees fit.

Will the union push for the removal of Charlotte Danielson as a teacher evaluation tool?  Don't count on it since Michael Mulgrew and company are not in the classroom and are not subject to the Charlotte Danielson rubric. The union does not even try to remove these vindictive principals who make teaching a living hell in their school.

Just Another Terrible Principal

Leave it to New York Post columnist, Susan Edelman, to find some of the worst people working at the dysfunctional DOE.  In today's New York Post Susan identified a recently terminated Mew Rochelle high school Principal, Shadia Alvarez.

Leadership Academy alumni Principal Alvarez was terminated by the New Rochelle school board due to grade fixing and phony credit recovery. The investigative report that lead to her termination said the following:

Last week, the New Rochelle school district released an investigative report that found Alvarez had changed or fabricated 212 grades for 32 students who failed or did not complete online make-up classes needed for graduation. 

Ms. Alvarez had previous problems as a DOE Principal at Collegiate Institute for Math and Science in The Bronx. There Ms. Alvarez, was subject to separate OSI and SCI investigations and quit as Principal when the SCI report was completed.  She was accused of padding her overtime, not documenting her DOE credit card spending and leaving the school with a $114,000 debt.

Ms. Alvarez was also known as the "prom killer" as she threatened to cancel the prom unless the senior class had a 100% graduation rate, an impossible feat, especially for a Bronx high school.

The question is how did Ms. Alvarez get the Principal job at New Rochelle High School and who in the DOE hid the reports of Ms. Alvarez's misconduct and gave her a glowing recommendation?  Those DOE officials should be terminated as well.

Principal Quality Is A Major Factor Why Schools Struggle Academically.

When I was a student I used to buy Marvel comic books and "Archie" for my younger sister   One of the characters in the Archie comic book was the Riverdale high school Principal, Mr. Weatherbee. In the comic book Mr. Weatherbee was looked at as the instructional leader of the school and was highly respected for his integrity by both staff and students.

Mr. Weatherbee was a composite of the many old time and long-term educators who started out as a teacher for a decade or more and worked his way up to eventually become a Principal.  Mr. Weatherbee was educationally, .all knowing and mentored his staff. He was highly respected head of the school.

Fast forward to the present day New York City schools and few principals followed the path of Mr. Weatherbee.  Over 25% of the present day principals are graduates from the infamous "Leadership Academy" and until 2015, many graduates had minimal.classroom teaching experience and quite a few never achieved tenure as a teacher.  Even when Chancellor Carmen Farina changed the rules and required that educators have a minimum of seven years of school experience (from three and not necessarily in the classroom).  However, there were exceptions and people already in the program were grandfathered in   Therefore, a greater percentage of newly minted principals running their schools came from the "Leadership Academy".

These "Leadership Academy" principals, were accepted in the program based upon who they knew, not what they knew.  It was not uncommon that the teacher was accepted to the "Leadership Academy" by a recommendation of a Superintendent or a DOE official at Tweed.  The result was these principals didn't think of themselves as instructional leaders but as the CEO of their school.  Many practiced a top down management approach and collaboration with the school staff was seen as an inconvenience and a bar from implementing polices that the Principal wants to employ.

 These "Leadership Academy" principals were known to bully staff and were encouraged to run the school as they pleased by the DOE.  Is it any wonder that New York City has over half the State's 3020-a cases when New York City teachers make up only 30% of all teachers in New York State?
While there are many factors why schools struggle academically.  Poverty, segregation, teaching experience, and student discipline policies.  A major factor is also poor administration and the Principal. Maybe the new Chancellor will release the fatal flaw in improving academically struggling schools.  The poor quality of recently appointed principals from the "Leadership Academy".

The DOE's Double Standard Continues - The Case Of Principal Emmanuel Polanco of JHS 80.

Susan Edelman of the New York Post penned a scathing article about how Principal Emmanuel Polanco has bullied the students and staff and that under his administration one teacher was quoted as saying.   “It’s not about the kids,” she said. “It’s about administrators who lie, cover-up the violence, and don’t provide proper supervision.”.

This is the same Emmanuel Polanco, who had limited classroom experience but was promoted to principal through the Leadership Academy program who made a racy video, ending with him in bed with a women.  What kind of role model is he?   As expected, the DOE buried the investigation and quietly allowed Mr. Polanco to continue to run his school.  Please read my previous post for the link to the video and Mr. Polanco's alleged misdeeds.

Now it seems that Mr. Polanco is being accused of bullying students and staff.  This explains why the majority of teachers are untenured, strongly suggesting that the school suffers from high teacher turnover.  Moreover, Mr. Polanco  has allegedly shoved a student against a stairway wall and jabbed his fingers into the student's chest.  He and or his administration also authorized that the student be handcuffed, behind his back,  by school safety when he questioned a procedure during a fire drill.  Mr. Polamco was also accused by others as well.

From what I have read and heard Mr. Polanco has apparently violated Chancellor's regulations A-420, corporal punishment and A-421 verbal abuse.  Yet, Mr. Polanco remains Principal at the school.  If Mr. Polanco was a teacher he would have been removed from the school and sent to a reassignment center waiting for his 3020-a charges.  However, Mr. Polanco is a Principal and the DOE presumes him innocent as they continue with their investigation which has probably been predetermined to find him innocent or if substantiated, will be once again buried as he remains Principal.  In other words, the DOE's "double standard" when disciplining teachers and administrators continues.

How bad is JHS 80 in the Bronx?  They have dismally poor test scores in English and Math and just read the letters to the New York Post that a teacher encouraged her seventh grades to write.  The letters contain numerous misspelled words, poor grammar, and vulgarity.  You can read them Here.

Update:  The City Council is now investigating the Principal and the school and wants to know why the DOE closed the investigation of Mr. Polanco's actions.

Leadership Academy Principal Emmanuel Polanco Is In The News Again.

The Leadership Academy Principal of JHS 80 in the Bronx, Emmanual Polanco, also known as "El Siki" in his racy video is in the news again.  This time staff members have contacted the UFT, DOE, and even the FBI to investigate his wrongdoings at the school.  Before I go into the New York Post article, Principal Polanco was previously highlighted by the New York Daily News and my post.  You can find both Here.  You can see his racy YouTube video Here.  Moreover, he was accused of trying to push out a veteran teacher by calling her "Shrek" and refused to provide training.  Finally, he was also accused of discrimination by favoring and hiring younger Hispanic teachers.

In today's New York Post there is an article that shows the various problems at JHS 80, many of them attributed to the Principal, Ennanuel Polanco.  Let's identify the issues at the school.

Student Discipline:
Violence and fighting are rampant;  unqualified cronies — including a paraprofessional who has acted as a dean — serve in key positions; disruptive students face few consequences.

Covering up assaults:
In one outrageous case The DOE says it is investigating a November incident in which two eighth-grade boys allegedly lifted a sixth-grader by his arms and legs, and dropped him on his head, causing him to pass out and convulse.


A staff member told the FBI and the DOE that administrators delayed calling an ambulance, then forced the eighth-graders and a teacher who witnessed the cruelty to give statements calling it an accident.  “They lied to the parents,” the distraught staffer told an FBI hotline. “Someone’s child is going to die if nothing is done.”  Kids have cut themselves and others — during class, the source said.

Discrimination and Favoritism: 
The Principal is known to discriminate against veteran and outspoken teachers and to favor young Hispanic teachers, giving a young Hispanic Paraprofessional a Dean's position when it requires that the position to be a teacher.  he majority of teachers at the school are untenured and teacher turnover appears to be high, am indicator of an unstable school environment.

Why does the school struggle academically?  Just look at the Principal since the buck stops with him. WCBS-TV did a story on the school and you can find it Here.

Another Terrible School With A Leadership Academy Principal

If you have been following the news in the last month we now have another candidate for my "bad principals" posts.  He is Leadership Academy Principal Steve Dorcely, with his only teaching experience as a substitute teacher before becoming an administrator.  He runs one of the failing Bloomberg small schools at the Carnarsie campus.  The school is called the "Urban Action Academy" with only 299 students, a 60% graduation rate and only a minuscule 5% "college and career readiness" score.  That metric is a 12.0 score and makes it a real diploma mill with little educational achievement (according to me a metric of 3 to 1 or less is required for a school to produce academically proficient students). Only two high schools in Queens have worse statistics than the "Urban Action Academy".

The Principal and one of his assistant principals have been accused of Regents cheating by staff and failed to seriously investigate a cyber hacking incident against one of the school's teachers.  Instead the DOE's Office of Special Investigations will now do the investigation, when the Canarsie campus head of security notified his superior of the incomplete investigation by Mr. Dorcely of the cyber hacking incident.  Interestingly, Principal Dorcely claims he now is doing the investigation himself and miraculously has now identified the two students who were involved in the cyber incident he previously claimed he was unable to identify.. Will the DOE allow this principal's self-serving phony investigation to continue?  Past experience would seem to confirm that the DOE will hope the media attention will fade and its back to business as usual at the failing school.

As part of the accusations at the school, the Assistant Principal was to have alleged to have told teachers the following statement:

 Teachers who try to stop students from cheating are discriminating against them and should “back off”.

I guess the Urban Action Academy is just another academic fraud factory that graduates academically unprepared students.  Is this  what Chancellor Carmen Farina wants running our public schools?

Is This Hometown Hero Principal Really One? I Don't Think So.

The New York Daily News is starting their bogus hometown hero series again and while some educators are really heroes, quite a few selections are highly questionable.  A case in point is the latest nominee, Principal Shawn Rux of MS 53, the Brian Piccolo school in Far Rockaway Queens.  Principal Rux has been in charge of this low-performing school since the 2011 school year and the graduates from his middle school have fared poorly on State tests and the majority of his students end up in the worst performing high schools in the Borough.

If you read the "puff piece" in the Daily News on Principal Shawn Rux you would be led to believe he is turning the school around.  However, when you look at the academic metrics you find that the school is still failing miserably.  It has only 6% of the students passing the State English test and 5% passing the State Math test.  This is little or no improvement since he first took over the school that ranks among the lowest achieving middle school in Queens.  The Daily News points out that he has reduced suspensions significantly but that goes for most all schools because of the new DOE policy that limits student suspensions.  Moreover, he tries to bribe students with something called "Rux Bux" for high grades and good behavior.  Is bribing students an academic strategy?  Since when is it school policy to offer rewards for appropriate behavior and grades that most of the world expect of their children?  If I gave my students cookies and snacks for high grades and good behavior, would I be brought up on charges by DOE legal for discrimination?  Moreover, what message am I sending the students?

When you look at the school's snapshot you find some very disturbing information about the teaching staff.  First, 52% of the teaching staff has less than 3 years experience, meaning that the vast majority of the staff are not tenured!  Moreover, the Principal has a staff trust factor of 76% compared to the City average of 86%.  This mean that the inexperienced teaching staff does not completely trust the Principal's decisions and that also shows up in the staff giving the Principal a lower than average "effective leadership" rating.  Finally, the constant teacher turnover at the school makes the school environment somewhat unstable and oppressive that is evident in the school's failing academic achievement and the poor ratings the teaching staff received in their quality review of "developing".

Is Principal Shawn Rux a "Hometown Hero"?  I certainly don't believe so since I see no significant improvement in the school's academic achievement and bribing students to do the right thing is a real zero in my book.

In other news, the New York Post reported today that Principal Emmanuel Polancio of MS 80 in the Bronx is back in the news again.  This time for trying to push a middle aged female teacher (51 years old) out of his school in favor of younger Hispanic teachers.  According to the teacher being targeted by Principal Polancio, he has nicknamed the teacher "Shrek".  The teacher has now filed a lawsuit against Mr. Polancio in Manhattan Supreme Court for $2 million dollars. This appears to be a "pattern and practice" of Mr. Polancio as you can see Here.  He is below average when it comes to "trust" and "effective leadership" and you can find his poor academic results on his school's snapshot.

Principal Emmanuel Polancio is also known as "El Siki" in his inappropriate sexually charged video that makes him a poor role model for impressionable young teenagers.   Yet he is still a Principal.
You can see my post Here.

Note: If you read my previous post on Principal Emmanuel Polancio the DOE was going to investigate his behavior.  Obviously, they quietly buried it since he is still Principal.  The complete "El Siki" video can be found on this link

Welcome To Dwarkaville!

One of the more infamous Leadership Academy principals in the New York City Public School system is Namita Dwarka of William Cullen Bryant High School in Astoria Queens.  She has one of the lowest trust rating in Queens and she is known to target veteran teachers.  According to the New York Post and school staff she is the subject of multiple investigations and somehow has retained her position.  The school staff welcomes ATRs and other visitors with "welcome to Dwarkaville" and keep your head down  You can read all about her reign of terror Here..

Over the last month two separate ATRs told me stories on what Dwarkaville has done to them.  First there was an Earth Science teacher who was the fourth teacher assigned to teach the 4 classes of Earth Science and 1 class of Geology at the school.  He noticed that the Geology class was being taught the same as the Earth Science classes and the curriculum was the same. All 5 classes were expected to end by taking the Earth Science Regents.  While that is usually not a problem as repeaters feel the Geology class is different from the Earth Science class they previously failed, Dwarkaville, did it differently.  The teacher quickly realized that some of the same students in some of his Earth Science classes were also in his Geology class.  In other words they were getting a double Science credit for the same course!  The teacher spoke to the Science AP who denied the double credits and the next day the teacher found himself removed from his classes and charged with verbal abuse.  He was given a Letter to the file by the Principal, Namita Dwarka, who conducted a kangaroo hearing and the teacher soon left the school for another school in Queens. Now the poor students have a fifth teacher and that's not fair to them.

The second ATR was assigned to Dwarkaville as a Chemistry teacher because of the disappearance of their appointed Chemistry teacher.  She took over the class that was in chaos and in lab made the students follow lab safety procedures such as putting on goggles,tying long hair into a pony tail, and keeping and using the lab equipment properly and in its rightful place.  All safety issues that need to be addressed.  Well, three students who didn't want to follow the rules complained to the Science AP who instantly removed the ATR from the Chemistry classes and made the other Chemistry teachers take a "sixth period" class even if they didn't want to.

Hopefully, now that the old Superintendent who has protected principals like Namita Dwarka is no longer in charge of William Cullen Bryant and just maybe the new Superintendent will do the right thing and replace Namita Dwarka and her assistant principals and make William Cullen Bryant a better school going forward.

The Real Problem In Schools Is The Poor Leadership Exibited By Principals.

If you read the newspaper editorials or the education reformer organizations, the key to successful student achievement is a quality teacher.  All other factors are ignored being social-economic conditions, family dysfunction, or peer pressure.  Additionally, except for Susan Edelman of the New York Post, the news media focuses on the teachers and nobody else.  Yet, the school tone and success is lead by one person and one person only, the Principal.  Even our disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina, stated that 400 principals should not be running their schools, yet few of these 400 principals have been removed and the few that have been removed happened only after intense media pressure.

The majority of these 400 principals who have no business running their schools are easy to identify.  They have the lowest trust rating from their staff, have a majority of untenured teachers due to high teacher turnover, and have poor student graduation to college ready ratios meaning that their students graduate unprepared for the adult world of college and business.

Who are these unqualified principals?  Most of them are Leadership Academy principals who have no tenure and can easily be removed by the Chancellor.  However, since Carmen Farina took over as Chancellor she has been very reluctant to remove principals.  Here is a list of ones she could have removed but didn't until intense media pressure forced her hand.

First, there was Principal Marcella Sills of PS 106 who was allowed to continue as Principal until the media onslaught put an end to her regime.

Then there was Principal Linda Hill who was found guilty of "double dipping" and was allowed to stay in her post until the end of the school year and it was reveled that her OSI report was completed almost two years previously and was not released by the Chancellor.

Who can forget the Chancellor defending Principal Kathleen Elvin of Dewey High School by falsely claiming her graduation scheme was unsubstantiated only to reverse course as the media presented the facts.

Finally, the Chancellor intially failed to remove Annie Schmutz Selfullah after reports of her sexual misconduct at the school surfaced.  When the Chancellor finally took action to stop the media circus and removed the Principal, the DOE tried to quietly slip her back in as a teacher at a renewal school.

How about other Principals that have retained their position under Chancellor Carmen Farina despite media attention.  Let's look as some of them.

• Eujin Jaela Kim of PS 169 in Brooklyn.
• Santiago Traveras of DeWitt Clinton HS.
• Namita Dwarka of William Cullen Bryant HS.
• Howard Kwait of John Bowne HS.

Obviously, there are many more Principals that need to be removed but a good start in cleaning house would be the ones I identified above and my list of Queens high school principals that had the lowest staff trust ratings should have been history if you ask me.

Another Principal Missing In Action While Nepotism Is The Rule On The School's Payroll.

Here we go again.  Yet, another failing Bloomberg small school, with a Leadership Academy Principal, has been exposed for its many failings.  Despite a tepid 56% graduation rate, only 4% were "college ready".  That metric ratio is an astounding 14 when any number over 3 is a school that is a graduation mill and not providing an educational focus on real learning.  The school is the Urban Assembly of Music and Art in Brooklyn with only 387 students.  You can see their school snapshot here.  You can compare the poor performance of this school with the metric ratios of all the Queens high schools and realize that the school would be in the bottom three, if in was located in Queens.

Once again, the New York Post has exposed a school administration for their lack of leadership and in this case, practicing nepotism at the expense of the students' education. The Principal, Paul Thompson,  is rarely seen by students and staff and according to the New York Post article jumped from being a substitute teacher at Bard Early College High School right to being a Principal, thanks to the infamous Leadership Academy, political considerations, and favoritism. The majority of the teaching staff is untenured and turnover is an issue as the school is unable to retain quality teachers. Worse, is that under the school's business manager, nepotism appears to be the rule.

According to the New York Post article, business manager Alma Encarnacion has hired four relatives, including her daughter as parent coordinator, Adam Collado, a cousin by marriage,  Amy Rosa, a niece, and Diana Hernandez, Amy's cousin.  Under Business Manager Alma Encarnacion, its all in the family at the school.

Finally,  teachers have complained that the school Principal has demanded an 80% passing rate and there are are accusations that attendance figures have been altered to show students attending class when they have been missing for weeks and even months since every day a student is absent, costs the school money.  According to the school snapshot not one student in the school received college credit for their Advanced Placement course and the Principal is missing in action when it comes to real leadership, all the hallmarks of a failing school.

The DOE has promised to investigate the situation at the school but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the final report since DOE investigators tend to cover up any embarrassing findings that could snare higher ups. To me its business as usual.

The Real Problems In The New York City Public Schools.

In the New York Daily News today, Sol Stern wrote an opinion piece on the problems with the New York City Public Schools.  While I agreed with his part on the use of the useless and ideologically driven Lucy Calkins progressive model of learning that then Deputy Chancellors Diana Lamm and Carmen Farina championed, yes the same Carmen Farina who is known as the disappointing Chancellor of today. However, he also blamed the teachers union contract and their lock-step pay  raises as a major impediment for the failure of the public schools. What he failed to address was the large class sizes, the DOE policy that encourages principals to hire" the cheapest and not the best teachers for their school", and the deteriorating quality of school administrators, many of them coming from the failed "Leadership Academy".  Finally, Sol Stern failed to point out the bloated DOE budget that dramatically increases every year while school budgets remain frozen at 2012 levels and are 14% below the pre-recession 2008 levels.

Class Size:  
Probably the most important factor in improving student academic achievement as the lower class sizes that allow for more individual instruction. a less noisy environment, and the ability of a teacher to properly evaluation each student in a timely matter.  Unfortunately New York City Public Schools have the highest class sizes in the State and despite assurance that class size would go down during the Bill de Blasio Administration, it hasn't.

Quality Teachers:
In 2005 the DOE imposed the "fair student funding" policy on the schools which forced principals to seriously consider, salary before hiring a teacher.  By 2008 as school budgets tightened and money was scarce, the principals were forced to hire "newbie" teachers to stretch their budget.   Some worked out, most did not or left the school soon after (84% of the teachers were no longer teaching in the same school they started in five years later).  The high teacher turnover and steep learning curve meant less effective teachers and spelled disaster for the unfortunate students exposed to this unstable school environment.

Principals:
One of the little talked about problems with the New York City Public Schools is the poor quality of principals who are in charge of their schools.  The Leadership Academy taught educators that they should be the CEO of their school and accepted applicants with little or no classroom experience.  While Carmen Farina has made it more difficult to apply without the proper educational credentials, she has made exceptions.  Regardless, 20% of the principals in the New York City Public Schools are "Leadership Academy principals".  Worse, is the DOE continues to protect these bad, dangerous, and vindictive principals, despite the many problems associated with their school oversight.  Just look at the allegations against Principal Namita Dwarka of William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens and the many problems there, yet she is still in charge.  Even in today's the New York Post reported on another vindictive action her administration did to a thirty year veteran teacher.

Merit Pay:
Sol Stern falls into the trap that if only merit pay was implemented, then teachers would work harder and the students will achieve academic success.  Yet Mr. Stern fails to show any evidence that merit pay works in the last century and the reason for that is there is no study that showed merit pay improved teacher and student performance!  The reason is that there is a flawed assumption that dangling a few thousand dollars will make teachers work harder.  The fact is that most teachers want their children to succeed and work very hard to help them. Giving them a couple of thousand dollars will not make teachers work any harder.

Bloated DOE Bureaucracy:
While already tight school budgets have remain frozen since 2012 and "fair student funding" has limited principals to hiring inexperienced teachers to sacrifice quality for quantity, the Central Bureaucracy continues to consume more and more money. while forcing the schools to pick up more of the cost for the school support staff that was once part of the DOE Central Bureaucracy.  For this school year (2016) the DOE budget is 27.2 billion dollars while it was only 19.2 billion dollars in 2012.  That means there was a 42% increased in funds coming to the DOE while school budgets remained frozen during the same time period.  Just imagine if the schools received a 42% increase.  They could hire experienced teachers, reduce class sizes, and provide additional resources.

Poverty & Family:
Let's not forget that the 500 pound gorilla in the schools, the deep poverty and dysfunctional family that is a major reason why many students struggle academically and until those two issues are addressed and solved, the others only add to the lack of student academic achievement.

Mr. Stern maybe you need to rethink your article and see what the real problems are in the New York City Public Schools.

Why Is Namita Dwarka Still A Principal?

Here we go again.  Another potential scandal has reared its ugly head at William Cullen Bryant High School as the 33 year old assistant principal, Pelgia Papoutsis, was removed from the school as a former female student accused her of having a sexual relationship with her when the girl was 17 years old.  While, the accusations are just that, accusations, the troubling part is that the girl claimed that the Principal, Namita Dwarka, was aware of the relationship between the assistant principal and the student and never reported it as mandated by the DOE.  Whether the accusation is true or not, the Principal was required to report the suspicious relationship to the Special; Commissioner of Investigations (SCI) and did not.

This is not the first time that Principal Dwarka's actions at the school came under fire.  You just need just to look at the many issues associated with the Principal.  Here, Here, Here, and Here.

According to sources she goes after the veteran teachers and forces them to retire and has reassigned, pending his 3020-a hearing. a popular physical education teacher and coach who is a whistleblower.  Ms. Dwarka is, as you might expect, is a "Leadership Academy Principal" who has shown time and again that her personal priorities are more important than what's best for the students.  She was also accused of financial mismanagement and according to the New York Post there is $195,000 unaccounted for and yet the DOE has taken no action.  Moreover, teachers at the school accused Ms. Dwarka of grade changing without their approval and the DOE did nothing about that either.  Finally, she is a known bully and goes after veteran teachers who don't kiss her ass and if your a highly qualified ATR you will not be hired, she would rather hire an uncertified teacher than select an ATR.

The DOE double standard when disciplining teachers and administrators is very evident when it comes to the checkered history of Principal Namita Dwarka of William Cullen Bryant High School.

The DOE Double Standard Continues Under Chancellor Carmen Farina.

Over the last eight years I have written various articles on the DOE "double standard" when disciplining teachers and administrators.  Our union leadership said this would stop with a new Mayor and Chancellor.  However, under the disappointing Chancellor Carmen Farina, the DOE "double standard" continues.  Today in the New York Post, there was an article that the City settled two sexual harassment suits against embattled Principal Howard Kwait for $275,000!  That's right!  The City paid off the two female assistant principals who allegedly suffered from unwanted sexual advances from the John Bowne High School Principal rather than fight the charges.

This was not the first time the City settled a harassment case against Principal Howard Kwait.  Back in 2012, a pregnant Assistant Principal was forced to leave the school and filed a lawsuit against Howard Kwait and the City, after reviewing the evidence, decided to settle that case as well. He also cost the City $225,000 for falsely arresting a student of cyber bullying, Finally, he was fined $4,500 by the Conflicts Of Interest Board for taking a vacation with a female subordinate.

Astonishingly, the DOE, who claims to have "zero tolerance" for any sexual misconduct has allowed Howard Kwait to remain as Principal, despite the three separate lawsuits that the City had to pay the victims to settle their cases.  Yes, this is the same DOE that put another Principal who was found guilty in a jury trial of harassing a female subordinate, in charge of Flushing High School.  If that is not enough?  How about the DOE's failure to remove Principal Carlos Borrero as he made sexual overtures to staff members and is subject to a federal lawsuit?  The ICEUFT blog has a more personal observation of the Principal.  Finally, who can forget the DOE's amnesia when it comes to Principal Namita Dwarka of Bryant High School?

Its obvious the DOE "double standard" continues when disciplining staff and administrators.

Namita Dwarka, Another Leadership Academy Principal That Needs To Go.

Once again the Principal of William Cullen Bryant high school has found herself in hot water.  This time its about a missing $195 thousand dollars that was collected for gym uniforms, locks, and food.   Apparently a DOE investigation found no receipts for the money allegedly spent.  However, the DOE has failed, once again, to discipline and remove the infamous "Leadership Academy Principal" Namita Dwarka.  Moreover, a veteran physical education teacher, Peter Maliarakis has claimed that money raised with the sale of the uniforms and locks that should have been allocated to upgrade the gym and to buy new gym equipment was not used for those purposes.  The New York Post article can be found Here.

Namita Dwarka has been in trouble before but yet the DOE has failed to act.  Last year there was  the Regents cheating scandal where the school administration falsely labeled English speaking students as ESL, to give them extra time and higher grades on the Regents.

Earlier in the month 200 students, parents, and teachers protested outside the school against the Principal and her policies that shortchanged special education students and eliminated academic programs.   She allegedly was accused of threatening students who joined the protest in not being allowed to attend their graduation ceremony. Again, the DOE refused to take any action.

Then there was the allegation of the Principal changing grades to raise her graduation rate.  However, the DOE failed to take action against Namita Dwarka, despite the many students and teachers willing to testify to the grade changing.

She has shown her vicious side too by retaliating against staff and students who dare stand up to her.  Here is a letter that was sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chancellor Carmen Farina, and the Queens Gazette outlining the issues.  Finally, she has a terrible reputation with the ATRs as she refuses to hire veteran ATRs and has been accused to have placed uncertified teachers in rather than select a veteran  certified teacher for some hard to staff subjects.

This is just another case of the  DOE "double standard"  in protecting bad principals while going after teachers, despite the change at the top.

Update:  Staff and student protests against the principal is scheduled for March 26 at 3:30 pm. 

Santa Claus And The Leadership Academy Principal

Once again its Christmas and poor old Santa Claus finds himself in hot water yet again.  This time Santa Claus was hired in one of those Bloomberg small schools, despite his checkered past, because he was inexpensive and untemured.  The Principal, a 35 year old with two years of teaching experience and straight out of the "Leadership Academy" told the not so jolly old Santa that he was expected to work a "sixth period" without compensation as he called it student assistance and also handle the school cafeteria. 

During the semester Santa tried hard but the students were a challenge, many of them were two or three grades behind and many had behavior issues that the Administration ignored.  When Santa tried to impose discipline of his own in the classroom he ended up with the Leadership Academy Principal giving him a letter to the file, not once but three times for verbal abuse.  His fourth letter to the file was for corporal punishment as OSI substantiated that he told one badly behaved boy that he would be getting coal in his stocking for Christmas.  He also had an SCI investigation initiated by the Principal who claimed that Santa called some of the girls hookers.  Santa explained to the SCI investigators that he said "ho, ho, ho and never called them hookers.  Of course SCI substantiated the Principal's accusation that he used verbal abuse of a sexual nature and received yet another letter to the file. The administration provided no support and came into his classroom for "gotcha observations".  When Santa Claus asked the Assistant Principal to model a lesson, the AP laughed and said that's your problem not mine.

Santa Claus found himself swamped with tons of paperwork, useless professional development, and calling or scheduling meeting with parents who didn't even bother to answer the phone or appear for their appointments.  Worse, many of his students needed special education services but were either not receiving them or the school never hired certified personnel such as therapists, social workers, or guidance counselors because of the Principal's obsession to save money.  The less services provided for the students the more money the school has. Worse, poor old Santa found nobody on staff to talk to. .There was no Chapter Leader and the staff consisted of 20 something newbies, many of them two year Teach For America wonders.

Finally, Santa had to prepare for Christmas and asked to take a personal day.  However, the Leadership Academy Principal refused permission and told Santa if he takes a day off between now and the end of December, he will discontinue him.  Santa reluctantly complied and on the last day of school, two days before the Christmas vacation, Santa was handed a letter by the school secretary that stated that he will be discontinued as of February.  Santa contacted the union who expressed regret and said that they will represent him in his appeal to the Superintendent but alas, we know that those appeals are never won.

Poor Santa Claus, his every attempt to spread joy to the children of the NYC public schools is thwarted yet again.  This time by the Leadership Academy Principal.

Another Principal Acting Badly.

Yet another Principal, with a record of allegations against him, is still in charge of his school despite having  two separate lawsuits filed against him by female staff in federal court who claim that he harassed them out of the school.  The Principal is none other than Leadership Academy Principal Howard Kwait of John Browne High School. Mr. Kwait has been in the news previously for his questionable actions as Principal.

In June of this year investigators reported three separate cases of harassment by staff but the DOE chose to ignore the investigator's report.  Before that the Conflict Of Interest Board fined Mr. Kwait $4,500 for his vacations with a school aide.

It was at John Bowne that an Indian diplomat's daughter was falsely arrested for cyber bullying and eventually won a lawsuit against the City, school, and the Principal which resulted in a $225,000  settlement from the City for the false arrest.

Since taking over the school as Principal back in 2006, Howard Kwait has been in and out of trouble but due to the apparent protections that he enjoys at Tweed, he has never had to face charges that would have resulted in the removal of most others.   For example while he was accused of changing grades by some staff, the DOE did not seriously investigate the charges,

Principal Howard Kwait is just another example of the DOE's "double standard" that ignores evidence against administrators while removing teachers and filing 3020-a charges against them for far less offenses and allegations.  To find an updated list of Administrators in need of improvement go to the DTOE website.

Principal Quality Is The Fatal Flaw In The New York City Public Schools.

I grew up and was educated in the New York City public schools and eventually became a public school teacher.  During my days as a student and the beginning of my teaching career, the one constant was that the Principal was a long-term classroom teacher and generally respected for their experience and understanding of the classroom issues.

While not all these principals were great leaders, they were knowledgeable and had an institutional memory of how things worked.  Principals were expected to slowly rise up through the teaching ranks, become an Assistant Principal and maybe after a minimum of ten years gets a shot at being the school leader.  However, things changed for the worst when Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed a non-educator as Chancellor and the Chancellor.  The Chancellor, Joel Klein, in-turn founded the infamous "Leadership Academy".  

The "Leadership Academy" accepted potential administrators with a minimum of three years of experience in the education field and no classroom experience was required.  The result was that many of the newly minted "Leadership Academy" principals were not even tenured teachers!  The Bloomberg/Klein philosophy was that schools could be better run as a business and principals were the "Chief Operating Officers" of their schools and long-term education credentials were not necessary to be a Principal.  The Bloomberg Administration closed over 164 schools and replacing them with 634 new schools, all needing principals. The result was that many of the new "Bloomberg small schools" ending up with these "Leadership Academy" principals that presently make up approximately 20% of all New York City principals.

One of the biggest problems with the "Leadership Academy" principals is that they are trained to be top down managers rather the collaborative leaders.  Many of these "Leadership Academy" principals hire inexpensive and untenured teachers and will not hire highly experienced teachers due to both their higher salary and more importantly, their institutional memory on how successful schools are run. For the "Leadership Academy" principal its about the school report card and constant test prep than what's best for the academic achievement of the students.

If the quality of principals doesn't improve and the current Chancellor leaves the "Leadership Academy" principles in place, then don't look for any real academic improvements despite the rhetoric coming out of the DOE.  The schools are only as good as their leader and in too many cases the leader is from the "Leadership Academy" and that's not encouraging for student academic outcomes.

Great Teachers Also Need Tenure Laws To Protect Themseleves From Vindictive Administrators.

The education reformers have redoubled their efforts in trying to eliminate teacher tenure and flush from a victory in  California, which I believe will be reversed on appeal, they and their deep pocketed benefactors (the 1%) have filed a similar lawsuit in New York State.  The premise of the lawsuit in New York State is that the state teacher tenure laws violate the constitution that requires that every student should have an adequate education. This lawsuit is just another attack by the education reformers on the teaching profession and the teacher unions. 

Interestingly, the tenure laws in New York State are more stringent than in California.  For example, it takes three full years of satisfactory ratings before tenure can be granted by the Principal.  Furthermore, the tenure decision can be extended for another year or two if the Principal and teacher agree to do so. In the last year in NYC only 56% of the teachers received tenure, while the rest were either extended or discontinued.  Moreover, the New York State teacher evaluation system will allow for a path for dismissal.  Finally,  once tenure is achieved, the teacher can still be terminated for misconduct or incompetence but gets "full due process rights" by going through a State 3020-a hearing in front of an approved arbitrator who decides the case.

Until a teacher gets tenure, the Principal can terminate a teacher "at will" and its extremely rare for an untenured teacher to win their appeal when terminated.  Chapter Leader Arthur Goldstein wrote about one such case when an untenured teacher went to bat for his students as their IEP's were being violated by the school administration and where not getting the state mandated services they needed.

When I was in the infamous "rubber room", I encountered hundreds of teachers during my stay.  The common theme was that most of the teachers were there because of problems with their principals.  I'm not saying that the teachers were blameless but in many cases the principals were told how to embellish, pervert, and distort the incidence to make it seem serious, just to get the teacher out of the school. It is only when the teacher goes in front of his or her 3020-a arbitrator can the teacher reasonably expect an impartial hearing.  If the DOE had its way, almost 100% of the teachers charged would be terminated, just like that for untenured teachers or teachers who appealed their "unsatisfactory ratings".  

If there wasn't tenure would any teacher stick their neck out and advocate for their students, report wrongdoing, or question policies that appear to hurt the academic achievement of the students?  Few would.  Does one want to go back to the "bad old days" when nepotism, cronyism, and personal likes or dislikes dictated the fate of teachers?  I think not.   One of my friends who was untenured reported Regents cheating to her administration and her satisfactory observations before the cheating report became unsatisfactory after the report and was discontinued since it appears the administration was in on the cheating (in fact SCI was called and confirmed that cheating took place and had the educator removed).  Hopefully, the State Supreme Court will find in her favor and force the DOE to give her job back.

 Nobody wants to work in an environment where any accusation by a student or administrator or the failure to take on extra responsibilities could lead to termination without "due process".  As it is, there will be a teacher shortage in five years and weakening or eliminating teacher tenure will accelerate the pace of good teachers leaving the profession.  Yes, tenure is important if school districts are to attract and retain "great teachers" and do what's best for their students by placing them first.

Why School Letter Grades Are A Joke - PS 106.

Most educators knew that the school grades assigned by the DOE do not represent the actual school learning environment and student academic achievement.  However, many principals were told how to "game the system" to achieve artificially high grades for their school.   A prime example is none other than PS 106 and  "Leadership Academy Principal" Marcella Sills who ran her school using questionable methods and had poor staff morale. Yet until last year her school received either an "A" or "B" for the years 2010-12 and was rated "proficient" in the 2008-09 school year.  I'm sure if it wasn't for the relocation of the school due to Hurricane Sandy, the school would have received another "A" or "B".    Yes PS 106 receive high letter grades from the DOE despite the numerous complaints by staff about Ms. Sills, the lack of a special education teacher for the students with special needs and no payroll secretary.  Add to that the high staff turnover rate also didn't seem to affect the school's letter grade and the failure to give the school's students Physical Education and Art was omitted in determining the bogus letter grade assigned to the school. If that wasn't bad enough the school library issue where money allocated to it was apparently diverted and the school administration was not held accountable to explain where the library allocated funds went to. These school letter grades are useless and not worth the paper it was printed on.

Veteran teacher Patricia Walsh wrote an article for the New York Post and described in detail how PS 106 deteriorated and what it was like to teach under Marcella Sills until she left the school in 2009.  Ms. Walsh's story just reinforces everything we were told about the horrible situation at PS 106 under Marcella Sills watch. The numerous complaints and actions taken against staff since Marcella Sills became Principal has been written about in this and other blogs as well by the New York Post and now that the Principal has been reassigned and faces termination under State law 3020-a.  The real question is why as these abuses occurred at her school the DOE still gave her school one "A" and two "B"s in the last three years it earned a grade?


Will heads roll at Tweed because of their failure to take appropriate action against the abuses that Marcella Sills was allowed to get away with at PS 106?  Of course not since only teachers are held accountable not administrators who allowed this travesty to occur and when alerted failed to take action.

"Children First"?  Only if you believe in the "tooth fairy" when it comes to these no accountable DOE administrators like District 27 Superintendent Lloyd-Bey, the useless and money sucking  Children First Network 531, and the leadership at Tweed.