Breaking News: Courtnaye Jackson-Chase Replaces Mike Best at the NYC Dept of Education

It looks to me as if the screaming and yelling about the "white man's club" - the partnership of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, former NYC DOE CEO Joel Klein, and DOE General Counsel Mike Best - worked, and now we will see a gentler, more "willing-to-listen" triumvirate at the top of the New York City Department of Education. Courtnaye Jackson-Chase is, like Dennis Walcott, African American, and she is someone who makes you think she is listening to every word you say. I had several meetings with her at Tweed in 2010 about the rubber rooms. One meeting included David Brodsky as well. Courtnaye was (is?) Theresa Europe's Supervisor. 

 

It will be a little more friendly over at 52 Chambers Street, and I'm sure the press will play the "nice" card. However, this should not dull anyone into thinking that this is any change in policy for the NYC Department of Education. No matter how "nice" Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education seems to be, the regime is still totalitarian, still destroys public schools in favor of private enterprise, and still harms black and hispanic children as well as anyone with special needs of any age.

 

I'm not going to be silent until we have an elected school board in every district (goodbye CECs!),  an elected New York City Board of Education which votes on specifications brought against tenured teachers and supports videotaped classroom observations, and creates a policy of respect for diversity that does not include suspensions for kids who have IEPs and no one to help them.

 

Betsy Combier

 

Best, education department’s top lawyer, decamps for City Hall

by Philissa Cramer, at 11:30 am

One of the Department of Education’s longest-serving top deputies is leaving — but he won’t be going far.

The city announced late Monday that Michael Best, the department’s chief lawyer since 2004, would return to City Hall, where he was a top deputy to Mayor Bloomberg at the beginning of the mayor’s tenure. Now, he will be counselor to the mayor, a position that is being vacated by the new pick for president of New York Law School.

Best’s replacement at the DOE, Courtenaye Jackson-Chase, has been at the department for more than half a decade. Chancellor Dennis Walcott promoted her to become Best’s second in command last May during a slew of leadership appointments a month into his tenure.

According to the city’s press release, Best and Jackson-Chase worked together on efforts to close the “rubber room” for teachers who were removed from the classroom after being accused of misconduct and to streamline disciplinary hearings for department employees.

State officials have cited the city’s teacher discipline timeline as a model as they work to shorten hearings in other districts. But news reports in recent weeks have suggested that the process has not been perfected and that the city has assigned several teachers to desk duty after courts ruled that the teachers could not be fired even though they were found guilty of misconduct.

Figuring out how to clear those teachers from the department’s roster and improve the department’s image after a spate of abuse cases is likely to be at the top of Jackson-Chase’s agenda. She is also working on the department’s new social media policy, which is being developed to limit online communications between teachers and students in the wake of the abuse cases.

The city’s press release about the leadership change is below.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES THAT DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION GENERAL COUNSEL MICHAEL BEST WILL RETURN TO CITY HALL AS COUNSELOR TO THE MAYOR

Chancellor Walcott Appoints Senior Advisor to the Chancellor Courtenaye Jackson-Chase General Counsel – She Previously Served as Deputy General Counsel

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that New York City Department of Education General Counsel Michael Best, who served as Deputy Counsel to the Mayor in Mayor Bloomberg’s first term, will return to City Hall’s bullpen as Counselor to the Mayor. Best will replace Anthony W. Crowell, who will become Dean and President of New York Law School in May. At the same time, Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott announced that his Senior Advisor, Courtenaye Jackson-Chase, will replace Best as the Department of Education’s General Counsel.

“When I was first getting my feet planted in government, I quickly realized that Mike Best’s deep understanding of how the City really works was an invaluable resource,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “His smart, savvy advice was instrumental in some of our Administrations earliest successes, and I’m excited to have him return as we keep building on everything we’ve accomplished since then.”

“While I am sorry to see Mike go next door to City Hall, Courtenaye’s keen analytical eye and excellent advice have served the students of this city, their parents and me extraordinarily well,” said Chancellor Walcott. “I know that she will continue to excel as she takes on this newest challenge for us.”

“Serving in Mayor Bloomberg’s Administration is a tremendous privilege, and I am deeply honored that the Mayor has asked me to become his Counselor in City Hall,” said Best. “I am grateful to Chancellor Walcott and former Chancellor Klein for letting me play a part in improving the City’s schools, and I am excited for the opportunity to advise the Mayor in a new capacity.”

“I am extremely honored to serve Chancellor Walcott in this capacity and am truly grateful for this great new opportunity to help make sure our 1.1 million students are given the best possible learning environments,” said Jackson-Chase. “And I’m very grateful to Mike Best for leaving such a solid foundation in the General Counsel’s Office to build on.”

Early in their legal careers, Best and Jackson-Chase worked as Assistant District Attorneys in Manhattan, where they collaborated on cases involving major crimes and long-term investigations. At the Department of Education, they worked especially closely together during the negotiations that led to the end of “rubber room” assignments for teachers in 2010.

Best began his service with City government as a New York City Urban Fellow in 1987, and after completing law school he served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas P. Griesa of the Southern District of New York. He later served as General Counsel to Mayor Giuliani’s Criminal Justice Coordinator Steven Fishner and directed Mayor Giuliani’s Office of Contracts. Appointed Deputy Counsel to Mayor Bloomberg in 2002, Best was hired by Chancellor Joel Klein to be the General Counsel to the New York City Department of Education in 2004 after Best served as General Counsel to the New York City Host Committee for the Republican National Convention.

At the Department of Education, Best has played key roles in reauthorizing mayoral control of the schools and lifting the cap on charter schools to secure Federal Race to the Top funding. Best has managed the Department’s legal, discipline, labor relations, audits, investigations, compliance, equal opportunity and ethics offices. His support for key Department initiatives has included creation of a Special Education Unit to handle tuition reimbursement litigation and advise the Department on special education reform strategies, a Compliance Services Unit to assist school principals in handling critical legal mandates, and a Teacher Performance Unit to handle cases involving ineffective teachers.

In 2009, Harvard Law School named Best a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow, and in 2010, Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo presented Best with the Dorothy Marie Miner Award for outstanding service as counsel to an agency. Best received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Williams College and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School

As Senior Advisor to the Chancellor, Jackson-Chase works closely with Chancellor Walcott to coordinate the work of his leadership team. Her responsibilities also include advising the Chancellor and General Counsel on compliance strategy, regulatory issues and interagency coordination. As the chief deputy to Best for five years, she was responsible for oversight of the legal, compliance, disciplinary and investigative units of the Office of the General Counsel.

Ms. Jackson-Chase was one of the core team members responsible for developing the Department’s compliance services program, which provides support to schools while ensuring key mandates are met. She was also instrumental in reducing the length of time of the Department’s investigations and disciplinary hearings. While serving as General Counsel, Ms. Jackson-Chase will continue to work on key policy initiatives for the Chancellor, including the Department’s first social media policy.

Jackson-Chase attended New York City public schools and later earned a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and her J.D. from the Hofstra University School of Law.

DOE Leadership

 Leadership Team

ChancellorDennis M. Walcott

Senior Advisor to the ChancellorCourtenaye Jackson-Chase

Chief Operating OfficerVeronica Conforme

Chief Information OfficerKemi Akinsanya-Rose

Division of Finance 
Michael Tragale, Chief Financial Officer

Division of Academics, Performance, and Support
Shael Polakow-Suransky, Chief Academic Officer and Senior Deputy Chancellor

Division of Equity and Access
Dr. Dorita P. Gibson, Deputy Chancellor

Division of Portfolio Planning Marc Sternberg, Deputy Chancellor

Division of OperationsKathleen Grimm, Deputy Chancellor

Division of Talent, Labor and Innovation
David A. Weiner, Deputy Chancellor

Division for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners
Laura Rodriguez, Deputy Chancellor

General Counsel and Legal Services
Michael Best, General Counsel to the Chancellor

Public Affairs Lenny Speiller, Executive Director



Division of Family and Community EngagementJesse Mojica, Executive, Director

Strategic PartnershipsElizabeth Larson, Managing Director

After massive leadership turnover, new deputies are named

by Philissa Cramer, at 4:46 pm

The True Story of Teacher Christine Rubino And Her Prosecution By The New York City Department of Education

The True Story of Teacher Christine Rubino And Her Prosecution By The New York City Department of Education
by Betsy Combier, Editor, Parentadvocates.org
LINK

Christine Rubino

Summary:
On June 23 2010, Rubino went on her computer early in the morning and sent a post out on Facebook about how awful it was that a girl student drowned at the beach, the newspaper said.Later that same day, she returned and went back on Facebook, and in a moment of frustration called her students the “devils spawn”. An employee at her school was also a Facebook "friend" and he printed out the comments and gave them to the Principal. 4 months later Christine was told she was being investigated and she was removed from her classroom. She went into her 3020-a admitting her error and apologizing, but the Gotcha Squad would have none of it, and "convinced" Hearing Officer Randi Lowitt to terminate Christine. The NYC DOE has no internet policy. New York State Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe overturned the termination in recognition of Christine's 15 years of service, without any disciplinary actions prior to the current matter.


No one is arguing a First Amendment defense....... 


Christine Rubino, a math teacher at Brooklyn's PS 203, was considered a good teacher by her principal. She had no disciplinary issues or U-ratings until she told the Principal that a student in one of her classes touched her breast. On June 23 2010, she went on her computer early in the morning and sent a post out on Facebook about how awful it was that a girl student at another school drowned at the beach, the newspaper said.Later that same day, she returned and went back on Facebook, and in a moment of frustration called her students the “devils spawn”. Christine told me many times that as a single mom of two children she adores, she would never hurt a child. I believe her. She is a very credible, passionate woman who is not afraid of speaking out about what is right, what is fact, and what is made up fantasy, something the NYC DOE does all the time and then the victims flee in fear. This is not Christine, and I applaud her.

The comments she made about the class that day in June 2010 she should not have made, she realized, so she removed it, and did not think about it since her Facebook page was "private" and she was not friends with any children or students in any grade at the school. What she did not know was that a colleague who was at the school and on her friends list, printed out the comment and gave it to the Principal. This was June 23, 2010. In July her principal, Lisa Esposito, wrote her a letter congratulating her on a job well done. In January 2011 Christine received an "S" for a great performance in her classroom. This occurred, remember, after Esposito received the Facebook comment from June 2010.

In September Christine was given her usual schedule of math classes. Suddenly, in October, she was re-assigned to a room next door to the principal. She heard that she was under investigation. When asked about Facebook, she told the investigator that she shared her password with a friend who was not a teacher. The investigators went to interview this friend, and she told them to come to her car. The two men sat with Christine's friend in her car, and tried to force her to say that Christine had made her say that she, not Christine, had posted the comments. The friend would not do this, because it wasnt true. However, the investigators were getting extremely harassing. Finally, she gave in, and "admitted" that Christine had told her to take the blame (which was what they wanted to hear). The friend secretly taped the investigators harassing her in the car, and Arbitrator Lowitt wanted this tape played at the arbitration hearing. I was so happy to have been in the room when the tape was played, as the investigators were giving Christine's friend a real shake-down. Priceless. Any movie producers want to get in touch with me?


Christine was brought to the "Gotcha Squad" and her New York State United Teachers ("NYSUT")Attorney Sean Kelly, told her that she must resign, as she would be terminated. Christine did not like the manner in which Sean spoke to her, nor did she see her case as a termination case. She fired Sean, and asked me to accompany her to her first day of her 3020-a arbitration with an arbitrator named Randi Lowitt. I had just been an observer of a hearing where Ms. Lowitt was the arbitrator, and the teacher Respondent was exonerated, or completely cleared. I had a pretty good impression of Ms. Lowitt as someone who was not "hired to fire", as some arbitrators on the UFT-DOE panel are, such as Leona Barsky and Josh Javits.

I changed my mind when Ms. Lowitt became the pawn of the Director of the Gotcha Squad, Theresa Europe. (See the Gotcha Squad article above). Ms. Europe runs the Administrative Trials Unit with venom for tenured teachers. Until recently Europe's boss was a woman by the name of Courtnaye Jackson-Chase, who is an Attorney now assigned detail as DOE CEO Dennis Walcott's Assistant. He needs one. Badly.

Back to Christine. Every day of her 3020-a, Theresa Europe sat in and stared at Arbitrator Lowitt, clearly trying to intimidate Lowitt. Europe kept her arm around the back of the chair of the DOE Attorney in the case, Mr. Jeff Gamils. It seems to me that Lowitt succumbed. After testimony by the Principal that she thought nothing of the comments Christine made, and thus left her to teach her classes as Christine had done for 15 years, the Principal admitted on the record that when she was told by "legal" that she had to terminate Christine but she did not want to do this, as Christine was a very good teacher, she was quite upset. The principal testified that "legal" pressured her into going for Christine's termination. That's how the Gotcha Squad works.

Randy Lowitt terminated Christine. This was truly shocking, as Christine apologized for her comments, and her comments were not related at all to her teaching ability or teacher effectiveness. Also, the NYC DOE has no online/internet policy, so everything that they do to anyone who has said or posted on Facebook is arbitrary and dicretionary. Also, she was accused of interfering with an official investigation. Huh? Where is the evidence? In my opinion, this is proof of collusion of the arbitrator with the NYC DOE. Didnt happen. Randi Lowitt made her decision, and Christine was fired.

Her attorney at 3020-a, Brian Glass, was hired to write her appeal, Verified Petition, Reply Affirmation, (see also Law Department Motion To Dismiss) to the New York State Supreme Court however the Judge, Judge Barbara Jaffe, overturned Christine's termination, saying that she thought that termination under the circumstances of this case was "shocking".

Throughout this ordeal Christine has said that she was eager to return to class. "“I always did my job and I was good at it,” fifth-grade teacher Christine Rubino said Sunday. “I’m sorry if I offended anyone. Do I have to lose my career over it?”

Also from the Daily News article:
Rubino, a teacher for 15 years, was fired last June after also ranting on Facebook that her students should drown. A judge cleared her to go back to class last week.

But the city’s Law Department released a statement Sunday saying that Rubino’s comments “warranted her termination” and that it was considering an appeal.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe ruled that Rubino, who makes $78,000-a-year, should get her job back because she had an unblemished record.

“While her reference to a child’s death is repulsive, there is no evidence that her postings are part of a pattern of conduct or anything other than an isolated incident of intemperance,” Jaffe wrote.

Rubino, a teacher at PS 203 in Flatlands, was canned after Facebook posts became public.

“After today, I’m thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders. I HATE THEIR GUTS! They are all the devils spawn,” she posted in June 2010, a day after a 12-year-old Harlem girl drowned at a Long Island beach.

Rubino added to her problems when a friend responded on Facebook: "oh you would let little Kwame float away!"

Rubino replied: "Yes, I wld(sic) not throw a life jacket in for a million!!"

Rubino was fired after a hearing officer found that she was guilty of "misconduct, neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming her profession."

Mr. Brian Glass, Christine's Attorney, emailed me this:

"This is the fourth 3020-a decision in which I have had the penalty vacated by judges in the last approximately two years. I also have had at least 3 Unsatisfactory annual ratings of teachers overturned in the same time period. Each decision has been by a different judge. I frankly was not optimistic about winning any of these cases. There appears to be a recognition by the courts that the 3020-a process as well as the U rating appeal process have become wrongly exploited as a weapon of the DOE gestapo that has sought to demonize teachers over relatively minor incidents. There also appears to be a recognition that these so-called "neutral due process" procedures for teachers are in reality not neutral at all, given the powerful financial incentives of the hearing officers to not risk their own livelihoods in such cases. Hearing officers who dare not to do the DOE's bidding risk their livelihoods by not imposing overly harsh penalties that assuage the DOE bully prosecutors. Fortunately, there are judges in this country who are wholly independent of the DOE and are compassionate enough to understand the importance of due process in this democratic society as well as allowing individuals to learn and move on from their mistakes.

The DOE almost certainly will appeal this judge's decision, invoke its automatic stay for 9 months, and tie up this case in litigation for the next year. Even if Ms. Rubino is successful on appeal, the DOE will seek to further delay her reinstatement by insisting on additional costly hearings and arguing that only the most severest of penalties must be imposed. The DOE and media outlets favorable to its present policies will also likely criticize the courts rather than the DOE prosecutors, claiming how outrageous it is that Ms. Rubino should get a second chance at restoring her career. Unfortunately she has a long road ahead in her quest to restore her livelihood and reputation.

The DOE did not need to elect to invoke the 3020-a process in this case. A simple warning to Ms. Rubino about her mistake would have sufficed, and this would not have been repeated. Perhaps in this time of scarce resources, the substantial time and money on this case could be better allocated by the DOE positively supporting its teachers in the classroom rather than demonizing and punishing its staff."

Bryan D. Glass, Esq.
Partner

What do you think?

Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com