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Monday, June 24, 2013

Charyn Koppelson, Principal From Hell, Now Assigned To Teachers College Community School

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-principal of school with multiple sex assaults now working in Morningside Heights

Charyn Koppelson, who had been the principal of Public School 194 from 2008 to early 2012, now works as an assistant principal at Teachers College Community School and pulls in a $100,000 salary. While chief of P.S. 194, two students were sexually assaulted by the same boy. The parents of students involved sued the Education Department for a total of $16 million.

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The cover of the May 31, 2013 edition of the New York Daily News.

Charyn Koppelson was the former principal at P.S. 194 in Harlem.

Charyn Koppelson was the former principal at P.S. 194 in Harlem. 

A principal who was reassigned after reportedly letting kids run wild at a hellish Harlem elementary school still earns her six-figure salary as an assistant principal at another school, the Daily News has learned.
Charyn Koppelson, whom parents and teachers called “emotionally unstable,” was principal of Public School 194 from 2008 to January 2012, when she was reassigned. A third-grade girl was sexually assaulted at the W. 144th Street school in 2009, and the boy responsible was the ringleader of a group that last year dragged a student into a bathroom and forced him to perform oral sex, according to court papers.
Two lawsuits — for a total of $16 million — were filed by the parents against the city Department of Education, The News reported last month.
Koppelson now oversees roughly 125 kids in pre-K through first grade at Teachers College Community School in Morningside Heights, where she has worked since this past August, agency spokesman David Pena said. She makes more than $100,000 a year.
“Reading the story in The News was disturbing,” said one parent of a kindergarten boy at the school, who declined to give her name. “I’m worried about the people they’re hiring. I’m shocked.”
According to Pena, Koppelson is assigned to a principal excess pool, where administrators are shuffled among schools after they’ve been investigated.
There are currently 195 administrators — 168 assistant principals and 27 principals — in the pool. “I wish the DOE would expeditiously handle these issues,” complained another parent.
Pena said Koppelson would not be assigned to Teachers College Community School for the school year beginning this fall. When reached at the school by a reporter, Koppelson said, “I have no comment. Thank you.”