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| Danika and Shawn Rux |
"The main purpose of ethics laws lies not in punishing wrongdoing, but in preventing it, not in catching people, but in teaching them.
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I am familiar with this disregard for rules of ethics. In 2013 a principal was served 3020-a charges, and her CSA Attorney was Charity Guerra. During the hearings, Ms. Guerra suddenly quit, in order to take the job of Deputy General Counsel of the NYC Department of Education. I was shown the email sent from Ms. Guerra to this charged principal. In this email, Charity Guerra informed her that she realized her conflict of interest, yet wished her former client the best of luck. No COIB Complaint was filed and no fine was given.
In 2019, however, Ms. Guerra tried to go around COIB, but COIB filed an enforcement action against her, COIB Case No. 2016-932, resulting in a penalty fine of $3,500.
"I acknowledge that, by having the Executive Deputy Counsel for Risk Management and Litigation, who was my subordinate, perform a personal task for me related to the Lawsuit, I used my City position to obtain a private advantage in violation of City Charter§ 2604(b)(3), which states:
No public servant shall use or attempt to use his or her position as a public servant to obtain any financial gain, contract, license, privilege or other private or personal advantage, direct or indirect, for the public servant or any person or firm associated with the public servant."
We can all see that the rules apply to the NYC DOE VIPs only if or when they get caught.
Thanks to reporter Susan Edelman, Danika and Shawn Rux "got caught". See article in the NY POST below.
Betsy Combier
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
NYC DOE hires husband of deputy chancellor in secret promotion deal
The husband of schools Chancellor David Banks’ newly appointed $265,000-a-year deputy chancellor of leadership scored a high-paying job in the city Department of Education as part of a secret deal to ensure his wife’s promotion, insiders told The Post.
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| Shawn Rux will be the executive director of the DOE's Office of School Design and Charter Partnerships. |
Shawn Rux, the husband of Danika Rux, landed a gig as executive director of the DOE’s Office of School Design and Charter Partnerships starting on September 5, replacing the retiring Daniella Phillips, whose salary was $195,000 last year, sources said.
“It’s the ‘friends and family’ program,” a DOE staffer said sarcastically.
Danika Rux was a DOE superintendent when her husband founded an educational consulting firm, Ruxway Inc., in March 2020. The firm has since collected $253,450 in DOE payments, records show.
Under city Conflicts of Interest Board rules, any public servant whose spouse owns a company that does business with the city must obtain an order granting permission to retain a financial interest in it.
“The board has not issued an order to Danica Rux,” said Carolyn Lisa Miller, the COIB’s executive director.
Miller said she cannot comment on any alleged misconduct by a city employee “until such time as the board makes a final finding of a violation of the conflicts of interest law.”
Chancellor Banks appointed Danika Rux — whom he previously named a “chief of school support” making $222,972 — his deputy chancellor of leadership on Aug. 10. She replaced Desmond Blackburn, a Florida import who quit after a year. The job involves supervising the DOE’s 45 superintendents.
Before her latest promotion, officials reportedly set a condition: “The deal was: for her to be deputy chancellor, (Shawn Rux) had to give up his business,” said a source close to the arrangement.
In exchange, Shawn Rux was promised a job in the DOE, the source claimed. “It’s the foul stench of nepotism.”
The office that Shawn Rux will lead oversees the closing or merging of schools, a rare occurrence in recent years. It also helps schools co-located with charters.
“This is an extremely low-profile gig,” a staffer said.
DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer said Friday, “We are still in the process of hiring for this role.”
But insiders said Shawn Rux met with the office staff that morning and introduced himself as their new boss. Styer had no response.
Shawn Rux, the principal of MS 53 in Far Rockaway from 2011 to 2016, was featured in news stories for creating “Rux Bux,” vouchers for school supplies or lunches that students earned for good behavior. He also raffled tickets for prizes, like an Xbox, to get kids to come to school.
He was promoted to deputy superintendent in 2017 and left the DOE in 2021 to run for a City Council seat, unsuccessfully.
He then founded Ruxway Inc. The company offered keynote speaking, leadership coaching, “school turnaround” guidance, and “culture/climate support.”
It’s not the only case in which the school’s chancellor has favored friends, insiders said.
Banks named Tracey Collins — a DOE administrator and Mayor Adams’ longtime girlfriend – as a “senior advisor to the deputy chancellor of school leadership,” then Blackburn. She started that job in July 2022 with a 23% raise to $221,597.
Banks and Danika Rux would not answer questions. Shawn Rux did not return messages seeking comment.
