NYC DOE needs a Deputy Director for OEO

Somebody with integrity who understands discrimination please help the NYC DOE Office of Equal Opportunity!

 OEO does the same bad job looking at cases of discrimination, harassment, and abuse that the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the Special Commissioner of Investigations (SCI) does.

All these groups go after the messenger. If you file a complaint, they will charge you with what you are complaining of. Please make note of the fact that you do not have to have any legal background.

If you want to be a whistleblower, go to an agency outside of the DOE, like the Department of Investigation, the District Attorney or the police.

Do not go to your principal.

Betsy Combier
 betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, The NYC Public Voice

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Deputy Director, Office of Equal Opportunity

Tracking Code

11658

Job Description

Please see special note underneath minimum qualification requirements.

Position Summary: The Deputy Director, Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) manages a variety of professional, confidential, and policy level Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) activities including:complaint investigations, employee training, Contract Compliance, Disability Rights and Reasonable Accommodation Compliance. The Deputy Directors supervises the OEO line units and oversees operational support of the Office of Equal Opportunity’s (OEO’s) budget and personnel. The Deputy Director also ensures that the Department of Education (DOE) is able to respond and comply with legal obligations. Performs related work.

Reports to: Executive Director, Office of Equal Opportunity

Direct Reports: Equal Rights Compliance Specialists and OEO support staff.

Key Relationships: Works closely with the Executive Director, OEO; DOE central managers and supervisors; and school based leaders.

RESPONSIBILITIES

OEO Law and Policy Guidance

·         In conjunction with the Executive Director, OEO establishes OEO program policy and supervises theprocessing complaints of alleged discrimination.

·         implementation and dissemination of related rules, regulations, procedures and guidelines for

·         Provides policy and legal guidance to DOE supervisors/managers with regard to Chancellor’s Regulation

·         A-830 (Filing Internal Complaints of Unlawful Discrimination/Harassment).

Program Administration

·         Conducts investigations of staff and student complaints, as necessary.

·         Supervises the OEO disciplinary/corrective action process on substantiated EEO discrimination complaints.

·         Plans, assigns and reviews work assigned to staff in the Complaint Unit, Training Unit, Contract Compliance Unit, Disability Unit, and the Diversity Management Unit.

·         On behalf of the Executive Director, supervises and administers the standardized complaint intake process that includes a record archival of all discrimination complaints. Supervises their resolution through investigation or appropriate referral.

·         Collaborates with and reviews information from the Division of Instructional and Information Technology (DIIT) to ensure data integrity for EEO-5 reports.

·         Directs the analysis of employee data and the preparation of related reports to assess complaint trends.

Staff Training and Development

·         Evaluates and addresses requests from DOE organizations for various equal employment opportunity and diversity trainings.

·         Prepares EEO training based on data collected related to Minority and Women Owned Business

·         Enterprises and diversity initiatives.

·         Develops and conducts training for OEO attorneys and investigators.

·         Develops and supervises EEO/Diversity training programs and presentations; modifies and updates

·         training materials targeted to specific audiences as necessary.

Qualification Requirements:

Minimum

1.      A master's degree from an accredited college in economics, finance, accounting, business or public administration, human resources management, management science, operations research, organizational behavior, industrial psychology, statistics, personnel administration, labor relations, psychology, sociology, human resources development, political science, or a closely related field, and two (2) years of satisfactory full-time professional experience in one or a combination of the following: working with the budget of a large public or private concern in budget administration, accounting, economic or financial administration, or fiscal or economic research; in management or methods analysis, operations research, organizational research or program evaluation; in personnel or public administration, recruitment, position classification, personnel relations, employee benefits, staff development, employment program planning/administration, labor market research, economic planning, social services program planning/evaluation, or fiscal management; or in a related area. 18 months of this experience must have been in an executive, managerial, administrative or supervisory capacity. Supervision must have included supervising staff performing professional work in the areas described above; or

2.      A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and four (4) years of professional experience in the areas described in"1" above, including the 18 months of executive, managerial, administrative or supervisory experience, as described in "1"above. Position is open to permanent Administrative Staff Analysts or candidates who have filed for the upcoming Administrative Staff Analyst exam. Candidates who are not permanent Administrative Staff Analysts and have not filed for the exam must demonstrate the above described experience in an educational program or institution.

Note: Candidates with permanent NYC Civil Service status as Administrative Staff Analyst or candidates who have taken the most recently held Administrative Staff Analyst Civil Service examination are strongly preferred. Candidates who are not permanent in the Administrative Staff Analyst title or have not taken the exam must demonstrate the above described experience in an educational program or institution. Please indicate in your cover letter if you are permanent in the Administrative Staff Analyst title or have taken the exam.

Preferred

·         Strong writing, negotiation and organization skills.

·         Experience providing EEO and diversity training.

·         Internal candidates preferred.

Salary: $94,328+

(Internal candidates who are selected for this position and who currently hold comparable or less senior positions within the DOE will not make less than their current salary.)

Please include a resume and cover letter with your application. 

Applications will be reviewed until position is filled. We encourage applicants to apply as soon as possible.

NOTE: The filling of all positions is subject to budget availability and/or grant funding. 

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

It is the policy of the Department of Education of the City of New York to provide educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, creed, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship status, age, marital status, partnership status, disability, sexual orientation, gender (sex), military status, prior record of arrest or conviction (except as permitted by law), predisposing genetic characteristics, or status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual offenses and stalking, and to maintain an environment free of harassment on any of the above-noted grounds, including sexual harassment or retaliation.  Inquiries regarding compliance with this equal opportunity policy may be directed to: Office of Equal Opportunity, 65 Court Street, Room 1102, Brooklyn, New York 11201, or visit the OEO website at http://schools.nyc.gov/OEO

Job Location

NEW YORK, New York, United States

Position Type

Full-Time/Regular

New Posting

Yes

Readvertisement

No

Recanvass

N/A

District

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The NYC Department of Education Covers Up Wrong-Doing by Administrators and "Friends", and Has SCI, OSI and OEO Help Them Frame or Shut Up The Whistleblowers

The New York Post is doing an old story.


Richard Condon, Special Commissioner of Investigation

Reporters at the NYPOST have heard for years how the Special Commissioner of Investigation, Office of Special Investigations, Office of Equal Opportunity, the police in all precincts and safety agents assigned to all schools have ignored any misconduct, theft, assaults, fraud, and verbal/corporal abuse by administrators since I started looking into these acts in 1999.

No one cared, or no one wanted to make this terrible wrong, right. How do I know? I blew the whistle on theft, Special Education fraud and neglect at PS 6 (against Principal Carmen Farina), Larry Lynch (Principal of MS 54), and Stanley Teitel (Principal of Stuyvesant High School) when 1 or more of my daughters were attending these public schools. At PS 6 I was an Executive Board member, at MS 54 I was PTA President, and at Stuyvesant I was on the Executive Board and Editor of the parent's association newspaper.

Let me give you an example. Three of my daughters attended the Delta Honors Program inside Booker T. Washington MS 54 on West 108th Street in Manhattan. I was elected PTA President three years in a row. I found out the Principal at the time, Lawrence "Larry" Lynch, took the check sent to the PTA from Barnes And Noble after I and my volunteer parents raised a stunning $13,000 in an afternoon fundraiser. I of course investigated where it went.

Suddenly, Theresa Europe assigned OSI investigator Richard Switach to investigate me. I more or less turned the tables on him, by engaging him in his own questioning/"investigation". If he asked me a question, I answered it and asked him a question, gave him suggestions of where he should look for the facts, showed him where the money went and how Larry was playing games with the School Leadership Team and the Comprehensive Educational Plan. No one looked at my information about Larry, D.J. Sheppard (FACE, District 3) and Superintendent Patricia Romandetto. They only wanted to silence me. Good luck with that.

At Stuyvesant High School, where two of my daughters were accepted, the Chinese parents and whistleblower parent Mary Lok did their research and found more than $330,000 missing from the Parent's Association. Leonie Haimson's close friend and ally Paola De Kock (who now works for the NYC DOE) slandered Mary Lok at a meeting, threw her off of her Chinese Parent Committee, and I flew to her side. We called SCI and filed a complaint. Then we went to see Public Advocate Scott Stringer, who put us in touch with his Attorney, Jimmy Yan. Jimmy promised to look into the missing money and the removal of Mary, and I have kept his message to me on my cell phone ever since. OSI, and SCI did nothing, then hired Paola for her excellent stamina at fighting "for wrong-doing", not against it. Mary's daughter and my daughter were harmed by the NYC DOE in retaliation. Scott Stringer and Jimmy Yan were never heard from again.

Christine Rubino (now "Dorto"), an excellent, caring teacher at PS 203, was one of many staff at the school who were horrified that David Santore, a teacher at the school, was inviting boys to visit him at home and use his pool. He bought them new underwear. David retaliated against Christine after she, in a moment of frustration, said to her "closed" circle of friends on facebook that she hated her students and would like to take them to the beach - a few days after a student at another DOE school,  drowned. This was a stupid thing to say, and a few days later she took it down, and forgot about it. Unfortunately, David wanted Christine to be removed from the school because she was very popular and a favorite of the Principal, and she knew that he was taking boys home with him after the after school program, and allowing them to use his swimming pool, buying them new underwear, etc.. Her removal, he thought, would make his afterschool fun easier. He was removed after Christine's 3020-a (I was there as a member of the public, watching Christine's lawyer Bryan Glass, and heard David Senatore testify against Christine) in March 2012. She was terminated, but re-instated on Appeal.

David Sanatore called me at home several weeks after Christine's termination at her 3020-a, and asked me to help him find a boy he was very worried about. He told me he was very concerned about this boy and wanted my help as a parent advocate. He was not the boy's parent, whom I spoke to and who was very angry at David Sanatore. I called SCI and reported the call and told the investigator, Mr. Jeffrey Anderson, everything that I knew.

Richard Condon, Special Commissioner

About 10 months later Mr. Anderson left a message on my home telephone that Mr Sanatore was back in his school, and he, Anderson, did not substantiate any of my claims. No one, including the boy's very angry dad, was interviewed.

I have many stories of teachers calling OSI and then being charged with the misconduct they reported.

My suggestion: if you see something, say something - but not to SCI, OSI or OEO. Call me or the police, then the media. If you work for the NYC DOE in any capacity, or you are a parent with a child in the system, you should be prepared to be retaliated against. For this reason, you should tell someone not in the NYC DOE System.

Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, Advocatz.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

City investigated just 3 — of 300 — school cheating complaints

Adam Short, NY POST, August 9, 2015

A city agency that investigates school employee misconduct has probed only about 1 percent of the hundreds of cheating allegations it received.

The office of the special commissioner of investigation for city schools, Richard Condon, conducted three probes into alleged test tampering and grade changing — out of about 300 complaints — in 2014.

The number of open cheating investigations this year rose to four — again out of about 300 complaints.

Cheating allegations made up nearly 6 percent of all complaints Condon’s office reviewed in 2014, spokeswoman Regina Romain said.

Instead of probing the allegations of academic fraud, the SCI passed most along to the city Department of Education’s investigative unit, the Office of Special Investigations. The SCI operates under the city Department of Investigation and is independent of the DOE.

The SCI’s referral of the allegations put the DOE in the convenient position of investigating itself, critics say.

“It’s important that investigators are seen as independent, have professional expertise, and have no vested interest,” said Rob Brenner, a former deputy commissioner at the SCI who authored a 1999 report on cheating in schools. “Witnesses who are likely to be other school employees will be pretty wary about coming forward to an internal DOE entity.”

The SCI’s probers, many of whom are retired NYPD detectives, seem better equipped to get to the bottom of fraud than those at the OSI, who are more likely to be lawyers, experts said.

“It feels like a police inquiry” when the SCI is involved, said Columbia University education professor Eric Nadelstern.

Romain and DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield refused to say exactly how many academic-fraud complaints the SCI referred to the OSI, or how many of the complaints were substantiated.

“There is zero tolerance for schools that don’t adhere to our academic policies, and we are committed to ensuring that we have the staff needed to investigate any allegation of misconduct,” Hartfield said, referring to the OSI’s capabilities.

But critics blasted Condon’s office for brushing off cheating cases.

“They hang onto the sexier cases and pass off everything else to OSI,” Nadelstern said. “Test tampering does not meet their criteria for one reason or another.

“In a situation where there appears to be widespread cheating in the schools, nobody connected to the Department of Education, SCI, City Hall, or the state Department of Education looks good. It appears they aren’t being vigilant enough.”

The de Blasio administration has come under fire for a grade-fixing scandal that has raised questions about the value of city high-school diplomas.

Insiders say Mayor de Blasio and DOI Commissioner Mark Peters — who oversees Condon — have shifted the priorities of the city’s main investigative agency away from schools.

Instead, Peters has directed resources toward jail corruption and day-care operators, because de Blasio wanted to clean up Rikers Island and launch a universal pre-K program, said a source familiar with the DOI.

“It did often occur to me why more [academic fraud] isn’t being investigated,” the source said. “If somebody is defrauding to make stats look good or cover up nonperformance, I wouldn’t see why you wouldn’t look into that.”

After Post exposés this summer about cheating school administrators, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña last week said she would form a $5 million task force of city DOE administrators to look for irregularities in exam scores, credits or graduation rates, and turn them over to the SCI.

But critics said an independent body should monitor the school system for cheating.

“You can’t audit yourself. That’s Accounting 101,” said state Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), chair of the Senate Committee on Cities, which oversees city schools.

Additional reporting by Susan Edelman and Carl Campanile

The NYC Department of Education and The Employment of Investigators at OSI, DOI, SCI, OEO

I am re-posting a very important post written by Francesco Portelos for his blog, Protectportelos.org, on the taxpayer fraud at the DOE.

We are paying for the DOE/DOI/SCI/OEO/OSI investigators to investigate us. And it all starts with asking "where is the money?" Similarly, "where do my tax dollars go?" We, the general public, have no way to counter their rulings except in expensive and time-consuming litigation.

I have posted many times that on May 23, 2000 our current Chancellor, Carmen Farina, called me up at home screaming, cursing, and verbally attacking me after I asked where the money was going that had been given to PS 6 and PS 198 for the Arts. I listened to 20 minutes of horror. It was quite a shock, because at the time I was new to the public school system, and had worked with Carmen for 2 years on setting up a project called the Arts Together Community Partnership, my idea.

No one told me that after I asked where the grant money went, I, my children, and my life would be harassed, investigated, and harmed.

My point is this: if you see something in a school that you think is a violation of law, rights, or theft, report it, in writing and in detail, to a person outside of the ring of thieves DOE/DOI/SCI/OEO/OSI, like a lawyer, the police, the District Attorney. Document everything, who you go to, who you talk to, etc. This is VERY important.

 And if you are told that you must go speak with an investigator, GO!!! but be cautious in answering their questions, as their goal is to charge you with whatever happened. And always assume that everything you say to anyone is being taped.

Betsy Combier

The Special Commissioner of Investigation’s Hand is in the Pocket of the Chancellor?

 SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

SCI Richard Condon is in the Pocket of the DOE Dennis Walcott?

Part 1 of the EducatorFightsBack.org’s  SCI Series

The Special Commissioner of Investigation’s Hand is in the Pocket of the Chancellor?

Relax…it’s a question, not a statement. Notice the “question mark” at the end? Just a quick thank you to my public school teachers for teaching me proper punctuation and grammar. Any mistakes you see with commas and wrong use of capitals are mostly my lack of proofreading. Sorry, but I’m fighting for my career and trying to be a father and husband, so these posts are often written and posted quickly. Never written without thought though.

In any case, back to the question above. The Special Commissioner of Investigation’s Hand is in the Pocket of the Chancellor? I’m simply asking who pays Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon and the rest of the investigators and lawyers of SCI. Not a valid question? I mean two of them, Mr. Martucci and Mr. Romano, paid a visit to my father-in-law this past summer at his job, while my family and I were in Greece. That is three months after the 14 month investigation on me was over (See report here).

More recently, the day before my 3020-a termination hearing was tostart, the two investigators came back and visited my mother-in-law at her apartment where she watches my two boys. That was just two weeks ago today. To make it even more interesting, she told me they were playing with my son. Hmm….I mean I know I have been a big job security for the over 13 investigators, but I don’t think we are at the level where they can come “gaga googoo” with my kids. Apparently there are even more investigations on me and that brings the number up to a whopping 38 . Yes, 38 investigations on me that all started afterI questioned the budget and put in my own complaint about my principal’s alleged financial misconduct. By the way, SCI did not take that case and referred it to the DOE’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI). Yes for over 600 days the DOE has been investigating the DOE.

This brings us to the meat and question of this post. Who investigates what and who is paying for it. You would agree that following the papertrail is important as “Cash is King”, correct?

The DOE has two investigative bodies that are under the jurisdiction of Chancellor Dennis Walcott. That is OSI and OEO (Office of Equal Opportunity. Now OSI typically takes cases of corporal punishment of students and OEO handles discrimination and harassment. I italicized the word typically for a reason. SCI, who works under the NYC Department of Investigation (DOI), takes on “more serious” cases and can defer cases to OEO and OSI, so some cases not involving corporal punishment, harassment and discrimination can be investigated by OSI and OEO if referred.

Are you still following? Maybe this will help:

DOI—->SCI

DOE—-> OSI and OEO

Now seeing this and watching the news when Richard Condon is talking about some higher profile investigation, you would think that SCI is unbiased, a body way above the DOE and therefore impartial, right? They owe no allegiance to the DOE, so why would any SCI investigation and finding be flawed or biased. A United Federation of Teachers (UFT)lawyer once told me “The DOE is scared of SCI and hates them, because SCI investigates them.” <cough>bullsh*t<cough>.

You see, while I was in educator exile I did a little investigating of my own and this is what I found:

By using the website www.seethroughny.net, you are able to put in any city employee and see their salary for the last few years. You can also see their overtime and per-session. What interested me the most is that you can actually also see where the money comes from. Let’s take a look and compare, shall we?

Here is DOE Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s:

Notice the Agency that pays him is the Department of Education?

Next we enter an arbitrary DOE lawyer like David Brodsky

Now let’s pop in the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Investigation, which is above SCI and separate from DOE.

Rose Gill Hearn Payroll

Ok, that makes sense. She is paid from the budget of the Department of Investigation.

Now Let’s just plug in Richard Condon in the search. Should be DOI as well, right?

Ehhh…wrong.

Wait…What the what? Richard Condon get’s paid from the budget of the DOE? The same body he investigates?

There must be some mistake. Let’s enter another SCI employee like Chief Investigator Thomas Fennell. By the way, I know way too many names of investigators for being a mild-mannered tech teacher. Mr. Fennell assigns cases and I believe also refers or even decides not to investigate them.

What? Paid from the DOE as well? I did this for all the investigators I know and all the same. Even the lawyers who were involved in denying my whistleblower complaint.

What? You want more proof that the DOE pays Richard Condon and his office from their $25 billion budget?

Ok, well look what else I found when I looked at my own school’s budget and expenditures from 2010-2011. Looks like we paid about $6,637 to the Special Commissioner of Investigation. Unless I’m reading it wrong. Click Here for School budget link

Finally….I simply asked SCI who pays them.

Response below

———-

From: Ann Ryan <aryan@nycsci.org>
Date: Tue, May 28, 2013 at 4:02 PM
Subject: Request for information
To: “Mr. Portelos” <mrportelos@gmail.com>

Dear Mr. Portelos:

I have been asked to respond to the e-mail request for information you made on May 15, 2013 at 12:58 p.m. to, it appears, www.nyc.gov.  That inquiry was ultimately forwarded to me.  You asked:

“Is the Special Commissioner of Investigation [(“SCI”)] a totally separate entity from the NYC Dept of Education?  Does it receive any funding from the NYC DOE budget?” 

The answers to these questions can be found in the Executive Order which established SCI.  This document can be found on SCI’s website.   

Section 1 of Executive Order No. 11 of 1990 requires the Commissioner of Investigation to appoint a Deputy Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District, “who shall be independent from the Board of Education.”

Section 5 requires that “[t]he salary and expenses of the Deputy Commissioner and his or her staff shall be borne by the Board of Education, within a budget allocation mutually agreed upon by the Board of Education and the City, provided however, that such budgetary allocation will be sufficient to ensure the effective and independent performance of the duties and responsibilities of the Deputy Commissioner.”

(Subsequently, Executive Order No. 34 of 1992 changed the title “Deputy Commissioner” to the “Special Commissioner of Investigation.”)

Very truly yours,  Ann Ryan, SCI

————————————-

And there you have it.

Let’s just look at this analogy here. One SCI investigator once said to me “You are always using analogies. It’s probably because you are a teacher.”

Imagine you owned a house and you needed an inspector to check on some violations. You call Jim Bob Inspection and pay Jim Bob to come and investigate for any violations or issues. He investigates and you cut him a check. Once he leaves he sends you a report with his findings and on top of that calls the Department of Buildings who then fines you. Yes, you paid Jim Bob and yes he investigated, but in the end he found thatyou had violations. Not a likely story?

Did you follow that analogy? How impartial is impartial? So is the commissioner’s hand in the pocket of the chancellor? Not physically, but it appears Chief Financial Officer Michael Tragale cuts them a check.

Also check out Betsy Combier’s coverage here: Two Reports, “Investigating The Investigators”, and ‘The Gill Commission Report’ (1990) Dont Improve New York City Public Schools

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