Ex-Principal Convicted of Fraud Gets a Sweetheart Deal From The NYC Department of Education

 

The Department of Education transferred former high school principal Oneatha Swinton to a high paying administrative position following her insurance scam arrest.                                                                    J.C. Rice

Following up on my prior thoughts, where I said "This is a huge step for an agency that never admits they did anything wrong," in the NY POST Article on the 82 teachers and CSA members who were placed back on salary after being ordered by a Judge in the NY Supreme Court, another sign of this is the policy of ignoring fraud and crimes of Principals and other higher-ups at the DOE by giving the miscreants another position at a higher salary.

See the stories about Santiago Taveras, for instance.

The Career of Santiago ("Santi") Taveras Comes Hopefully To A Crashing Stop

He now has an administrative position at the DOE.

Actually, let me be honest here. We subpoenaed him to testify at a 3020-a arbitration several years ago, and I can say that he was a terrific witness for my client. I found him to be charismatic and very knowledgeable.

I cannot say the same for horrific "Gangsta Principal" Anissa Reilly-Chalmers:

The NYC DOE Double Standard: PS132 Principal Anissa Chalmers-Reilly, GANG GIRL, Gets a Reprimand For Threatening Staff

OSI substantiated in their report (OSI Case #12-5472, dated November 25, 2013) that  Anissa Chalmers, now Anissa Reilly, threatened staff :

"....confirmed that, because 'a large percentage of the staff did not support her,' during a faculty conference, Principal Chalmers told her staff, en masse, that "if she went down, everyone [would] go down with [her].....is substantiated." Investigator Manuel Lassalatta was on the case, and the report was signed and approved by OSI Director Candace McLaren and Mr. Lassalatta;

other substantiated charges were: Chalmers violated Chancellor's Regulation A-660 by authorizing the expenditure of Title 1 Parent Involvement funds without obtaining proper PA membership approval; she violated Chancellor's Regulation A-610 by allowing parents and a parent of a former student to sell snacks without her written authorization; she violated Chancellor's Regulation A-812 by allowing parents and a parent of a former student to sell approved and unapproved food items inside the cafeteria on a daily basis; and she committed employee misconduct by allowing people who are neither staff members nor relatives of current X132 students, and who never passed OPI background checks, to sell snacks to students inside X132 on a regular basis."

 Superintendent Dolores Esposito determined that Principal Chalmers-Reilly's punishment would be a letter to file.

Ms. Reilly decided she wanted to be an actress, and made a disgusting video called "Gang Girl" that was sold for $5 by the elementary school kids in her school across the street from the school. I bought a copy to give the arbitrator at the 3020-a hearing for a teacher accused of threatening Reilly. The 3020-a case was won not because of the Gang Girl video, however, but on the basis of the secret audio recording of Principal Chalmers threatening the accused teacher and screaming at this teacher that she would be punished. 

I believe that this shows, beyond a shadow of doubt, the unfair disparate treatment that teachers must deal with as opposed to principals and/or Superintendents inside the NYC Department of Education. Teachers, parents, staff cannot make the DOE "look bad" at any time, for any reason. 

The reason? The NYC DOE never admits they did anything wrong.

See here:

NYC principals booted from schools still rake in big pay and benefits

and

Maspeth HS Principal Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir is Removed For Grade-Fixing and Other Charges of Academic Misconduct

 Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com

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Former Staten Island principal Oneatha Swinton started a fashion brand as a side job.

@obydezign / Instagram

Bronx school principal’s movie role as gun-slinging gangsta alarms parents (nypost.com)

• By SUSAN EDELMAN and CANDICE M. GIOVE
• Last Updated: 5:26 AM, March 17, 2013
• Posted: 11:45 PM, March 16, 2013

Principal of violent Bronx elementary school moonlighted as murderous gangster in foul-mouthed B-grade movie

• 
  

New York school principal’s movie role as gangsta angers parents

Ex-principal gets $187K DOE gig despite ‘pattern of dishonesty’

Susan Edelman and

 

Mary Kay Linge

August 20, 2022 

A city principal convicted of car insurance fraud kept her employment with the Department of Education – and even got a fat raise – despite what school investigators called her “pattern of dishonesty.”

The DOE gave Oneatha Swinton, the former acting principal of Port Richmond High school in Staten Island, a sweetheart deal to stay on despite the criminal rap along with findings that she improperly funneled $100,000 in school funds to a vendor, and “failed to safeguard” 600 DOE computers, printers and laptops which vanished under her watch.

Instead of terminating Swinton, 43, as recommended by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, the DOE gave her an unspecified place in its Office of Safety and Youth Development with a $187,000 salary plus health and pension benefits — $25,000 more than she made when arrested in 2018 for insurance fraud. Officials refused to give a title or description of her new gig.

Swinton even found the time to launch her own splashy fashion brand, ObyDezign, but took down the website after being contacted by The Post.

Her good fortune comes as Chancellor David Banks has vowed to sweep away needless bureaucrats and plow more money into cash-starved schools.

Parent leaders are dumbfounded.

“Why would you continue to A) trust her and B) put her in charge of any sort of student development? Who does she know?” asked Ellen McHugh, co-president of the Citywide Council on Special Education.

The Post revealed Swinton’s insurance scam in November 2017. Seven months later the DOE removed her to a disciplinary “rubber room.” Originally charged with six felony counts, she pleaded guilty in December 2018 to registering two Lexus SUVs in Pennsylvania to avoid New York’s high insurance rates. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $6,200 in restitution plus an $800 fine.

Swinton joined Port Richmond as its interim principal in June 2017, after serving as principal at John Jay School for Law in Brooklyn since 2010.

The SCI found that Swinton, at John Jay, paid a total $100,000 in split payments — which was against purchasing rules — to Tanya John, a DOE vendor and ex-principal in the Bronx, according to an SCI report released to The Post under the Freedom of Information Law. The money was reportedly spent on “Saturday retreats” and overnight college trips, investigators say.

It was John’s East Stroudsburg, PA, home that Swinton fraudulently listed on her driver’s license and registration, the Pennsylvania Attorney General charged.

The SCI also found Swinton failed to inventory more than 600 DOE computers, laptops and printers during her tenure at John Jay HS. All the devices went missing.

“Swinton’s actions show a principal’s disregard for DOE rules and procedures and demonstrate a pattern of dishonesty,” Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman wrote in her January 2020 report to then-Chancellor Carranza, recommending her dismissal.

Officials would not explain why Swinton — who led an anti-police march through the halls of John Jay and angered some Port Richmond parents by kicking cops out of the Staten Island school – was placed in an office that serves as a liaison with the NYPD.

A source said Swinton attended a Zoom training session last November, speaking little but making a big impression with her “crazy hat.”

Swinton posts photos of herself in large, brightly colored hats on her Instagram page.

“I am an ever evolving creative being open to learning and growing from everything around me,” she declared in a July 8 post.

“All this, and they reward her? Unbelievable,” said Annette Renaud, a former PTA president at John Jay HS. “It’s corrupt.”

“’It’s people in power saying ‘rules for thee but not for me,’” said Joann Nellis, Port Richmond’s former PTA president.

Swinton did not respond to requests for comment.

The principals’ union, Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, fights to save the jobs of members accused of misconduct. CSA spokesman Craig DiFolco said in a statement, “Oneatha Swinton is a proven school leader and has been effectively performing as a supervisor for the Office of Safety and Youth Development since the DOE appointed her to that role.” He would not elaborate.

Chancellor Banks had no comment. The Swinton deal follows another controversial agreement to keep former Maspeth High School principal Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir, also making $187,000, on the payroll for seven years at an unspecified desk after his removal for academic fraud.

Paula Lev, Principal of the High School for Law and Public Service, Tries To Divide Her School By Race

 

White spite: NYC principal ‘conspired to oust Caucasian teachers’

by Susan Edelman, NY POST, July 10, 2021

The faculty of a Washington Heights high school is rebelling against their principal, charging in a vote of no confidence that she has “flagrantly but unsuccessfully attempted to divide our school by race.”

Paula Lev, principal of the High School for Law and Public Service, is now under investigation by the city Department of Education for allegedly telling a faculty member she “was going to get rid of all these white teachers that aren’t doing anything for the kids of our community,” a complaint states.

Lev, a Dominican, also asked the faculty member to “conspire with her” to try to oust a white colleague, according to the complaint filed last week with the DOE’s Office of Equal Opportunity.

“She definitely has something against white people,” says the complaint, obtained by The Post.

On the last day of school, Lev gave the faculty member a notice that he was “placed in excess” — meaning no longer needed at the school — and should look for a job elsewhere in the DOE. 

“He blew the whistle on her and a week later he was excessed,” a colleague said. It’s unclear whether Lev knew about the complaint.

The complaint came amid simmering unrest at the school, which staffers blamed on what they said was Lev twisting the current concepts of equity and anti-racism, which the DOE promotes and teachers overwhelmingly support.

Dissatisfaction with Lev, 39, boiled up in February, when teacher Nick Bacon, the union chapter leader, filed a routine grievance about a scheduling issue that could have affected most of the faculty, staffers said.

In front of a half-dozen other staffers, Lev questioned Bacon’s motives.

“I wasn’t sure what your problem with me was, maybe it’s because I am a woman of color and you’re a white man?” Lev asked Bacon, according to a March 2 letter to District 6 Superintendent Manny Ramirez and signed by most of the school’s tenured members.

Staffers were outraged that Lev had seemingly accused Bacon, who was raising their labor concerns, of being racist. The school has a diverse staff — about half white, some Jewish and Greek. A mix of black, Hispanic and Asian make up the rest. 

The grievance raised by Bacon was resolved in the union’s favor. In an effort to quell the furor over Lev’s remark, Ramirez agreed in a meeting that what she said was “inappropriate,” but added that the comment expressed Lev’s feelings, and urged Bacon to work with her, staffers said.

In a later meeting with Bacon, Lev apologized for making the remark openly at a staff conference — but not for the substance of her comment, saying it reflected her true feelings and should have been expressed to him alone, said people informed of the discussion.

At the same time, they said, Lev suggested that Bacon read the 2018 book by Robin DiAngelo “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” which argues that whites get defensive when questioned about racial inequality. 

She said Bacon could join her and other staffers in studying the book and have “courageous conversations,” using a term coined by a consultant hired by the DOE to give implicit-bias workshops for employees.

Four months after the conflict involving Bacon, another faculty member filed the discrimination complaint alleging that Lev had pressured him to help her engineer the ouster of a colleague, an unidentified white female staffer.

Lev wanted the faculty member to get a state education certification, the complaint states, so he would not have the same title as the targeted colleague, clearing the way for Lev to “excess” the more senior staffer.

“Ms. Lev has asked me to conspire with her on a couple of occasions in getting rid of my colleague,” the faculty member alleges in the OEO filing.

“She also stated to me in Spanish that she was ‘going to get rid of all these white teachers that aren’t doing anything for the kids of our community,’” the complaint states.

It concludes, “I believe Ms. Lev is not suited for the position of principal because of the comments she has made to me about white people and the malicious ways in which she thinks and speaks. She is not fit to be a leader of a school.

“As a school staff, we have lost confidence, creditability, trust, and most importantly we have lost hope in Ms. Lev as a principal at the High School for Law & Public Service.” 

Frustrated staffers said Bacon reached out to Chancellor Meisha Porter in early July, begging her to intervene after Ramirez failed to resolve the conflict.

On June 24, most of the school’s nearly 50 faculty members met to consider four possible reasons to vote no confidence in Lev, including that she had 1) “flagrantly but unsuccessfully attempted to divide our school community by race,” and 2) “disrespected, slandered, and/or arbitrarily gone after respected educators, to the detriment of our entire school community.”

The ballot also gave as reasons that Lev “constantly violated our contract” and failed to collaborate with the staff on important school decisions.

“With almost the entire 40+ membership voting, including both tenured and untenured teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service professionals, 83.3% voted that they no longer have confidence in our principal to lead our school,” said an email to staffers.

Votes of no confidence against DOE school leaders are unusual. The faculty of Forest Hills High School in Queens voted no confidence in then-principal Ben Sherman in 2019 after complaints, among others, that he let marijuana smoking by students run rampant. The DOE eventually removed Sherman from the school, but gave him a bureaucratic post at the same salary.

Lev was named interim acting principal of Law and Public Service, one of five schools in the George Washington Educational campus, in February 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 shutdown. She was awarded the post late last year after filling in for beloved founding principal Nicholas Politis, who retired.

Previously, she served three years as an instructional specialist for the DOE’s special-ed data system. Before that, she was a special-ed assistant principal for three years, and a special-ed teacher for three years.

Lev, whose salary was $165,542 last year, is married to another DOE principal, Benjamin Lev.

She did not return messages. DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer would not comment on the faculty’s vote of no confidence.  “The superintendent and executive superintendent are working closely with the principal, students and community to address concerns,” he said.

Henry Schandel, Principal of MS 158 in Queens NY is Removed From The School

Henry Schandel

It's about time. Read the news about Henry Schandel and wonder why he was principal of MS 158 in Queens for so long. Also shocking was Chancellor Richard Carranza's reaction to the angry parents.

Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com

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DOE removes principal from embattled Queens MS 158

The principal of a Queens middle school that became a flashpoint in a citywide debate over classroom safety and discipline last year has been removed, according to the Department of Education.

Former MS 158 Marie Curie principal Henry Schandel will now serve as an assistant principal at another school and be replaced by interim principal Peter McHugh, officials said.

A string of ugly incidents at the Bayside campus during the last academic year — including a vicious lunchroom beating and a classroom sexual assault — culminated in a packed parent meeting where Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza was heckled off the dais.

Both incidents eventually resulted in arrests — but parents of the two victims said the perpetrators were never suspended out of school and that Schandel failed to adequately address their concerns.

Carranza walked off the stage during a raucous January meeting where both teachers and parents complained of deteriorating classroom safety and lax discipline from administrators.

Arguing that suspensions are meted out in a racially disproportionate manner and that they lead to worsened academic outcomes, the DOE has pushed principals to embrace less punitive measures.

But parents at Marie Curie said administrators failed to properly handle severe misconduct last year and that other students were paying the price.

Katty Sterling, whose daughter was assaulted in the school’s cafeteria in a video that went viral, said the attacker remained in class while her child was too scared to return.

The father of another Marie Curie said Schandel never told him that his daughter was being sexually hounded by a student who was eventually arrested for forcibly groping her.

While Schandel became the focus of parental and teacher anger, some sources at the school said systemwide DOE policies were also to blame for the breakdown in safety last year.

Marie Curie, considered one of the better schools in District 26, will name a permanent principal at a later date.

McHugh, a 20-year veteran of the DOE and most recently the Guidance Manager/Climate & Culture Manager at the Queens North Borough Office began his career as a teacher at Richmond Hill High School.

“Mr. McHugh is an invaluable resource in providing care and support for students recovering from trauma — something our young people need now more than ever,” said District 26 Superintendent Danielle Giunta.

“He will provide steady, professional, and engaged leadership to the students, staff, and families of Marie Curie during this transitional period.”

Queens principal to hand out Valentine’s Day lollipops at violence-plagued middle school

Susan Edelman, NY POST, February 8, 2020

Critics — including the mom of the 8th-grader who was punched, kicked, jumped on and pulled by the hair during the beat down — didn’t sugarcoat their dismay, saying the plan sucks.

“What is wrong with this guy? Is he out of his mind?” a stunned Katty Sterling asked The Post.

“Apparently this guy is so desperate to look good in front of the district and parents, he’s doing this crazy show. He’s a clown.”

Sterling recalled that Schandel had downplayed the assault on her daughter before he knew video existed — and allegedly lied to her that the attacker was suspended outside the school.

“I wish he showed some love and compassion the day my daughter was attacked — not a month later,” the furious mom said.

Her daughter, bruised physically and emotionally, has not returned to school since the Jan. 9 assault, and will be getting home instruction starting Tuesday, Sterling said.

The educator’s idea hits a sour note, said the dad of the grope victim.

“It’s ridiculous. This is what they are spending their time on? Lollipops?” asked the dad, who on Jan. 16 tried to address the matter with Carranza at the District 26 meeting at MS 74. The DOE boss refused to hear the dad’s concerns, and walked out amid the din of protesters, there to demand his firing for various reasons

“Is that what is going to help teach these kids discipline? No. It’s not going to do anything other than distract them for five minutes. Come on,” the dad said.

A Marie Curie teacher also blasted the school leader, ripping him as “clueless.”

“Kids being sexually assaulted in the bathroom, fights caught on video in the lunchroom, and he’s handing out lollipops to all students,” the teacher said. “ I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

The lollipop directive comes as the city Department of Education admits it has failed to fully implement a parental bullying complaint system, as it promised to do under a class-action settlement two years ago.

DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot praised Schandel.

“When school leaders take the time to celebrate their students and invite staff to join in the effort to create a positive school environment, it should be encouraged not dismissed, and we support gestures like this across our schools,” she said.

Additional reporting by Selim Algar

TRAUMATIZED BY BEATING FOLLOWED BY CHEERS: Katty Sterling (left), the mother of the 13-year-old girl who was assaulted in the cafeteria by a 14-year-old former friend, said that beyond the beating she suffered she felt ‘betrayed by the students’ who cheered when her attacker raised her hands above her head in triumph. Leonard Davidman (right), the president of the District Council 37 local that represents Psychologists and the senior Psychologist at Metropolitan Hospital Center, said those students were swept up in ‘mob behavior [in which] people lose their individuality. They join in, so they don’t feel as guilty.’

The Chief-Leader/Rebecca White

School Bully Indulged At Her Victim's Expense

Chief-Leader, 

By RICHARD STEIER

 

Feb 7, 2020 Updated Feb 10, 2020

The most shocking moment in a 39-second video of the Jan. 9 beat-down by a 14-year-old girl at MS 158 Marie Curie in Bayside, Queens of a 13-year-old did not involve the punches and kicks delivered by the older girl as her target tried to cover up—an assault briefly interrupted by a Teacher who took hold of the aggressor, only to have her emerge seconds later jumping off a table to continue the attack.

Rather, the incident entered a new dimension when the 14-year-old, having apparently inflicted enough damage to exhaust her rage, stood up on a table, raised her hands above her head like she’d just won the heavyweight title, and cheers erupted from the students who had been watching.

There was a past history between the two girls. According to Katty Sterling, the girl’s mother, they had once been friends, and she had driven them to the mall and the movies.

Things changed, she said in a Feb. 4 phone interview, when her daughter was placed in the same class as the other girl’s boyfriend.

‘Wasn’t Flirting,’ But That Didn’t Matter

“My daughter likes to talk to everybody—she has a lot of friends,” Ms. Sterling said. “But that doesn’t mean she was flirting with him.”

But, she said, the other girl became jealous, and last spring attacked her in the school locker room. “She threw her on the floor, kicked her in the head, scratched her in the face,” she said. But when Ms. Sterling came to MS 158 the following day, she said Principal Henry Schandel and Assistant Principal Robert LoCastro downplayed the incident.

A day later, she said, the female student during a dispute with two boys brandished a knife, although she didn’t use it, but still no disciplinary action was taken against her.

“Apparently the school is being run by the students and Mr. Schandel is just covering things up,” Ms. Sterling asserted.

The Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which represents both Principal Schandel and AP LoCastro, did not respond to an email detailing those and other accusations made against them by Ms. Sterling.

It wasn’t clear why the students who witnessed the cafeteria rampage last month cheered the perpetrator, who initiated it by charging the younger girl and whaling away. Until then, there were two discrete sounds on the 39-second video: students shrieking and an adult woman moaning repeatedly, “Oh my God” at the disturbing sight, which seemed the only appropriate reaction to what was occurring.

Dr. Leonard Davidman, the president of Psychologists Local 1189 of District Council 37 who is also the senior Psychologist at Metropolitan Hospital Center, said in a Feb. 4 phone interview that the fight was not unlike some he had witnessed among young patients at the hospital, but added, “I deal with kids who murder people.”

As to the reaction by the student bystanders as if the victor in the one-sided confrontation had done something thrilling, he said, “In mob behavior, people lose their individuality. They join in, so they don’t feel as guilty. That’s a social-psychology phenomenon.”

Dr. Davidman added about the video, which he viewed several times, “What struck me was that no kids intervened and went in to stop the fight. In the old days, some kids would have tried to break it up. And they’re not restrained by rules from breaking in” the way Teachers might be.

‘Afraid to Intervene’

“Teachers are afraid to intervene,” he continued. It’s not because they worry that a student in a frenzy might injure them, although that’s a possibility. “They’re afraid of getting fired,” he said, because of the climate that has seeped into the school system since Mayor de Blasio took office and a priority was placed on reducing suspensions that would at least temporarily remove misbehaving students from their schools.

“Principals say that they have no discretion: ‘We’re told to step back to lower the suspension rate,’“ Dr. Davidman said.

Parents at MS 158, as well as some Teachers, have faulted Principal Schandel for failing to impose discipline, first in a harassment case that degenerated into a sexual assault—and even then he didn’t suspend the accused boy until after he’d been arrested—and then following the cafeteria beat-down.

“You can’t just blame the Principal,” Dr. Davidman said. “You can’t just blame [Schools Chancellor Richard} Carranza,” who further stoked outrage among parents by walking out of a Jan. 16 Community Education Council forum when questioned about the two incidents, and subsequently acted as if he were the aggrieved party, rather than the parents of the two students who had confronted him.

Teamsters Local 237 President Greg Floyd, who represents School Safety Agents, has been harshly critical of the scaling back of suspensions and other forms of discipline that began while Carmen Fariña was still Chancellor, and he contended that the greatest fault lay with Mayor de Blasio.

“The lax disciplinary procedures will continue because the children have figured out that there are no consequences because of the ‘restorative justice’ and the Mayor’s no-suspension policy,” he said in a phone interview, referring to the technique in which, rather than punishing the aggressor, ways are sought to have that person make amends to the victim. In situations that previously would have resulted in suspensions, Mr. Floyd continued, “Children should be made to bring their parents to school [to learn of their alleged conduct] before they’re let back in.”

An Emotional Meltdown

Mr. Carranza has taken most of the heat for the insensitive reaction that began with his bolting the Jan. 16 forum and later complaining that he had been “set up” by a group that has called for his firing. He concluded a diatribe against his critics at an unrelated Jan. 28 press conference in which he spoke of “outside agitators” with a racist agenda with a ramble about how “every city I’ve worked in and lived in, there is a Mexican restaurant, I have a mariachi, traje and a guitar, I will not starve. So bring it on.”

He acted as if he were the one who had been pummeled and traumatized to the cheers of a mob. It scored high on a scale for self-pity, but didn’t register a scintilla for empathy. The following day, he belatedly issued an apology, saying, “as a parent myself, I can only imagine the pain that parents are feeling when their children have been hurt.”

It took him long enough, and apparently came with some prodding by officials within the administration who had become aware of how close he veered to talking himself out of a job. A change.org petition circulated calling on the Mayor to fire Mr. Carranza, gathering more than 900 signatures in the first four days it was up.

Ms. Sterling said that she had confronted the Chancellor at the Jan. 16 forum because previous attempts to speak to him privately had been unsuccessful. Besides wanting Mr. Schandel to be fired, she said, “And this Carranza who is claiming to be a professional isn’t acting like one.”

The day after the cafeteria attack, she said that when she came to the school, the Principal denied having a copy of the video. She said that when she told him, “You don’t know how to take care of your students,” he replied, “What do you want me to tell you? These things are out of my hands.”

“I told him,” she said, “ ‘I want this girl to be removed from school.’ He told me, ‘That’s not going to happen,’” and suggested she transfer her daughter to another school.

One source at MS 158, speaking conditioned on anonymity, described the attacker as a chronic bully who was “unrepentant and unremorseful” about the beating she administered.

Perverting Justice

Ms. Sterling’s daughter, an eighth-grader who is due to graduate in June, has not returned to the school since the incident. The attitude her mother said was communicated to her in their Jan. 10 conversation in large measure was consistent with that emphasis on reducing suspensions, no matter how egregious the behavior involved and how often those accused have stepped way beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior. When a school’s default answer to the victim is to transfer out, the justice it represents is perverted rather than restorative, a product of a twisted ideology that is immune to both the facts and basic decency.

After several weeks in which Ms. Sterling went to MS 158, which is not far from her home in Bayside, to get her daughter’s homework assignments, the school—perhaps embarrassed by the negative coverage and a wave of outrage that has begun lapping at the feet of the Mayor as well as Mr. Carranza, is finally sending an instructor to provide home lessons to the 13-year-old.

Ms. Sterling said she has retained a lawyer, despite what she claimed were pleas by some school officials not to take that route, and plans to sue. “They’ve been offering me other schools,” she said. “They’re trying to play with my brain.”

She was emphatic that her daughter would not return to the school until Principal Schandel arrived there was well-regarded. Asked how the 13-year-old was dealing with the trauma of the attack and the failure to intervene by anyone in the cafeteria besides the Teacher who briefly diverted her assailant, Ms. Sterling said, “My daughter is very distressed. She feels betrayed by the schoolteachers and the students. She’s afraid she’s going to be attacked again.

“And,” the mother continued, “she doesn’t want to be around the students who were celebrating.”

UPDATE (again): Former New Rochelle Principal Reginald Richardson Rescinds His Resignation After He Loses NYC Position

Are we ready for this?

The former Principal of New Rochelle High School resigns under a scandal and under suspicion of misconduct, gets hired as the New York City Department of Education Director of School Policy by the new Chancellor Richard Carranza just off the plane from Texas, who then rescinds the job offer after the NY POST asks how and why Richardson was hired.....and now Mr. Richardson, out of work, rescinds his resignation from his position as principal.

Any scriptwriters out there for this movie?

Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
betsy@advocatz.com
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Ex-New Rochelle HS principal rescinds resignation in letter

Posted: Jul 30, 2018 5:22 PM EDTUpdated: Jul 30, 2018 5:44 PM EDT
VIDEO
NEW ROCHELLE -

The New Rochelle High School principal who resigned to take a job with the New York City Department of Education could be returning to New Rochelle.

In a letter dated July 26 to the New Rochelle School District superintendent, Reginald Richardson rescinded his resignation.

The letter comes nearly a week after his job offer with the NYC Department of Education was dropped.

Richardson's last day with the school was supposed to be Aug. 20, but now he's without a job. According to the letter, he wants his job back.

New Rochelle parent Holly Greskin reached out to News 12 when she heard Richardson rescinded his resignation. She says he can't handle his role as principal.

“He's failed, he's failed. He's a nice man and I wish him well and many of us wish him well, but he did not keep our kids safe,” says Greskin.

Richardson's reputation was tested several times this year, following a rash of violence in January that included the fatal stabbing of a student.

The high school is also under investigation after allegations of grade inflation with an online credit recovery program.

Richardson joined the district in 2013.

The district isn't commenting on his status, but the Board of Education will discuss the matter at its meeting next week.

Richardson's offer with the New York City Department of Education was rescinded once the department says it "became aware of additional information."  

Specifics of that information are still unknown.

Previous post July 21, 2018:

Mayor de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray arrive with city schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and New York City's next schools chancellor Richard Carranza and his wife for a news conference at City Hall. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

 New Rochelle Principal Resigns Amidst Grading Scandal and is Hired By NYC DOE Chancellor Carranza As Director of School Quality

New York City is the hub of the secret national public education policy wheel called "changing grades to look good." Here in NYC we hide it under such alternative titles as "credit recovery" and "student portfolios".  The goal is to get all students through the school year with enough credits to move up or out.
To anyone who reads the daily newspapers in NYC, especially the New York POST, grade changing by Principals is widespread. Unfortunately, teachers are charged with grade changing, and punished, or are charged with insubordination/misconduct if they DON'T change grades. This is the most absurd, arbitrary and capricious of all the policies in the current NYC DOE teacher discipline 3020-a process, aside from the procedural errors of law which I have exposed in the Cardinale case.

In my post about DeWitt Clinton High School Principal Pierre Orbe I re-posted a New York Times article about grade changing at Wadleigh High School in 2008. Back then, I was still shocked to hear that a student who never showed up for class still got the necessary credits to graduate. Now, grade changing is all over the place and is embedded in the NYCDOE Grading policy.

The policy only helps those who don't care that kids are not learning anything but are graduating from High School anyway. This is just another example of passing the buck, or pushing consequences off to someone else, the future, or the universe. In this group are students, parents, staff and administrators - a few or many from each section of the education community. What is surprising is that there are so many people at the top who agree to this public sham.

The largest group who don't care about getting kids through the school year even if they don't show up are, it seems to me, the Principals. Indeed, the NYC Department of Education is well-known for rewarding principals for changing grades. A low graduation rate means possible termination, removal, public outcry and at least embarrassment for the principal. The mandate for Principals is to "improve" student grades so that the school looks good.

One of my greatest joys is to see the widespread hope that the education community has toward change. I try my best to go with the flow, but sometimes it is simply impossible. Like when Mayor Bill DeBlasio appointed Carmen Farina as Chancellor. I and others who knew very well that she was the wrong choice due to her disdain for teachers, truth in grading, equal opportunity and the public voice of parents. We tried to convince the DeBlasio team before the appointment. We obviously failed.

Mr. Carranza embracing the outgoing chancellor, Carmen Fariña, with his wife Monique after the
March 5 news conference announcing his hiring.CreditKevin Hagen for The New York Times

Currently, we are in a new era, that of the NYC DOE being under the control and authority of a new Chancellor, Richard Carranza. He comes to us all the way from Texas, no less? Why? Because Mayor DeBlasio could not find a suitable person in New York City. There aren't any. I, personally, have no hope for a good change in any policy of the NYC DOE at this point, and the resignation of Reginald Richardson from the position of Principal of New Rochelle High School does not make me feel better.

The article posted below says that Principal Richardson resigned in the midst of a grade probe, and is now hired by the NYC Department of Education as the Director of School Quality. He starts at the end of August.

Really.

BREAKING NEWS:

According to Susan Edelman at the New York Post, after a call was made to the Department of Education about the hiring of Mr. Richardson, the offer was rescinded.

Thanks Sue!

Let's hope that Chancellor Carranza soon realizes that he has a very informed public here in NYC, and there will be scrutiny of his every move. Are you ready Mr. Carranza?

The NY Daily News reported on Sunday July 22, 2018, that Mayor DeBlasio is dragging his feet in the sex harassment cases inside NYC schools. Reporter Ben Chapman writes:

"In addition, city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza's actions have been at the center of a $75,000 sex discrimination settlement in his previous district of San Francisco in 2016. Carranza has denied the charges in the suit. As the Daily News has reported, the suit was brought by a veteran educator who alleged Carranza ruined her career after she called him out for flirting at a conference with another woman.

De Blasio has said he doesn't believe the claims in that case, and has maintained Carranza was properly vetted for his current job, even though the city didn't contact the plaintiff or her lawyer in the sex discrimination case."

Betsy Combier
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betsy@advocatz.com
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Reginald Richardson

New Rochelle High School Principal Reggie Richardson resigns amid grade probe

Colleen Wilson, cwilson2@lohud.comPublished 6:00 a.m. ET May 23, 2018
New Rochelle High School Principal Reginald Richardson resigned today effective in August, the second high-ranking official to announce his leaving the district recently.

The announcement comes in the middle of an investigation into whether grades were inflated by way of an online credit recovery program and a rash of violence earlier this year that included the stabbing death of high school student Valaree Schwab.

Richardson will leave the school district on Aug. 20 to serve as the Director of School Quality with the New York City Department of Education.

"Although this past year has been one of incredible challenges, I have been inspired by the resilient spirit that this school community has demonstrated," Richardson said in a statement. "It is a reflection of your unwavering commitment to provide our students with the best of yourselves."

GRADE INFLATION: New Rochelle High School grade inflation probe launched for online course program

RE-REGISTRATION: New Rochelle schools' re-registration under microscope after NYCLU, community concerns

OSBORNE: After 'challenging' year, New Rochelle schools superintendent leaving next summer

Superintendent Brian Osborne, who also announced his intention to leave the district after next year, wished Richardson well in his new role.

"Mr. Richardson has served New Rochelle High School with devotion since becoming principal in July 2013. We thank him for his contributions to the City School District of New Rochelle," Osborne said.

Osborne said the school district will begin an immediate search for Richardson’s replacement.

The school district will look for a new principal while undergoing a re-registration plan that was recently scrutinized by the New York Civil Liberties Union the plan “may discriminate against homeless students, those from low-income households, immigrants and students of color.”

Twitter: @ChrisEberhart2

New Rochelle NAACP supports return of H.S. principal who resigned