Another Princpal Who Should Not Be Working At A Public School: David Fanning, Principal of A. Philip Randolph

From EdNotesOnline:

Exposing A. Philip Randolph High School Hack Principal David Fanning

Happy teachers make for happy students and a safe teaching environment makes for a safe learning environment. It is too bad Carmen Farina is not paying attention to a cascade of principals who are undermining the teaching and learning conditions in so many schools. I get stories every single day and have a backlog of posts on a number of schools.

Even experienced chapter leaders are under assault by principals clearly trained in tactics of divide and conquer - they isolate certain people and woo others. All while the UFT dithers and provides few weapons and support and barebones training. What is funny that because I get so many reports on these principals I can see the pattern of behavior and can advise people - the UFT does not teach this pattern of behavior and help people format a broad array of responses -- which includes a political response - but more on this aspect in future posts. 

Would you want to work for a guy who clearly has a stick up his ass

One key charge against Fanning is that he covers up incidents to make the school look clean and oppresses staff members who would report. Nothing reported, nothing fixed.

Here is a composite report from various sources on principal David Fanning and the school.

A. Philip Randolph High School was recently ranked by The Daily News as one of the best public schools in New York City.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/best-high-schools-new-york-top-60-institutions-article-1.1973796

This comes as a shock to anyone who attends the school, works there, or reads the news.  How can a school with three harassment and/or discrimination lawsuits filed against the school in the past two years--the first years of David Fanning's appointment as principal--be the best of anything?  

 According to the latest Learning Environment Survey, only about 40% of teachers feel safe at APRHS.
http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2013-14/Survey_2014_M540.pdf

That's understandable when you consider that the principal is so negligent about safety that he didn't even seek medical attention for a student who was shot in the face with a bb gun in the classroom last year.  

http://nypost.com/2013/11/25/school-didnt-call-cops-after-teen-shot-in-the-face-with-bb-gun/

 According to The Daily News, APRHS touts an array of advanced classes.  Talk to anyone from the school and you'll soon learn that all these supposed advanced classes are not offered.  Or at least certainly not recently or all in one year.  In the course of one year, students' agreement responses to the Learning Environment survey question, "Myschool offers a wide enough variety of programs, classes and activities to keep me interested in school" dropped nearly twenty percentage points.  Where is this supposed array of classes?

 And, again, it's not just the lack of a variety of classes.  There is a lack of safety and mutual respect.  This isn't just about teachers like Sonia Burke and Monte Kuhr, both of whom have filed lawsuits against the DoE regarding theirpoor treatment at APRHS.

http://nypost.com/2014/03/16/teacher-colleagues-made-fun-of-my-dress-lawsuit/
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/teacher-heart-condition-sues-city-claiming-principal-students-bad-heart-article-1.474987.

This is also, of course, about the students.  A glance at insideschools.com should give you an idea.
http://insideschools.org/component/schools/school/259

"This is honestly the worst school in the city. I've been here for 4 years. Don't listen to what the "Student Government" person is saying, he's sugarcoating it. The school has a bunch of incidents all the time which are covered up all the time. There was a fire in the bathroom and wasn't reported, which smoke was all over the 2nd floor the school reported it as a false alarm. They also had a classroom whose boards where set on fire and the school called the janitors to put it out. Seriously if you love your kid, don't send them here. There is some staff that I absolutely love, Ramirez, Calcano, Lacera, Ross, Stone, Dermott, but that's it."
"The staircases smell like weed. Students go to school high. Students have sex in staircases. Students cut ALL THE TIME. Students are EXTREMELY rude. The classes get disrupted all the time. There are ALWAYS physical fights (At least once a week!). Not to mention the pranks that are far dangerous.

Because of this environment, it is almost impossible for any student to not follow these same steps. Many students have admitted that they started caring less about school once they enrolled to APRCHS. Even though the students can succeed academically (if they try to ignore the craziness), the behavior in this school isn't acceptable. It isn't a school where I would want MY child to attend."

"I don't recommend this school to anyone. I have been in this school for 2 years already and I absolutely hate it. I was really excited about it at first, but it's not a good learning environment for your kid. The staircases smell like weed, there are always students skipping class in the hallways, many students disrupt the class, and much more. There's also no respect towards teachers or students. A few weeks ago I was in my math class and a student had thrown a water balloon at my teacher. There was also the situation when a student had disrupted a class to shoot a student who was sitting in class doing his work. There was even a report on it.http://nypost.com/2013/11/25/s...

 The students are absolutely out of control. They "twerk" most of the time. There is dealing of drugs going on. They are extremely rude to the adults. Due to the behavior of this school, I'm afraid that colleges might look at my grades and think that I only have good grades because I look good in front of those awful students. There are, of course, some very good students. But the majority of the students do not care about school and go to school to waste our time and theirs."

The student from the first comment makes a very good point.  "The school has a bunch of incidents all the time which are covered up all the time."  Indeed, this appears to be the case.  How else could APRHS rank as one of the best high schools in NYC?  Maybe the principal, David Fanning, got his covering up degree when he was an AP of Organization at Brooklyn Tech.  Anyone remember this?  http://www.nycsci.org/reports/11-20%20brooklyntech%20rpt.pdf

The scandal at Brooklyn Tech about administration not reporting violence and robberies.

It appears Fanning comes from violence cover-up central.  If it's not reported it didn't happen, right?  

 

Former OPI Director and The Gotcha Squad Removes Problem Code

Candace McClaren

 

 

By The way, Gina Martinez, mentioned in Candace's email,  is no longer the Director of OPI. I met her there, however, before she moved on:

Many months ago I accompanied a discontinued DOE teacher to OPI to discuss her being taken off of the "problem code" list at the DOE.

 

The interviewer wanted us to check off boxes on a form before talking with her!!! Amazing. We had discussed nothing with her. I asked her why we would check off the boxes saying we had discussed everything with her BEFORE we had done so, and she said, "that's the way we do it here."

 

I gave her my card, and asked her if we could speak with the Supervisor. She got up and said "wait here".

 

We did. About 20 minutes.

 

Suddenly the door to the room swung open, and a woman came running in pointing her pointer finger directly at me, yelling "You know me!!!! You know me!!!!!!"

 

I looked at her and said that I did not know her.

 

She said, "I'm on your blog!!!"

 

I asked her for her name, and she told us, "Gina Martinez."

 

Then I remembered that indeed, she was on my blog in the sad tale of my friend and former Superintendent Martin Weinstein (former Principal of the UFT Charter School):

 

The Story of Martin Weinstein: Superintendent Defamed By The NYC DOE Without Just Cause – New Evidence Exonerates Him

 

I told her that yes, indeed I remembered her name, and she sat down and heard my concerns about the form. Then she asked my teacher what the issue was and immediately removed her from the problem code. We left with a clear record for the teacher.

 

THANKS, Gina!!!!!

 

Gina is no longer at OPI (best of luck in your new job!!):

 

 

 

Gina Martinez

Downstate Director - Office of Administrative Hearings at NYS Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance

Greater New York City Area

Government Administration

Previous	NYC Department of Education,  Bronx County District Attorney Office,  Weitz & Luxenberg
Education	St. John's University School of Law

 

Experience

Downstate Director - Office of Administrative Hearings

NYS Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance

August 2014 – Present (4 months)Greater New York City Area

Deputy Director - Office of Personnel Investigation

NYC Department of Education

December 2013 – August 2014 (9 months)Greater New York City Area

Served as the leadership for all personnel investigation matters, including arrests, reassignments, clearances, investigations and information requests from various state and local agencies.

Handled all day-to-day office matters, including supervision, performance management, attendance, timekeeping issues and general human resource strategies.

Reviewed and determined security clearances and appeals for the Arrest and Investigation Units.

Supported the Director in responding to legal inquiries and provided direct support to school networks and the Office of Legal Services on all matters related to DHR employment policies, procedures and systems to ensure all determinations and actions were documented and implemented in a timely manner.

Provided high-level policy input, advice and assistance to the Director of OPI and CEO of DHR.

Advised Director and other agency personnel on various matters, including employment decisions and compliance with state and federal mandates for security clearance procedures. 

Attended high-level cabinet meetings and worked in conjunction with various HR Partners and the Office of Legal Services to ensure that all staff working with DOE students or in DOE facilities obtained and maintained appropriate background clearance. 

Provided ongoing input into internal technology issues and proposed solutions; worked with consultants/vendors/DIIT as needed.

Interviewed and assisted with the hiring and training of new employees.

Attended monthly working group meetings on employee goals, feedback and professional development. 

Facilitated specific trainings to address internal performance issues.

Designed and implemented processes to improve office efficiency and customer service.

Attorney

NYC Department of Education

May 2009 – August 2014 (5 years 4 months)

Manager - Office of Personnel Investigation

NYC Department of Education

October 2011 – December 2013 (2 years 3 months)Brooklyn, New York

Assistant District Attorney

Bronx County District Attorney Office

September 2004 – 2008 (4 years)Bronx, New York

Bankruptcy Paralegal

Weitz & Luxenberg

2000 – 2001 (1 year)Greater New York City Area

 

 

 



1. NYC Department of Education, 
2. Bronx County District Attorney Office, 
3. Weitz & Luxenberg

1. St. John's University School of Law

KIPP Hides Problem Kids

 

KIPP

KIPP Puts Up to 30 Problem Students in Empty Basement When Visitors Are in the Building

LINK

You have heard about KIPP's padded cells for kindergartners and KIPP school leaders putting garbage cans on children's heads and making them bark like dogs, and you've heard aboutchildren forced to sit on the floor for days until they have earned desks, but now comes, yet, another KIPP abuse strategy.  

On VIB (Visitor in Building) days, at least one KIPP school puts up to 30 problem students in the empty basement for hours until the visiting investors, dignitaries, or politicians have left the building.  Also during this time, no class changes occur, even though visits might last three hours.  Children are, in essence, in lockdown mode in their classrooms so that no infraction or non-compliant behavior during class change may be seen by outsiders.

During a recent interview with a former KIPP teacher, we had this exchange:

TEACHER: . . . my experience was so different from my close friends who were employed at different KIPP schools. But the people that were at my specific schoolseemed to have a similar experience to me, which is terrible. But I have, like I said, I have a lot of close friends that are still involved in KIPP. . . . but I think that there’s a lot swept under the rug as far as things that also aren’t so great.

JH:  And what do you see as swept under the rug?

TEACHER: You know, there’s just cultural things like, I can only speak to what I experienced in my day-to-day, and so that was a lot of yelling, a lot of berating students, a lot of, you know, physically confronting students. 

We used to have a special schedule when we had visitors in the building. For instance, sometimes we’d have, you know, investors or big-wigs walking through the building. And so we would have a separate schedule where we would pick out all the behavior issue kids and take them down into the basement for the duration of the visitors’ visit, to kind of keep them out of the way. So you know, that’s one very, like, clear example of sweeping something under the rug.

JH:  Can you tell me how that worked?

TEACHER:  Yeah. So in the morning, we would receive an email or a special schedule that said VIB schedule, Visitor in Building schedule. And it would basically list all of the students that needed to be in the basement area, and it would tell us the specific times that they were supposed to be there. And we would also, for instance, we would not transition from class to class if there was a visitor, because the transitions from class to class would sometimes be, you know, kids are kids, and so they would sometimes not listen, or they would run, or whatever the case is. And our administration didn’t want the visitors to see anything less than perfection. And so we would hold students in the classroom when normally they’d be transitioning from class to class. So the visitors didn’t get the impression that the school was anything less than very well managed. 

INTERVIEWER:  Right. So what was in the basement? What did the students do in the basement?

TEACHER:  That’s a great question. I never, fortunately I guess, was never in charge of managing those students. But in the basement, what was down there was just, you know, there was basically nothing. I mean, there was a carpeted area. And I don’t know what they did down there, to be honest.

JH:  And how many students were sent down there?

TEACHER:   I believe our school had about 300 students when I was there. And it probably, you know, less than 30. 

JH:  And these students were selected how? Based on what? 

TEACHER:  From my impression, it was that they were, based on their behavior. So if they were a student that acted out frequently, they would be sent down into the basement for the duration of the visitor’s stay.

JH:  OK, so these were called Visitor in Building days? VIB?

TEACHER:  Yeah, VIB schedule.

JH:  OK. And what was the longest time that you remember staying in a class, that you weren’t allowed to switch?

TEACHER:   Two or three hours, depending on the visitors and how long they would be there. 

Jim Horn at 2:59 PM

 

6 comments:

1.                 

Anonymous 4:27 PM

I am a former KIPP teacher. (I worked there before the internet was a big deal) I am glad that the public is now able to see the treatment that KIPP students and staff face at these schools. I can personally attest to the fact at the KIPP school where I worked that students did in fact "loose" their desks due to misbehavior and had to sit on the floor. Kids who misbehaved had to go "on bench" which means they had to turn their uniform shirt inside out for the day and no other students were allowed to speak to these kids. If regular public schools tried to pull this crap it would be all over the news.

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2.                

Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene9:48 AM

Given these types of crimes KIPP commits against its students, Los Angeles should be very nervous they are trying to expand their cruelty: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-kipp-charter-expansion-20141022-story.html

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3.                

Anonymous1:34 PM

Jim Horn you will have to get your message our to more people. To many people are in the dark about the things going on in public education, especially Memphis.

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4.                

Anonymous5:00 PM

When reading this piece, my mouth was wide open in complete shock. To think that KIPP is trying to take over schools and this is going on is unbelievable. Many people are under the false assumption that charter schools are doing better than public schools of course with this nonsense going on when visitors are in the building it appears as if they are doing great. However, once you look at what is really going on, you begin to see the true picture. It is applauding that this is going on and people are under the impression that KIPP is a quality school. I am glad that you are reporting the truth about what is going on because the public's perception is that KIPP is providing our students with a quality education. At this rate, I think not. Thanks.

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Replies

1.                       

Jim Horn5:16 PM

Back in May it became obvious to me as a researcher that KIPP does not want people in their buildings who may know what questions to ask or where to focus observations. I was denied any access to any of the KIPP schools in Memphis, without any reason given:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/05/kipp-denies-access-to-memphis-kipp.html

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5.                

Anonymous 9:24 PM

This piece needs a broader audience! Get the truth out there! Share!

Reply