Former 3020-a Arbitrator Leona Barsky Tells the Judge She's Mentally Ill

I remember very well the 3020-a hearing that I worked on as the paralegal where Leona Barsky was the Arbitrator. Both I and the person who attended as the member of the public where astonished at Ms. Barsky's lack of respect for the process and for the private Attorney who was defending the Respondent.

We thought she was not rational.

Now New York Supreme Court Judge Ellen Gesmer thinks so as well. And Leona's ex-husband, Stephen Radin. Maybe they are all nuts.

Leona Barsky herself evidently thinks she is too mentally ill to hold a job (see article below). Did she come to this realization before, during, or after she was working as an Arbitrator on the 3020-a Panel with the Department of Education?

Betsy Combier

Leona Barsky (left) failed to soak soon-to-be ex Stephen Radin (right) for extra alimony by claiming she was
too mentally unstable to work

Judge doesn’t buy wife’s ‘mentally ill’ bid for more alimony

By Julia Marsh

She’s crazy greedy.
An Ivy League-educated lawyer tried to claim she is too mentally ill to hold a job — to get her estranged husband to pay for her lavish lifestyle after their divorce, according to Manhattan court papers.
But while Leona Barsky, 56, has been supposedly so whacked out, she has blown $1.5 million of her lawyer husband’s dough on plastic surgery, extravagant vacations, jewelry, clothing and legal bills, documents show.
Barsky — who arbitrated high-profile disputes between the city Department of Education and the teachers union in 2010 — also even volunteered to talk to law students at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.
A Manhattan judge didn’t buy her crazy story — and has now awarded her a relatively measly $12,000 a month in alimony after she asked for more than five times that amount.

Justice Ellen Gesmer snipped in her searing, 29-page decision that Barsky could “achieve anything [if] she puts her mind to it.”
Gesmer was miffed by Barsky’s attempt to duck a court hearing by submitting a doctor’s note claiming she was on the verge of a heart attack — when she showed up at a Knicks game that night.
The fed-up judge calculated that the Penn and Cornell University grad — who once worked for Revlon — could earn more than $300,000 a year since she’s only been out of the workforce since 2012.
Barsky’s soon-to-be-ex-husband, Stephen Radin, rakes in more than $2 million as a partner at the international corporate law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
The couple was married for almost 25 years and has two grown children.
When Radin, 55, filed for divorce against his wife in 2012, she claimed that “her mental condition prevent[ed] her from maintaining employment.”
Barsky said her psychiatrist would testify that she was “very fragile” and “seriously traumatized.”
But the judge never let the shrink take the stand to answer questions about the unnamed mental illness because the same doc had already claimed in a previous custody dispute that her patient was “a strong person” who “has never evidenced any symptoms of mental illness.”
The judge also knocked Barsky for “lying on her net-worth statement by inflating expenses by large amounts in 22 separate categories.”
Barsky still made out well in the divorce.
On top of the alimony, she’ll receive 35 percent of the family’s $12 million in assets, including a 2011 Lexus, a $3 million Upper West Side apartment and $140,000 worth of silverware, jewelry and art.
She declined to comment.
Her husband also declined to comment through his lawyer, ­Robert Cohen.

Leona Barsky

Labor and Employment Arbitrator and Mediator, Human Resources Attorney and Consultant

Greater New York City Area

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Current	Workplace ADR and Compliance Services
Previous	Revlon Consumer Products Corporation,  Kramer, Levin, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel (currently known as Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel),  Townley & Updike
Education	University of Pennsylvania Law School

Summary

Specialties: alternative dispute resolution, arbitration and mediation, workplace investigations, employment compliance, training and audits, human resources, employment, equal employment opportunity/employment discrimination, affirmative action, labor and employee benefits law

Experience

Labor and Employment Arbitrator and Mediator, Principal Attorney and Consultant

Workplace ADR and Compliance Services

2004 – Present (11 years)

Labor and Employment Arbitrator and Mediator 2010 to present
Principal Attorney, Consultant and Factfinder, Workplace Investigations, Compliance and Training 
Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Martin Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, Labor Arbitrator Development Certificate Program

Vice President, Employment Compliance

Revlon Consumer Products Corporation

1992 – 1999 (7 years)

Employment/EEO, Labor and Employee Benefits Attorney

Kramer, Levin, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel (currently known as Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel)

1987 – 1992 (5 years)

Employment/EEO, Labor and Employee Benefits Attorney

Townley & Updike

1984 – 1987 (3 years)

University of Pennsylvania Law School

J.D.

1981 – 1984

Activities and Societies: M.G. Goldstein Memorial Prize for outstanding academic achievement in labor law

Cornell University

1980 B.S. 1981 M.S., industrial and labor relations

1976 – 1981

Master's thesis: "A Comparison of the Treatment of Arbitrability Questions in the Private Sector and the New York State Public Sector"

Activities and Societies: Daniel Alpern Prize for Leadership and Scholarship

Additional Info

Advice for Contacting Leona

leonabarsky@aol.com

Organizations

Additional Organizations

Board of Directors, Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations Alumni Association; Board of Managers, University of Pennsylvania Law School Law Alumni Society; New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section and Dispute Resolution Section; Association of the Bar of the City of New York; American Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section and Alternative Dispute Resolution Section

A Tribute To the Late Deputy Chancellor, Kathleen Grimm

I was very fond of Kathleen Grimm. In the world where I have advocated for parents and teachers since 1999, I often had the opportunity to say what I thought of the NYC Department of Education. I haven't spent my 2 minutes in front of the Panel For Educational Policy praising the DOE, as most readers of my blogs - like this one - know.

Kathleen Grimm was on the PEP. She heard me. She also lived near me on the upper east side of Manhattan, and we often saw each other on the street, in nearby stores, etc.

Despite her job at the DOE and my finding lots wrong with the policies of the DOE and their implementation, Ms. Grimm always was friendly and respectful, as am I. But I admired her. She stood out from the crowd over there at Tweed, because of her quiet decency. I have been tortured by many who work for the DOE, and my children were all victims as well.

But Kathleen Grimm was different.

I will miss her.

Betsy Combier

Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm and General Counsel Courtenaye Jackson-Chase

New York Schools Veteran Kathleen Grimm Dies at 68

Battling cancer, she stepped down as deputy chancellor in January

 

By 

LESLIE BRODY

Feb. 18, 2015 9:19 p.m. ETLINK

Kathleen Grimm, who served as deputy to four chancellors of the New York City schools, died on Tuesday night of cancer, officials said Wednesday. She was 68 years old.

Ms. Grimm stepped down as deputy chancellor for operations last month after working in the city Department of Education since 2002. A tax lawyer, Ms. Grimm oversaw a $20.5 billion operating budget and a wide range of issues, including food services, school repairs, space planning and enrollment, and often represented the department at contentious City Council meetings.

Chancellor Carmen Fariña called her a “passionate champion for all of our students,” with a commitment to excellence, a droll sense of humor and respect for decorum. “Some of our more casually dressed colleagues will recall being exhorted to grab a tie from the collection she kept under her desk,” the chancellor wrote in a memo to staff.

Ms. Grimm started working for the city in 1985 and served as first deputy commissioner at the city Department of Finance. Later she became deputy comptroller at the office of State Comptroller H. Carl McCall.

When former Chancellor Joel Klein took charge of city schools in 2002, he recruited her to join his management team because he needed “an insider” who could help him navigate Albany and budgets, he said. Mr. Klein said Ms. Grimm had great managerial skills and equanimity when explaining the department to critics angry about everything from busing problems and food complaints to dirty rugs and insufficient toilet paper.

“I used to joke with her that it was time to go to City Council, get your flak jacket,” Mr. Klein said. Mr. Klein is now chief executive officer at Amplify, which, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp .

Ms. Grimm had an “inverse ratio between ego and talent,” he said. Often with talented people, he said, “their ego can get in the way. She had none of that.”

Born in Troy, N.Y., Ms. Grimm attended parochial schools and helped build the education department’s relationship with the Archdiocese of New York, Ms. Fariña said. She was also a trustee at New York Law School and an adjunct professor, teaching a course in municipal finance.

Earlier in her career, she taught English briefly in Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. She had a bachelor’s degree from Manhattanville College and graduated from New York Law School, with a master’s degree from New York University School of Law.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Ms. Grimm was smart and demanding. “She was never afraid to speak her mind—and always willing to stand up for our students,” he said in a statement. “She made everyone around her better, and she made our schools better, too.”

Write to Leslie Brody at leslie.brody@wsj.com

William Cullen Bryant HS Principal Namita Dwarka is in Trouble, Lots of Trouble

I would be surprised if this Principal-from-hell (Namita Dwarka) stayed in her job. But, I'm often surprised by the DOE.

Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer visited William C. Bryant High School in Astoria to
meet its new principal, Namita Dwarka, and speak with teachers, including his former teacher, Carl Brosnan.

W.C Byrant High School Madness

Bryant High School has a mini-jail on campus
The principal of William Cullen Bryant HS in Long Island City, Queens, has rounded up more
than 20 failing kids with behavior problems — and put them in a trailer where they stay all day.

Dwarka's Crazy Leadership & Bullying of Teachers and Staff

$195K unaccounted for at NYC high school

By Susan Edelman

, NYPOST Feb. 15, 2015


William Cullen Bryant HS

Bryant Parents, Teachers Demand Answers On Missing
Funds

BY LIZ GOFF, Queens Gazette

LINK

Teachers and parents of students at William Cullen Bryant High School are demanding answers from officials and Department of Education (DOE) officials – an accounting of almost $200,000 collected from students to support phys ed and student activities at the Astoria school.

Local leader and former Bryant Parents Association president Gus Prentzas said he and physical education teacher Peter Maliarakis last year sent a letter to the city Department of Investigation and DOE seeking answers about the missing funds.

Prentzas said the money comes from items purchased at the Bryant Student Union store, where students buy food, drinks, gym uniforms and other “authentic” school gear. The funds are supposed to pay for phys ed equipment, repairs to the school gymnasium and school activities, Prentzas said.

After a year went by without a response to their letters, Prentzas and Maliarakis reached out to the office of the Regional Superintendent for help, Prentzas said. “Still, no one has come up with any answers,” he said.

Maliarakis said he sent an email to Mayor Bill deBlasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina and other officials in September 2014, telling them he had just two basketballs for use by 150 students in his three bale gym classes at the school.

Maliarakis said in his email that the two tattered basketballs are “at least” 10-to-15-years-old and they are “falling apart at the seams.”

On the following day, an assistant principal walked into the gym and handed over seven new basketballs to Maliarakis, he said. “But they were all girl-size basketballs. They’re smaller ad lighter than basketballs used by the boys,” making them useless as replacements he requested in the email, Maliarakis said.

Prentzas said he sent an email last September to school officials,  United Federation of Teachers (UFT) officials and school network officials demanding an accounting of the missing funds. “I asked them to show us what happened to the money, to show us deposit slips, receipts – anything,” Prentzas said. “ I asked them how and when the funds were used to support th physical education department.”

Prentzas said he has yet to receive a response on the whereabouts of the missing funds.

Prnetzas also spoke up at a September 19, 014 meeting of the School Leadership Team (SLT) about “thousands of dollars” in charges that had accumulated on a school credit card used by Bryant principal Namita Dwarka, including “$500 dinner charges.”

Prentzas said he questioned th4 charges again in a recent email to deBlasio an Farina, after SLT officials failed to respond to his original request.

“I’m not demanding answers just for myself,” Prentzas said. “I want answers for other parents, teachers and for students who want to know how the credit card funds are being spent. What dinners” With whom, and why?” Prentzas said.

Prentzas said he and Maliarakis filed a Freedom of Informaion request last year demanding an accounting of the missing Student Union funds. DOE officials responded, saying they were unable to find receipts for student purchases at the school store from 2011 to 2013 – and had only found several receipts from 2014, Prentzas said.

A DOE spokesperson this week said the agency is investigating the matter to determine exactly what happened to the money.

Will we ever get an answer? I hope so, but I doubt it,” Prentzas said. “Just like in the past, they’ll sweep it under the carpet and never give us an answer. No one will ever be held accountable.”

Superintendent Tamika Matheson, its Time you put “Kids First ” Give us a New Start and a New Principle

October 26, 2013 1 Comment

LINK  

Superintendant Tamika Matheson is very well informed about all the abuse and retaliation against staff ,students and parents by Principle Namita Dwarka.
Mrs Matheson ,the abuse of power  by  Ms Dwarkas and her  lack of experience to  work with everyone in her building( expect  for a hand full teachers)  has destroyed our school.
Ms Matheson Bryant High School Community needs a new start  NOW !!!!!!!!!
You need to ACT NOW ! If you care about our children ,you care about Bryant HS bring back the APs that were forced out along with a new principle . You have in your position enough documentation to make the RIGHT DECISION for our school.

 Contact Information

  Ms Tamika Matheson 

6565 Flatlands Avenue, Room 104B   Telephone Number 718-968-4101  x 1044 tmathes@schools.nyc.gov

City Council hearings on the NETWORK
Before deciding the principal ought to be replaced, She sought the advice of Tamika Matheson, the district superintendent of Manhattan High Schools. “Things aren’t perfect… but student attendance is up and teacher morale is also up.”
Even as Matheson, Sheehan and Cruz recounted the good that can come from a strong network-school-superintendency relationship, city council members remained skeptical of the networks’ value.
“I talk to all my principals, [and] I don’t know anyone who is satisfied with the current system,” Councilman Mark Weprin said. “Give me a superintendent and ten staffers and I will run my school district better than you are.”
Polakow-Suransky countered that he was familiar with many school administrators who are much more satisfied with the current network structure than they were a decade ago, when the schools were run by community districts. But Weprin was unconvinced.
School leaders, he said, “are afraid of their own shadows. They don’t want to do anything without checking behind them to make sure they’re not getting fired.”

Teachers at William Cullen Bryant High School suspect the "English learners" designations are a
scheme by Principal Namita Dwarka.

Principal cheats on tests by pretending students are immigrants

By Susan Edelman

June 22, 2014
Students at the troubled William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens were falsely labeled as not fluent in English — to grant them extra time to finish last week’s Regents exams, The Post has learned.
More than 100 teens in one teacher’s English classes were recently marked “FELL,” for “former English language learner.” The label grants students exam “accommodations” up to two years after they test proficient on the New York state English as a Second Language Achievement Test.
But many students given extra time on the Regents exams are native English speakers, staffers said. Others had once taken English as a Second Language but became proficient long ago.
“I was born in New York. I grew up in this country. I speak perfect English,” said a senior at the Astoria school who took the English Regents exam on Thursday — and got an extra hour.
Her parents, of Italian and Spanish descent, were also born in the United States and grew up speaking English.
She said she speaks “a little bit of Italian — whatever I can learn from my grandmother.”
So the senior was surprised to find herself on a list of many students given extra time to complete the normally three-hour Regents exam, which is required for graduation.
“I was rushing to finish when the proctor approached me and said, ‘Relax, take your time, you have extra time,’ ” she recalled.
She didn’t question her good fortune.
“I used it to my advantage. I think any student would have,” she said.
She spent about 15 minutes completing an essay and going back to answer two multiple-choice questions she had gotten stuck on.
Other students in the room also got extra time.
“If I get a better grade, it will help me get into college,” she said. “On the other hand, it shouldn’t have happened. I don’t feel it’s fair at all.”
Student rosters dated in March list 110 of 154 students, or 71 percent, in one teacher’s classes as former English language learners. Almost none was so identified on rosters last October, records show.
Teachers suspect a scheme by Principal ­Namita Dwarka and her administrators.
“It may be a way to skew the Regents results, or skew the credit the school gets for graduating these students,” a teacher wrote to the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation last week.
An SCI spokeswoman said the matter was referred to city and state education officials.
Dwarka referred inquiries to the city Department of Education press office, which cited state policy on accommodations.
A Bryant teacher who checked records for a sample 25 students marked “FELL” found that eight never took English as a Second Language. The others all tested proficient on the state test well over two years ago — some as early as 2005.
Staffers have begged the chancellor’s office to take action at Bryant. About 200 students, teachers and parents protested outside the school last week, with some carrying signs that read, “Dwarka must go.”