The adult education teachers have been getting the runaround from the city at least since last school year. UFT has gotten involved, but the adult ed. teachers don't seem to have tenure, and they've been dropping like flies at the hands of a leader who seems to confuse herself with a fly swatter.
Fired adult ed. teacher Roberta Pikser has been coming fairly regularly to Executive Board meetings. I've gotten to hear a lot about this firsthand. A lot of what I hear seems outright scandalous, so was pretty happy to read about it today in the Post. They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this particular branch of the Department of Education seems infected to the core.
Last June, the city Department of Education settled for $362,000 a suit from an office director, whom Mills had terminated after he was diagnosed with a medical condition requiring brain surgery.
That's not enough for DOE to act, of course. You may remember that the city didn't reassign the principal of John Bowne until settlements over sexual harassment allegations hit 830K. Teachers, on the other hand, might face termination if they sell students copies of Frankenstein for $2 a copy. It doesn't matter if such things are common practice in your school. Once someone important at DOE finds out about horrible infractions like these, they leap into action.
People wonder what makes Boy Wonder supervisors. Wonder no more. Superintendents like this, evidently, seem to not only encourage, but also require them.
One former OACE assistant principal, Luckisha Amankwah, has filed a suit claiming Mills demoted her for refusing to give bad reviews to two teachers whom Amankwah believed didn’t deserve them.
We often hear stories of supervisors giving ridiculous and unfair observations. This suggests that, in the cesspool that is still Michael Bloomberg's Department of Education, they are directly told to do this. I remain incredulous at Mayor de Blasio's failure to not only clean house, but also his evident lack of awareness that a house cleaning is necessary.
Reached by phone, Mills told a reporter, “Have a wonderful day,” and hung up.
Abusive administrators couldn't care less, evidently. You're gonna report on my actions? Fine. I haven't cost the city 830K yet, so what, me worry? The arrogance and indifference is palpable. It's disgraceful that, four years into his term, Mayor de Blasio has allowed Michael Bloomberg's ghost to linger at Tweed and set the tone. Screw teachers. We are in charge, we know everything, you know nothing, and that's the way we do things here.
“I want blood,” Mills allegedly told a former principal, the teachers’ lawyer, Bryan Glass, wrote last month to the state Division of Human Rights, which is investigating.
You can't win with people like that. Some supervisors blame others for everything and take personal responsibility for nothing. As far as I can tell, that was the way to go in Michael Bloomberg's New York. Is new chancellor Richard Carranza going to step up and change the tone? Or will we continue with supervisory abuse and the lunatics at DOE legal advising administrators to wipe their asses with the UFT Contract?
Only time will tell, but I've yet to see any action or statement from Carranza that indicates a new deal or even fresh eyes. It serves neither us nor the 1.1 million NYC schoolchildren to have teacher morale at such a low ebb. Hopefully, someone at Tweed, or better yet, someone in the mayor's office, will wake up and smell the stupidity.
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