If you were a lowly UFT member, you'd have to be sure to report your arrest to the DOE. Otherwise, you'd face dismissal. One of the really cool things about being a principal, aside from the million bucks you take home every few years, is dismissal seems not to be a thing. You get reassigned and hang around an air-conditioned office in Tweed, perfecting paper airplanes. There are a lot of subtleties to this particular art. My Asian students tend to fold the paper in half before constructing them. If I were a principal at Tweed, I'd have time to examine each and every pattern, conduct thorough experiments, and determine once and for all whether the Asian or American model was better.
I have to admire the solidarity among principals. One says to the other, "Hey, just say you live at my place in Pennsylvania," and there you go. You save several thousand bucks a year, which helps with those darned inconvenient lease payments demanded by Lexus. Geez, don't they know you're a principal? That means you're top dog. Top dogs shouldn't have to pay for stuff. Does Donald Trump pay for his frequent golf outings? I mean, sure, he collects the money because he owns the places, but you and I foot the bill. Bills are for the little people.
While the principal doesn't feel she herself needs to follow the law, there are indications she's a little demanding of others:
Since the Post reported the alleged scheme last November, Port Richmond parents, staffers and students have complained about her management. On Friday, a group of school leaders sent a letter to Chancellor Richard Carranza demanding her “immediate removal.”
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest this principal is more demanding of others than she is of herself. I mean, if she were much loved, no one would fret much over her swindling the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. When supervisors are reasonable and kind, you don't have people up in arms trying to run them out of town. They keep their torches and pitchforks in reserve for more appropriate occasions.
Here's the thing--principals behaving badly always run the risk of being sent to Tweed to ponder paper airplanes. But this one's being left in place. You see, if you lie and cheat, it doesn't disqualify you from being a New York City principal. After all, when New York City principals feel like cheating and lying to UFT members, there's an entire division they call "legal" which is exclusively devoted to that practice. Not only that, but the DOE hires hearing officers who go right along with all that nonsense. You want to place a letter in file about an incident that happened over three months ago. Sure! You want to leave a letter in file over three years? Go ahead. If the member demands you take it out, just say you did and slip it back in again.
So it's not altogether surprising that, in the cesspool that is the New York City Department of Education, administrative corruption is just part of the daily grind. Will new Chancellor Richard Carranza put a stop to this?
So far, crickets on his end. Is he thinking about it? Are his hands tied? Is he waiting for the right moment to act?
Personally, I have no idea. But just to be safe, I shall sit while I wait for this particular cesspool to be pumped.
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