After month of public protests and complaints from students and parents, the Department of Education finally moved by not appointing Interim Acting Principal Rosemarie Jahoda to the permanent principal position at Townsend Harris HS in Queens.
The story originally broke yesterday in The Classic, the student newspaper at Townsend Harris that has done fantastic reporting on the situation at the school. The new principal will be Brian Condon, who will be moving from his principal position at the School of Hospitality and Tourism in the Bronx to take over Townsend Harris.
We will try to gauge reaction from other schools fighting abusive principals such as Central Park East 1, Humanities and the Arts High School, John Bowne High School, Bryant High School and many others where the battles go on.
At the April Delegate Assembly, the UFT refused to support a resolution raised by the elected Delegate from CPE 1calling in part for the Union to work to remove Principal Garg from that school. The Union believes that back channel communication with the DOE is the best way to go. UFT Secretary Howie Schoor in speaking against the CPE 1 resolution said that once we pass a resolution calling for the principal to be removed, it stops all communication with the Board of Ed. That strategy is questionable after both the Delegate and Chapter Leader from CPE 1 have been removed from the school. Directly going after school union representatives is not acceptable.
There was no direct attack to remove the Union leaders at Townsend Harris that I know of. The students and parents led the charge against Jahoda. The UFT will claim their behind the scenes strategy worked here. Let's hope this is not just an exception. It took an enormous effort just not to have one disastrous interim acting principal appointed permanently.
13 comments:
This took an enormous amount of effort. We should summarize this playbook. Round the clock media coverage, constant social media coverage and postings, all stake holders signing petitions, alumni and parent meetings, sit ins with coverage, and the involvement with local politicians. All these people must be united and unrelenting. Additionally, the principal they were fighting had a long and checkered history. It is amazing how much energy it took to remove someone with a less than stellar reputation. Unfortunately, I feel that we have come to a time when one must question the merits of any principal for there are too many people who have questionable reputations leading schools.
Congratulations to all at Townsend Harris. You put up a long hard fight.
This is wonderful news- it gives me a glimmer of hope that all is not totally lost.
No, pretty much all is lost.
To 3:37pm.
A long fight - it was several months. A long fight is the war that has been going on at Bryant High School for the last six years with the disgusting Principal Dwarka. Everything Townsend Harris did, Bryant also did, including filing and winning lawsuits. The Union - James Vazquez stood on the steps of Bryant next to her as the teachers and students protested outside of school. Van Brammer - a proud Bryant grad would come into school and point out his former teachers as the ones who directed him to be successful - yet when they pleaded with him for help he turned his back on Bryant and kissed Dwarka's fat ass. Must have made his husband jealous.
DeBlassio is right - we have 2 Cities and in the Doe 2 sets of standards for schools. I am embarrassed to say I work for the DOE.
Congratulations Townsend Harris!
Choosing to not assign the interim-acting Principal as permanent is a much less controversial action than removing a Principal such a Dwarka. I'm not nearly as floored as I would be if they had actually removed one of these monsters who already has power.
Fariña likes Dwarka because she got rid of all the older experienced teachers. Now Dwarka can really do what she wants with the newbies, and the ATRs she needs because nobody wants to work there where harassment is common.
The UFT Queens Office acts as informants of bad principals. It is a nest of corruption.
Do not vote for Jimmy Vam Brammer, he looked the other way.
And was not the purpose of putting in Jahoda to help the experienced and expensive staff retire out or move along? Townsend Harris has the most expensive average teacher salary in Queens high schools. This was the way to bring the salaries down. That is what all those people looking at spreadsheets in Tweed do all day? Look for ways to save money for the city budget.
These principals are getting rid of older teachers that is what Tweed wants.
Jahoda and Dwarka are the tip of the iceberg. We all know it. As for Queens UFT, anyone can throw out accusations anonymously on a blog. If people want help filing grievances, we are an email away. We are assisting people already in several schools and will do more if asked.
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