DOE KNEW FOR YEARS JHS 80 PRINCIPAL POLANCO WAS NOT OF THE HIGHEST MORAL CHARACTER SO IT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE POLANCO WOULD BE PART OF A GROUP OF ADMINISTRATORS WHO FORCED TEACHERS RECRUITED FROM THE DR TO LIVE IN AN ILLEGAL BOARDING HOUSE

I sometimes wonder just how low some administrators at the New York City Department of Education can go. I shouldn't be surprised by this story from Sue Edelman and Georgia Worrell in the NY Post but I still am:

Bilingual teachers brought from the Dominican Republic to work in New York City public schools have been treated like indentured servants by educators acting as their slumlords, The Post has learned.

Bronx principal Emmanuel Polanco and a group of fellow Department of Education administrators have put nearly a dozen teachers recruited from the DR in an apparently illegal boarding house in The Bronx — and charge the instructors $1,450 each month for the privilege, multiple sources say.

Polanco and his associates threaten to say “adios” to anyone who doesn’t go along, several teachers told The Post.

“If you leave, you might get in trouble,” teacher Rafael De Paula, 39, said the recruits were warned. “You can leave, but if you go, you go back to the Dominican Republic.”

Several teachers who balked at the terms or insisted on finding their own housing — including one who wanted to live with his brother in NYC – were terminated and sent packing, their colleagues said. Others fear they may lose their J-1 visas, which allow foreigners to work or study in the US if they disobey.

“It’s a big embarrassment,” said a DOE insider informed of the lucrative scheme. “It also has the potential to damage the relationship between New York City and the DR if they don’t do right by these teachers.”

Since most of the newcomers lost their jobs in the DR when they joined the DOE program, they can’t afford to be expelled because they support families left behind.

“Right now, if I went back to the Dominican Republic, the only thing that I would find there, other than my family, is financial problems,” said Neylin Puello, 31, who teaches aviation at JHS 80 along with other recruits — where Polanco is their boss.

We can ask our usual questions about how the DOE didn't know this was happening, why there is almost no real accountability for anything but bureaucratic nonsense in the school system, and of course why wasn't the UFT aware and raising a public stink about this. They of course will have no decent answers.

The next obvious question is how the DOE could trust someone like Polanco to be part of a program that involved another country. It's not like the DOE didn't know about Polanco's reputation.

This is from our late colleague Chaz. It is from January 2018:

Leadership Academy Principal Emmanuel Polanco Is In The News Again.

The Leadership Academy Principal of JHS 80 in the Bronx, Emmanual Polanco, also known as "El Siki" in his racy video is in the news again.  This time staff members have contacted the UFT, DOE, and even the FBI to investigate his wrongdoings at the school.  Before I go into the New York Post article, Principal Polanco was previously highlighted by the New York Daily News and my post.  You can find both Here.  You can see his racy YouTube video Here.  Moreover, he was accused of trying to push out a veteran teacher by calling her "Shrek" and refused to provide training.  Finally, he was also accused of discrimination by favoring and hiring younger Hispanic teachers.

In today's New York Post there is an article that shows the various problems at JHS 80, many of them attributed to the Principal, Emmanuel Polanco.  Let's identify the issues at the school.

Student Discipline:

Violence and fighting are rampant;  unqualified cronies — including a paraprofessional who has acted as a dean — serve in key positions; disruptive students face few consequences.

Covering up assaults:

In one outrageous case The DOE says it is investigating a November incident in which two eighth-grade boys allegedly lifted a sixth-grader by his arms and legs, and dropped him on his head, causing him to pass out and convulse.

A staff member told the FBI and the DOE that administrators delayed calling an ambulance, then forced the eighth-graders and a teacher who witnessed the cruelty to give statements calling it an accident.  “They lied to the parents,” the distraught staffer told an FBI hotline. “Someone’s child is going to die if nothing is done.”  Kids have cut themselves and others — during class, the source said.

Discrimination and Favoritism: 

The Principal is known to discriminate against veteran and outspoken teachers and to favor young Hispanic teachers, giving a young Hispanic Paraprofessional a Dean's position when it requires that the position to be a teacher.  The majority of teachers at the school are untenured and teacher turnover appears to be high, an indicator of an unstable school environment.

Why does the school struggle academically?  Just look at the Principal since the buck stops with him. WCBS-TV did a story on the school and you can find it Here.

The problematic history Chaz chronicles goes back to 2013.

Not only did the DOE sit by, they encouraged Polanco and his organization, the Association of Dominican American Supervisors and Administrators to set up the program to recruit these teachers from the Dominican Republic.

Educators of NYC are on this today on Twitter:.

Back to the Post to see what Chancellor David Banks said about ADASA in September:

“There is no organization in our public schools that means more to me than ADASA,” Chancellor David Banks gushed at a September 15 press conference announcing the recruitment of 25  teachers to help with the influx of Spanish-speaking migrants. Echoing Mayor Adams’ mantra, he added,  “ADASA gets stuff done.”

It looks like getting stuff done means shaking teachers down:

But a Post investigation found ADASA could be stuffing its pockets.

Ying Qing Li of Fox River Grove, Ill., bought the duplex in July for $810,000 as an investment, she said. Her agent, Elsa Ni, said the house was leased to ADASA, which pays $6,900 a month for both units. Ni understood the building would house teachers from the DR but said she had no idea how many would move in.

ADASA charges 10 teachers $1,450 a month, and one $1,300, each for single rooms, the teachers said. The $15,800 in rent collected would net a monthly profit of $8,900. Another Bronx building run by ADASA houses eight teachers, and a third is rented by three teachers, sources said.

Puello said he is charged $1,300 a month, not $1,450 like the others because his room is the smallest, furnished only with a full-sized bed, a  dresser, and a wall-mounted TV.

Four male teachers occupy the third floor of the building, sharing a kitchen and full bathroom. Seven female teachers rent rooms on the first floor and second floors. They also share a kitchen and bathroom, the tenants said.

Each rented room has door locks, they said. Housing lawyers and the city Department of Buildings said that would constitute a single-room occupancy, or SRO, which is illegal in NYC — and possibly dangerous in an emergency — unless previously approved. The building has no record of preexisting SRO units, said DOB spokesman Andrew Rudansky, adding that the agency will inspect the premises if it gets a complaint and possibly issue a vacate order.

Several teachers who spoke to the Post fumed at the rental cost. “We know we can get it cheaper somewhere else,” Puello said. “I have to support myself and my family at home. I’m working for rent.” 

And more:

The teachers were first assured they could bring their families, but “at the last minute,” were told to come alone for the first year or so. Puello said. Missing his five-year-old daughter’s birthday this month “was the hardest thing ever.”

To make matters worse, the teachers are being underpaid and are getting no benefits:

The Dominican teachers said they get roughly $1,800 after taxes and other deductions in twice-monthly DOE paychecks. They are paid as substitutes — roughly $199.27 per day — pending NY state certification. Long-term subs may earn slightly more and get some sick or vacation days.

Unless these teachers were all replacing teachers on leave, they should all be getting paid on the regular payroll. Even if they are replacing teachers on leave, they have survived their sixty days and need to be put on the regular payroll and get their benefits, including medical. I have copied Article 7V of the UFT Contract. It doesn't say they can be paid as day-to-day subs if they are not yet certified. Who are they subbing for? Themselves.

V. Regular Payroll Status for Per Diem Substitutes 

1. The Board (“Department”) will pay on the regular payroll (i.e. Q payroll) any per diem substitute provided that he/she either: 

(A)(i) was employed by the Department to replace a regularly appointed teacher who is in a Vacancy (as defined herein); (ii) commenced employment later than the fifteenth calendar day following the first day for the reporting of newly appointed teachers; and (iii) was employed for a minimum of two months; or

 (B)(i) was employed by the Department to cover a Vacancy; and (ii) commenced employment during the first fifteen calendar days of the term. 

2. For purposes of this section, a Vacancy is a position that is filled by a substitute teacher under the following circumstances: 

(A)there is no regular appointed teacher and the position is an unencumbered vacancy; or 

(B) when the regularly appointed teacher is (a) on a sabbatical leave of absence for the full term or full school year; (b) on an unpaid leave of absence for the duration of the school year; (c) on an approved leave due to an injury in the line of duty (“ILOD”) and the ILOD leave is for the duration of the school year; (d) reassigned for the duration of 53 the school year, however the substitute teacher shall not receive regular payroll status (i.e. Q payroll) for the first sixty (60) days of service in this assignment; (e) absent on paid status (i.e. using their Accumulated Absence Reserve (CAR), or borrowing up to 20 additional CAR days and/or utilizing the grace period) and whose status is subsequently adjusted to unpaid leave status for the duration of the school year; or (f) on an approved paid absence (i.e. using their CAR days and/or utilizing the grace period) for the duration of the school year.

CBS2 reports that Polanco has been reassigned. It's about time.

As CBS2's Marcia Kramer reports, MS 80 in the Bronx is a school in turmoil. CBS2 has learned that its principal, Emmanuel Polanco, has been reassigned by Schools Chancellor David Banks as city and federal investigators sift through a sea of disturbing allegations that several teachers brought here from the Dominican Republic were reportedly forced by the principal to pay shakedown rent payments or have their visas yanked. 

This is criminal activity. Anybody involved here if convicted should be held to account. No golden parachutes here, please.