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To Astrakan,

I wish you were right. It would be so easy then to hold the individual accountable. BUT we are dealing with the human flaw – egocentricity. The system CANNOT allow so much power to an individual. They cannot handle it – whether they possess compassion or not.
POWER changes humans. It IS the human flaw. There needs to be checks and balances within the system. The school leaders are to assume even more power in the next school year for ALL teachers – tenured or not. I dread it! I cannot imagine the survival rate. All I want to do is create rich lesson plans to engage my students. All of this above is BS!, but impacts careers.

We do as we are told but there is something called ethics and morals. I will not sell my soul to the devils. Like Malcolm X said: “wrong is wrong not matter who says it or does it.” so all those that are corrupt we need you out. We need straight shooters that will not sell themselves.

…or maybe it means CSA is better able or more willing to protect its members than the UFT.

This outrageous principal keeps her job because her outrageous leadership style is sanctioned by those at the top. As a graduate of the first cohort of Bloomberg’s Leadership Academy (2004), She is the epitome of the “New” principal that this academy was designed to produce — leadership by mind games: abuse of power = disgruntled teachers who deserved to be u-rated; rapid teacher turnover = toughness and strong leadership; u-rating teachers = showing them who is the big dog — the one in charge who is superior. On Monday, January 24, 2011 when a secretary said to Ms. Blige that she thought people were saying horrible things about her, Ms. Blige replied that “They are all lies.” She denies any wrongdoings. Bloomberg’s principal, Iris Blige, has never taught a class. She has no teaching credentials; yet, she is a rating officer of teachers’ performance. Bloomberg and Joel Klein gave principals unchecked authority over their schools; and 99.9% of what they do and say is simply rubber-stamped by those not only by the superintendent but also by the Chancellor’s Office. Why doesn’t the Union do something? For the most part, the UFT has been greatly weakened — a major achieved objective of the Bloomberg-Klein administration. Most of the strong Union activists have either retired or fired or moved on. The Union is a chain consisting of school chapters. Since most chapters have been co-opted by the principals, the strength of the Union as a whole is rapidly losing strength. Moreover, the new Chancellor is simply an extension of the Bloomberg-Klein school culture. New York Public School System is in transformation. History shows us that any system or nation going through a period of transformation under the leadership of unscrupulous leaders, there will be many innocent, hardworking and intelligent people “slaughtered” in the name of reform. Ms. Iris Blige has her “golden boys and girls” who enjoy her favors, generosity, satisfactory rating at the end of the year and objective observation of their lesson. In fact, several new teachers just out of college have received end-of-year performance rating of satisfactory even though their lessons were never observed during the school year. Using these “golden children” to speak with others on her behalf, she is able to convince her supervisor(s) that those who are complaining are simply disgruntled, lazy, incompetent teachers who are simply troublemakers and need to be eliminated. For most of these “New” principals, these small schools are their “sandbox” and you don’t play in their sandbox if you don’t play by their rule regardless of chancellor’s regulations and the teachers’ union including state education laws. Many of these “New” principals, like Ms. Iris Blige, run their schools like the Mom and Pop bodega on the street corner. So as you can see, Ms. Blige rules because she has successfully divided the staff and UFT members spy on UFT members for her and DOE has given principals unchecked authority to treat and do whatever they want to with their staff. This is the bottom line. So what can the UFT do since itself is weakened and divided.

It is disturbing enough to read all the blogs about Iris Blige, but I recently learned that one of the three assistant principals who testified against Iris Blige still works under her supervion. Given the viciousness of her character, that assistant principal will be in grave danger of receiving a U-rating or worse yet become the next causalty of Ms. Iris Blige’s wrath and should therefore be offered some form of witness protection. While we all applaud the actions of all those who testified to expose the deeds of Ms. Blige let us not forget that this wounded serpent may be waiting to strike the next victim.

Someone should look into this.