GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

I applaud the A.P.s for speaking the truth and letting people know about the flawed system of “U” ratings. This abuse of the rating system is widespread and rampant. The principals know that the DOE will back them. If the teacher was probationary then they would be terminated. If the A.P. Is probationary they can also be terminated. Just the fact that you speak up will get you in trouble in most schools even if its in the best interest of the kids. Lately its gotten worse with the unchecked power of principals. Are the “U” ratings going to be reversed? Are these teachers and A.P.s going to receive apologies? What about the emotional and stress caused by this unethical behavior?

How many AP’s have not had the courage to stand up to their prinicipals and have given teachers U’s that have resulted in termination or even the threat of termination? Those poor teachers!

If LIFO is done away with, stories like this will become so common that they will not be newsworthy.

Miss teacher many teachers have been victimized by principals and they usually are not news worthy. The teachers have to file lawsuits to get their jobs back at outragous cost to the teacher at a time that they do not have a job. When future employers ask for references to call their former employer they cannot. These teachers do not even qualify for unemployment because they were terminated due to the “U” rating. Research lawsuits filed because of the same reasons. Except the city will fight the lawsuits and how many people will be willing to testify or report a principal that will get them fired. Most lawyers will not even take these cases because of the citys hard stand to back the principals at all cost.

Wow, this is so common I never considered that it might be illegal. Sure, I knew it was a contract violation, but not something a principal could be investigated for.

I can still remember a meeting with my principal and chapter leader over this. He denied that my AP’s sudden flurry of observations, the “unsatisfactory” observation, and the refusal to put in writing an earlier, strongly positive observation were retaliation for union activity by saying “how would Ms. AP know that Mr. Smith had filed a grievance against me?” We just laughed.

And that’s why I laugh at people like Cathy Black who write editorials saying that U-rated teachers should be laid off first.

I, too, applaud the AP’s who told the truth about this. We had one AP at the above-mentioned school that did tell us that he refused a request by the principal to take some sort of retaliatory action against a teacher (I don’t remember if it was an observation), but I’m certain he never would have said this to an investigator.

Just the other night I saw Cathie Black on NY1 talking about the wonderful NYC Principals. I find it funny how they talk about bad teachers in the ranks however all principals are wonderful.

“trumped up charges”

“allegations coerced”

“threatened every student”

“never any charges, investigation, decision”

“intimidate…stifle”

Yes, it’s Children First with this mayor, chancellor, newspaper editorial boards, and all the reformers who insidiously portray themselves to care so much about the “Children”.

It’s a corrupt system they’re pushing, and they’re pushing us and our growing kids towards it for the future.

Great post, Ms. Winderbaum.

This makes no sense whatsoever from a legal standpoint. Let’s clearly understand something. Assistant Principals are not rating officers. PERIOD. Assistant Principals do not, and legally can’t, rate teachers. They rate a teacher’s lesson based on an observation. Is this what she meant? Did she want the Assistant Principal to walk in and rate lessons unsatisfactory no matter what they observed? It then became the obligation of the Assistant Principal, the teacher’s training officer, to work with the teacher to improve their performance. Again, PERIOD. Based on this, the Principal is then required to perform an observation and based on this, bring the Superintendent in to verify her and only her rating that the teacher is unsatisfactory. At least, that was the way it was when I was a high school Assistant Principal for over 20 years. Have things changed? Ultimately, she is the rating officer. No matter what the Assistant Principal said, she can find a teacher’s performance is unsatisfactory. So I just don’t get this whole story. Can somebody explain to me just what I’m missing?

I was there 3 months and thankfully was able to walk out.  She destroyed lives.
 As I remember it, she did not have the certification or classroom hours or some-such  qualification to rate, so she always had to have a person with  teaching/cert or classroom hours with her to rate?
She was a banker before becoming a Principal. 

Let me try to answer some of the astute points made based on what you read above. No quick summary can do justice to the sordid behavior of Iris Blige over the years so there’s bound to be confusion.
First, to Jeff S: The principal used the succession of assistant principals to find teachers’ lessons unsatisfactory whether they were or not. Many of them have testified to OSI that a “hit list” was given to them at the beginning of the year and they were to establish a case for an unsatisfactory rating that which was given by the principal at year’s end. Worse yet, the APs were used to support unfounded allegations against teachers and ship them off for years on charges that were ultimately unproven. Either way, lives and careers were destroyed. 
To Ms. Books: Iris Blige was a certified principal. Although she was never a classroom teacher, she enrolled in the Leadership Academy of the Department of Education and became an instant principal!

this to me is a major problem with the current system.

in my very first observation at my very first school, i was given a U. one of the reasons cited was that i used questions that were not in the book as examples!!

i even got U rated on classroom environment, even though the teachers changed rooms but the students stayed in the room all day. i had no control over the classroom environment, but i had student work hanging, a math honor roll, and posters reviewing how to work with negative numbers.

in every possible category, my AP gave me a U.

my union rep told me not to fight it, as he knew that the AP had decided that she didn’t like me and wanted to get rid of me. he thought it was best not to rock the boat. i was completely devastated. a month later (midyear) i was “excessed” and 75% of the teachers at the school wrote a letter of protest supporting me.

but some told me it was the best thing that could ever happen…and they were right.

i went on to teach at another much better school (also in the south bronx), where for the past three years, i have been positively rated in each lesson. i was ranked as being in the 93% for teachers of my experience level according to the TDR. i ended up teaching an 8th grade honors algebra class, where last year i had a 100% pass rate, with a low score of 78, an average of 84, and a high score of 96. i also started a choir, a math team, was the co-chaperone of the GSA, and was the CHILL liaison at our school (a free snowboarding program that i took 4 kids to every week for 6 weeks).

i am now teaching at a school in the netherlands where i have also been positively rated. i don’t think i’m the best teacher in the world, but i know i am a good one who cares and always tries to do her very best to help the students in any way possible.

i saved the writeup of that observation i got four years ago and to this day, it still makes me cry when i read it. truly, i am so grateful for having been excessed, because otherwise i would’ve been U-rated and my career probably would’ve been over.

The public needs a reminder of the March 2009 protest at Roosevelt Campus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rheCzh1jqTU

STIPULATION OF SETTLEMENT

It is important to understand that the decision to offer a monetary penalty and not pursue formal charges against Iris Blige as a tenured principal was ultimately the decision of the Office of the Chancellor. Read the Stipulation of Settlement for a complete understanding of the conditions under wish this matter was resolved by the Chancellor.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/47340317/F7191-For-Release-Stipulation

The stipulation is signed by Iris Blige and by Theresa Europe, Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor. OSI was very clear in their findings that the allegations against Iris Blige had merit and were substantiated. The final report which should have been completed in a much more timely fashion (much less than twenty (20) months) included a recommendation that a copy of the report be sent to the Administrative Trials Unit for appropriate disciplinary action. The blame for this unacceptable and deplorable settlement which is nothing less than inappropriate rests clearly with the Chancellor. There should have been no discussion about the possibility of any settlement in this case. There was no choice here but to remove this principal immediately and file charges to seek her termination, removal of license and revocation of state certification. Why would the Chancellor not seek the removal of this principal after having such serious allegations substantiated? We need to ask why … What do you think?

There appears o be some confusion about how Ms. Blige’s credentials and how all these credentials got onto NYSED website. This is an issue for investigation. According to DOE’s records as of 10/11/06, her service history is as follows:
9/07/93 — 9/07/14 License Code 2502 job status regular substitute counselor
9/08/94 — 2/14/97 License Code 2502 job status APT FL
2/15/97 — 3/31/97 DOE reports LV w/o
4/01/97 — 8/31/99 License Code 2502 status RETURN
9/1/99 — 9/04/00 License Code 2502 job status DQS
9/7/99 – 9/4/00 DOE reports status code: 5BA job description: Regular substitute
9/5/00 — 2/02/03 DOE reports APT FL
2/03/03 — 8/31/03 License Code 4124 Description ACTING
9/01/03 — 6/30/04 License Code 4124 Description ACTING
7/01/04 — 6/27/05 License Code 4120 Description ACTING
6/28/05 — License Code 4120 Description QUALIFY

In 2005, Ms. Blige did not have a permanent School District Administrator Certificate. So how did she get one in 2002? In 1998, Ms. Blige was not a certified school psychologist. So with respect to all those certificates listed by the blogger, I can only say that something “stinks in Denmark.”

With respect to Jeff S’ comments, either he is misreading reports or he is in denial. To protect themselves and to give a “tight” U-rating at the end of the year, many New York City public school principals have adopted the business model — create or build up a dossier on the teacher or individual. NOTE: a dossier need not be true facts or real — just a preponderance of evidence. This is where the assistant principals, consultants and others come to the principal’s aid. Their job is to rate teachers’ lessons unsatisfactory repeatedly b y conducting fake observation. By fake is meant that the principal and the assistant principal have already agreed that the lesson will be unsatisfactory no matter what. It is well to note that any lesson can be rated unsatisfactory depending on whether the observer approaches the lesson from an objective point of view or from a subjective point of view. Ms. Blige used Mr. David Kroun as her special consultant to “get” teachers. Mr. Kroun aka “angel of death,” “assasin of teachers’ career and “hit man” was called in by Ms. Blige to eliminate those teachers that she wanted out. He was the “mafia” of DOE. At the end of the school year, the principal was now in a clear position to give the teacher a “u-rating” by preponderance of the evidence.

Jeff also fails to understand that a principal would be stupid to give a teacher a u-rating whose lessons had been observed “satisfactory” throughout the school year. It’s a political game that not only Ms. Blige plays but also hundreds of principals play throughout New York Public School System. Ms. Blige as well as other administrators play this game with skill and mastery. It’s all about power, politics, and money. PERIOD

The $7,500 fine that Ms. Blige had to pay is actually offset by the $7,500 that she received as a bonus because Fordham High School for the Arts received an “A” rating or report card for the 2009/2010 school year. All principals whose schools receive a “B” or “A” rating get a hefty bonus, as stipulated in the principals’ union contract. The hardworking teachers receive “u-ratings, ruined careers and loss of dignity and respect after spending tons of money to get the required degrees, to pass the teachers’ exam for certification and attending endless professional development seminars, program, etc.

With respect to Ms.Raquel Pottinger-Bird who Ms. Blige says was one of her consultants did not observe teachers. In fact, when Ms.Blige brought her into the school in 2007, DOE had no record of her as a DOE employee or as a consultant with a vendor number. There was nothing. She was temporarily removed from the building. However, Ms.Blige somehow got her back into the system as her Business Manager as a member of DC 37. Ms. Bird had worked in Georgia and had been sanctioned by Georgia State Commissioner for standardized testing violation. However, in September 2010, NYS issued her a provisional certificate as a building school supervisor and Ms. Blige gave Ms. Bird the position of interim acting assistant principal, pending the C-30 process to appoint her as assistant principal. Ms. Bird is now observing teachers and unlike previous assistant principals, she is ready and willing to do Ms. Blige’s bidding. Already the two of them have taken a summer cruise together and are very tight friends or buddies.

The corruption within the Bronx public school system is really out of control. It is similar to the wild, wild west where the mighty “gun” ruled supremely.

Please note that this is happening in many schools. It seems as if the DOE and UFT have taken a hands off approach to getting involved in this corruption. They will act like their doing their jobs to protect teacbers due process rights. Michael Mulgrew himself has said that 90 percent of teachers lose their “U” rating appeals other sources have stated a 99 percent lost rate. Appealing a “U” is just a formality and a way to document the process. Principals have given people “U” with no documentation or proof. However to cover themselves legal they amass a file to show they did not act arbitrarily and capriciously. In case the teacher has the money to bring a legal challenge with the courts they cover themselves. The corporation counsel then fight for the administrators free of charge while taxpayers foot their bill. The DOE and courts back the administrators. So many careers have been destroyed and continue to be destroyed.

Jeff s according to the know your rights section of the uft site a.p observe teachers and the principals finalizes the determination for the end of the year rating. Protocol has changed principals can delegate authority. The principals are gods of their school for the most part.

This happens in schools throughout our nation. In my old teaching job, our Ass’t Principal was forced out of his job for refusing to downgrade teachers on their evals. This is why we need a union to protect us. What goes on in ed systems is corrupt. It is beyond belief the amount of abuse that goes on. People need a reality check. My suggestion is to go and teach in a public school for a few years (5 or more would be better). What you experience and go through (especially in a poor (Title I) school, will be very upsetting, but you will have a better understanding of how overworked and disrespected teachers are. The work environments for many teachers are inhumane. Teachers don’t deserve that and, even more so, our students don’t need to be in such hostile environments.
@TeacherReality

Regarding Michael Mulgrew’s contention that we lose 90-99% of u-rating appeals, abusers Blige do lose on appeal but ultimately win because the system is so corrupt. Rosa Hidalgo, one of Blige’s victims, won her u-rating discontinuance case before a panel 3-0. But the DOE does not have to abide by these decisions and Blige’s friend and protector, Elena Papaliberios, makes the ultimate decision as superintendent to uphold the rating and firing. Cozy.
Rosa was an immigrant who left a solid administrative assistant job in the private sector to become a teacher. She was personally recruited by Iris Blige and had the misfortune to accept.
Why was Hidalgo’s u-rating appeal unanimously successful? Because she was a satisfactorily observed and satisfactorily rated teacher for two years and ten months. Just before she was about to complete her probation, Blige sent in one AP to observe her, find her lesson unsatisfactory, and give her the basis for a termination.
Here’s the awful part. That basis was that she was not properly employing strategies with one specific child. He was revealed at her hearing that IEP for that child mandated a self-contained environment. Hidalgo taught a mainstream class with no special Ed support. It was a violation for Blige to even have this child in the class. Then it came out that there were a dozen special education students whose IEPs were being ignored by Blige in that class! Blige refused to even give Hidalgo a para when she asked for one!
So the panel found for Hidalgo. She won. But she was fired anyway. Plus Blige’s destruction of this hard-working woman did not end there. She put her on the ineligible/inquiry list (a list originally set up to prevent criminals and predators from finding employment in another unsuspecting district) so she could never work again.
So what was Hidalgo’s real crime to earn the venomous ire of Blige? She joined the UFT chapter committee while still on probation. Another good teacher’s life ruined.
What happened to Iris Blige for violating a dozen special ed

Jim Callaghan, former N.Y. Teacher reporter- repsonds:

Mulgrew should save his outrage for the UFT comic pages.
Klein knew all about Blige and the recantation of an Assistant Principal because I wrote about it in the Spring of 2009. It didn’t take a special investigation to uncover the Blige horror show, supported by Mulgrew and Weingarten.

I quoted members who said Blige specifically went after chapter leaders and sent them to the rubber rooms on trumped up charges-they were never charged with anything and were all sent back to the classroom.

That was the last article I was allowed to write about Blige.
When the union had a rally on March 13, 2009, Weingarten sent out a press advisory (I have a copy) knocking the total number of protesters down to 50 after she was told that 500 would attend. So even then the union was protecting Blige.

The worst case is the teacher accused of leaving a letter in Blige’s mailbox threatening to murder her! The letter said there was a “gang” led by the teacher who would do the killing of the principal and her son.

Fifteen cops came to the school, interviewed no one except the teacher, lied to her and said they had her on video and had her fingerprints on the letter.
Then they changed the story to say they had her handwriting on the letter, which was announced by an Assistant Principal- tape recorded by a member- one week later.

Now-think Tucson and Gabby Phillips: what happened to the teacher after one “expert” detective said it was the teacher’s handwriting?
NOTHING! It is a felony to threaten murder of a public official. Nothing happened until eight weeks later in April, 2009, after I called Blige for a comment on my story. The next day, the teacher was arrested and charged with a misdeameanor. (Even if she is found guilty, she will serve 15 days of community service picking up garbage on the Grand Concourse).
The Bronx D.A.- elected with help from the UFT- did not ask for bail, didn’t ask for the teacher’s passport to be lifted and the principal never asked for extra police protection for her, students, parents and the staff. Weingarten refused to call him and ask that he personally look at the case. There was no police probe of the gang.
The teacher -this horrible accused murderer beloved by her students and colleagues– was sent back to the rubber room.
Nearly two years later, after the D.A. Robert Johnson asked for 15 posponements, there has been no trial and the case is still open.

Oh- the teacher lost her job because neither Mulgrew nor Weingarten nor NYSUT lawyer Claude Hirsch lifted a finger to help her. She never had a 3020A hearing. The DOE used a loophole in the law saying they could refuse to approve her application for a work visa if she was “accused” of misconduct.
Incredibly, Weingarten and Mulgrew allowed this absurdity to stand unchallenged. So the only question still open is: what did they get out of it?

My editor Deidre McFadyen and staff director Leroy Barr denied me a vacation day-for the first time since I worked at the union- so I could attend the teacher’s court hearing on my own time–to give her moral support (I have the Barr email).
Weingarten pulled my story the day after the teacher got arrested; Weingarten, Barr, Mulgrew and others all said she was guilty- merely because she had been arrested.
I had to shame Weingarten the lawyer, “teacher” into finally running the story-two weeks later- after I reminded her about the 6th Amendment (Weingarten told me that most teachers in the rubber rooms were guilty and crazy, which is why I was allowed to run only one rubber room story-in October 2007.
When an Assistant Principal wanted to tell me the story about how she helped frame the teacher, Mulgrew, Barr and McFadyen refeused to let me run the story and Mulgrew wouldn’t even call the D.A. to say he was sending over an important witness.
So it is clear- I have lots more on this story and other Weingarten-Mulgrew cover ups of corruption- that the UFT leaders were protecting Klein and the members could go to hell in a hand basket.
The Blige case is one of many that will stand out as the defining Weingarten-Mulgrew legacy of cowardice, double dealing and abusing the rights of members whose dues they collect for their fat 400k salaries and benefits but then refuse to represent them.
I blame Klein and Blige but Weingarten, Mulgrew, Barr and McFadyen could have exposed this horrible principal two years ago and chose instead to be part of the cover up, as they were at so many other schools which you will be reading about shortly.
When Mulgrew fired me in August 2010 for organizing a union-after 13 years of praise from him, Weingarten and hundreds of UFT officials and the members, he told the press I was unprofessional!
And what other word can we use to describe his perfidy and Weingarten’s abandonment of an accused teacher who came to America from Jamaica to fulfill the immigrant’s dream yet was crushed by the DOE-UFT steamroller?
If there was ever a PERB case for non-representation, this was it- although I lived through so many others when I had to argue with my editor McFadyen and Weingarten-Mulgrew apparatchiks to get the stories in the union newspaper.
Mulgrew is so paranoid and vicious that he had McFadyen -at $150,000 a year-sit and go through the New York Teacher archives on line and take stories like Blige off the web site- she has disappeared into the dark hole of corruption that exists at the union. Mulgrew even ordered my name off the obit of Jack Newfield, who once wrote for the union!
How low can a such a self-styled tough guy get?
Stay tuned- lots more to come.

Jim,
What you write is so depressing! I would have liked to have seen these comments before the UFT elections. There are many teachers who need to know these facts to make an informed decision when voting. The damage has been done by Weingarten in the 2005 contract and by Mulgrew now. We as union members have the union that we deserve. There is still time to fix the damage that has been done but it requires unity, and strength. We have to understand that we can not depend on the UFT leadership to protect public education and our profession.

Jim Callaghan,

Please keep these important facts coming. The UFT/AFT (despite the presence of many decent and hardworking people trapped in a deluded and/or corrupt one-party state) as captive to and enabler of those who seek to destroy public education is a story that must be told. It is of a piece with the ongoing assaults against working Americans (via attacks on Social Security, pension benefits and labor rights), and democracy itself.

We expect corporate instruments to act consistently with certain ideologies and training.
We don’t expect unions to facilitate the sociopathy.

I was bullied in front of the kids and all. I wish that this fairy tale would end but it keeps going knowing that I was considered a good teacfher by my colleagues parents and students is more disheartening. I fought hard for the idle of a free public education even in a mostly minority neighborhood in the south bronx the kids deserve the best. I appealed to the higher ups in the union and asked in assistance for legal representation and instead I have not even received a response. I have been paying for my lawyer barely since I am a young former teacher I do not have capital like others may have. The fight between the unioun and the city is turning vicious and people like me that get caught up get eaten alive. Any help or support would help but where would it could from who knows?

There is no better UFT district rep like Lynne Winderbaum. She was a true fighter for the rights of all members.

Jim, keep fighting for your rights. Make sure that you hold them accountable for firing you. Keep all the members posted. There should be absolutely no corruption in the union. It’s enough bullshit having corruption in City Hall, in the DoE, and with various politicians; we don’t need this bullshit in the union.