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a tangled web

January 23, 2013

Ethics board ruling highlights tension in DOE “network” system

by Philissa Cramer, at 4:41 pm

A Department of Education official broke ethics rules when he told the principals he worked with that he planned to join a different organization that also supports city schools, according to a ruling out today from the city’s Conflicts of Interests Board.

The ruling highlights a fundamental tension in the Department of Education’s controversial “network” structure for providing support to schools.

Under the five-year-old structure, dozens of networks compete against each other for schools to hire them to provide instructional and operational support. Nonprofit groups outside of the Department of Education are allowed to compete, in an arrangement that is meant to keep networks mean and lean — and also lays a minefield of potential ethical violations.

Robert Cohen was leading a department-run network, Children First Network 104, last year when he got a job offer from CEI-PEA, a nonprofit group that works with dozens of schools through five networks of its own, according to the report. After he told the principals he supervised about the offer, they all applied to switch from the department-run network to CEI-PEA’s. That meant they would give their schools’ network fees to CEI-PEA, instead of keeping the funding within the department.

After the department granted permission to just 13 of the 31 schools that applied to switch, Cohen lobbied for them to be allowed to come back to their original network, and ultimately, he stayed at the department, too. But Cohen still ran afoul of city ethics rules just by implying that the schools might consider taking their business outside of the department in order to continue getting help from him, the conflicts board determined.

“While I was unaware of this at the time, I now acknowledge that my presentation to the principals … in my capacity as a future CEI-PEA employee constituted an appearance in violation of [the city rule that] states: No public servant shall, for compensation, represent private interests before any city agency or appear directly or indirectly on behalf of private interests in matters involving the city,” Cohen said in today’s ruling. He agreed to pay a $7,500 fine for the violation.

The ruling was one of two that the Conflicts of Interest Board released today about Department of Education-related matters. In the other ruling, a secretary at Brooklyn’s School for Democracy and Leadership agreed to pay a $6,500 fine for making about $35,000 in purchases from a school supplies company that her husband operates.

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  • guest

    LOL,
    not the first one or the last one.
    He is lucky that he is not a teacher, otherwise he would be fired.

  • Pogue

    Networks do nothing.  Get them all back into the classroom, lower class sizes, and follow their expertise in teaching children.

    Although, the last one I’m not so sure about. 

  • chaz

    The networks are a joke and suck money and resources from the schools. 

    Eliminate the money sucking CFNs and send the money back to schools to lower class sizes and provide supplies to the classroom.

  • Sheldon Benardo

    As a now retired principal who opted reluctantly to join bob cohen’s network I found him to be supportive, knowledgeable , caring and supportive. He assembled a great cast, experts in budgeting, personnel and special education. I was glad to be the network, my school reaped considerable dividends and my school community prospered. Bob was one of the few things we paid for that was worth the money.

  • BloombergMustGo

    Networks: Another Bloomberg Boondoggle.  A vehicle for funneling funds out of the classroom into the hands of those not able to actually function in a classroom.  Their PD’s are a collection of PowerPoint or Smart Board slides with a ton of buzzwords and little content.  Any specific questions regarding subject matter or classroom practice are met with cliches and obfuscations.
    The school administrators and the network folk slap each other on the back and tell each other what a great job they’re doing while teachers stand around waiting for worthwhile guidance.  In the end we end up solving our own problems and  they hijack our work, post it on ARIS and take credit.
    I could easily replace mine with a couple of good textbooks and a workbook for all the help we get.

  • PrinceTako

    New Visions is the worst network. They’re one of the more popular ones but have morons working for them. Without mentioning specific names, they personally were responsible for “providing services” to my school, which phased out. So my question to Gotham, if a school is with a “network” for many years and the school winds up phasing out, what is the consequence for the “network”?
    The answer is nothing! There is no consequence. When my school phased out under New Visions, they picked up one of the schools that came in and we went to the “phase out network”. This stuff is ridiculous. Who came up with networks and what do they really do, seriously?
    How can one person, network leader be responsible for helping hundreds of teachers in a highb school? The answer is, they can’t.
    It took me 4 years to realize who the woman was from New Visions. She never addressed the staff. It was a joke. Actually, the next mayor really needs to dump this whole network thing. It just doesn’t work and they DO NOT serve their communities which is what is says on their websites. How can you serve the community in which your school is in WHEN YOU ARE BASED OUT OF BROOKLYN but your school is in the BRONX?? Fake!!
    I’m writing everything I know on here. People and the public need to know the truth.

  • wise owl

    We need to go on  a “financial diet”. Trim the fat and you will see weight loss real fast. Networks,network leaders, coordinators of this, coordinators of that, comp time positions except for deans (We need some “soldiers”), academies, team leaders, and other “get out of the classroom” jobs. In addition there are too many A.P.s. Some A.P.s can combine with other depts. I have yet to go to a worthwhile PD. It only means useless, time wasting meetings in which we are going to be asked to produce more paper work/data etc. There is no end to the meetings: academy meetings, dept meetings, team meetings, etc. How about a meeting where teachers can actually get THEIR work done instead of going home with it? Why don’t we try something new, like a “clerical meeting”? Do you really think anyone except the administrators cares about these meetings? I see teachers reading newspapers, doing paperwork, sleeping, on their cellphones etc. Me? I’m making out my list of things to do. That reminds me, when does Open Market begin? I know that that is rigged too, but I’ve got to try.

  • Codfish45

    New Visions haha ha. Man I remember some useless lady Heidi Ludwig from New Visions. She can’t still be around. She was a disaster who knew nothing. Met with the principal, never helped teachers (not that she could). New Visions is horrible. Bunch of suck ups who are clueless but hey, it’s all political. Networks are the laughing stock and they walk around like they’re important. These network leaders will be looking for work in 2014.

  • Clay

    Sheldon, and now you’re hoping for a job in that network, right?

  • Karengreymonn

    I’m in my 14th year pal. You wouldn’t believe what I get paid to do. You want to talk about comp time jobs? I have a .8 assignment in the cafeteria where I just monitor the kids during various lunch periods. My other .2 is my only English class, which is 1st period and no one shows up to. The most kids ever in this class since Sept was 4 and 3 were late.
    I spend my entire day in a cafeteria and make the same $. It’s a beautiful thing. I gotta tell ya I love this job. There’s so many gigs that you can get into. You just have to find the best one. Dreaming is kool too but idcrather hide in the caf.

  • Wtb

    He is a big time crock, steal money and pay his friends without working… that is just the beginning. Keep looking and you will see.

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