Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir was eliminated as principal of Maspeth Excessive College final July for allegedly utilizing fraudulent schemes to spice up his college's commencement price.
www.mhs.nyc
A Queens principal accused of utilizing fraudulent schemes to spice up his college’s commencement price can by no means once more work with metropolis college students — however will get a $1.8 million desk job, The Submit has discovered.
Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir, who was eliminated as principal of Maspeth Excessive College final July, received’t return to any metropolis college as a principal, in line with a settlement of misconduct prices. However he can keep on the Division of Training payroll for one more seven years.
Below Abdul-Mutakabbir, Maspeth HS created faux lessons, awarded credit to failing college students, and stuck grades to push children out the door, the Particular Commissioner of Investigation for metropolis colleges discovered, confirming exposès by The Submit.
As an alternative of attempting to terminate Abdul-Mutakabbir, as metropolis investigators really helpful, the DOE settled the costs on Jan. 25 by fining him $12,000 – and barring him from working as a principal.
However below the lover deal – which DOE officers stored hidden for months – the disgraced educator, now age 47, will sit in an workplace till he “irrevocably” retires on Nov. 30, 2029.
He'll pocket his present $187,043 annual wage, and get all union-negotiated pay raises for principals. He will even get pleasure from paid holidays and holidays, plus full well being and retirement advantages, which can price at the least $78,558 a 12 months as well as. The overall price will come to greater than $1.8 million.
Metropolis Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who first referred to as consideration to Maspeth HS malfeasance after assembly with a gaggle of whistleblower academics three years in the past, was outraged to study of the golden parachute.
“Nothing is extra absurd in metropolis authorities than rewarding dishonesty and dishonest,” Holden stated, calling Abdul-Mutakabbir’s profitable deal an enormous waste of taxpayer funds.
Chancellor David Banks, who promised to chop waste and bureaucratic bloat when he took the DOE reins on Jan. 1, wouldn't touch upon Abdul-Mutakabbir’s case.
“After I see proof of egregious actions amongst a small variety of people in our colleges, we are going to transfer aggressively and expeditiously to take away these folks from our colleges and payroll completely. We search the most effective end result for college students and taxpayers,” he stated in an announcement.
Academics instructed investigators that Abdul-Mutakabbir pressured academics to move college students whether or not they discovered something or not, the SCI stated in a report accomplished final June.
“I don’t care if a child exhibits up at 7:44 and also you dismiss at 7:45 — it’s your job to provide that child credit score,” Abdul-Mutakabbir was quoted as telling a staffer. He stated the varsity would give a lagging pupil a diploma “not definitely worth the paper on which it was printed” and let him “have enjoyable working at Taco Bell,” the report stated.
Former pupil Thomas Creighton instructed The Submit how he spent most of his junior and senior years drunk or stoned. He not often attended class and did no homework his senior 12 months. As an alternative of serving to the teenager straighten out, directors merely awarded him a diploma – six months early – and pushed him out the door. When his dad and mom requested to see his classwork, the varsity had nothing to point out.
School and college students referred to as it the “Maspeth Minimal” as a result of everybody, no matter effort or efficiency, would move and graduate. Directors pressured academics to repair failing grades. Some academics gave solutions to college students throughout Regents exams, data present.
The principal and his two assistant principals rewarded “a clique” of favored staffers and ex-fraternity brothers with extra time assignments, SCI reported. They threatened others to “fall in line” or get unhealthy evaluations that would jeopardize their jobs. Some academics had been compelled out or give up.
Maspeth made the DOE look good – its 99 % commencement price helped to land it a federal “Blue Ribbon Award” in 2018.
However Abdul-Mutakabbir and assistant principals Stefan Singh and Jesse Pachter refused to talk with SCI investigators, citing their proper to stay silent. Regardless of their refusal to cooperate, the DOE stored Singh and Pachter of their Maspeth HS jobs, slapping them solely with letters of reprimand.
“Right here’s the message [the DOE] is sending: “If you happen to clam up, when you cowl up, you possibly can hold your job and hold your paycheck,” Holden stated, noting that NYPD cops may be fired for failing to cooperate with investigations.
“Good academics had been pushed out, youngsters had been robbed of their schooling. This was organized crime, in my estimation.”
A former Maspeth instructor who spoke with investigators and supplied stacks of proof is disgusted.
“It makes me lose religion within the schooling system,” he stated. “Any instructor or administrator can do one thing dishonest or unlawful to lift their scores and get away with it. Simply say, ‘They did it at Maspeth and nothing occurred.’ That’s your get-out-of-jail-free card.”
The DOE’s personal Workplace of Particular Investigations additionally spent months on the case. The OSI accomplished a prolonged report on Maspeth misconduct in June 2021. The DOE has refused to launch it, saying final week it awaits the result of prices of dishonest and testing irregularities in opposition to 5 Maspeth academics.
After the investigations dragged on for 2 years, the DOE lastly eliminated Abdul-Mutakabbir from the varsity final July, claiming it will take steps to terminate him for “inappropriate conduct.”
The DOE stated it will convey the principal up on prices at an administrative trial, which is required to fireside a tenured instructor or administrator. In such a trial, the DOE presents witnesses and proof to a state-appointed listening to officer who decides whether or not termination is justified.
DOE officers instructed Holden they didn’t imagine their attorneys might win the termination. In some circumstances, academics who nonetheless work for town had been reluctant to testify. Maspeth grads must testify that staffers helped them cheat or mounted their grades.
Within the settlement, the DOE agreed to drop the listening to and “take no additional disciplinary motion regarding the allegations within the prices,” which aren't cited. Abdul-Mutakabbir admits solely that through the 2018-19 and 2019-20 college years he “failed to totally observe or abide by the division’s tutorial coverage.”
The case remembers one other instance of fraud with few penalties. In 2015, Brooklyn’s Dewey Excessive College put tons of of failing children in bogus lessons with out instruction by licensed academics. The varsity referred to as it “Mission Commencement.” Children dubbed it “Simple Go.”
Principal Kathleen Elvin was eliminated, however prices in opposition to her had been tossed on a technicality. As an alternative of interesting, the DOE gave Elvin a six-figure administrative job. Raises introduced her wage to $184,104, plus well being and fringe advantages, by the point she retired in 2019. She now collects a $106,058-a-year pension.
Retired instructor Wade Goria, one of many Dewey HS whistleblowers, isn’t stunned by the Maspeth end result, saying the DOE would slightly cowl up than air its soiled laundry.
“It simply exhibits the ongoing corruption,” Goria stated. “They don’t need [the principal] to squeal. In the event that they don’t maintain him, he may say they put him as much as it.”
A Queens instructor at a neighboring college denounced the settlement. “The concept Abdul-Mutakabbir has assured raises and advantages till 2029 all whereas doing little to nothing in comparison with his colleagues is unacceptable. ‘Cheat, bend the foundations and be rewarded’ must be the DOE motto.”
Abdul-Mutakabbir didn't reply to a request for remark. A spokesman for the union that defended him, the Counsel of Supervisors and Directors, stated solely, “The matter has been resolved, and we now have no additional remark.”
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MASPETH MINIMUM
Amongst alleged wrongdoing at Maspeth HS:
- College students had been enrolled in lessons that existed on paper solely
- The scholars “didn't attend any lessons or submit any work”
- The youngsters not often met in lessons for which they acquired a number of credit
- Directors let troubled college students graduate early “to get them out”
- Some academics gave solutions on Regents’ exams
- Academics had been pressured to repair grades or get unhealthy evaluations
- The principal and APs collected undocumented or extreme OT
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