Namita Dwarka was the controversial principal of William Cullen Bryant HS.
Matthew McDermott
The town Division of Schooling has promoted a Queens highschool principal whose reign was marred by alleged grade-fixing and intimidation, The Put up has realized.
Namita Dwarka, the controversial – and infrequently reviled – principal of William Cullen Bryant HS, informed employees in a farewell notice, “As of Monday, August twenty ninth, I might be assuming the place of Deputy Superintendent.”
“It’s a brand new low for the DOE,” stated Metropolis Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who has urged Chancellor David Banks to crack down on college tradition that turns a blind eye to educational fraud in schemes to spice up commencement charges. “She shouldn’t be working within the DOE, a lot much less in a management position.”
Dwarka, with a $198,000 wage, will function deputy to Josephine Van-Ess, superintendent of the Queens South HS district, overseeing 29 colleges. Bryant HS is within the Queens North district. Banks has given extra energy to superintendents in his DOE reorganization.
The appointment despatched shockwaves by way of Queens training circles:
“She’s acquired a horrible fame amongst lecturers. I’ve been listening to horror tales about her for years,” stated Arthur Goldstein, a instructor at Francis Lewis HS in Queens. “She evokes good individuals to go away the system at a time that we sorely want them.”
Dwarka’s 11-year tenure on the Astoria college, which was threatened with closure for poor outcomes when she arrived, was rife with turmoil and tensions. Dozens of staffers, together with assistant principals, give up underneath her “dictatorship” or have been compelled out, insiders say. Morale was low.
“She was the one keen to do the soiled work,” stated Sam Lazarus, a former instructor and UFT chapter chief. “It was not a contented place.”
However Dwarka demanded greater than onerous work and good educating to spice up the varsity’s efficiency statistics, whistleblowers say.
Simply two months in the past, Georgia Lignou, a Bryant instructor and present UFT chapter chief, wrote a letter to Dwarka decrying stress from directors to advertise college students who skipped lessons or did little or no work – and even some children lecturers had by no means even seen.
Lecturers have been “intimidated by the tone” of emails they acquired from supervisors. When requested to “present assist,” Lignou wrote, “what they hear is ‘We would like you to move this scholar.'” In a typical observe citywide, lecturers would give failing college students a number of last-ditch assignments to move them “with a lot much less work than what they required at school.”
“They do promote college students who mustn't have been promoted,” Lignou added.
The DOE gave no touch upon the complaints or on Dwarka’s announcement. “Ms. Dwarka handed an inside background test and might be thought-about for a place as Deputy Superintendent,” stated spokeswoman Chyann Tull.
The DOE’s Workplace of Particular Investigations has an open case at Bryant HS, however “it doesn’t title Dwarka,” officers stated.
Dwarka couldn't be reached for remark. The Council of Faculty Supervisors and Directors, the principals’ union, didn't reply to a request for remark.
Dwarka’s scandals return years. In 2013, she confined greater than 20 college students with habits issues in a moldy out of doors trailer that seemed like a transport container, the place they stayed the entire day whereas lecturers took turns entering into.
Dwarka known as it “the Students Academy.” One mother stated, “You may as effectively ship them to Rikers Island.”
In 2014, dozens of scholars have been falsely labeled “former English language learners” to grant them an additional hour to complete the Regents exams, lecturers alleged. Many such college students have been native English audio system or in any other case proficient.
In 2015, then-Chancellor Carmen Fariña appointed a process drive on educational coverage after a collection of stories in The Put up. In a single, an 18-year-old Bryant scholar admitted she commonly skipped a authorities class, had failing grades, and even missed the ultimate examination — but acquired a passing rating of 65 to graduate.
“New York Metropolis gave me a diploma I didn’t deserve,” she stated. Her instructor blamed “an amazing quantity of stress” to move children.
One other report detailed Bryant’s on-line summer-school lessons that permit children surf the Web to plug in solutions.
“They’re not studying. They’re not changing into college- or career-ready. They’re simply getting out of highschool,” veteran math instructor Mary Bozoyan complained on the time.
After her feedback, Bozoyan, who suffers bodily disabilities and issue strolling, was locked out of a restroom subsequent to her classroom, and compelled to make use of one down the corridor. The instructor stated Dwarka additionally refused her plea to make use of a facet entrance with fewer steps, calling it “retaliation – and heartlessness.”
“I felt a mixture of anger and unhappiness,” the since-retired Bozoyan stated final week of Dwarka’s promotion. “I've only one query: Why Chancellor Banks, why?”
Dwarka has curried favor with DOE brass as Bryant’s lagging commencement price, which was 56.5 % when she began in 2011, barely beneath the citywide common.
Final 12 months, Bryant’s commencement price was 87 % — about the identical as citywide — with 61 % deemed capable of enroll in CUNY with out remedial assist.
Dwarka’s farewell notice to the school and employees stated, “I encourage all of you to proceed on the relentless quest for excellence and supply our college students with the best high quality instruction and assist.”
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