My time at the ‘School of No’ (union allowed abuse, million$ still missing?)

NY Post ^ | 2/22/14 | Patricia Walsh

[Libloather]

**SNIP**

As a teacher who worked there for many years, I can tell you that it wasn’t because the city wasn’t warned. The children of PS 106 were failed by administrators, government lawmakers and union officials — a host of top people who couldn’t be bothered to care.

**SNIP**

To show just how clueless and uncaring the administration was — in December 2013, PS 106 received a glowing report. At the time, there was no mandated gym, no special-education teacher (I had left and wasn’t replaced), no books, no art and no extended-day services!

PS 106 received millions in extra school funding to help low-income kids. Where did the money go? It didn’t go to pay for teachers who left and weren’t replaced. It didn’t go to the payroll secretary Sills didn’t have so no one kept track of her absences.

[Libloather]

Gitmo north.

[centurion316]

This is what happens when the Democrats decide, “It’s all about the children”.

[Liz]

Photo: J.C. Rice

Principal Sills kept track of her own frequent absences. Sills collected $128,207-a-year and routinely showed up hours late for school, or not at all. She falsified govt records and blatantly lied about her sketchy attendance.

Sills is out but can collect her salary for about two years while the lengthy appeals process lingers on. She also stands to receive $70,000 in "unused" sick days.

PS 106 received millions in extra school funding, earmarked to help low-income kids. Where did the money go? There was no mandated gym, no special-education teacher, no books, no art and no extended-day services! ....teachers left and weren’t replaced.....there was no payroll secretary.

Time to mobilize the Bank Secrecy Act---chances are this chick left a huge paper trail. She allegedly defrauded the government, falsified govt documents and inflated her unused sick and annual leave hours.

<><> did she pay herself "significant sums" for bogus "consulting services"?

<><> did she place phantom employees on the payroll?

<><> did she raid govt funds for family expenses, personal travel, clothing, charge accounts?

<><> did she lie to the IRS (and falsify govt documents) to obtain false reimbursements?

<><> did she bilk the system w/ phony expenses?

[trisham]

She looks a bit like Cruella De Vil.

[jocon307]

Can’t tell if the former principal was a white guy, but he was a guy. Then they bring in this dame and the place goes to hell in a handbasket and no one cares. I guess that would have been racist and sexist.

Too bad the kids were mostly black too. But that’s not the function of the public schools to educate children, it’s to create more mind numbed zombies who’ll pull that lever marked “D”.

This all happened on Bloomberg’s watch, btw. While he’s worrying about who’s having a smoke and a soda. Oh yeah, and bike lanes!

[LostInBayport]

That face could stop a clock. I bet Big Ben would topple over if she looked at it.

[FES0844]

Eyebrows like Michelle’s. Scary lady.

[trisham]

Very scary.

[Ditto]

But that’s not the function of the public schools to educate children, it’s to create more mind numbed zombies who’ll pull that lever marked “D”.

More like getting the most money for the least amount of work possible and 'who gives a crap' for the kids or any idea of providing an education. It's just a byproduct of illiteracy and zero job skills that cause people to think the Democrats actually give a s*** about them.

[I am Richard Brandon]

Everything in this thread is . . . Racist!

[I am Richard Brandon]

Everything in this thread is . . . Racist!

[Darksheare]

Her face looks like it stopped a clock and then came back for a rematch.

[coydog]

Looks like a failed drag queen.

[Liz]

Me, myself and I was at the top of Sills list. But the story
of educator avarice and greed is being played out allover.

=======================================================

CHEATER TEACHERS IN ATLANTA---Teachers charged w/ 65 counts in the Atlanta school cheating scandal: Supt Beverly Hall and 34 teachers---mostly Black---were charged with one count of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Supt Beverly Hall faces jail--charged with making false statements and false writings, and theft by taking. If convicted on all counts, she faces a maximum 45 years in prison.

Supt Beverly Hall was once honored for her educator "achievements."

In 2009, Hall was named National Superintendent of the Year by the Schools Superintendents Association----crediting her "leadership" as a model of urban school reform."

HALL'S REIGN OF TERROR But the Atlanta indictment paints another picture of Supt Beverly Hall, one of a supt with "a single-minded purpose....and that was to cheat."

The message to her underlings from Beverly Hall was clear: There were to be no exceptions and no excuses for failure to meet her targets......teachers who reported other teachers who cheated were terminated, while teachers who were caught cheating were only suspended," the indictment alleges.

"It is further part of the conspiracy and endeavor that targets achieved through cheating were used by Beverly Hall to obtain substantial performance bonuses.....which was at the heart of the conspiracy to cheat, " the indictment said. The indictment alleges a number of educators received performance bonuses based on test scores.

According to the indictment, Hall protected and rewarded teachers who achieved her academic targets by cheating. It also alleges she fired principals who failed to achieve goals and that she ignored "suspicious test score gains" throughout the school system.........a turn of events outed by ace investigative reporters at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Four of Hall's executive administrators, six principals, two assistant principals, six testing coordinators, 14 teachers, a school improvement specialist and a school secretary were also indicted.

====================================================

So how did educators get nailed under RICO? Read on, bloggers.

Rhonda Cook one of the ace AJC reporters who bird-dogged the Hall story reported: The 1980 Georgia General Assembly was concerned about “the increasing sophistication of various criminal elements,” so it adopted the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), patterned after a similar federal law. RICO is often used to try to prove that a legal business was being used for illegal means, and, in the beginning, was used to prosecute drug traffickers or organized crime members.

But in recent years prosecutors have applied RICO to government officials accused of using their offices for personal gain---such as those named here---the various former and current Atlanta public school officials.

To bring a case under Georgia’s RICO law, there must be at least two underlying felonies — such as fraud, bribery, witness tampering (among others). RICO allows prosecutors to include multiple defendants charged with various crimes in the self-same indictment, and to charge that they were allegedly part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.

==============================================

Alert, concerned, no-nonsense Atlanta parents and school officials---mostly black---not only saw through the conniving and criminal behavior of Beverly Hall---they took concrete steps to expose her frauds.

NYC (and Atlanta) need to check school budgets---they're in for a huge surprise. When Supt Beverly Hall left predominantly black Newark, NJ schools, $73 million went missing from the education budget---Hall has never been charged.

[Tax-chick]

... the Department of Education finally moved to remove Principal Marcella Sills ...

Notice that it says "moved to remove," not "removed."