HS VISION DERISION
Ed. big unfair to visually impaired kid: kin
The principal of a top Queens high school “purposely sabotaged” a visually impaired student while the educator was an administrator at Bronx Science HS, the student’s family alleges.
Townsend Harris interim principal Rosemarie Jahoda would not let Eva Hangartner take honors classes while an underclassman at Bronx Science and undercut her performance in a calculus class, her mother, Anna Schuchmann, told The Post.
Hangartner, a track star who has a genetic eye disorder that makes it difficult to read a blackboard, has an individual education plan that allows her to get copies of teacher notes.
After she failed to pass a placement exam for honors-level math classes as a freshman, family mem- bers said they asked Jahoda, then assistant principal of math at Bronx Science, for practice exam questions as part of an appeal to retake the test.
But Jahoda, 55, denied the appeal and the requests.
“It was her math teacher’s understanding and communicated to me that one could appeal,” said the mom. “Apparently the appeal process was valid for all of the school but not in the math department.”
Hangartner, the National Honor Society president and a co-captain of the track team, got into an advanced-placement calculus class as a senior. She asked her math teacher for copies of her notes, but her teacher refused, saying Jahoda gave the order, Schuchmann said.
Hangartner dropped the class. After she was accepted to Stanford University, her family approached the school’s principal and demanded an explanation for Jahoda’s conduct. Schuchmann, 50, met with both administrators but Jahoda did not apologize, the mother said.
“We weren’t very happy,” Schuchmann said. “She did not take responsibility as head of the math depart- ment for having failed my daughter.”
Jahoda did not return calls and would not answer questions at school meetings last week.
Teachers also filed three grievances against Jahoda in December, including one charging that she created a “hostile environment toward the union rep at the school,” union officials told The Post.
Parents and alumni are circulating a petition, with 3,673 signatures so far, demanding her ouster.
Jahoda may be losing support from the Chancellor’s Office. She told parents and teachers Thursday that DOE officials asked her to step aside as head of Townsend’s leadership team.
A Department of Education spokesman said the city will repost the principal’s job opening on Feb. 1. Jahoda, who earns $146,813 a year, remains interim principal.