IT'S A MATTER OF PRINCIPAL
Alum of infamous PS in charter bid
She wants to make up for one of New York City’s worst principals.
Far Rockaway, Queens, native Regina Johnson, an alumnus of local PS 106 — the infamous “School of No” — says hooky-playing exprincipal Marcella Sills betrayed her students and their families.
Johnson, 27, is now a principalin-residence at Legacy Academy, a California charter high school, and plans to found her own outpost in her old Queens surfside neighborhood, which suffers from a dearth of good schools.
“As one of the Far Rockaway students who was able to gain a college education, I feel it’s my responsibility to reinvest in the community,” Johnson told The Post.
While Johnson was a well-behaved child who earned good grades, she doesn’t have happy memories of her Beach 35th Street alma mater.
“I remember the school being very dark inside with metal bars on all of the windows, and for many years my classes were in a trailer.”
The school’s principal, she recalls, was “a tall white man with a bald head.”
Johnson graduated from PS 106 in 2000, five years before Sills took over. She learned about Sills’ atrocious nine-year reign from The Post’s series of articles.
Ousted for fraud and misconduct in 2014, Sills trashed her duty to serve as a black role model, Johnson says: “That is what makes her failure so disappointing.”
At age 10, Johnson moved to North Carolina with her disabled mom because they couldn’t afford to live in New York City.
Johnson’s awakening as a civic leader came while studying at historically black North Carolina Central University. She later earned a master’s degree in education from Brooklyn College, where she focused on disabled kids.
She is now working toward a second master’s degree, in school leadership, at High Tech High Graduate School of Education in San Diego.
Johnson plans to model her Grade 9-12 charter on High Tech High, an unorthodox school where learning is project-based.
For instance, the school’s Spanish teacher, who is also a carpenter, has students build chests to fill with first-aid supplies and Spanish notes that a humanitarian group stashes near the Mexican border for people crossing illegally.
At her proposed Far Rockaway charter, Johnson says each class will have a community partner.
She envisions geometry students using math to repair and beautify the boardwalk. Science students will study the shore and work with environmental groups.
“They will finish high school with a list of things they’ve done and created,” she said.
Johnson’s plans come as the city Department of Education announced it will close two low-performing Far Rockaway middle schools this year.
Johnson expects to enroll many struggling students, and has been visiting local school leaders “to get input on what their students will need in high school.”
However, Johnson has yet to be welcomed back at PS 106. She recently returned to the school to introduce herself to Rachelle Legions, who succeeded Sills as principal, but Legions was unavailable to meet.
Johnson must file a charter application with SUNY by July. With approval, she can open the school in fall 2019.