SAME AS OLD BOSS
Staff: New principal repeats grade-fix trick
Grade-fixing is still in the curriculum at a high school in Mayor de Blasio’s embattled “Renewal” program.
Former principal Santiago Taveras was removed from DeWitt Clinton HS in The Bronx in November after investigators found he improperly changed grades and retaliated against a teacher who refused to pass an undeserving student.
Yet on the heels of that scandal, complaints to the DOE have emerged that Taveras’ successor, Pierre Orbe, a 39-year-old firsttime principal, pressured teachers to fix grades.
Teachers allege the were summoned individually to a “Fall Semester Final Grades Meeting”and handed packets with an “agenda” and grade- changing forms. Teachers sat across a table from Orbe, who expressed dissatisfaction with how they had calculated final grades.
“He wanted to coerce the teachers into changing grades instead of doing it himself,” a school source told The Post. “He made it clear that if they didn’t comply, there would be consequences. Eventually some teachers gave in because they couldn’t take it anymore.”
A letter sent to Department of Education officials says Orbe told a teacher to recalculate the final grades for four failing students, insisting the lowest possible score in a marking period be 45 percent — even if the kid never showed up.
“He told me to fill out a grade-change form and write down ‘miscalculation’ as the reason,” said the teacher. The teacher refused.
Another teacher, who assured Orbe that his students “received the grades they earned,” said the principal became “confrontational.”
Orbe questioned the teacher’s “inability” to calculate an average, the teacher said. “The tone of the meeting made me feel disrespected.”
The teacher did not change the grades, noting that Orbe had already referred the students for “credit recovery” — online courses given to failing kids as a last resort.
At least 12 students put in the quickie courses don’t qualify under DOE rules because their attendance was below 66 percent, insiders said.
Now Clinton is in the cross hairs of the “highest authorities” of the DOE, Orbe wrote in a stern memo to staff.
“This issue is on the radar of the DOE . . . This issue could be large and it won’t be this principal who fails for this,” Orbe wrote. He warned that teachers will take the blame if grades are “miscalculated” — even though he approved the changes.
Clinton, with nearly 1,700 students, is one of the biggest schools in the mayor’s Renewal program, which is pouring an extra $754 million into 75 struggling campuses.
The 100-year-old school boasts an honors program and winning sports teams, but admits many low-performing kids. Last year’s graduation rate was 46 percent, with only 19 percent deemed college-ready.
Taveras was paid $198,000 last year, including a $25,000 bonus and overtime, the DOE said. He was demoted to “educational administrator” in a Bronx office making $149,826. Orbe, whose base salary is $148,658, previously was vice principal at Talent Unlimited, a 500-student performing-arts school in Manhattan. Orbe did not return messages.
The DOE said it is investigating.