Principal ‘fails up’ to new DOE post
Qns. 'grade-fixer' gets a promotion
The city Department of Education has promoted a Queens high-school principal whose reign was marred by alleged grade-fixing and intimidation, The Post has learned.
Namita Dwarka, the controversial — and often reviled — principal of William Cullen Bryant HS, told staff in a farewell note, “As of Monday, August 29th, I will be assuming the position of Deputy Superintendent.”
“It’s a new low for the DOE,” said City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who has urged Chancellor David Banks to crack down on school culture that turns a blind eye to academic fraud in schemes to boost graduation rates. “She shouldn’t be working in the DOE, much less in a leadership role.”
Dwarka, with a $198,000 salary, will serve as deputy to Josephine Van-Ess, superintendent of the Queens South HS district, overseeing 29 schools. Bryant HS is in the Queens North district. Banks has given more power to superintendents in his DOE reorganization.
The appointment sent shock waves through Queens education circles.
“She’s got a terrible reputation among teachers. I’ve been hearing horror stories about her for years,” said Arthur Goldstein, a teacher at Francis Lewis HS in Queens. “She inspires good people to leave the system at a time that we sorely need them.”
Dwarka’s 11-year tenure at Bryant, which was threatened with closure for poor results when she arrived, was rife with turmoil and tensions. Dozens of staffers at the Astoria school, including assistant principals, quit under her “dictatorship” or were forced out, insiders say. Morale was low.
“She was the one willing to do the dirty work,” said Sam Lazarus, a former teacher and United Federation of Teachers chapter leader. “It was not a happy place.”
But Dwarka demanded more than hard work and good teaching to boost the school’s performance statistics, whistleblowers say.
Just two months ago, Georgia Lignou, a Bryant teacher and current UFT chapter leader, wrote a letter to Dwarka decrying pressure from administrators to promote students who skipped classes or did little or no work — even some kids teachers had never seen.
Teachers were “intimidated by the tone” of emails they received from supervisors. When asked to “provide support,” Lignou wrote, “what they hear is ‘We want you to pass this student.’ ”
The DOE gave no comment on the complaints or on Dwarka’s announcement. “Ms. Dwarka passed an internal background check and will be considered for a position as deputy superintendent,” said spokeswoman Chyann Tull.
The DOE’s Office of Special Investigations has an open case at Bryant HS, but “it doesn’t name Dwarka,” officials said.
Dwarka could not be reached for comment. The Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, the principals union, did not respond to a request for comment.
Dwarka has curried favor with DOE brass as Bryant’s lagging graduation rate, which in 2011, when she started, was 56.5%, slightly below the citywide average, climbed last year to 87% — about the same as the citywide average — with 61% of students deemed able to enroll in CUNY without remedial help.
However, Dwarka’s scandals go back years. In 2013, she confined more than 20 students with behavior problems in a moldy outdoor trailer, where they stayed the whole day while teachers took turns going in.
Dwarka called it “the Scholars Academy.” One mom said, “You might as well send them to Rikers Island.”
In 2014, dozens of students were falsely labeled “former English language learners” to grant them an extra hour to finish the Regents exams, teachers alleged. Many such students were native English speakers or otherwise proficient.
In 2015, then-Chancellor Carmen Fariña appointed a task force on academic policy after a series of reports in The Post. In one, an 18-year-old Bryant student admitted she regularly skipped a government class, had failing grades, and even missed the final exam — yet received a passing score of 65 to graduate.
Another report detailed Bryant’s
online summer-school classes that let kids surf the Internet to plug in answers.
“They’re not learning. They’re not becoming college- or careerready. They’re just getting out of high school,” veteran math teacher Mary Bozoyan complained at the time.
After her comments, Bozoyan, who suffers physical disabilities and difficulty walking, was locked out of a restroom next to her classroom and forced to use one down the hall. The teacher said Dwarka also refused her plea to use a side entrance with fewer steps, calling it “retaliation — and heartlessness.”
“I felt a mix of anger and sadness,” the since-retired Bozoyan said last week of Dwarka’s promotion. “I have just one question: Why, Chancellor Banks, why?”