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Muscota New School Parents Protest Ouster of Popular Special Ed Teacher

By Carla Zanoni | July 2, 2010 4:05pm | Updated on July 2, 2010 3:42pm
The crowd of parents formed before classes on June 24.
The crowd of parents formed before classes on June 24.
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DNAinfo/ Carla Zanoni

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

INWOOD —Parents of students with special needs at the Muscota New School on Broadway are fighting an outgoing principal's decision to oust a popular teacher.

Anamaria Flores was denied tenure by principal Tomasz Grabski at the end of the school year, effectively firing her. Parents say the decision was unwarranted.

"This is pure bureaucracy," Shannon Park, president of the Parents' Association, said after a rally at the school last week where roughly 50 parents, teachers and students turned out to protest Flores' firing. "This is why our best and brightest will go on to attend charter and private schools.”

The conflict began at the 265-seat elementary school this fall, when parents took issue with Grabski's management style and accused him of mishandling funds, bullying teachers and ignoring them. They tried to get him fired, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Some parents suspect that Grabski's move on Flores was retaliation against parents for their complaints.

Grabski, who was the head of Muscota for two years, declined requests for comment.

But the city's Department of Education stood by him.

“During his two years at the school, he particularly targeted ineffective teaching,” the DOE said in a statement. “In the case of a special education teacher who was denied tenure, several Central staff members have reviewed the supporting documentation and agree with Principal Grabski’s recommendation.”

Education officials said he was moving to become principal at a middle school in East Harlem. They did not specify which school.

An interim principal will manage Muscota during the summer, a DOE spokeswoman said. They did not identify who will take the job, but they said they expect to have a new principal in place by fall.

Under his tenure, the school's city-issued report card went from an B to an A, not an F to an A as was originally reported by the Department of Education to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. In fact, the school had been given a grade of F the year before Grabski took the reins.

Flores, 30, who came to Muscota last year and has been a teacher for three years, said that until she got her unsatisfactory rating from Grabski, she believed she had been doing a good job.

“I thought I had a phenomenal school year,” she told DNAinfo. “I worked with a phenomenal community of parents, learners and environment. I really didn’t see this coming in this direction.”

Flores said she is fighting the decision through the United Federation of Teachers, but is told that fight may take up to one year to resolve.

A DOE spokeswoman said a new special ed teacher will also be hired by the fall.