A superintendent called a “tyrant” and accused of “gross mismanagement” will no longer run the city Department of Education’s adult education program, The Post has learned.
Rose Marie Mills was removed this month as superintendent of the Office of Adult and Continuing Education, an internal DOE letter reveals.
“Hallelujah!” one teacher declared at the news. “I prayed a lot — Please move Mills, please move her!’’
But staffers were disappointed that Mills, who made $187,000 last year, was given a cushy new job as an “instructional superintendent.”
“Why does that woman still have a job? Why does she still have a paycheck?” a teacher asked.
Mills’ ouster comes three years after The Post first reported on problems in the adult-ed program — 28,700 students age 21 and up who never graduated high school, or came to America with few English skills.
Despite a $52 million budget in 2016-17, the OACE awarded only 150 high-school equivalency diplomas, down from 299 the year before.
Staffers charged that Mills, who took over in 2012, hired cronies without adult-ed experience as her administrators. Instead of focusing on teacher training and curriculum, they said, she demanded excessive testing to inflate a state rating.
She also ordered underlings to give staffers undeserved bad reviews, and discriminated against older teachers, they alleged.
The City Council’s education committee held a hearing on adult-ed in September 2017, but DOE officials — under then-Chancellor Carmen Fariña — defended Mills.
The tide turned after Richard Carranza succeeded Fariña last year, and Mayor de Blasio’s office met with retired and former OACE teachers.
Carranza named Timonthy Lisante executive superintendent in charge of District 79 alternative schools and adult-ed. Lisante apointed Robert Zweig to run the programs.
Under Zweig, 1,900 students age 17 to 21 last year passed the state test required to earn a high-school equivalency diploma, Lisante said.
Adult-ed staffers are hopeful the program will improve.
“We think it’s going to be more student-focused, and teacher-friendly,” one said.