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 shockwaves 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 the Astoria school, which was threatened with closure for poor results when she arrived, was rife with turmoil and tensions. Dozens of staffers, 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 UFT 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 – and even some kids teachers had never even 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.'” In a common practice citywide, teachers would give failing students a few last-ditch assignments to pass them “with much less work than what they required in class.”
“They do promote students who should not have been promoted,” Lignou added.
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 and Administrators, the principals’ union, did not respond to a request for comment.
Dwarka’s scandals go back years. In 2013, she confined more than 20 students with behavior problems in a moldy outdoor trailer that looked like a shipping container, 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.
“New York City gave me a diploma I didn’t deserve,” she said. Her teacher blamed “a tremendous amount of pressure” to pass kids.
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 career-ready. 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?”
Dwarka has curried favor with DOE brass as Bryant’s lagging graduation rate, which was 56.5 percent when she started in 2011, slightly below the citywide average.
Last year, Bryant’s graduation rate was 87 percent — about the same as citywide — with 61 percent deemed able to enroll in CUNY without remedial help.
Dwarka’s farewell note to the faculty and staff said, “I encourage all of you to continue on the relentless quest for excellence and provide our students with the highest quality instruction and support.”
