Did DOE set up JFK for failure?

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Ms. Colon was sent to a Teacher Reassignment Center or “rubber room” in 2005 for exposing a scandal in which Regents grades were changed under the leadership of former principal Anthony Rotunno. Although she was later exonerated of the charges, which alleged that she sent confidential student records to Newsday and interfered with a police probe involving the documents, Ms. Colon has not forgotten what it was like to work under the principal.  

In a recent interview, she called Mr. Rotunno’s time at the school the “rein of terror” and said he used punitive measures to punish staff and students and had reactive, not proactive, policies.

“If you complained about something verbal than there was retribution against you, people came to observe you a little more often,” Ms. Colon said. “You were certainly on the black list for speaking up”

She added that the DOE turned the away from problems too often, allowing corruption, like the grade-changing scandal, to continue.

“I think the City, with regards to Kennedy, there was not enough checks and balances ... they waited to long to act,” she said.

Mr. Rotunno was removed last year for allowing the theft of student raised funds.

“The bottom line is enrollment at Kennedy has been dropping for a decade because parents don’t want to send their kids there. The school graduates less than half of their seniors year after year, students feel unsafe there, and new 9th graders don’t earn credits on time. We must do better, which is why we’re proposing to replace Kennedy with new, better options for families," DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld wrote in an e-mail. 

More restructuring

Ms. Winderbaum said around 2007 JFK did away with academic departments, a change that caused complete chaos.

She said before the department restructuring, the school was organized by subjects such as math, English and social studies. Teachers of the same subject could work together and share supplies. Under the new system, teachers from various grade levels who taught different subjects were arbitrarily grouped and watched over by an assistant principal. 

John F. Kennedy High School, JFK, Kennedy campus, Department of Education, DOE, phase out, United Federation of Teachers, UFT
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