Adult Ed Superintendent Rose Marie Mills targeted veteran teachers over age and they sue - UFT Mum

At an Ex Bd meeting, an adult ed teacher used her 2-minute open mic period to call attention to a consultation meeting she attended where Rose-Marie Mills castigated and humiliated her. Sitting silently was the UFT District Rep Patty Crispino sat there silently and did not stand up for the teacher.

That was a clue to how the UFT leadership has responded to the repeated complaints from Adult Ed teachers and have allowed Mills to engage in abusive behavior.

Sue Edelman has another one of her Sunday specials exposing supervisor abuse in the NY Post, this time about one of the major DOE slugs, Adult Ed Superintendent Rose-Marie Mills, vicious and despicable, who has been allowed to purge teachers while the UFT leadership sits on its hands. I know, I know -- they brought it up in consultation and then throw their hands up.

Ed Notes has reported on Adult Ed for years. Here are a few from this past year:

• Councilman Danny Dromm Hearing on Adult Ed Issues 
• First UFT Ex Bd Meeting of Year - A Stephen King Horror Movie
• Adult Education Teacher to UFT Exec Bd

One of our long-time pals, Roberta Pikser, who attends most of our pre-Ex bd meetings in the back of the lobby of the UFT, lost her job a year ago in the purge and the UFT has done precious little to help people get their jobs back. At one of the UFT Ex Bd meetings, a retired adult ed chapter leader castigated the leadership for lack of action, but when I asked if I could publish her speech she declined, saying she wanted to work behind the scenes with the leadership. Good luck to that.

Arthur has a post on this today - Another Day, Another Abusive Administrator -

Fired adult ed. teacher Roberta Pikser has been coming fairly regularly to Executive Board meetings. I've gotten to hear a lot about this firsthand. A lot of what I hear seems outright scandalous, so was pretty happy to read about it today in the Post. They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this particular branch of the Department of Education seems infected to the core.

UFT is an enabler of abusive principals
I also think the UFT/Unity leadership also seems infected to the core - with a defeatist non-militant approach to the slugs running so many districts and schools. The NY Teacher should be loaded with stories as should UFT social media.

I believe that every principal has to live in fear of a UFT reaction -- and also the CSA must know that they will not have a cozy relationship with the UFT.

A comment on the suit:

And our union emphatically told the chapter that an age discrimination lawsuit was a waste of time and not a good strategy. And here a small group of determined teachers have filed a legit suit and it has garnered attention in two newspapers!

BRAVO! 

Note that de Blasio did his political attack on the NY Post claiming he hopes it will disappear --- maybe because of stories like this.

Superintendent targeted veteran teachers over age: suit

By Susan Edelman

June 2, 2018


An adult-education superintendent who already has cost the city $362,000 in a disability-discrimination settlement now faces accusations she targeted 13 teachers because of their age.
Rose-Marie Mills, who heads the city’s Office of Adult and Continuing Education, is waging a campaign to get rid of veteran, high-performing educators in their 50s, 60s and 70s, the teachers say.
“I want blood,” Mills allegedly told a former principal, the teachers’ lawyer, Bryan Glass, wrote last month to the state Division of Human Rights, which is investigating.
If the division finds the complaint is valid, the teachers could sue the city, raising the prospect of more payouts.
The office serves about 41,000 students citywide, holding English classes for immigrants and others age 21 and up who want to obtain high-school equivalency degrees. Despite a $52 million budget, the office awarded only 150 diplomas last school year, The Post has reported.
Last June, the city Department of Education settled for $362,000 a suit from an office director, whom Mills had terminated after he was diagnosed with a medical condition requiring brain surgery.


One former OACE assistant principal, Luckisha Amankwah, has filed a suit claiming Mills demoted her for refusing to give bad reviews to two teachers whom Amankwah believed didn’t deserve them.
Of the teachers who filed the complaints, three were fired and want their jobs back, along with back pay and other lost benefits. The others want unsatisfactory ratings overturned.
The complaints are filled with horror stories.
Lisa Miller, 58, who has a Master’s Degree in teaching English as a second language, said administrators cited her for extending a lesson and not telling students to “turn and talk to your partner.”
“They would ask me to do something one day, and fault me for not doing something else another day,” she states. “Despite evidence that I did the things they asked me to do, they denied that I did them.”
Roberta Pikser, 76, was let go and replaced with a younger ESL instructor.
“After nearly 20 years of commendable service, I suddenly became a bad teacher,” Pikser said. “Although I did what the principal asked of me, it was not deemed satisfactory. What had been praised in previous lessons was now condemned.”
Several students wrote letters praising Pikser. Fecumdo Ferrayra, from Argentina, said she helped him improve his English, write a résumé and prepare for job interviews.
Sarah Tyson, 63, said her supervisor berated and screamed at her.
“It was a shock to me. I was targeted and I didn’t know why,” she said, adding that she learned the same thing was happening to other older staffers.
The teachers hope new Chancellor Richard Carranza takes a hard look at Mills.
“She runs her team using fear and intimidation,” a former manager said. “There’s been a huge loss of institutional memory and expertise. It’s such a crime.”
Reached by phone, Mills told a reporter, “Have a wonderful day,” and hung up.

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DOE spokesman Douglas Cohen said, “We take any discrimination allegations seriously, and are reviewing the complaints.”