These school leaders should be sent to the principal’s office.
A review site airs the inside scoop on “Administrators in Need of Improvement,” most of whom are still employed in city schools.
Created by the UFT Solidarity teachers’ union group, the list is based on teacher and staffer recommendations and includes a Brooklyn principal accused of giving out unwanted hugs, another who dressed in tight clothing and one referred to as “Lucifer’s sister.”
The number of administrators on the list has grown to 177.
Among those in the rogue’s gallery are Claire Lowenstein, who left PS 133 in Manhattan in November after years of staff and parent complaints, and Debra Mastriano, who heads PS 166 on the Upper West Side, and who has been accused of prohibiting kids’ snacks and of making racist comments. She is currently under investigation.
The list allows for teachers and staffers to enter complaints, which are mostly anonymous.
Carla Ling, the head of PS/MS 120 in the Bronx, has amassed 37 comments, the most of any principal. The Post previously reported that the educator was so ill-mannered even her boss was offended.
Other educators allegedly not making the grade include:
- Sheldon Dempster, principal of JHS 220 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, who reportedly mocked staff members and doled out unwanted hugs. “He knows that hugging female teachers makes the staff uncomfortable, yet he continues to do it. … Since when is it okay for a boss to constantly put their arm around female employees?” one comment read.
- Magdelyn Noboa-Roach, head of PS 69 in Soundview, the Bronx, where complaints were lodged about school safety. A student brought a paintball gun to school in February 2022 and then a school safety agent was stabbed in April trying to protect a guidance counselor from her crazed ex-boyfriend. “She blatantly lied to the news and stated students were NOT in the building and they were. We all hid in closets praying for our lives,” one commenter claimed, although it’s unclear which incident was being referred to.
- Sara Medina, principal of PS 85 in Fordham Heights, the Bronx, was said to harass colleagues “by marking effective teachers as ineffective, degrading them in front of students, and displaying classless behavior when she does not ‘get her way,’ ” according to one teacher. Another complaint said she “treats the school hallways as a runway, she wears these really tight bright dresses and has her makeup heavily done every single day.”
- At PS 131 in Borough Park, Principal Stamatina “Tina” Hatzimichalis was described as a mean leader who made educators miserable and drove them away. “Get Lucifer’s sister out of there and bring back positive harmony to this school,” one poster said.
- Jessica Fitzpatrick, the assistant principal at PS 37R in Great Kills, Staten Island, was described as a “wicked leader” who used DOE supplies for personal craft projects and school electricity to charge her Tesla. “She allows certain rooms in the building to be used as a hang out for her and her chosen favorites. They sit on their phones, vaping with music blasting and the door locked.”
The UFT group said principals make the list “when a teacher describes the principal’s behavior as immoral, criminal, discriminatory, unethical, or abusive.”
“Behavior that falls into any of those categories should not be exhibited by anyone, and certainly not by an individual running a school,” UFT Solidarity said.
It also asks anyone who thinks they have made the list in error to email the group.
Dempster denied the allegations of inappropriate hugging and said the complaints about him came from a disgruntled former dean and her friends.
“She thought by putting stuff up there she’d get me fired,” he said.
Fitzpatrick declined to comment.
Noboa-Roach, Medina and Hatzimichalis did not return requests for comment, nor did the principal’s union and the DOE.
