The sister of Gov. Cuomo’s crooked pal Joseph Percoco landed in hot water herself after missing hundreds of days at her Staten Island teaching job.
Vita Percoco’s absences were so disruptive to kindergarten kids at PS 3 that the city Department of Education sought to fire her.
The DOE charged that during three school years, beginning in 2013-14, Percoco was “excessively absent (and) engaged in verbal abuse, misconduct, insubordination, neglect of her duties and conduct unbecoming her profession,” says a recently released disciplinary decision obtained by The Post.
Percoco’s older brother, who once worked as a top aide to Cuomo, faces up to 50 years in prison after he was convicted last month on corruption charges. Percoco was found to have accepted some $300,000 in bribes, most coming in the form of a “low-show job” for his wife to teach children about energy.
Vita Percoco, 41, has been a city teacher since 1999, including six years at PS 3 in Pleasant Plains.
A school probe substantiated verbal-abuse allegations against her in 2016, resulting in a letter of reprimand, the DOE said. She was removed from teaching from September 2016 to March 2017 pending proceedings to fire her.
At her hearing, the DOE contended Percoco “made the task of educating students at PS 3 much more difficult,” and “was out more times than she was at work.”
Although Percoco suffered from an unspecified ailment, and was out on approved leave for some days, her principal testified about his frustration “that the way she took leave made it impossible to plan for her students.” In 2014-15 alone, she missed 80 days, records show.
The principal also said hiring substitutes cost upwards of $167 a day.
Percoco faulted the principal and assistant principal: “If they were genuinely concerned but needed to know the duration of the absence, why did they not try to find out? This conduct shows profound bad faith,” she testified, the report states.
But Percoco admitted that her students did not have continuity of instruction in 2015-16, when she was out 60 times.
Hearing officer Mary O’Connell substantiated only the charges of excessive absenteeism and failing to notify administrators of a five-day absence in 2016.
Percoco “knew, or should have known that there are consequences to a failure to report to work, even if one is legitimately ill and unable to do so,” O’Connell wrote in a Jan. 20, 2017 decision.
But O’Connell decided against firing Percoco, and fined her $5,000.
She wrote that Percoco had learned more about her health issues and had missed just one day of work between September 2016 and January 2017.
Percoco, whose current salary is $97,133, refused to comment. But a source close to the family said she was glad the situation was behind her and was back working full-time.
Percoco was placed in the Absent Teacher Reserve, a pool of substitute educators without permanent posts. She is currently assigned to the Pre-K to 1rst grade Port Richmond School for Visionary Learning.
