One of the worst schools for teachers to find themselves in is William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens. This school has one of the lowest Principal trust factors by teachers in the city at28%. Furthermore, this school has seen all but one Assistant Principal leave the school since 2013 and I have been told of the 176 teachers on staff when the current Principal, Namita Dwarka came in, only 37 are left or 21% have survived her oppressive four year leadership. This unusually high teacher turnover is more reminiscent of a small deep poverty school or a charter school than a large comprehensive high school. The school has suffered from low morale and both student and teacher walkouts as well as protests, yet the DOE ignores the administrative caused problems at the school.
The current Principal Ms. Dwarka, has seen her school's "college and career readiness" rates keep dropping during her tenure to a low point of 34% in the latest school snapshot, despite a student body.that draws from the middle to working class communities of Astoria and Long Island City and has a diverse student population. Interestingly, a Principal favored Assistant Principal who was accused of a sexual relationship with a student and was removed by the DOE has somehow reappeared at her old position back at the school this school year. Was she cleared and found innocent of the accusation or was it substantiated but covered up? The issue should be clarified on why she got her job back.
Back to Principal Dwarka. She has found herself under various investigations for grade fixing, financial fraud, and retaliation. Moreover, Ms. Dwarka has been accused of academic fraud and she is instrumental in pushing teachers out of her school even if it means filing 3020-a charges against these teachers for otherwise frivolous actions. Rather than go over each accusation against Ms. Dwarka you can read my previous posts on herHere. Better yet, the show Crime Watch had a major piece on Principal Namita Dwara and you can watch the entire show Here. Then there were front page headlines of a student who never attended her class but was passed and graduated anyway.
The bottom line is that any teacher who want to work in the school should have their head examined. There is no parking, an abusive and untrustworthy school administration, and accusations of academic fraud that has resulted in high teacher turnover and an unstable school climate. Stay away from William Cullen Bryant High School.