The sister of teachers-union President Michael Mulgrew was wrist-slapped Monday for operating a booming tutoring company that was awarded $40 million in work from the city while she was employed as a public-school teacher.
The overlapping gigs got Kathleen Mulgrew-Daretany a warning letter from the city Conflicts of Interest Board, after it determined that her work for Brienza’s Academic Advantage violated city conflict-of-interest rules.
While Mulgrew-Daretany was technically on an extended unpaid maternity leave from 2001 through 2012, she was still barred as a city employee from working at a firm that conducts business with the city.
Mulgrew-Daretany served as COO of the firm from 2008 to 2012, at which point she resigned from her teaching gig.
Officials launched a probe following inquiries by The Post about Mulgrew-Daretany’s employment.
Brienza, which also trains teachers, has raked in nearly $40 million from its work for the Department of Education since 2002.
A message left for Mulgrew-Daretany, who formerly taught at Lafayette HS in Brooklyn, wasn’t returned Monday. A UFT spokesman declined to comment.
Just how did a company that barely had any business with the city start to rake in millions of dollars after UFT President Mike Mulgrew's sister became it's COO while she was on leave from her teaching position with the DOE?
At the same time Mulgrew's sister's company is raking in the bucks, the UFT is caving left and right on teacher evaluations tied to test scores, Danielson, Common Core and all those other swell education reforms that have been used as bludgeons against teachers and schools.
Sure, maybe these two things are just coincidental, the UFT cave-in's would have happened without the Mulgrew-Daretany company raking in millions in DOE contracts.
But surely were you or I to become a COO of some tutoring company start-up, we would not rake in $40 million over our first ten years in the business.
The whole thing stinks and is just another example of how our political and union elites are nothing more than WWE wrestlers, putting on a show for us in the public ("Them's Fighting words!") while behind the scenes it's all one big pig trough of corruption and cronyism.
AND if we did what she did, operating as COO of a DOE affiliate while on a leave, it would result in far more than a slap on the wrist!
ReplyDeleteTrue - we'd end up in the non-existent rubber room.
DeleteWhat more proof do u need that Mulgrew is a phoney Weingarten puppet....he wouldn't know to " s- -t or go blind" without his handlers...
ReplyDeleteI've always thought Weingarten is still calling shots at the UFT.
DeleteAs his family rakes in the,gold....pathetic...
ReplyDeleteIt's enough to make you want to take him out to the woodshed, but we know what happened out there, so we better leave that place unvisited.
DeleteBout time!
ReplyDeleteMulgrew and his sis enjoy double standards of kid gloves.
David Pakter gives a plant and some watches and there's a crazed, overkill campaign.
But you need to leave a trail of dead bodies if you're a leader in the Unity crowd or one of their family.
I'm not sure even a trail of dead bodies would get you in trouble if you're a Unity crony.
DeleteThis is kind of ridiculous to report on. Many many people made money off of the tutoring consultant companies that the DOE hired. I am not related to Mulgrew and was offered a spot running one of the school based sites after school. And I know many people who were offered jobs higher up in tutoring companies if they did a good job. And the comments about Randi? Where does that come from? This whole post, and most of its com!ents sectiom, seems like a bunch of sour grapes to me.
ReplyDeleteNote that the 40 million was made from 2002 but Daretany was involved in 2008. Links with the president are a flimsy conjecture. This blog is irresponsible at best.
ReplyDeleteIf our "union elites" are "nothing more than WWE wrestlers", is the city in on the fix, too? I can totally see Mayor Bloomberg being the Mr. McMahon to Mulgrew's Stone Cold Steve Austin: the billionaire tyrant versus the unabashed, blue-collared rebel. Now that I think about it, our mayor-elect looks alot like a skinny Triple H, but I digress...
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, where is the evidence in your argument that the "UFT is caving left and right on teacher evaluations tied to test scores, Danielson, Common Core..."? Test scores count for 20% of a teacher's evaluationin New York City. In some states, that number is 50%. In Houston, Texas, I believe test scores are 100% of a teacher's evaluation. Let me remind you that an evaluation system was necessary in order to negotiate a much needed (and overdue) contract. You may not necessarily like what you have, but compare your evaluation, along with its 3-man panel to argue some of the most aggregious Ineffective ratings, as well as its mentoring program for Developing and Ineffective teachers (which, by the way, will put the onus on admistrators to prove their ability to properly evaluate teachers) to other eval systems, and let me know what you think. Also, keep in mind that in January, there *was* an eval system in place that the UFT and the city negotiated, but Mayor McMahon backed out at the last minute. So who "caved in" there?
Lastly, please understand that Common Core Learning Standards should not be the topic drawing the ire from our parents and teachers; our concern should be on the *curriculum* and how its been presented to teachers and administrators. There's been little to no training, and materials are *still* being mailed out to schools (my 1st grade daughter received her phonics workbook about 3 weeks ago). Standards had nothing to do with that, therefore the UFT-*your* union-should not be accused of "caving in". Unless, of course, you consider calling for a moritorium on high-stakes testing and creating an evaluation with a sunset clause caving in.