WASTE: Teacher Francesco Portelos, who says he was reassigned unfairly, streams his boredom on the Web to reveal new “rubber rooms.” (
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This is how you stick it to the man 2.0.
A rebellious Staten Island technology teacher has been streaming live video of the Queens “rubber room” office to which he’s been banished, in a bid to document the tedium and utter waste of taxpayer money.
The video shows reassigned IS 49 teacher Francesco Portelos — who was pulled from the classroom in April over what he claims are retaliatory allegations by his bosses — seated in front of a laptop at a conference-room table lined with empty chairs.
For much of the hours-long streaming, Portelos looks like any average Joe in a shirt and tie, working in a nondescript office — which makes for extremely dull viewing. But that’s the point.
“It’s a conference room with a table and chairs and filing cabinets. That’s it. I’m not given any work,” said Portelos, one of the few reassigned teachers to be warehoused alone. “It feels like I’m a rat in a cage.”
He says allegations were made against him only after he lodged complaints earlier this year of financial misconduct by a school administrator.
Since then, school officials have filed more than a dozen additional complaints against him — prompting a probe by the special commissioner of investigation but, as of yet, no charges.
Portelos had been meticulously documenting his battle against the DOE on his blog, protectportelos.org, but decided to ramp up the fight by live-streaming using a tablet.
“When I’m blogging about this, I feel like I’m writing fiction,” he said. “This is not real, what’s happening.” “I’ve been trying to make as much noise as possible, and I guess today really hit because the DOE investigators contacted me to speak about my allegations against the administrators of my school.”
The all-too-familiar image of a teacher sitting around collecting $75,000 a year doing nothing runs counter to the city’s claims that rubber rooms no longer exist.
The holding pens that used to house hundreds of teachers accused of misconduct were reportedly abolished by the city two years ago, but new, smaller reassignment centers have cropped up in their place — something The Post has reported.
“It’s different from the rubber rooms of 2010, where everyone’s in the same room,” said Portelos. “Here, they spread everyone out so you’re mixed in with the other employees. No one knows who’s who. It’s very strategic.”
Officials at the Department of Education would not describe the allegations against Portelos, but said they’re serious enough to warrant his removal from the classroom.
They also denied that rubber rooms still exist.
“All teachers who have been reassigned are working under supervision in an administrative capacity,” said a DOE spokeswoman. “Francesco Portelos has been extremely difficult to work with, was transferred twice, and there are multiple investigations pending against him.”
Portelos claims most of the allegations against him involved frivolous charges — including that of hacking into his school’s Web site.