Where did the money go?
PS 106 was allotted $3.3 million in 2013-14, including more than $160,000 in federal Title I funds to serve kids from poor homes.
Yet the “School of No” had a library in shambles, a nurse with no office, no Common Core math or reading books, first-grade special-ed students without a qualified teacher and no payroll secretary to keep the books.
And while the 234 kids lacked basic supplies and services, Principal Marcella Sills found plenty of taxpayer dough to redecorate her office and order catered meals, The Post found. Sills’ third-floor office “looks like a presidential suite,” said former teacher Patricia Walsh.
In 2006, a letter to Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon urged him to visit Sills’ office to see the “elegant furniture” she bought soon after her May 2005 arrival, including a mahogany conference table, cushioned chairs and drapes.
Meanwhile, “Children are sitting at desks that their legs cannot fit under. We have run out of books, pens, pencils, crayons and paints,” the letter says.
A shiny air-conditioning unit hangs in Sills’ office window, while other rooms have old, rusty units.
The letter to Condon and other officials says Sills once spent $4,000 to decorate the auditorium, paying $900 for overnight shipping of a castle that took teachers days to construct and take down.
Sills ordered food galore for staff functions but stiffed several eateries, school sources said.
She racked up $3,100 in deliveries from 101 Deli in 2007 then ducked requests for payments, owner Jerry Bonadonna told The Post.
“She wanted cookies for more than 100 people. I made huge trays of cookies,” Bonadonna said. Sills also ordered trays of sandwiches, Danish, fresh fruit, juice and coffee urns, but never paid, he said.
Sills pulls down $128,000 a year — plus at least $2,900 in overtime pay in 2011 — despite what teachers describe as chronic absenteeism and lateness. Sills could not be reached for comment.