The good news is Marcella Sills has been sacked as principal of PS 106 in Rockaway — largely because of The Post’s exposé.
The bad news? First, that it took a newspaper campaign to get it done. Second, that the city’s taxpayers will probably be paying her for some time to come.
The Post exposed Sills’ reign of error back in January. In that original report, this paper revealed how PS 106 students lacked textbooks, watched movies because there were no gym or art classes, had a library in shambles, etc. A follow-up dispatch reported that while the kids went without, Principal Sills redecorated her office in a manner befitting what one former teacher called “a presidential suite.”
In his letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina, the official who looked into conditions at the school confirmed the investigation was launched “following the publication of an article in the New York Post.” Most of the report focused on Sills’ attendance, finding that she “was frequently late or absent from work” — but received her full salary nonetheless.
A spokesman for the Department of Education says it plans to follow the investigator’s recommendation that Sills be fired. Unfortunately, it won’t end there. The Website for the New York State School Boards Association says the average time for a disciplinary proceeding is 520 days, at an average cost of $128,000.
All the while, Marcella Sills will be paid. So even though Sills may no longer be principal of PS 106, it seems the system will give her, at least for a while, what she wanted: a no-show job with pay.