By SUSAN EDELMAN
Last Updated: 8:31 AM, January 29, 2012
Hell no, he won’t go.
In a defiant raspberry to the city Department of Education — and taxpayers — disgraced teacher Alan Rosenfeld, 66, won’t retire.
Deemed a danger to kids, the typing teacher with a $10 million real estate portfolio hasn’t been allowed in a classroom for more than a decade, but still collects $100,049 a year in city salary — plus health benefits, a growing pension nest egg, vacation and sick pay.
Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo can call for better teacher evaluations until they’re blue-faced, but Rosenfeld and six peers with similar gigs costing about $650,000 a year in total salaries are untouchable. Under a system shackled by protections for tenured teachers, they can’t be fired, the DOE says.
“It’s an F-U,” a friend of Rosenfeld said of his refusal to quit.
“He’s happy about it, and very proud that he beat the system. This is a great show-up-but-don’t-do-anything job.”
Accused in 2001 of making lewd comments and ogling eighth-grade girls’ butts at IS 347 in Queens, Rosenfeld was slapped with a week off without pay after the DOE failed to produce enough witnesses at a hearing.
But instead of returning Rosenfeld to the classroom, the DOE kept him in one of its notorious “rubber rooms,” where teachers in misconduct cases sat idle or napped. As The Post reported, Rosenfeld kept busy managing his many investment properties and working on his law practice. He’s a licensed attorney and real-estate broker.
Since the DOE closed the teacher holding pens in June 2010, those facing disciplinary charges were scattered to offices and given tasks such as answering phones, filing and photocopying.
But Rosenfeld and six others whose cases have long been closed are “permanently reassigned.” Rosenfeld reports to the Division of School Facilities, which maintains DOE buildings, in a warehouse in Long Island City.
Asked what work he does, Rosenfeld laughingly told his friend, “Oh, I Xeroxed something the other day.”
Rosenfeld could have retired four years ago at 62, but his pension grows by $1,700 for each year he stays — even without teaching. If he quit today, his annual pension would total an estimated $85,400.
“Why not make it bigger?” the friend said.
Rosenfeld will also get paid for 100 unused sick days when he leaves.
New York has no mandatory retirement age for teachers.
That let rubber-room granddaddy Roland Pierre make a mockery of the system. He finally retired at age 76 last year — 14 years after he was yanked from PS 138 in Brooklyn and never taught again. Criminal charges in 1997 that he molested a sixth-grade girl were dropped. He got $97,101 a year.
“It’s a tremendous waste of money,” said Marcus Winters, a Manhattan Institute expert on teacher evaluation. “While we don’t want to remove people just because they’ve been accused, we also want the school system to cut ties with teachers it’s not going to put in the classroom.”
But Winters added, “If these people are actually dangerous, it’s better to waste the money than to put them back with kids.”
Additional reporting by Gary Buiso and Michael Gartland
fucking liberals.
this isnt a liberal or republican issue. Im a liberal and hearing these stories will piss anyone off.
if your a liberal? time to think about what that is. cause that is a very basic liberal policy. wealth transfer to gov dole employees. maybe your not a liberal?
* you are. pathetic A game fuck up.
you need to stop listening to rush limbaugh or whatever is poisoning your brains. Corruption is rampant on both sides of the isle.
no shit. but this is a liberal policy. maybe you dont know what a liberal is?
The policy of tenure, which allows this man to keep his job, is due entirely to teacher’s unions.
agreed. and they are liberal as a voter block. if one is a liberal they are with the teachers union. then again maybe not?!? does not seem that complicated. who really cares if the dude worked or not? the gov dole spiget is always on. where it goes is almost irrelevant.
Teacher’s unions and the liberal politicians who support teachers and Gov’t employee unions like SEIU for their votes. Then give them the store once elected. They are not the fiduciaries of the citizenry.
Unbelievable, this really highlights the importance of Gov. Walker’s upcoming recall election
there is nothing unbelievable about it. ever heard of the 50$ hammer, back in 1980? this is how government works. what is the problem? teachers dont really work they fuck off then get pensions til death.
player haters.
lol…yep.
Thx for making the effort to describe the terminlogy for the beginners!