They’ve been rubber marooned for five to seven years each.
The city Department of Education has kept three accused teachers on the payroll, but confined to menial office tasks since seeking to fire them in 2009 to 2011. One takes home nearly $100,000 a year, and they all get contractually mandated raises.
It’s a violation of a major 2010 agreement between the DOE and the United Federation of Teachers to break up the infamous holding pens dubbed “rubber rooms.”
In the pact, former Chancellor Joel Klein and union president Michael Mulgrew agreed to end long delays in the handling of educators charged with misconduct or incompetence.
But the rules have collapsed in several cases. Arbitrators who have 30 days to file their rulings after completing termination trials simply abandoned the cases, and the DOE says it could do nothing about it.
“They’ve been in limbo for nearly six years — collecting full pay and benefits but just sitting here doing nothing with no light at the end of the tunnel,” a reassigned educator said of two tenured teachers waiting long overdue rulings at 28-11 Queens Plaza North.
Robert Bradbury, 47, who taught history at John Bowne HS in Flushing, mans the reception desk. He made $84,104 in 2015.
Bradbury was accused of incompetence by Principal Howard Kwait, who has since cost the city more than $500,000 in settlements with two assistant principals who accused Kwait of sexual harassment, and a student falsely blamed for sending menacing e-mails to staffers.
Bradbury’s trial ended July 5, 2011, but arbitrator Leona Barsky failed to file a ruling.
“I had to step away from the case due to the recurrence of my breast cancer,” Barsky told The Post. She’s been removed from a panel of hearing officers.
Joshua Cutler, 36, an English-as-a-second-language teacher at IS 10 Horace Greeley, makes photocopies in the Queens office. He was paid $67,672 last year.
Back in 2011, Cutler, was yanked from his classroom for tussling with a student.
“One of the most violent kids in my class accused me of intentionally bending his wrist to try to hurt him,” he told NPR in 2013. “I did break up fights repeatedly, but I never intentionally caused harm to a child.”
Cutler said he would not quit his DOE job: “I’m fighting this till the very end, no matter what.”
Arbitrator Beverly Harrison, also removed from a panel of DOE hearing officers, never ruled.
Seven years ago in May 2009, Laurie Goldstone, a teacher at P.S. 268 Emma Lazarus in East Flatbush, was charged with incompetence and reassigned to clerical duties, officials said. Arbitrator Adam Goldberg conducted her hearing but left the post in 2010-11 without filing a ruling. Goldstone took home $98,366 in 2015.
The DOE cannot fire tenured teachers unless an arbitrator says so.
Arbitrators get paid $1,400 for each day they work on a case after filing their rulings.
While state law mandates decisions 30 days after a trial, they typically take four to six months, said Betsy Combier, a paralegal who defends teachers.
“The DOE does not hold arbitrators accountable for missing the deadline,” she contends.
But DOE officials said state law has no penalty for arbitrators who drop the ball, and no process to re-do a hearings with different arbitrators.
“We have repeatedly reached out to the independent arbitrators handling these cases to issue their decisions, and their failure to do so is unacceptable,” said DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye. “We are evaluating new options to close these cases, as well as options for penalizing arbitrators who fail to issue timely decisions.”