Exiled NYC school staffers rake in fat paychecks as human trafficking probe drags on
An NYC principal and his wife, accused masterminds behind a bilingual teacher scandal exposed by The Post, have raked in more than $500,000 in salary for the past two years — while the foreign educators they recruited are forbidden to visit their families back home if they want to keep their jobs.
Some 20 teachers from the Dominican Republic have been barred from traveling outside the US without losing their well-paying Department of Education jobs and enrollment in a city-paid Master’s Degree program amid a federal probe of Bronx principal Emmanuel Polanco, his wife, teacher Sterling Baez, and a group of Dominican-American administrators who allegedly exploited the newcomers.
The Department of Homeland Security has given the teachers, who lost their original visas in the turmoil, a “Continued Presence” status, which is meant for victims of human trafficking to remain in the US as potential witnesses to crimes. Under the rules, they can’t travel outside the country and return pending the probe, teachers told The Post this week.
“The last we heard was that they were still investigating,” one said. “Sometimes I wonder when this is going to end, because it’s been two years already, and we are still waiting.”
“We don’t know what’s happening.” said another Dominican teacher who was warned she might lose her job and protected status if she visited the DR when her mother underwent cancer surgery.
“We are in limbo.”
A third teacher, working in a Bronx high school, can’t visit his family in the DR, though his wife and three kids have come to the US twice to see him in the last two years.
“Nobody tells us anything,” he said. “How long do we have to wait?”
All three teachers asked for anonymity, saying supervisors warned them not to speak to reporters. But they want their plight known.
Homeland Security launched a probe in November 2022 amid complaints that Polanco, principal of JHS 80, led a shake-down scheme to force the teachers to rent overpriced rooms leased by ADASA, a fraternal group of Dominican-American administrators — and threaten them with deportation if they balked.
The DOE yanked Polanco from JHS 80. His wife Sterling Baez, a teacher at PS 595 in the Bronx, was also removed when it emerged she personally bagged more than $3,000 a month from three teachers told to share a Marion Avenue apartment owned by Polanco’s late mom.
Neither has been charged with a crime. They did not return requests for comment.
Polanco and Baez have not returned to their schools, but remain on the city payroll – collecting a combined $245,850 in Fiscal Year 2023 and $311,303 in FY 2024, records show. Polanco’s current salary is $185,112; Baez’’ is $95,365.
Polanco, as first vice president of ADASA, was a pet of then-Chancellor David Banks, who praised the group – dormant since the scandal erupted – for “getting stuff done,” using Mayor Adams’ mantra.
But disturbing details soon emerged.
ADASA put 11 teachers in a cramped two-family house on Baychester Avenue in the Bronx, charging 10 of them $1,450 a month each, and one $1,300 a month for single rooms with a shared kitchen and bath, The Post reported.
The total $15,800 in revenue would net an $8,900 monthly profit over what ADASA paid to lease the duplex.
Daniel Calcaño, an ADASA treasurer and former assistant principal, rounded up rent payments of some $4,500 a month from three teachers and one spouse in a three -bedroom apartment on Pilgrim Avenue – once banging on their doors at 11 pm.
Calcaño, still on the city payroll, makes $151,409 a year.
Calcaño, Polanco and Baez, have all been “reassigned to central administrative roles,” the DOE said, refusing to specify their duties, if any. “Reassigned” is DOE lingo for rubber-roomed, which means they do little or nothing while under investigation.
Five Dominican teachers have given up their DOE jobs in frustration, and gone back to the DR permanently. The 20 remaining have since found housing on their own. They get DOE salaries of $66,000 to $75,000, plus overtime.
They also attend City College for a Master’s Degree in education – paid by the DOE – which can lead to certification and permanent status as working immigrants.
A spokeswoman for Homeland Security Investigations would not answer questions about the probe: “Due to law enforcement sensitivities, HSI is unable to confirm or deny the existence of an open investigation.”
