#City DOE would rather see whistleblowers squelched than admit grade-fixing problem

In the spirit of not letting a crisis “go to waste,” the powers at Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill HS are using the virus-driven need for budget cuts as an excuse to push out several whistleblowing teachers.

Last month, The Post reported on audio recordings of the school’s administrators ordering grade-fixing to pass students who were failing remote-learning classes.

Principal Anna Maria Mule, on another assignment until next month, has reportedly been running the school remotely all along, via acting Principal Costas Constantinidis.

Now, Susan Edelman reports in Sunday’s Post, Constantinidis has ousted six teachers as “in excess” in the face of COVID-19 cutbacks — pretending it’s coincidence that most of them were the people who reported grade fraud. It was “clearly retaliation,” says one victim.

And it won’t save the city a cent: The ousted teachers (at worst) wind up in the Absent Teacher Reserve, getting paid full salary to maybe serve as substitutes on some days.

The central Department of Education office, meanwhile, still insists the practices exposed on the tape didn’t affect grading. In other words, Chancellor Richard Carranza and his minions would rather cover up such scandals — and go along with the squelching of whistleblowers — than face the fact that it goes on at schools across the city.