The superintendent of Staten Island public colleges was abruptly faraway from her publish amid ongoing accusations of lashing out in opposition to workers and vowing “No extra white principals,” The Publish has realized.
Marion Wilson, who led District 31 colleges for 3 and a half years, was swept out of her workplace on Sept. 20, and instructed to report back to the Division of Schooling’s Tweed headquarters in Manhattan.
Wilson “can be transitioning to a central staff,” Danika Rux, deputy chancellor for varsity management, stated Monday in an inner announcement, with none rationalization for the swift and gorgeous ouster.
Sources stated she’s going to preserve her $230,000 wage and function “facilitator” within the Leaders in Schooling Apprenticeship Program (LEAP), which prepares lecturers to develop into principals with a deal with racial fairness.
DOE officers refused to clarify Wilson’s elimination, however a college insider stated she was caught on tape denouncing district staff.
“She apparently went off on a Zoom or Groups name demeaning her personal principals and staffers, and didn’t know she was unmuted,” the insider stated.
Wilson can also be dogged by accusations she has made racially offensive feedback.
Final 12 months, the Particular Commissioner of Investigation for metropolis colleges was requested to analyze broadly circulated screenshots of texts purportedly written by Wilson.
“No extra white principals on my watch!” stated one textual content.
“I want to wash up this island,” one other reads.
“White of us want to acknowledge this isn’t the boys membership anymore. A robust black lady runs this bitch now, and so they can both get on board or get out.”
Wilson filed a police report claiming she obtained threats stemming from “false accusations” that she wrote the texts.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Process Power stated it could examine, and gave Wilson a police escort for a while. “The investigation is ongoing,” an NYPD spokesman stated Friday.
The SCI closed its case a number of months later after the texts got here to gentle, saying investigators didn’t establish who wrote them, a spokesperson instructed The Publish.
Since then, recordings have emerged purportedly catching Wilson making racially charged remarks to black mother and father, based on a complainant who despatched audio clips to the The Publish.
“I stated no extra white principals. I meant it,” a lady the complainant recognized as Wilson says in a single recording. In one other, she says, “Us black of us acquired to stay collectively. Ain’t no one serving to us.”
The SCI says it didn’t examine the recordings, however referred them to the DOE’s Workplace of Equal Alternative.
“The circumstances involving these allegations weren’t substantiated,” stated DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer.
Wilson didn’t return a request for touch upon the recordings.
In the meantime, a white principal, Heather Jansen, claims in a pending discrimination lawsuit in opposition to the DOE that Wilson unfairly eliminated her as principal of PS 46 in June 2023.
“She in all probability didn’t know what hit her once they pulled her white ass out,” Wilson allegedly texted, based on a screenshot Jansen submitted as proof.
In January, Jansen instructed the choose she filed a police report claiming she was threatened by a person who confirmed up at her house in Monroe Township, NJ, and warned, “If you recognize what’s good for you, you’ll drop the case in opposition to Marion.”
Monroe Township detectives had been unable to establish a suspect, a spokesman stated this week.
Wilson leaves the Staten Island neighborhood with combined emotions about her tenure.
“No one noticed this coming. No one needed it,” stated Liz Cianfrone, a volunteer household advocate who works for college kids with particular wants and their mother and father.
Cianfrone praised Wilson as a “position mannequin, inspiration and true advocate for youngsters,” saying she helped youngsters and tackled issues that different district officers ignored.
State Assemblyman Michael Reilly of Staten Island has praised Wilson as “an ally for our public colleges and an advocate for college kids, mother and father, and lecturers.”
However Wilson made such a concerted effort to fill vacancies with Black directors, some principals say, it drove different candidates to go away the district.
“Race was a very powerful standards in choosing professionals on her staff,” one stated.
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