P.S. 114 teachers are smiling now that "dysfunctional" principal has been removed. Courtesy of New York Teacher

After more than two years of working for "the principal from hell," the morale of teachers, administrators and parents at Public School 114 has improved ever since the Department of Education removed Principal Maria Pena-Herrera and replaced her with Anita Prashad seven weeks ago.

Howard Schoor, the Brooklyn representative for the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the union that represents city public school teachers, told the Courier this week, "Our members at P.S. 114 are thrilled with Pena- Herrera's removal. All along they felt the principal was dysfunctional."

School District 18 UFT representative Rich Mantell added, "There has been a completely different atmosphere at P.S. 114 since the former principal was removed."

However, he added, despite the morale boost, the teachers are "cautiously optimistic" about her replacement because "there is no one to watch over problem (principals)."

Schoor believes that it took so long to replace Pena-Herrera because "ever since the DOE limited the power of district superintendents years ago, there is no direct line of authority on the local level to intervene."

He said that with the DOE overseeing 1,500 schools citywide, it cannot act expeditiously until it thoroughly investigates such cases.

DOE spokesperson Anne Forte told the Courier on Monday that although it is rare to replace a principal in the middle of the school year, Pena-Herrera was dismissed "due to some issues in the school" and now reports daily to a reassignment center in Staten Island.

In a January article in New York Teacher, the monthly newspaper published by the UFT, Gloria Jackson, a PTA officer and grandmother of three students at the school, faulted the principal as "not a person you can go to. She doesn't cooperate. She talks gibberish then makes promises she doesn't deliver on. She has a budget but can't explain to us where the money goes."

"It's the parents who have to supply paper for the kids," she added. "And when she treats teachers badly, that impacts the kids, too."

April Maldonado, parent of a P.S. 114 fifth-grader, told the publication, "The school's not safe," telling of incidents in which children left the school unescorted, and where, she claimed, one child was almost abducted. "Pena- Herrera gives us no answers or solutions," she said.

On a bitterly cold winter morning in January 2008, most of the school's teachers picketed outside the centuryold Remsen Avenue elementary school protesting Herrera's leadership, which they called "imperious, incompetent and vindictive."

Early last December, the same group of educators, frustrated that their grievances seemed to have fallen on deaf ears over the previous eleven months, plus members of the PTA, paraprofessionals and some parents, picketed outside the DOE's headquarters, chanting "Ho, ho, hey, hey, who needs that principal anyway?" in lower Manhattan, again in below freezing conditions, to urge city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to take action against Herrera, who had been harshly criticized by teachers and parents alike.

In an editorial in the union publication last year, it charged that Herrera "has padded her staff with four APs (assistant principals), one of whom doubles as her chauffeur…she dealt with the school's (budget) deficit by eliminating an acclaimed reading intervention program, letting go two substitute special education paraprofessionals, who had been promised full-time positions…"

District 18 UFT representative Richard Mantell once referred to Herrera as "a total mess with safety, discipline and the budget out of control… and no support for teachers." He added, "Everyone could see what she was doing was wrong for the building."

Mantell and Keith Peterson, a teacher who is the school's union representative, said that the final straw was just before the winter break during an accidental carbon monoxide release that occurred during routine maintenance work.

"(Herrera) was late, as usual," Peterson said, "and we discovered that she never implemented a safety plan, so people were just standing around during a crisis."

When she was subsequently confronted about the situation, she said the APs were in charge during such an event, but had to be reminded that she dismissed two of them and the other two had resigned.

That incident may have been the final grounds for her removal. When classes resumed after the winter break in late February, much to their satisfaction, P.S. 114's teachers learned that the woman they long referred to as the "principal from hell" had been replaced.