Aldorasi Will Not Return To I.S. 141
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

More than a year after he was quietly removed, Anthony Aldorasi is still a principal but he is not coming back to I.S. 141. Aldorasi was assigned to the Queens Integrated Services Center after a state arbitrator fined him $6,000 and suspended him without pay for 10 days last week.

The arbitrator stopped short of firing Aldorasi from his $136,745 job on charges of corporal punishment and intimidation of a subordinate and ordered his return to District 30, leading to concern that among some at the school that Aldorasi would return to I.S. 141 located at 37-11 21st Ave.

But after parents threatened to rally outside the school in protest, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced Aldorasi would not return to I.S 141.

Then, on March 5, Aldorasi admitted to separate charges of nepotism and non-compliance with the city's competitive bidding process brought against him by the Conflict of Interest Board. He was fined $4,500 for those violations, according to a March 6 New York Sun report.

The Board found Aldorasi helped his sister get a job with a tutoring company that provides services to DOE and gave a contract for electrical repairs at I.S. 141 to a tenant in a building he owns without following the city's contract bid process.

A 26-year veteran, Aldorasi was removed from I.S. 141 in February 2007. He was appointed interim acting principal there in July, 2001 and then principal in February 2002 by the Community Education Council, then Community School Board 30. I.S. 141 was awarded an "A" by DOE on its 2006-2007 progress report card.

DOE never publicly said what the charges were during the year-long investigation or that they were seeking Aldorasi's termination. He spent the time as a paid employee in what DOE employees refer to as a "rubber room".

Entitled under due process, the three administrative counts of corporal punishment against students and three counts of intimidating a subordinate "were very thin", said Brian Gibbons of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, in a March 4 Daily News report.

Although Aldorasi's actions were deemed "far short of corporal punishment", the arbitrator said touching a child in any way was not appropriate. Aldorasi admitted he pushed a student by his shoulders into a chair, but only to have him sit up straight, according to the Daily News report.

Aldorasi was also found to have threatened a teacher after the teacher refused an order to pay $1,200 to replace a missing school amplifier, the Daily News said.

"It's been a tear at my heart because I love 141," Aldorasi said in a March 4 interview with WCBS, Channel 2, "I love the children, and it's just, I want to go back."

"It's an unfair characteristic," Aldorasi continued, rebutting accusations he is a tyrant. "As a good disciplinarian, as a good educator, as someone who always wants the children to succeed in life. That's how I want to be remembered."