A New York City Department of Education employee is being paid a principal’s salary of $192,374 a year to oversee a school that was never approved and does not exist, according to a report by the New York Post.
Caleb Haraguchi-Combs, 33, was promoted in January from vice principal to “project director” of a proposed school called Next Generation Technology High School, which was planned for the Financial District and would have focused on artificial intelligence and computer technology. The promotion came with a $50,000 raise, bringing his pay to principal-level compensation.
Normally, a project director for a planned school goes on to become that school’s principal once it opens. But the Next Generation Technology High School was never approved. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels rejected the proposal in April following objections to its merit-based admissions model and concerns about introducing artificial intelligence into schools.
Despite the plan falling through, Haraguchi-Combs has continued to be paid as though the school existed. In his prior position as assistant principal at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in East Harlem, he earned $141,960 a year, according to public records. A Manhattan Center official confirmed he no longer works at that school.
When approached by a Post reporter outside his residence in Downtown Brooklyn, Haraguchi-Combs declined to say where he currently works.
“You came to my house? Outrageous,” he said.
The DOE told the Post that Haraguchi-Combs is currently “developing new proposals and supporting in-progress proposals,” which it described as a typical assignment for project directors whose schools have not opened.
A DOE source disputed that characterization, saying that without tenure, a principal whose school does not open should be reassigned to an assistant principal position. The source said officials “never should have named a principal before the school was approved,” and questioned why Haraguchi-Combs was not placed at one of the many schools that need a principal.
“What was the plan? There’s a lot of schools that could use a principal, there’s opportunities to appoint principals since then, it’s a huge waste of resources,” the source said.
Because Haraguchi-Combs never actually served as a principal, he was not eligible to apply for principal tenure.
The situation came to light through a letter sent in October to DOE leadership by a group of anonymous Manhattan high school principals calling for an investigation into Superintendent Gary Beidleman. The letter raised several concerns, including organizational dysfunction, the hiring of unqualified candidates, failure to meet class size requirements, and Haraguchi-Combs’ pay arrangement.
Zilvinas Silenas, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a government watchdog think tank, criticized the arrangement as an affront to taxpayers.
“This is a new level for New York, when you are getting paid nearly $200,000 for a job you’re not doing, most taxpayers have never even dreamed of making that kind of money,” Silenas said.
Haraguchi-Combs began his education career as an English teacher in Tokyo in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also performs as a rapper under the name Cal Combs, describing himself as “half hip-hop artist, half English teacher,” and has released two albums.
