Investigators allege six Department of Education employees used “fake permits” to take their children and grandchildren to Disney World and other city-funded trips meant for homeless students.
A new report from a city schools task force said the secret perks deprived the city's most disadvantaged children of the opportunity to enjoy the Magic Kingdom. Officials said the Magic Kingdom trip cost about 50 adults and children $66,000. They also deprived them of multi-day trips to Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Boston, the Rocking Horse Ranch resort upstate and the Frost Valley YMCA campground between 2016 and 2019.
Linda M. Wilson, the Queens district superintendent for “transitional housing students” for the New York Department of Education, brought two of her own daughters on the trip and encouraged her colleagues to bring their sons, daughters, and grandchildren, but tried to cover up the shady practice when SCI began asking questions. SCI Report He said.
“What happened here stays with us,” Wilson reportedly told his colleagues.
“She said we should insist on telling everyone the same story, that we didn't take our kids on the trip,” the employee told The Post.
“She instructed us to lie to the investigators.”
Several homeless students joined the trip, but staff members' children took up valuable space.
According to SCI, one New York City Department of Education educator “had to beg Wilson to allow her to take two students with her” when she and several staff members she supervised took their families on a trip to Disney World.
“It's extremely inappropriate to take away funding for homeless students,” said Naveed Hasan, a Manhattan public school parent and member of the city's Education Policy Committee who advocates for students in need of housing. “It's shocking.”
The president's rules state that families are not allowed to attend field trips, even if the Department of Education reimburses the costs.
Witnesses told investigators that Wilson and other staff members forged permission slips using homeless students' names and forged parent signatures on the documents.
“Only a small percentage of the homeless students listed on the documents actually participated in the trips,” the whistleblower told SCI.
Initially, Wilson used a Department of Energy contractor to book transportation, hotels, meals and activities.
The city paid for the trip with a $300,000 federal grant from the National Center for Homeless Education, which aims to give kids an enrichment experience and motivate them to improve attendance and academic performance.
Wilson oversaw a staff of about 20 people helping students living in temporary housing, including shelters, cars, parks and abandoned buildings.
According to the New York Advocates for Children, 119,320 New York City students experienced homelessness last year — roughly 1 in 9 public school children.
According to the SCI report, most out-of-town trips were accompanied by four to six staff members and involved one or two buses carrying about 30 children each.
According to staff, the bus ride alone would cost $2,700 one way, so people going to Disney took the train instead.
SCI said Wilson would decide which employees could go on the trips, assign each employee a student to accompany them, and then fill those students' seats with the employees' children.
Wilson planned trips to colleges, including Washington, DC. Howard University iIn 2019, it was reportedly to allow homeless children to tour the campus.
But she did not contact the university to arrange the visit, SCI alleges.
During a three-day trip purportedly to tour Syracuse University in June 2018, a group from the New York City Department of Education only ate lunch on the upstate campus before leaving for Niagara Falls, more than three hours away, according to the report.
After planning numerous trips, Wilson abruptly canceled a visit to Philadelphia in 2018 when she found herself having to bypass a contractor and process payments for the trip directly through the Department of Energy.
According to SCI, Wilson's final salary was $99,726 and she often brought one or two daughters with her on trips.
Other employees who reportedly brought family members include Michonne Jack, who brought her two daughters, Shaquita Boyd, who brought one daughter, Virgen Ramos, who brought two granddaughters, Maria Sylvester, who brought two daughters, and Joan Castro, who brought two sons.
Boyd was fired but blamed Wilson: “My supervisor not only gave me permission, but encouraged it. I had no reason to believe this was a violation of the rules.”
After completing its investigation in January 2023, SCI has recommended that University President David Banks fire all six employees and require them to pay compensation, the amount of which will be determined by the Department of Energy.
The New York City Department of Education also fired attendance supervisor Michonne Jack on Sept. 5, 2023, records show.
In a settlement with the city's Conflict of Interest Commission last month, Jack acknowledged that he used seats reserved for homeless children to take his two daughters to the Broadway musical “Wicked” and on a trip to Washington, D.C., in 2016. Jack was employed as a chaperone for those outings.
Jack agreed to pay a $1,200 penalty, reduced by the COIB from the approximate cost of the trip, $3,000, citing “financial hardship” caused by losing his job.
She also blamed Wilson for receiving the perks and said she “gave permission to staff to bring family members over,” according to the COIB settlement.
In an interview this week, Wilson categorically denied that his daughters went on the trip or that he allowed employees to bring their own children. He argued that DOE “checks and balances” would have prevented any wrongdoing and called the SCI investigation a “witch hunt.”
Wilson, 63, said he was not fired but retired from the Department of Energy.
The New York City Department of Education declined to say whether anyone had been disciplined or paid restitution. Spokeswoman Jenna Lyle said, “None of the employees identified in this report are currently employed by New York City Public Schools.”
SCI decided not to prosecute these cases criminally, citing a “lack of available documentation,” a spokesman said.
