{"id":363678,"date":"2026-10-03T15:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/363678\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T15:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:34:14","slug":"nyc-public-school-principal-showered-baby-daddy-staffer-with-ot-probe-unveils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/363678\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC public school principal showered baby daddy-staffer with OT, probe unveils"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York City public school principal approved nearly 200 hours of overtime and secured tenure for her baby daddy while he was working under her at the same school \u2014 a blatant violation of city rules.<\/p>\n

Bridget Garzaniti, principal of the High School of Arts and Technology on the Upper West Side, OKed $12,000 in overtime pay for her domestic partner, Curtis Williams in 2024, the city\u2019s Conflicts of Interest Board found.<\/p>\n

Garzaniti was fined $7,500 and Williams was ordered to pay $4,250 to the COIB. <\/p>\n

\"BridgetBridget Garzaniti inappropriately granted her domestic partner Curtis Williams overtime, according to a COIB report. Curtis Williams\/Facebook<\/p>\n

But they kept their jobs.<\/p>\n

Garzaniti and Williams have lived together since June 2017 and share a child, who was born in August of the same year, stated the September COIB report, which was first reported by Susan Edelman on her Substack.<\/a><\/p>\n

Garzaniti recommended in a letter to the district\u2019s superintendent that Williams be granted tenure<\/a> in June 2024, which was approved by the Department of Education.<\/p>\n

DOE employees cannot receive tenure without a recommendation from their principal. <\/p>\n

Tenured public schools employees<\/a> receive iron-clad, career-long job protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI highly recommend Curtis for tenure. He has been a valuable asset to our school and has made significant impact on the lives of students and staff,\u201d Garzaniti wrote. <\/p>\n

\"TheBridget Garzaniti did this while Williams worked under her at the High School of Arts and Technology. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n

She also awarded him the top rating<\/a> in his June 2024 performance review, the report stated.<\/p>\n

Critics blasted the principal for abusing her position to lavish benefits on her live-in baby daddy, and called on city Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels to pursue further discipline.<\/p>\n

\u201cTenure tainted by personal relationships demeans those actually deserving and should be met with the harshest possible consequences,\u201d said CUNY Graduate Center education law and policy Professor David Bloomfield.<\/p>\n

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Public servants are barred by the City Charter and DOE regulations from using their positions to financially benefit people they have personal relationships with, and school principals are not allowed to have personal relations work under them at the same school.<\/p>\n

DOE rules stipulate that the principal should have reported her relationship to the district\u2019s superintendent, who would have transferred one of the employees out of the school, former Deputy Chancellor Eric Nadelstern said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can not in any form of public service supervise a close relative, it\u2019s just not permitted,\u201d Nadelstern said. <\/p>\n

After a complaint was lodged, Williams was transferred to the High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice, which is located in the same building. He was paid <\/p>\n

Garzanati, Williams and the DOE did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City public school principal approved nearly 200 hours of overtime and secured tenure for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1583,29533,4337,7003,57,9,24,55,54,56,3636,5271,134994,58],"class_list":["post-363678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-child","tag-city-employees","tag-department-of-education","tag-fines","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-principals","tag-schools","tag-tenure","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}