Party like a principal
Chief spent school’s thou$ands on self: city

By YOAV GONEN and LAUREL BABCOCK

Last Updated: 2:52 AM, December 6, 2011

Posted: 1:42 AM, December 6, 2011
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A veteran Bronx principal turned her elementary school’s coffers into a piggy bank for herself and her family, spending thousands of dollars of school funds and city time on Broadway shows, Yankee tickets, and trips to the hair stylist, city investigators revealed in a scathing report.

And it wasn’t just taxpayer money she wasted: Judy Hunt-Hutchings pressured staffers into throwing her a birthday bash at a Bronx steakhouse — where she collected an exorbitant cash gift, investigators found.

The shamed educator retired from her $142,000 post at PS 198 in June, a month after probers in the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation uncovered a trail of misconduct.
Chad Rachman/N.Y.Post
Principal Judy Hunt-Hutchings.

Among the brazen demands detailed in their 13-page report was Hutchings’ unsubtle request to staffers that they throw her an all-out birthday celebration.

“This year is my 50th birthday,” staffers said she announced. “I hope we do something big.”

With that, her underlings and their spouses dutifully pitched in as much as $65 each for a five-hour party at Frankie & Johnnie’s Pine restaurant in Bronxdale — which included a gift of as much as $600 cash, the report says.

The 27-year city educator also spent more than $3,200 of school funds on 100 tickets for two Yankee games — including 30 seats located in the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar in center field.

Although it’s not clear who used the tickets, they were for an afternoon game on a school day — which would have been a no-no for students because the trip had no educational value.

Hutchings also forked out more than $1,200 in federal funds intended to increase parental involvement in schools on tickets to the off-Broadway play “Platanos Y Collard Greens.”

But parents were offered only 15 of the 25 tickets for the show.

Finally, Hutchings failed to deduct eight days of absences and a collective 24 hours and 25 minutes of late arrivals and early departures from her time sheets.

She also denied a claim that she had gotten a staff member to braid or style her hair several times during the school day.

“I would not have [the staffer] touch my hair,” she told probers.

Hutchings agreed to step down Aug. 26 rather than potentially face termination.

She declined comment to The Post through her husband.

She denied all of the alleged misdeeds to investigators, saying she hadn’t been trained on things such as school trips.

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