Martin Weinstein was a well-respected Superintendent of District 19, according to people who worked with him (see below), when he filed a complaint against a Community Education council member who was pressuring parents and co-workers to buy the book she published. Martin was retaliated against, falsely characterized as a sexual predator, and forced to resign.

All this probably sounds familiar to anyone who has read this website's article "How The New York City "Gotcha Squad" Gets Tenured Teachers Declared "Incompetent", and Placed in a Rubber Room by Betsy Combier

NEWSDAY PROFILE

A product of the N.Y.C. School system, Mr. Weinstein began his career in education as a teacher of Language Arts and Legal Studies at Shell Bank Intermediate School. An actor for the Broadhollow Players of Long Island, Mr. Weinstein brought his love of the theatre to the students of Shell Bank, by directing several successful student productions. His directorial skills were also evident at Baldwin Senior High School where he served as the school’s drama coach. As Assistant Principal of P.S. 140 (District 28) Mr. Weinstein was an instrumental member of the team that removed the school from “Corrective Action”.

Summer months were an opportunity for Mr. Weinstein to work with students in a recreational environment. As the director of summer camps for underprivileged students, (a program created by the late Chancellor Green) Mr. Weinstein honed his leadership skills.

The summer of 2003 brought Mr. Weinstein to I.S. 302 (Region 5, District 19) as its’ Principal. I.S. 302 was a SURR school in jeopardy of closure. Working collaboratively with Dr. Cashin and the Region 5 team, many successful strategies, activities and programs were implemented. As a result, student achievement scores improved dramatically and I.S. 302 was removed from the SURR list. Mr. Weinstein shares this success with the staff of I.S. 302 and stated in a memo that this success “is a testament to your dedication and commitment to our students.” Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz honored Principal Weinstein’s dedication by a proclamation making January 23, 2006 “Martin Weinstein Day in Brooklyn, USA”. On March 11, 2007, he was named Intermediate School Principal of the Year by AOJT.

Realizing that physical activity can be linked to learning, Mr. Weinstein an accomplished marathon runner introduced his running passion to I.S. 302. The I.S. 302 Striders is a students’ running club that has received media attention. Students and staff coaches such as Mr. Weinstein have committed themselves to a regimen of early morning and afternoon workouts as well as weekend races. Once again, another method to mold and motivate youngsters to always do their best.

Passing along to the next generation of teachers and administrators his strategies and ideas, Principal Weinstein is an adjunct professor at both Brooklyn and Touro College Graduate Schools of Education, Special Education and Psychology

Martin attributes his success as a public school principal to his roots as a classroom teacher. “By being sensitive and empathetic to the individual and unique needs of the students in my classes, I was able to gain a better sense of how to provide them with their requisite skills for success. With this said, I believe that my strongest attribute as a principal is to empower those around me to fulfill their potential.”

Info prior to being a superintendent.

Dear Mr. Weinstein,

I hope that you don't mind my writing to you. I felt the need to
contact you because it was stated that you were fired. I hope that you
don't mind that I got your email address from Mr. Best. Many people are
saying that you were set up. I believe that the person responsible for
this is Rosemary Roman and others. Ms. Roman is the person that set me
up as well. She stated some outrageous lies about me that resulted in my
being issued an order of limited access, to my son's school (P.S. 345),
for the 2009-2010 school year. Rosemary Roman took my words out of
context and twisted them around into lies, to suit her own personal
agenda. She even alleged that I said a very racial remark about blacks
and hispanics. These remarks are all out lies. I even had a witness in
the room with me when I made the phone call to the district office that
day.
Mr. Weinstein, I always felt you were a man of integrity that
always treated me with respect. I think that it was a real loss for
District 19 parents, as well as the children, when you were fired for
lies. If there is anything that I can do, please feel free to contact
me.

With the highest regards,

Many moons ago I wrote an article about the 3020-a process called Extortion At 3020-a Arbitration in New York City, which starts as follows:

"Black’s dictionary, 6th edition, defines “extortion” as: “The obtaining of property from another induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence or fear, or under color of official right.”

If you are a tenured teacher, social worker, guidance counselor, school psychologist or other senior-level employee of the New York City public school system, watch out. New York City has, it appears, no interest in protecting your tenure rights and has made you an “employee-at-will” without your consent or, for that matter, your knowledge....The bad news is that Bloomberg, along with his colleague Joel Klein, neither of whom are licensed educators, gave principals total power within their schools to judge the people who worked for them according to what is now known as the business model standard. The manner in which the business model was implemented led to removal of anyone whom the principal didn’t like, anyone who spoke out too much about the school budget, about feeling harassed, about teaching outside of license, or about anything at all. Tenure rights? No one paid attention to them (and no one made them pay attention).Terror set in as teachers realized that they could be thrown out of their classrooms because the principal may not “like” them, may have someone younger in mind, or may have a political reason – or no reason at all – to remove them to await a 3020-a arbitration hearing, charged with being late two minutes, or other such nonsense........
By 2005 budgetary constraints led to more and more senior, high salary teachers and other DOE personnel being removed from their positions so that younger, less experienced teachers could take their place. This “get two for the price of one” led to a stream of people, almost all senior tenured teachers, being re-assigned to what became known as the “rubber room”, where they were told to sit and wait for their trial, or 3020-a arbitration. Sometimes the wait was a year, sometimes seven years. Sometimes the charges had some factual basis, yet more often than not were a mixture of circumstances and hearsay. Incompetency had been criminalized.

But facts don’t matter in this new education model. Getting rid of “dead wood” does, to the new CEOs who head the New York City school system and who are empowered to say “you’re out” for any or no reason. As I wrote above, if you are tenured, if you have worked successfully with kids for 20 years or more and have a high salary, watch out. You may be put on trial for your satisfactory performance any day."