A Brooklyn principal who lives on Long Island uses the address of a parent at her Brownsville job to send her own daughter to a higher-performing school 10 minutes from where she works, The Post has learned.
The alleged subterfuge allows Samantha McElhaney John, who has led PS 327 Dr. Rose B. English since September 2023, to avoid paying at least $5,000 in non-resident tuition to the city.
John, 47, lives in Nassau County’s Roosevelt, where the struggling public schools were once taken over by the state.
But her daughter’s home address is listed in records at Brooklyn Landmark Elementary School in Bedford-Stuyvesant as Thomas S. Boyland Street, an apartment building a few blocks from PS 327.
That’s where Jessica Mott lives with her two kids, who attend PS 327.
“I can’t answer no questions right now,” Mott told a reporter who knocked on her apartment door.
Mott refused to say whether she knew that John had used her address, or whether she had given the principal permission to do so.
To enroll a student in NYC, parents or guardians must show at least two proofs of residency such as a rental agreement or a utility bill.
Joyce Beckles-Knights, the principal of Brooklyn Landmark, did not answer an email asking how John verified the Brownsville address when she enrolled her daughter in July as a first-time DOE entrant.
Claiming a false address to enroll in a public school can be prosecuted as fraud or larceny, according to legal experts.
By using a Brooklyn address, John, 47 – who made $179,251 last year – avoids having to pay NYC’s non-resident elementary-school tuition of $5,425 a year for a general-ed student or $48,392 for a special-ed pupil.
John routinely arrives at PS 327 in the morning with her daughter, who wears a bright orange Brooklyn Landmark shirt, sources told The Post.
The girl sits in the principal’s office until John leaves to drive the child to nearby Brooklyn Landmark, then returns to PS 327.
It’s unclear whether John enrolled her daughter in Brooklyn Landmark for the ease of having her in a school near her job, or for the educational quality.
Students at Brooklyn Landmark school score well above the citywide average on state math and reading exams, while kids at PS 327 score well below average.
Roosevelt public schools have a long-troubled history. The state education commissioner took over the district’s low-performing and dangerous schools in 2002, achieving little improvement after 11 years. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found the district under “fiscal stress” in 2022.
Address falsification, potentially criminal, is especially unethical when a principal does it, experts say.
“It’s certainly a conflict of interest for a public-school administrator to engage in that kind of activity at the same time that they’re enforcing the rules against other parents,” said Tim DeRouche, co-author of “When Good Parents Go to Jail,” a 2023 national study on “address sharing.”
DeRouche, the president of “Available to All,” a watchdog group that promotes equal access to public schools, is opposed to prosecuting parents for address falsification.
But he has no sympathy for education leaders who use the ploy to enroll their own kids in more desirable or conveniently located schools.
“I would agree that’s an abuse of authority. Certainly, her job could be in jeopardy,” DeRouche said of John.
John did not return messages seeking comment. DOE spokespersons did not answer repeated inquiries.
