Queens members, with UFT aid, get problem principal ousted
PS 35 Chapter Leader Jonathan Licata (center, front) stood up with his fellow members at the Hollis, Queens, school against a retaliatory principal, resulting in the principal’s ouster after a yearslong battle.
Members at PS 35 in Hollis, Queens, are feeling union strong after their protracted fight against a retaliatory principal has finally resulted in the principal being ousted and replaced with a new school leader.
Chapter Leader Jonathan Licata, who fought on behalf of himself and his colleagues for four years, is overjoyed. “I’m now working with someone who is collaborative and appreciates the feedback that I give, and it’s been an excellent, excellent start,” he said.
School leadership team members learned on the first day of school during an emergency meeting that the district superintendent had elevated an assistant principal to the principal position, and now everyone is moving forward together, Licata said.
The members’ victory, aided by the UFT, was hard-fought and included a precedent-setting arbitration win in April that codified members’ rights to engage in legally protected union activities in the workplace.
Licata, a longtime kindergarten teacher, said his difficulties with the former principal came to a head in 2022 after he questioned some of her spending and asked for a copy of the budget. She accused him of misleading staff and suggested replacing the consultation committee with staff town halls. After he filed several grievances, she filed a 48-hour disciplinary notice, lowered his Advance ratings, held disciplinary meetings for consultation committee members and took other punitive actions.
Licata filed a grievance for union animus that year and another for harassment and retaliation. Twenty-three members signed on to the grievance, and the chapter worked closely with their district representative, the UFT Queens borough office and the UFT Grievance Department to build their case. In April 2026, the arbitrator ruled that the principal had engaged in multiple acts of union animus, and her conduct amounted to union interference and retaliation against members engaged in legally protected union activities. Months later, the district superintendent removed the principal.
“It really is a true testament to what our union can accomplish when you do things the right way,” Licata said.
Separately, the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigations for city schools continues to investigate the now-former principal for some of her spending practices, such as using taxpayer money to purchase books written by a friend.
The now-former principal’s actions drove about a dozen members to either transfer out of the school or retire, Licata said.
JoAnn Rush, a former chapter delegate, retired in 2024 to escape the toxic atmosphere. PS 35 was “the best school I’d ever worked in” before the principal took over, she said.
“I’m happy for my colleagues that their ordeal is hopefully changing for the better,” she said.
Rush said the then-principal blatantly favored certain staffers and made rules and decisions that rankled members, such as not allowing teachers into the building early, requiring teachers to get rid of classroom libraries and not being forthcoming about school budget spending. “People who would ask questions, she would target them,” Rush said. “I was one of them.”
Rush said she had a great working relationship with her co-teacher, Rachel Holt, but the principal wouldn’t continue to let them co-teach, and Holt ultimately transferred to JHS 167 in District 2 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Holt, also a former PS 35 delegate, said she had been teaching nearly 20 years when she began working with the principal. Before transferring in 2023, the principal called her into several disciplinary hearings, all of which were bogus and were not substantiated, Holt said. In one case, Holt had asked clarifying questions during a staff meeting about collecting data. She ended up being accused of saying that she refused to collect data, though she had already done so. “It was so degrading,” Holt said. “There was nothing I could do right.”
Learning that the principal has been removed is vindication for her and her former colleagues, Holt said. “I couldn’t even get words out — I was so excited to learn of her removal.”
It took a lot of work, persistence and patience to see the grievances through, but it was worth it, said Licata, adding: “I just hope that there are chapter leaders out there who will read this and say, ‘Wow, we can do this and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.’”