A NYC assistant principal got a $50,000 raise to $192,374 to lead a proposed AI high school, then the city scrapped it and he kept the salary

A New York City assistant principal is still collecting a nearly $200,000 salary for a high school that never opened, as reported by the New York Post. Caleb Haraguchi-Combs was tapped to lead a proposed artificial intelligence and computer technology high school in FiDi, which came with a significant pay bump, but the project was scrapped.

Haraguchi-Combs, 33, saw his annual salary jump by $50,000 to $192,374 when he was promoted to “project director” in January, a role that typically transitions into the principal of a new school. He previously served as an assistant principal at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in East Harlem, where he made $141,960 a year. A school official said Haraguchi-Combs is no longer at that school.

The proposed Next Generation Technology High School never got the green light. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels reportedly killed the proposal in April amid backlash over its merit-based admissions model and concerns about artificial intelligence in schools. Haraguchi-Combs has reportedly continued to collect his principal-level pay.

Nobody seems to agree on what his job is now

Reporters approached Haraguchi-Combs outside his home, where he declined to say where he currently works. He reportedly responded, “You came to my house? Outrageous.”

The Department of Education (DOE) said Haraguchi-Combs is currently “developing new proposals and supporting in-progress proposals,” which it described as a typical role for project directors whose schools don’t open. However, a DOE source disagreed, claiming that unless a principal has tenure, they should be moved back to an assistant principal role if their school doesn’t open. The source added that officials “never should have named a principal before the school was approved.”

Haraguchi-Combs could not have applied for principal tenure since he never served in the role. Insiders at the DOE are reportedly frustrated by what they view as a waste of taxpayer money and question why he couldn’t be reassigned to another school. “There’s a lot of schools that could use a principal, there’s opportunities to appoint principals since then, it’s a huge waste of resources,” the DOE source said. DOE salaries are paid out of the city’s annual budget.

The situation came to light in October in a letter sent to DOE leadership by anonymous Manhattan high school principals. The letter urged an investigation into Superintendent Gary Beidleman, citing concerns including organizational dysfunction, the hiring of unqualified candidates, issues meeting class size requirements, and Haraguchi-Combs’s employment status.

Outside of education, Haraguchi-Combs records music as a hip-hop artist named Cal Combs. He describes himself as “half hip-hop artist, half English teacher” and has released two rap albums.

Zilvinas Silenas, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit think tank, called the salary an insult to taxpayers. “This is a new level for New York, when you are getting paid nearly $200,000 for a job you’re not doing, most taxpayers have never even dreamed of making that kind of money,” Silenas said. Haraguchi-Combs began his education career as an English teacher in Tokyo in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.