MS 331 Bronx Watch Out For Citizen Schools New Campus Leader Ruben Brosbe

Yesterday I wrote about Ruben Brosbe while lamenting the fact that I might be beating a dead horse and not really wishing to for Ruben is a waste of time. I spoke, or rather wrote, too soon. Please accept my apologies.

After putting the blog post to bed, I felt pretty darn good that yet again Ruben, and all his minions, were exposed. I popped open my 10th Diet Coke of the evening and toasted to the good fortune of of being on the good side of goodness. But at this point, and sorry for reusing a previous phrase, I felt a deep disturbance in the force.

I looked at Ruben's Twitter page and noticed something that was not there before. Yes, the self serving fact that he is/was a student at Harvard Graduate School of Education, but something more sinister;

@cschoolsNY Campus Director at MS331 in the Bronx,

CSschools? What can that be, and how in God's name did Ruben become some director? What are you talking about, Willis?

According to their website, @CSchools is Citizens Schools;

Citizen Schools partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities across the country.
By drawing thousands more citizens into schools each year, we’re promoting student achievement, transforming schools, and re-imagining education in America.

Wow, so strangely self impressive for a bunch of (mostly) former TFA hacks to come into our schools with what they consider their knowledge to impart their values on our students.

And the new Citizen Schools campus leader at MS 331 in The Bronx is E4E Blog Monkey™ and Savant, Ruben Brosbe. Yes, that Ruben Brosbe. Ruben Brosbe formerly of PS 310 in District 10 in The Bronx that according to sources there shared with me how universally despised he was. The Ruben Brosbe of PS 310 in District 10 in The Bronx that was denied tenure, not once, but twice and either resigned or was terminated. The Ruben Brosbe of PS 310 in District 10 in The Bronx that ripped his fellow teachers apart in the New York Post? The Ruben Brosbe of PS 310 in District 10 in The Bronx that doesn't believe poverty affects a child's education? The Ruben Brosbe of PS 310 in District 10 in The Bronx that sticks his finger in the wind to see which way it is blowing?

So what is the failed teacher of 3rd grade students responsibilities as campus director for Citizen Schools at MS 331?

• Be instructional leader, talent developer to 5-15 staff, 80-250 students
• Partner with principal and staff to expand the learning day to improve student achievement
• Cultivate relationships with community and families to deepen the impact of program on student achievement
• Use data to make leadership decisions and leverage resources through successful human resource administration

Ruben doing this? Surely, Citizen Schools jests. 

How can a failed teacher such as Ruben Brosbe be an instructional leader? This is a man child that failed as a teacher, yet now he is a supervisor of not only adults, but of children as well? How soon will it be before some middle school student sees through Ruben's self aggrandizing bullshit?

I am reminded of a time 20 years ago when a friend and I went to IHOP for breakfast. He commented that IHOP must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for waitresses. Twenty years later, the IHOP effect is in full bloom with Citizen Schools. The bottom of the barrel has been scraped in hiring Ruben Brosbe. In fact I doubt highly that even IHOP would hire Ruben.

We here at SBSB contacted Citizen Schools NY chief of staff Alena Bloom and asked her to comment on why a failed teacher like Ruben would be put in such spot of responsibility and how does one justify putting the students needs first with Ruben as a supervisor. She refused to comment. A search of her education credentials turned up zilch, nada, bupkus. Same with Citizen Schools NY chief Nitzan Pelman. Just a lot of nothingness.

And that goes the same with Ruben Brosbe. A lot of nothingness there. A lot of no accomplishments there. We still wish to know how Ruben got into HGSE. Perhaps daddy paid off someone, or someone owed daddy a favor. But like most of the world's mysteries, we might never know. We do know that Ruben near education is a debacle awaiting whichever students are in his way.

As far as Citizen Schools, just another way for more rich, white, liberal do-gooders, who are former TFA hacks to make a buck on the back of students and at the expense of a good solid education.

The Man Child World of Ruben Brosbe

No. Can't do it. Don't want to do it. Want to write about my son at baseball camp and how we should "judge" baseball instructors the same way they judge teachers. But, the force is to deep within me. The snarkiness, the sarcasm is oozing through my brain into my fingertips. My brain is telling me, "you know, admit it, you want to do this." I fight my brain. But the brain is just too controlling.

It's been 9 months since I have written about former, or current E4E Blog Monkey™ Ruben Brosbe. Yes, that ship sailed when the NYC DOE parted ways with him lat June and he somehow, someway, (perhaps he tithed his rabbi) got into the Harvard Graduate School of Education (It's one of the signs of the Apocalypse when HGSE sets the bar so, so, so low).

So with much trepidation and an eye on yet again debunking Ruben, I read his latest self serving blog post, "Asking Why Me?" 

It was too convoluted to get through without nausea induced attacks. I went back and forth, forth and back and decided that pointing out how child like Ruben's thinking is and yet again how self important Ruben is was not worth the trouble. That is until I read the comments section.

My pal, Rich, The Frustrated Teacher left a comment which I was surprised Ruben allowed to be posted. TFT wrote six simple words that so simply, yet so forcefully is the underlying issue with education. One that is lacking when we are compared to other countries;

Poverty is the problem. Not our schools.

Well said. Well thought out. But it is a fact. Sad, but a fact. Even after reading that comment I did not wish to write about Ruben. But he tasks me, he tasks me. I shall write about Ruben. I shall write about him around the schools of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round Perdition's flames before I stop writing about him.


Ruben, in his response to Rich blabbered; On a related note, this poverty v. schools debate is so tired, and is practically a crutch.

So tired? How is it so tired? I have never once in my 17 years of teaching once heard a teacher say that their students can't learn because of poverty. NEVER! I have heard teachers say that poverty makes their job more difficult. But never once have I heard it used as an excuse or a crutch.

Ruben drones on; HOWEVER, are we really going to pretend that our schools are serving all students, especially our poorest students and students of color, to the level they deserve?

No one is pretending. No one is is disagreeing. Oh, one thing before I continue the rant. Ruben, what about those students who are not of color and living in Appalachia? Where is your concern with these students? What about students on the Reservations? Yeah, I know, not glamorous enough going there.


But we talk about the level they deserve? Then why is it when they deserve such a high level of education your favorite mayor, the mayor who has broken bread with your hero Little Evan Stone, Uncle Mike does he can to cut the budgets of schools, cut the experienced teachers out of the  loop, and thinks that is best practice to hire a 28 year old principal that has never been in education before? Where is your outrage in this Ruben? 

Ruben offers up a life lesson; A final point, what exactly are we talking about when we say that poverty is to blame?

How would Ruben know about poverty? Ruben is a rich, white Jewish, boy from Northern California that grew up in opulence. On a starting teacher's salary is was able to live in a doorman building on the Upper East Side. If Ruben truly wished to get down, to see what the real world is like he could have lived on Melrose Ave and 153rd St. He chose not to. Ruben has never known want in his life. 


Ruben tries to show how smart he thinks he is; Poverty being a general term can be used to describe (or disguise) many other factors. Unless we are explicit in what we mean by poverty - lack of access to quality healthcare? parent's educational attainment? lack of employment opportunities? - I worry we may be missing the point.

Yes, I worry that not are you missing the point, you will never get it. Yes Ruben it is all those things and more. How about children having children? Being underemployed? Having to work 2 jobs just to keep a family's head above water? Damn, it is so many things. Just because you can't see it or touch it does not mean it does not have an affect on lives. 

Ruben shows his ignorance; But I won't agree that "poverty" is equivalent to a cap on a child's potential or some sort of death sentence meted out at birth. 

Dolt. Ruben, who says it is a death sentence? Where? Whom? Show us who says this. No it is not a death sentence, but it is like Governor Christie racing 100 meters against Usain Bolt. But the only way to fix poverty is to fix society, to give people jobs, for the oligarchy that this country is becoming to spread the wealth, for others to help others. To invest in our neighborhoods. To invest in ball fields. To invest in health care, dental care. I can go on and on.


Yeah, I can go on and on. But Ruben, is a dolt. Ruben needs to learn how the world operates and for once think for himself. Ruben is pathetic, a follower, and man-child with the inability to think for himself.

How Ruben got into HGSE is beyond me. How Ruben came about unable to get tenure at PS 310 in the Bronx and according to multiple sources at 310 was universally despised is understandable. Ruben has a desperate need to please those in authority to him. Sad and pathetic.

Ruben Brosbe The Opportunist In The Midst At The Harvard Graduate School Of Business

He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Yes, everyone's favorite lackey, savant, sycophant, and most importantly, Blog Monkey™has just posted on Gotham Schools after an all too short 2 month hiatus. Ruben's latest blabbering is entitled "Blurred Vision," which is an excerpted or heavily edited version of his "Midterm Reflection" on his very own award winning blog (Somewhere on Ruben's blog he announced that his had been awarded some award).

Ruben seems to have had a change of heart, or did he, in this latest musings from his brain. But he starts off by saying; The question of what makes a good leader intrigues me, because I think there’s such a dire need for leadership in education right now. I certainly didn’t witness much of it at any level during my time in the classroom.

Yes, what is leadership? Certainly what we know of Ruben he has never shown leadership. A true leader leads, doesn't follow. Being E4E's official Blog Monkey™ shows that one would rather be led about on a leash rather than show independent thought.


But what about that last sentence. Ruben apparently didn't witness any true leadership whilst he was at PS 310 in the Bronx? But Ruben, have you not forgotten what you had written on January 12, 2011?

Throughout the experience, my principal was visibly involved with the process of making the day run smoothly, even helping out with lunch duty......I felt incredibly grateful to have a principal who didn't pass the buck today.

 Seems like leadership to me.

May 17, 2010.....

and I sat quietly and dutifully and listened to my principal's feedback. Once again, there seemed to be a disconnect between my impression of the lesson and my principal's.

 Seems like leadership


Ruben, you need to make up your mind which side of the fence you are on.

Ruben goes on with his inanity and whimsical bouts of inward thinking until he shocks one and all with seeming to gnawing on the hand that not only has fed him, but that has enabled him and his ilk all this many years by revealing; Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein spoke constantly about the need to close the achievement gap, lower drop-out rates, and raise graduation rates. Their approach was clearly focused on data-driven results and greater accountability for schools and teachers (not so much for themselves). But this speaks to their strategies. It did not lay out a vision, or at least not one that a communities, students, teachers, and school leaders could passionately rally behind.

Excuse me whilst the throats are cleared not only of myself and the crack team's, but all true educators in NYC. No s**t Sherlock. Is the boy savant going against those have enabled him to pad his resume for journalism school, law school, or worse, a educational leadership position? I wonder what Ruben has said about Uncle Mike and Uncle Joel in the past?


On March 2, 2011 Ruben showed his chivalrous side in defending Uncle Mike's stance in regards to LIFO;

These same advocates are criticizing Bloomberg and detractors of LIFO of trying to pit teachers against each other, young versus old.

On November 15, 2010 Ruben did all he could not to fall over himself in defending Uncle Mike's hiring of Cathie Black;

When you consider Bloomberg's underlying philosophy toward the school system and city governance in general, Cathie Black seems like a natural fit. 

The rest of the piece of Gotham is Ruben's typical self-loathing, fake self-reflection which even commenting on it is a complete waste of time.

But what I do wish to comment on is a not a theory, but rather what I feel is a fact.

Those that commented on Ruben's GS piece opined that perhaps Ruben has seen the light, that he has left the dark side and is ready to join the good. I disagree.

Rather I think that Ruben will say whatever, whenever, to whomever that will enable to Ruben to fit in to the moment, the culture, the time, the situation, the group that he wishes to have befriend him. Ruben has no real core beliefs, his only beliefs are those that he thinks others want him to have. He is a fraud, a phony, a chameleon that hides in plain sight and becomes what he thinks the background is.

 People of the Harvard Graduate School of Education beware of Ruben, or you know what? Don't beware of him, be his pal, see how low he will sink to placate you all up there in Cambridge with how fast he will agree with you and kiss your ass.