Bridget Garzaniti

Introduction

Bridget Garzaniti is the principal of the High School of Arts and Technology, a public high school on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan’s Martin Luther King, Jr. educational complex, where she has led the school since July 2023. In September 2026, the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) found that Garzaniti used her position to funnel benefits to her domestic partner, guidance counselor Curtis Williams, while he worked under her supervision at the same school: she approved roughly $12,000 in overtime for him, gave him the school’s top performance rating, and wrote the tenure recommendation that the Department of Education then granted — all in violation of the City Charter and city conflicts-of-interest rules. Garzaniti agreed to pay a $7,500 fine, and both she and Williams kept their jobs.

Background Information

Garzaniti worked her way up at the High School of Arts and Technology, serving as an assistant principal before her promotion to principal in July 2023. The school is a small campus of roughly 393 students. Williams joined the school’s staff as a guidance counselor in October 2019. According to COIB documents first reported by veteran education journalist Susan Edelman, Garzaniti and Williams have lived together since June 2017 and share a child born that August — a relationship that made him, under city ethics rules, someone she was barred from supervising or financially benefiting.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The claims in this section are the findings of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, which reported substantiating them and closed the matter by settlement. They were never admitted as criminal conduct, never criminally charged, and never adjudicated in court. The record reflects agreed fines rather than admissions of guilt.

Over the year following her July 2023 promotion, while Williams worked under her supervision, Garzaniti approved 199 hours of overtime for him totaling more than $12,000 in extra pay, awarded him the top rating — “satisfactory” — in his June 2024 performance evaluation, and wrote a letter to the district superintendent urging that he be granted tenure: “I highly recommend Curtis for tenure. He has been a valuable asset to our school and has made significant impact on the lives of students and staff,” she wrote. DOE employees cannot receive tenure without a principal’s recommendation, so the Department of Education granted it — attaching career-long job protections. City public servants are barred from using their positions to financially benefit people they have personal relationships with, and principals may not have personal relations work under them; Garzaniti was required to disclose the relationship so one of the two could be transferred, and did not.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The COIB’s September 2026 report — first reported by Edelman on her Substack and picked up by the New York Post — ended in settlements rather than removal: Garzaniti agreed to pay a $7,500 fine and Williams $4,250 to the board, with both keeping their jobs; Williams had been transferred in March 2025 to another school after a complaint, but only to a different small school located in the same building. Education figures quoted in the coverage blasted the outcome. “Tenure tainted by personal relationships demeans those actually deserving and should be met with the harshest possible consequences,” said David Bloomfield, professor of education law and policy at the CUNY Graduate Center, and one veteran educator told Edelman, “They should be moving to terminate.” Critics noted Garzaniti earned $207,819 in 2024 while Williams makes $96,124, and called on Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels to pursue further discipline.

Current Status

Garzaniti remains principal of the High School of Arts and Technology, where the school district’s own directory still lists her, and Williams remains a DOE guidance counselor at his transferred placement. The COIB settlements resolve the ethics case with no further action contemplated against either educator; no criminal charges, termination proceedings, or decertification have been reported. Garzaniti, Williams, and the DOE did not respond to press requests for comment.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case has become a fresh example of what critics call New York City’s light discipline of school leaders found to have committed misconduct: a documented abuse of supervisory authority over a romantic partner — overtime, evaluation inflation, and a tenure recommendation — resolved with fines equal to a fraction of the parties’ salaries and no one losing their job. The tenure Garzaniti secured for Williams, based on what the record now shows to be a conflicted evaluation and recommendation, carries career-long protections that make future discipline harder. For the DOE, the case renews scrutiny of how a principal could supervise a live-in partner for over a year without the mandated disclosure that would have separated them.

Sources

NY Post, “NYC public school principal showered her baby daddy-staffer with OT, probe unveils,” Oct. 3, 2026 — source
Susan B. Edelman, Substack, “Conflicts and Favors” (first report of the COIB settlements) — source
NYC Dept. of Education, High School of Arts and Technology (M494) official school page (principal listing) — source