As the man assigned to police the city’s schools, Stancik gets little rest these days. His is a unique job, and a big one. The New York City School District’s special commissioner of investigation since 1990, he has the task of ridding the nation’s largest school system of political corruption, fraud, and threats to children’s safety. No other big-city school system is investigated by an independent commissioner.
Stancik conducts outside investigations of the New York school system with 42 investigators, nine lawyers, and the same tools and techniques he once used to go after the mob for the Manhattan district attorney. His reliance on interrogators, undercover agents, and hidden cameras and microphones has generated criticism and controversy; challenges to some of his investigative tactics are pending in court.
