NYC PRINCIPAL PAID $192K TO RUN A SCHOOL THAT NEVER OPENED
Caleb Haraguchi-Combs, an aspiring rapper and New York City educator, is collecting a $192,374 annual salary as the principal of a high school that does not exist. The 33-year-old was tapped to run a proposed artificial intelligence academy in January 2026, but he kept his new paycheck even after officials canceled the project months later.
Haraguchi-Combs previously earned $141,960 as an assistant principal at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics. His promotion to project director for the Next Generation Technology High School came with a $50,000 raise, according to the New York Post.
The proposed Financial District institution would have focused on computer technology. According to Chalkbeat, the curriculum could have used Google’s AI-powered Skills Platform, and the plan involved replacing the small, girls-only Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women.
Support for the idea was scarce. A petition backing the school gathered fewer than 100 signatures, and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels officially scrapped the proposal in April 2026 after backlash over its merit-based admissions model and general fears about AI in the classroom.
Usually, a project director without principal tenure is demoted back to assistant principal if their school never opens. Instead, Haraguchi-Combs kept his six-figure bump.
The Department of Education claimed the educator is busy “developing new proposals and supporting in-progress proposals.” An anonymous DOE source disputed that description to the Post, calling the arrangement a huge waste of resources.
“What was the plan? 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 source said.
The situation surfaced in an October 2026 letter sent by anonymous Manhattan high school principals complaining about Superintendent Gary Beidleman’s leadership. They cited organizational dysfunction and hiring issues, alongside questions about Haraguchi-Combs’s employment status.
When he is not officially running a canceled school, Haraguchi-Combs records music under the name Cal Combs. He describes himself as “half hip-hop artist, half English teacher” and released a 2017 album titled “Carmel,” which features lyrics about drug deals and fleeing gunfire.
When a reporter approached him outside his Downtown Brooklyn apartment building to ask where he currently works, Haraguchi-Combs did not answer the question.
“You came to my house? Outrageous,” he said.
