In a city with more than 1,800 public schools, Central Park East 1 has stood out as a leader in progressive education. It's a place where teachers customize their instruction to meet the interests and passions of their students, and where educating the "whole child" is more important than test scores.

But many parents recently claimed the principal who took over last summer was at odds with an educational model they deliberately chose for their students. They claimed more than 2,000 people have signed a petition calling for the principal's removal, which they delivered on Wednesday to the Department of Education's policy-making panel.

About a dozen parents, teachers and former students gave emotional testimony to the Panel for Educational Policy.

Bonnie Massey said families initially welcomed Monika Garg at the start of the school year. But they soon found out "she does not believe in the progressive pedagogy that we have at our school," said Massey. "She has articulated that our progressive education doesn't work for black and brown kids."

Massey, who drives her second grade son from the Bronx to school in East Harlem every day, was referring to a couple of academic papers the principal shared with parents. They were written by a black educator in the 1980's, Lisa Delpit, who questioned whether open classrooms that facilitate child-centered learning were appropriate for low-income children of color who may need more direct instruction at times.

Another Central Park East 1 parent, Kenya Dilday, said she was humiliated.

"I am a person who made the choice for my daughter," she said. "And to have her tell the entire community that my daughter needs a different education because she's a black child, to judge her because of race is something I never expected would come from a New York City Department of Education employee in 2016."

Garg was the assistant principal of a high school in Queens, according to DNAInfo. The Department of Education said she's been employed by the public schools since she began teaching at a middle school in Queens in 2003.

Garg did not return a phone call and email from WNYC requesting her side of the story.

Devora Kaye, a department spokeswoman, said Chancellor Carmen Fariña, "recognizes the need to create and build mutual trust at this school."

She said Fariña directed the local community superintendent and her boss, the senior superintendent for all districts, to support the principal through this process by meeting with all members of the school community, including teachers and parents.

However, parents claimed they have been asking all year to meet with the local superintendent because of another concern: the investigation of many teachers through a process that also involved interviewing young children, without notifying the parents. 

The Department of Education confirmed that there was an investigation of corporal punishment. Teachers told WNYC no investigations were substantiated, and that some of them involved old allegations about the use of school funds and other matters they considered to have been settled.

In a letter to the parents this month, Garg said it was her job to uphold the rights of all parties by taking complaints seriously and addressing them.

"How to honor and care for all of your perspectives and needs is complex and sometimes in conflict with one another," she said, adding, "I am working hard to accomplish this."

She also said her desire for changes in the curriculum came from seeing that some students' needs were not being met in a place "that is portrayed as happy as Disney World."

But several teachers said the principal never expressed any concerns about their instruction prior to this April newsletter to families.

Yvonne Smith, who's been teaching pre-kindergarten at the school for 30 years, said Garg hasn't spent more than a few minutes in her classroom.  "She hasn't spoken to me about my work at the school and how I envision and how I structure the work that I do in my classroom."