New York City taxpayers are shelling out $192,374 to a project director for a high school that does not, and will not, exist, according to a report from the Daily Wire. The arrangement sounds like a bureaucratic punchline, except the proposed school is gone while the reported paycheck continues. Apparently, the city managed to keep the payroll alive after the project itself was canceled.
Caleb Haraguchi-Combs formerly served as vice principal for Manhattan Center for Science & Mathematics, a high school in East Harlem. In January 2026, New York City tapped him to serve as project director for Next Generation Technology High School. Project directors often become principals when schools are completed, and Haraguchi-Combs’s salary was raised from $141,960 to $192,374, matching the pay of an acting principal, according to the New York Post.
The proposed school was designed to focus on artificial intelligence, but city officials axed it in April over its planned merit-based admissions policy. Activists claimed the policy would “exacerbate racial inequality.” That explanation creates an awkward question, since New York City already hosts public schools with restrictive merit-based admissions, including American Studies and the Bronx High School of Science. Somehow, the city’s admissions debate moved faster than its payroll cleanup.
Haraguchi-Combs has continued earning a salary for the project director position, the Post reported. He declined to tell the newspaper where he currently works. The New York City Department of Education typically retains project directors whose projects “do not exist,” according to the Post. A source told the Post that city officials “never should have named a principal before the school was approved.” Insiders were reportedly furious about the taxpayer waste and questioned why Haraguchi-Combs could not simply be sent to work at another school.
His LinkedIn profile still lists him as the project director for the now-defunct project. The profile says, “My work emphasizes a human-centered vision of technology education: preparing students not simply to use emerging technologies, but to understand how they work, critically evaluate their societal and environmental impacts, and build solutions that advance the public good.” It adds, “The model integrates competency-based learning, interdisciplinary project-based instruction, civic action, industry partnerships, and authentic community problem-solving.” That is an ambitious mission statement for a school that never got off the ground.
Haraguchi-Combs also has a side hustle. Under the rapper name Cal Combs, he produced two albums. His lyrics feature references to consuming a combination of cocaine and alcohol. In his 2017 song “Roundabouts,” he raps, “One more bump on that key/one more drink and I’m free/one more shot to forget/ how much I hate me.”
The Daily Wire could not identify whether his former employers, including Fordham High School For The Arts, J.H.S. 118 William W. Niles School, and Manhattan Center for Science & Mathematics, knew about his rapping career or the activity the lyrics appear to describe. Haraguchi-Combs has a bachelor’s degree in English/Language Arts Teacher Education from Eastern Kentucky University and a master’s degree in School Building Leadership from Fordham University. For taxpayers, the basic question is hard to avoid: if a school is canceled before it opens, why does its project-director salary keep going?
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