Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Report From PS 15 in Battle With PAVE Charter School

Ed Notes has been in touch with the PS 15 community over the issue of the PAVE charter school which was supposed to leave the school is not and is demanding more space.

PAVE is another example of the child of a billionaire who contributed to Bloomberg getting a school to play with at public expense. We previously reported on the Michael Steinhardt's (donor to NYU and Brooklyn Botanic Garden) daughter's (Sara Berman) involvement in the Hebrew Language Academy, which resulted in massive protests by the IS 278 community in Marine Park.

In this case it is the son of a billionaire, Spencer Robertson, who is behind PAVE in Red Hook.

Our first report was on June 13. Here is a follow-up:

There has been an article in the Daily News, which the CHARTER SCHOOL arranged for, so their side of the story could get out. In fact, they let the reporter in the building (which is a no-no, but since she was already there, our PTA president found her and spoke with her at length. We didn't realize the charter school directors were using the article to break the news about their request for an extension in our building. Furthermore, the article did NOT take our real concerns in consideration I guess we were lucky to get any quotes in, but it doesn't really help us. Here is a link: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/06/12/2009-06-12_charter_eyes_a_fair_share.html

After our PTA meeting we held in the library, we got an article in a free paper, the Carroll Gardens Cobble Hill Courier, which was, like most are,full of mistakes and misquotes making us (teachers/staff/parents) look hysterical and making the charter school directors look like reasonable calm people. This one made my blood boil!

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2009/06/19/carroll_gardens_-_cobble_hill_courier/news/carroll_gardens_-_cobble_hill_courier_newsboujwnv06192009.txt
(If is doesn't work, just go to www.yournabe.com and search this headline "A schoolhouse divided".)

One of the directors of the charter school found out about the meeting and confronted our principal, (who did NOT know about it) and basically told her to bring it...not in those words, though. Then the charter school directors brought in NONUNION construction people to consult for work they want done on the new rooms they get for next year! Our custodial staff had to let them know that was NOT going to happen in a union building!




Background articles from NYDailyNews.com (read with a grain of salt)

Charter eyes a fair share

A Red Hook charter school that had agreed to limit its stay in a public school building to two years has kicked up more controversy by asking for additional time.

Billionaire's son opens school, is he qualified?

The son of a billionaire who contributed more than $10 million to Mayor Bloomberg's school projects opened a new charter school this year, despite questions about his qualifications. Spencer Robertson founded the PAVE Academy.

PAL kayos Red Hook charter school bid

A bid by Red Hook public school parents to keep a charter school out of Public School 15 has apparently failed.

City charter school plan for PS 15 is put on hold

City officials have agreed - at least until meeting with neighborhood leaders next week - to hold off on the plan to house the PAVE Academy in PS 15's Sullivan St. building for the next two years.

3 comments:

Matt said...

Non-union? ZOMG! God forbid work might actually get done.

LP said...

Your sarcasm doesn't hold water at our school, PS15. OUR custodians work hard for us and support our teachers. It's blanket statements such as yours that create problems. Please stick to the issue at hand which is that a charter school is taking valuable space from a successful school. This has to stop...NOW.

Anonymous said...

First of all: Unions protect workers and our custodial staff does an amazing job! So keep your ignorant, uninformed, and anti-middle class worker comments to yourself.

Second of all: As usual comments about unions are used as a smokescreen to change the conversation and not address the real issues. Charter schools such as PAVE are being used to 'pave' the road to privatizing education; this would be catastrophic to our educational system and our democratic society. Charter schools drain public school resources and PAVE Academy has had a significant negative impact on our amazing and successful school, P.S. 15. Charters should have the same accountability, responsibility, and transparency as public schools. Charter schools such as PAVE are parasitic and aim to reinforce the roles of privilege and subordination in our society.
Keep PAVE to their agreement: OUT of P.S. 15 in June of 2010!
End the Charter School Movement and support, protect, and preserve true PUBLIC education, the pillar of any strong democratic society.

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