Memo From The RTC: Gala Party Celebrates 2016, Preps for 2017 Shows, Plus Video Highlites of 2016 season

I was part of the 3 man crew that edited this video. Looking through 12 hours of season footage left us with tough choices as what to put in. This could have been an hour ling.

https://vimeo.com/208213080


RTC 2016 Season Retrospective from Rockaway Theatre Company on Vimeo.

 

Memo From The RTC:  Gala Party Celebrates 2016, Preps for 2017 Shows

By Norm Scott

With the kids’ shows completed (Willie Wonka and Singin’ in The Rain), there’s nothing like a multi-generational party, covering a range of 60 years, where everyone is bound by the Rockaway Theatre Company experience, to celebrate last years’ shows and get everyone ready for the coming adult season (A Chorus Line, Rumors, The Producers, Elephant Man and Rockaway Café).

On March 10, the casts and crews of the shows from the 2016 Rockaway Theatre Company season were invited to attend a celebration of last season at El Caribe in Brooklyn. With the teens from the Young People’s workshop included, ages of the partygoers ranged from 14 to me, a newly minted 72-year old (actually I think were a few people a bit older than me but I wasn’t going around asking ages). A slide show of stills from the season brought back memories and a 15 minute video of season highlights of all the shows (Shrek, Sunshine Boys, Follies, La Cage Aux Folles, Wait Until Dark, The Toxic Avenger) played to cheers from the crowd.

The dance floor was alive. (Even my wife and I ventured out.) And make no mistake, when you are at a party with RTC performers, you will see professional level dancing. All of La Cagelles dancers from La Cage Aux Folles were present. They bonded so much during the show, watching them greet each other was quite a treat. One of the highlights of the evening took place when many in the cast of the upcoming Chorus Line gave us an impromptu preview of  what is to come. So….

Make your reservations NOW for A Chorus Line  at www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org or call 718-374-6400. Don't miss this one folks!

Update: The role of Kathy Selden in “Singin’ in the Rain” was played by Skye Smyth.

A Millyard Transitions From Textiles to Tech

An interesting piece in the business section of the NY Times the other day featuring Dean Kamen and his neighborhood. It is a neighborhood I'm a bit familiar with as Dean is the founder of FIRST LEGO League, the robotics tournaments I worked with since I retired in 2002 -- except that this is the first year I am not involved. The millyard discussed below is where FIRST HQ is located and is where I used to go many years for the annual conferences. Sometimes we were even invited to dinner - all 80 of us - at Dean's awesome house. The article sort of reminds me of Williamsburg where I taught and the transition it went through -- some have referred to it as a nightmare. Let's hope Dean's plans for the millyard work out better.

A Millyard Transitions From Textiles to Tech

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/realestate/commercial/commercial-real-estate-manchester-millyard.html?_r=0

Opt Out Parents Fight Feral Farina's Raging Assault on Parents

When Farina and the DOE goons act like little Trumps we must

We know Farina has targeted schools with high opt out rates. I am suspicious that the attack on CPE 1 and its staff and parents is connected to their high opt out rate. When Farina hench people put in Monika Garg as principal one of her early acts was to try to institute test prep, eliciting a giant WTF.

This came in from from NYC Opt Out.

We are hearing from some of you that your administration is insisting parents meet with them if you are considering opting your child out of the tests. We have seen a number of these letters come through other districts in the state as well, which makes us think this is a directive from the state/city DOE (like last year). Some are quite aggressive.

Can you all please snap a photo of the one you might receive or have already received and share it here, or on FB? [Email any  photos to me at normsco@gmail.com and I'll connect you.]

We have a directive for parents who are getting push back from their administration, and though the DOE FAQ states
that the principal "should offer to meet with the parent", in no way does this mean it's mandatory. Both Betty Rosa
and your Regent should be notified, as well as Tish James.

Many parents may not feel comfortable going against their principal's directive, but it is still your right to refuse (an act of civil disobedience you cannot be told how to do!) It was suggested that if you meet with your principal/AP, you let them know you will record the meeting for your records.

Attached here, you will find our new opt out flyer (Spanish version on it's way!) Thank you Ilana for the beautiful lay out!

There are directives in here for what to do if you experience push back from Administration. Please use it, share it and know that the way we intend this to go out is with a simple opt out (Refusal) letter on the back side.

We are 2 weeks away from the ELA exams. We need all the help we can get to share the postcards and flyers, especially to schools who have little knowledge or support about their rights.

On ESSA Rules Change: Will Opt Out Be Affected?

My initial reaction to ESSA rules changes was the less feds the better, given the past 20 years. Like, liberals supported a fed heavy hand to force states like Mississippi to do better educationally -- good luck with that. The cost to us was testing, wasteful accountability, closing schools, charters -- ed deform. I'm ready to say -- screw Mississippi.

A couple of varying views on the new ESSA changes in the time of DeVos/Trump.

Leonie Haimson: Why dumping the ESSA regs is not a big deal; and what is 

There has been an unnecessary amount of angst and ink spilled on the blogs and elsewhere over the fact that Congress has voted on eliminating the ESSA regulations on accountability.  It bears repeating that the law itself -- the Every Student Succeeds Act -- still exists in force and is quite prescriptive, for good or for ill only now just a little bit less so.  ..... I only wish that the accountability hawks within the DC corporate reform groups and civil rights organizations would pay as much attention to the conditions of learning as they do on testing.  By now, they should  recognize that access to high-stakes tests has never been a necessary precondition to improving schools, nor has it been helpful.  

Now many of the Inside-the-Beltway education advocacy groups protested hugely against Congress’ elimination of the ESSA regs, arguing that this somehow would lessen the need for states to try to improve struggling schools and help low-scoring kids.  If they really cared about addressing low-performance rather than merely punishing schools with opt out rates, they should have supported this additional flexibility – to ensure that those schools that really need extra help are provided with the extra support they need.

Jim Horn: What Ending Regulations on ESSA Will Mean

 there is reason to believe that that the removal of federal regulations could escalate the move to state voucher programs that hand over cheap vouchers to the poorest children to “choose” a charter school or a below-average private school.  States will be free to make it up as they along, as long as they stay true to privatization intent and methodology within ESSA.
 

There is also reason to believe to that the removal of federal guidance for ESSA may result in more special needs children and ELL students going unidentified and unserved.

In fact, there are some former Obama officials who point out a host of things that will be lost by losing the federal guidance.  

No doubt I and everyone else will find some elements of the trashed guidance as awful as the ESSA itself, but I would argue that some guidance is better than none, especially when you have Trumpists ready to burn down all public institutions, without forethought of consequence. 

On opt-out, Leonie comments:

... at least 95% of the students in each testing grade must be included in the denominator of the academic indicator for each school, whether they took the test or not. ... What this seemingly technical but very damaging requirement would seem to do is to force states to label schools with high opt out rates as failing – which would be a travesty especially in New York, where many otherwise high-performing schools had opt-out rates of 50% or more. 

Read both in full:
Jim Horn: What Ending Regulations on ESSA Will Mean
Leonie Haimson: Why dumping the ESSA regs is not a big deal; and what is 

The Charter Pestilence Hits Beach Channel Campus: “School Choice” Runs Amuck

How many high schools can you fit on the head of a pin? or in 1 building?

To be published in March 17, 2017 edition of The WAVE.

The Charter Pestilence Hits Beach Channel Campus: “School Choice” Runs Amuck

By Norm Scott

The WAVE had a front page report [Community Slams DOE Proposal for New Charter School] on the March 8 protest led by Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato outside Beach Channel HS before the pre-determined hearing to add another school to the campus, not even a public school, but a privately managed charter school. Amato said, “The idea of wedging another school in here is ridiculous. Co-location will create more competition and limit our resources for the other existing schools.” Not just another school Stacey, but a charter school. I wish our politicians would take a strong stand against the pestilence of charters and single them out as not just another school, but a privately managed school where teachers don’t have to be certified and discipline codes don’t have to be followed.

Let’s see now.  We already have Channel View (grades 6-12, SE), Rockaway Park HS (Grades 9-12, SE), Rockaway Collegiate HS (Grades 9-12, SE). All high schools. And across the street we have Scholars (grades 6-12, SE). That’s 4 schools serving high school students. The incoming charter, Humanities IV, will serve, guess what? 118-128 9^th grade students and will add a grade a year so that by 2020-21 it will serve grades 9-12 with 472-512 students. This will be in addition to in addition to PS Q256, Alternate Learning Center, District 79 programs, LYFE, Restart Academy and community based organizations, Millennium and Partnership with Children.

This is insanity - the idea of school choice run amuck. Why would a charter want to go into an area with so many other options? Will they market themselves as a competitor to Scholars, which often gets the top-performing students and then pick off the spillover, leaving the other high schools on BC campus to compete for what is left? We know that charters have enormous marketing potential, with a lot of outside money to support them. We know that there are certain kids charters don’t want. Low scoring, troubled, ELLs, homeless. The very idea of a lottery means that many of the parents of these kids have too many other issues to deal with and won’t even enter the lottery.  Public schools have to take all kids.

This is not choice but competition for the desirable kids.

Someone tell me why we can’t have one high school with a bunch of alternate sub-schools offering choices under the same management. Imagine the cost to maintain all these schools with a principal, office staff, etc. for each. Once again, school choice run amuck.

Humanities is a New Visions school and New Visions has been a partner with the DOE for a long time. So expect the outcome of the hearing, no matter how passionate the community, to be a done deal.

A DOE spokesperson told The Wave, as they tell everyone, “We value community feedback and we’ll continue to work with families and school staff to ensure the needs of every student in the building are met.”

Excuse me while I hold my sides laughing.

Norm shares his love for charters at ednotesonline.com

Daily Howler on Chris Hayes, Bernie Sanders in Trump Territory- Was that the best hour of cable news ever?

I was out and only managed to catch the last 20 minutes. MSNBC should post this all over the place but somehow hasn't. Did Hayes and Sanders roam too far from the lib line? I never see Bernie make a misstep -- he sat there and listened so well. I haven't seen another one like him. Watch this if you can and tell me he couldn't have beaten Trump.

The Howler comes through with some analysis

Was that the best hour of cable news ever?

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:24 AM PDT

TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2017

Chris Hayes in West Virginia: Last evening, midway through the hour, we found ourselves asking a question:

Is this the best hour of cable news we have ever seen?

We were watching Chris Hayes' town hall event in McDowell County, West Virginia. Apparently, the program was called Bernie Sanders in Trump Country, although it's hard to tell from MSNBC's who-gives-a-flying-fig web site for Hayes' All In program.

Hayes had brought Sanders along to coal country; we thought they were both fantastic. The keeper moment occurred fairly late in the hour, when a retired coal miner stood and said this to Sanders:

RETIRED MINER: I never dreamed that I'd get to thank you personally, myself, for the bill that you have co-sponsored, the Senate Bill 175, the Miners Protection Act, which—

[audience applause]

I'm one of those miners that will lose his health care at the end of April if they don't pass that law. I come from Local 1440 in Matewan...We have over 800 members, all inactive. They're all retired. So we look at things different. And we look at our health care and what we've already worked out.

We're not going to mine any more coal. Our coal mining days are over. And we look to have the funds that we worked for—

SANDERS: And were promised!

RETIRED MINER: —that were promised to us taken care of. That's all we asked. And it's— I think it's kind of ironic that a senator from the northeast—

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes!

RETIRED MINER: —takes care of my benefits better than someone like Mitch McConnell.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: All right!

[Long round of applause]

Let us repeat that nugget statement, live and direct from Trump Country:

"I think it's kind of ironic that a senator from the northeast takes care of my benefits better than someone like Mitch McConnell."

As politics, as journalism, the evening was astounding. We're not sure we've ever seen an event that good on cable.

As we type, MSNBC hasn't posted a transcript of the hour. (Indeed, the channel hasn't even posted a transcript from last Friday's Hayes program.)

The channel hasn't posted easily accessible tape of last night's full event, easily one of the most striking programs the channel has ever produced.

This channel's disinterest in its own product has long been fairly obvious. That said, we strongly recommend the hour, if you can find a way to view it.

We plan to discuss the program in more detail once a transcript becomes available. But this hour was light years better than the fare one normally sees on this channel.

The very next hour, CNN aired a fascinating program by Fareed Zakaria, a program about the political history of Vladimir Putin. We had a few uncharitable thoughts as we watched these outstanding back-to-back hours of cable news.

Those thoughts involved the journalism these channels could perhaps produce if they weren't squandering so many tens of millions of dollars on their silliest, most self-involved stars. For now, though, we'll simply recommend an additional half-hour of tape:

Musically, John Cohen made his name long ago as a member of the New Lost City Ramblers. In 1963, he also made a documentary film, The High Lonesome Sound, about life in Kentucky coal country, with an emphasis on the region's music.

You can watch The High Lonesome Sound here. At roughly the 16:45 mark, you will see three young girls, apparently sisters, who 1) are full of fun and 2) are sporting extremely thin arms, and may not be rich in shoes.

Today, those girls are roughly the age of the women we liberals delighted in mocking and disregarding not too many weeks ago, when Sarah Kliff reported that they can't afford to go to the doctor despite the fact that they have insurance under Obamacare. (Just for the record, the USA 9400 were missing from Kliff's report.)

Hayes and Sanders were both superb in their visit to coal country. In our view, we upper-class liberals have a lot to learn from the example the two men created last night.

We hope to return to The High Lonesome Sound before the week is over. The question we would ask is this:

Can you see those three girls, and their low-income rural parents, as examples of Us? Or given our highly refined sensibilities, are they, inevitably, simply examples of Them?

We've tended to play it the latter way for a good many years. Could our attitudes explain why those girls, unless they've moved, are now living deep inside "Trump Country?"

Jersey Jazzman: Republicans Must Own Trump; "Reformers" Must Own DeVos

Some of the center-right is disavowing Trump, even though they were instrumental in creating him -- just like some of the neoliberal school "reformers" are disavowing Betsy DeVos, even though they were instrumental in creating her... Jersey Jazzman

On this snowy day I'm clearing out some archives I've been saving. I continue the exploration of the Democrats and their support for ed deform with this Jersey Jazzman Feb. 12 piece I've had on my desktop over the past month because he makes so many important points. And once again let me point out that our teacher unions have been fairly lockstep with elements of ed deform from its earliest days even though you may hear some sqwauking now and them. The proof in the pudding is their consistent support for Dem candidates who are avid ed deformers.

JJ's thesis is summed up in the title: Republicans Must Own Trump; "Reformers" Must Own DeVos

Donald Trump was inevitable. That he is a product of a political and media system in which Sullivan and Frum have held positions of influence for years. That the conservative/neo-liberal framing of the issues (what Atrios calls the "Free Republic to New Republic" range of acceptable discourse) set up the rise of a nationalist like Trump.

He goes on to quote neo-liberal Dems (New Republic and DFER's Shavar Jeffries) who try to distinguish between their brand of school choice and DeVos'. But JJ is not having any of that.

what's remarkable here is the attempt to separate DeVos from the entire "reform" project -- just like the center-right is trying to separate itself from Trump. Sorry, my reformy friends, but you don't get away that easily. In the same way "moderate conservatives" have set up Trump, you've set up DeVos. 

He then lists the essentials of how the deform movement has prepped us for a DeVos type:
1) The "reform" movement has repeatedly -- and with very little evidence -- sold America on the idea that its schools are "failures."

2) The "reform" movement has refused to acknowledge that the primary causes of the "opportunity gap" are the inequitable lives of children outside of school.
  
 3) The "reform" movement has repeatedly blamed teachers and their unions for the "failure" of America's schools, ignoring the lack of adequate educational resources, especially for schools serving at-risk children.

4) The "reform" movement has worked to de-professionalize education by repeatedly suggesting experience is an impediment, and not a virtue. 

Read the full piece to get an effective explanation of each of the above and use these arguments the next time you are at a family dinner or end up in a debate with people about "choice."

http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2017/02/republicans-must-own-trump-reformers.html

Caught in the Middle: Neo-liberalism vs neo-nationalism

...the Trump regime and the neoliberal establishment are playing to two entirely different audiences. The Trumpians are playing to “flyover country,” not just nationally, also internationally. For reasons I’ll get into in more detail shortly, many of these non-urban working class folks are not real thrilled with Globalism and are responding to Trump’s neo-nationalist message. The neoliberal elites are playing to their base, most of whom are no less misguided than the folks they deride in “flyover country.” This is mostly due to the identity politics that have been part and parcel of neoliberal ideology for going on the last fifty years, and is why the so-called “resistance” to Trump is centered around issues like racism and misogyny, rather than any kind of cogent reading of the global political dynamics at play here.So who is fighting who in this case, if it’s not as simple as the forces of Love fighting the forces of Racism and Hate?  ..... The Resistance and Its Double
by CJ HOPKINS

I found this interesting analysis in the counterpunch vault from Jan. 30 -- examining what exactly is "The Resistance" and who is leading it. I just posted another piece from Intercepts about the election of Perez as DNC chair and who his backers were --- Greenwald didn't delve into the neo-liberals keeping control over the party and staving off the Bernie wing, which is counter to neo-liberalism, which is why - let's call it Bernieism -- though what that is can be fuzzy. It certainly appealed to many who support Trump -- and I just watched an MSNBC Chris Hayes piece with Bernie in Trump territory -- and it is clear that Bernie knows how to touch base with these people.

The Intercept: Key Question About DNC Race: Why Did Obama White House Recruit Perez to Run Against Ellison?

Glenn Greenwald published this article at The Intercept on Feb. 24, shortly before the DNC vote that elected Tom Perez, the Clinton/Obama wing candidate against Keith Ellison, who represented the Bernie wing of the party. The points made are worth keeping in mind as we face internal and external political strife in the party and on the left alternatives.

https://theintercept.com/2017/02/24/key-question-about-dnc-race-why-did-white-house-recruit-perez-to-run-against-ellison/

Shaun King: Using 'working-class voters' as shorthand for white people is insulting and rooted in racism

Something ugly happens when "working class" becomes shorthand for white. It projects the very distinct impression that working people are white.  ...

Please stop saying that the Democratic Party has lost "working-class voters." It hasn't. It's an insult to the tens of millions of working-class voters of color who have voted faithfully for decades for each and every Democratic candidate thrown their way....

while I agree with the basic philosophy of Bernie Sanders that if the Democratic Party would do better by all working-class people, it could possibly begin to win back working-class white people in the process, we must not erase the fact that tens of millions of working-class voters simply are not white. Period.

Shaun King, Daily News

The false face of the working class

In my FB battles with some pro-Trump NYC teachers who are clearly immersed in racist attitudes -- like branding medicaid people as too lazy to work and ignoring the massive working poor population - many people of color -- we clearly see that kind of branding King exposes. I wonder how some of these teachers can face students who they believe don't deserve health care because their parents are poor.

I'm posting this Shaun King column as a follow-up to his recent column that I wrote about the other day: Bernie Sanders and Shaun King Savage the Dems As Matt Taibbi Questions Depth of Russia Story.

King pointed out that the Democratic Party was more unpopular than Trump. Arthur writes about that column today: Can You Teach an Old Democrat New Tricks?
 
My answer is NO. But more of that another time.

I am posting this as a preface to a follow-up for later in the day where I will explore the connections between the Dems, ed deform, the destruction of Vocational ed - here in NYC particularly as the Dems pushed the line that if you don't go to college you are nothing - a direct attack on the working class. And of course the fundamental support the AFT/UFT gave to ed deform from the very beginning. But more later.

MORE, CPE 1 Parents Call for Mulgrew to Publicly Support Chapter Leader Under 3020a charges at final hearing today

When CLs are brought up on charges that should be a red flag to the union not to treat these cases like any other 3020a dismissal case. MORE/NA Ex Bd reps send a letter to Mulgrew:

We ask that you or Elementary Vice President Karen Alford attend the final day of the hearing this Friday, March 10 in order to send a clear message to the DOE, the arbitrator, and UFT rank and filers that the UFT supports this chapter leader. We further ask you to offer the assistance of the UFT press office in publicizing this defense.  We further ask that you intervene personally with the chancellor around this case. If we do not defend our chapter leaders publicly and strongly, we may soon not have a union to defend at all....

MORE/New Action Ex Bd members letter to Mulgrew

Before I head down to the hearing I wanted to post this call for the UFT leadership to offer public support by showing up today. Our most recent post on the CPE 1 retaliatory 3020a charges against a chapter leader -- Fight Farina Assault on Teacher Rights: Friday 9:30 - In Defense of a Chapter Leader Under 3020a Dismissal Charges

Bernie Sanders and Shaun King Savage the Dems As Matt Taibbi Questions Depth of Russia Story

Reporters should always be nervous when intelligence sources sell them stories. Spooks don't normally need the press. Their usual audiences are other agency heads, and the executive. They can bring about action just by convincing other people within the government to take it.... ..... there are big dangers for the press. If we engage in Times-style gilding of every lily the leakers throw our way, and in doing so build up a fever of expectations for a bombshell reveal, but there turns out to be no conspiracy – Trump will be pre-inoculated against all criticism for the foreseeable future.... Reporters should be scared to their marrow by this story. This is a high-wire act and it is a very long way down.... Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone 

At a time when the Democratic Party should be calling for single payer health plans more than ever, all we hear is "Russia, Russia, Putin, Putin." That is all we heard from Hillary during the campaign too. Nothing has changed.

The Democrats are clinging desperately to the Russian Rock instead of articulating a Bernie like agenda that appealed to so many people in the primaries, including many who voted for both Bernie and Trump.

With little in the tank for the Dems -- look who they are touting in 2020 - Corey Fuck'n Booker? Cuomo the pig --- they are putting their prayers that there is something there on Trump and Russia as they go chasing after every single crumb. And say it is true and we get Pence -- would anything change?

Matt Taibbi, who lived in Russia for years, in Rolling Stone addresses the Russia issue:
Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media

Fight Farina Assault on Teacher Rights: Friday 9:30 - In Defense of a Chapter Leader Under 3020a Dismissal Charges

Chancellor Carmen Farina, who can't leave too soon, tries to hide her anti-teacher attacks behind the superintendents who she appoints. What do Central Park East 1, JHS 145x and Townsend Harris have in common? I'm betting a senior staff and too much teacher autonomy -- people who roll their eyes at the useless PDs and top-down dictums.

Tomorrow (Friday) is another hearing date for Marilyn Martinez, chapter leader of Central Park East 1 in east Harlem. Marilyn is too strong a teacher and leader for  Farina's taste. Even if they don't get to fire her, a major goal is to get her out of the school to strengthen principal Monika Garg who was put in a year and a half ago to undermine the teachers and the school.

The Farina 'my way or high way" record of dismissing parent and teacher concerns is legendary. There is increasing push back from politicians -- see New York Times  where there are calls to make the process of choosing principals more transparent --- the actual answer is to end mayoral control.

Parents are organizing as they did last week when 50 parents showed up on Thursday and Friday, many taking time off from work. Despite threats of snow, expect a strong group to show up again. I intend to go back -- witnessing this type of response is heartening in disheartening times.

If you are a retired teacher come on down to 100 Gold Street starting at 9:30.

JHS 145 Hearing: DOE Incompetence Exposed as Crowd Calls De Blasio "1 term Mayor"

Elizabeth Rose Doesn't Look Very Happy 1-term mayor talk at hearing

One of the more shocking aspects of Monday night's hearing to close JHS 145 were the shouts from the mostly black and Latino audience calling for de Blasio to be a one term mayor. For a minute I thought I was in Staten Island. Hearing those words from what is considered to be de Blasio's major constituency seemed to wake up Farina's top gun, Elizabeth Rose (above).

At the end of the hearing, Rose, reading from the same old Joel Klein script, detailed the reasons JHS 145 must close. Shades of the old DOE ghoul, John White.

Farina recently talked about public education while she and her crew are actually helping Trump and DeVos put a stake in the heart of pubed with their incompetent management of the system --- as Leonie pointed out yesterday - Leonie: The egregious failure of DOE's Renewal program - and the likely illegal proposal to close JHS 145

Also see the New York Times piece on the crap going on over at Townsend Harris --- see the student response to their reporting being branded "fake news" by a DOE official, who should be demoted to the classroom.

And a few more pics from the crew at Monday's hearing:

MORE's MYRIE - who took us on a nieghborhood tour after the meeting

Crowd calls for one term for deB

The great and ever present Aixa

Jim Donahue lays it on the DOE

Even the ability to get more students of color in the top schools have been a failure:

Chalkbeat
Four years after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio railed against the way students are admitted to some of the city’s top high schools on the campaign trail, black and Hispanic students are still rarely accepted into the elite schools. Only 10 percent of offers at specialized schools went to black and Hispanic students, even though those populations comprise about 70 percent of city students. Chalkbeat, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Politico New York, Patch, NY1

Leonie: The egregious failure of DOE's Renewal program - and the likely illegal proposal to close JHS 145

Surely, the students at this school and other Renewal schools deserve a better chance to excel, by providing them with smaller classes, sufficient bilingual and ESL teachers, and all the other services and programs that all children need and deserve, but especially students with such disadvantaged backgrounds – instead of the DOE continuing to spend millions on an army of overpaid consultants and bureaucrats. 

There are many reasons to challenge the closure of JHS 145 and other Renewal schools.  As early as December 2014, DOE promised to focus its class size reduction efforts according to the Contract for Excellence law on these schools, writing: “To better align with the Chancellor’s priorities, C4E’s class size reduction plan will now focus on the 94 schools in the School Renewal program.”  

DOE repeated that promise in the 2015-16 Contract for Excellence plan and again in the C4E plan for this school year, while closing several of these schools without reducing class size.  Indeed, there are still classes as large as 30 at JHS 145 as well as at about 40% of the Renewal elementary and middle schools, and nearly all the Renewal high schools.  

Of the six schools slated for closure, only JHS 145 in District 9 is a zoned school.  Because JHS 145 is a zoned school, it is not clear to me how the DOE can close it without a vote of Community Education Council in District 9, which has not occurred.

According to Marilyn Espada, President of CEC 9, the JHS 145 student population is composed of 53 percent English Language Learners, 20 percent students with special needs, and 53 students in temporary housing. Yet there was no ESL Teacher last year, and only one ESL Teacher for 140 ELL students this year. There are no bilingual teachers for the 7^th and 8^th graders.

In addition, many of the extra services and resources the school was promised as part of the Renewal program never happened. The health clinic built for the school has yet to open, and instead of gaining more space,  17 or 18 classrooms were given over to a  Success Academy charter school one year into the Renewal process,  “scattering students across 3 floors of a building,”  and causing the school to lose its computer room.  There is no science lab, no textbooks last year, and nearly 14 percent of teachers were teaching subjects last year in which they were not trained or certified.

Rather than provide the necessary resources and class sizes to this and other Renewal schools,  the DOE has spent millions on more bureaucracy and consultants, , some  with questionable records and backgrounds.  

A powerful post by Leonie Haimson - an indictment of de Blasio and Farina failures akin to the BloomKlein years. When you scratch below the surface, they are basically giving justification for the DeVos/Trump assault on public schools. I mean, what exactly are we trying to defend when we have seen these types of people in charge for decades?

The egregious failure of DOE's Renewal program - and the likely illegal proposal to close JHS 145

https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-egregious-failure-of-does-renewal.html

The WAVE: Press Conference TODAY Against Charter School Relocation To Beach Channel campus --

More proof of de Blasio/Farina channeling Bloomberg/Klein as they stuff a 7th school into Beach Channel HS. The reactions in communities have been intense. The deB/Farina claims to be defending public education but they are executing policies that could be coming from de Vos and Trump.

That was a big take away from the JHS 145 hearing the other day -- that our own DOE, with the support of Cuomo and his new best friends in the UFT, are executing the demise of public education.

Press Conference TODAY Against Charter School Relocation To Beach Channel campus

http://www.rockawave.com/node/241564?pk_campaign=Newsletter

 

By Mark C.Healey

Ever since the Department of Education's plans to relocate New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities IV at the Beach Channel Educational Complex became public, parents and other community leaders have been concerned.
That concern has turned into open protest, and on Wednesday, March 8, at 5 p.m., parent leaders from among the six schools already sited inside Building Q410 --   Channel View School for Research, Rockaway Park High School for Environmental Sustainability, Rockaway Collegiate High School, PS 256, the BCEC Alternate Learning Center and ReStart Academy -- will hold a press conference with Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato at the main entrance of Building Q410, 100-00 Beach Channel Drive.

The group will be coming out strongly against the proposed co-location of the seventh school, citing excessive space constraints, competition for scarce resources, and the “much easier, much more sensible” solution of allowing existing schools in the complex to grow to fill usable space.
Parents will speak to the impact the co-location would have on their children, and give examples of how the competition for common resources is already making the school experience for their children absurd.  Pheffer Amato will present a letter to New York City’s Panel for Educational Policy (which makes school siting decisions) and NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, originally released on Monday, formally objecting to the proposed co-location and calling for its cancellation.

Pheffer Amato and the parents in attendance will be testifying at a joint public hearing afterwards at 6:00 p.m., held by the New York City Panel for Educational Policy, which makes school siting decisions.

“It was our understanding, under this new administration, that previous excesses created by NYC’s co-location policy would be tamped down,” Pheffer Amato added.  “But, as is often the case with our corner of NYC, we seem to have every hardship dumped in our backyard, without regard to our existing burden.”

DOE Fails Renewal School: It's Class Size, Stupid

The Class Size Matters advocacy group has also compiled data showing that about 40 percent of elementary and middle schools in the Renewal program — and nearly all of the high schools — have some classes with 30 or more students in them.
The group’s executive director, Leonie Haimson, called the situation “unconscionable” and noted how the DOE had repeatedly pledged to “focus class size reduction planning efforts on the School Renewal Program." “Because of the DOE’s refusal to reduce class size, the Renewal program is doomed to fail.”... NY Post

MORE's Lisa North:  As a teacher, I was rather shocked that the Renewal program did not seem to include any supports for teaching and learning. While I do think family and health supports are critical, you do need to support teaching and learning. Class size is of course key, but what and how you teach is also important. Just teaching to prepare students to pass the Regents ( so the system can show growth) will not engage or prepare students for higher education.

“Parents and teachers are leaving in droves. These schools are not being managed properly,” Mulgrew told NY1 News... NY Post

A retired principal who lied to corruption investigators, the co-author of a book written by Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and a nonprofit headed by an insurance fraudster are among those riding Mayor Bill de Blasio’s School Renewal Program gravy train ... NY Post

Lisa and a whole bunch of MOREs attended the JHS 145 closing hearing on Monday at the school. Mulgrew did not, though UFT VP Rich  Mantell did and made a good statement. The UFT should have flooded the meeting but they are just as nervous about keeping 145 open because of the reaction of the charter lobby and Eva over losing control of the school building if 145 lived.

I have lots of video from the hearing but won't be able to get to work on it until this weekend.

We heard more shocking commentary on the massive failure to competently support the renewal schools -- I mean competently, not just throwing money at them.

Now we know not to trust the NY Post, but their recent series of exposures on the renewal program, which clearly has a political purpose to close schools to open them up for charters, still has some important information.

Chalkbeat reports:

SHOW ME THE MONEY The city has paid about $40 million a year on contracts for consultants for its Renewal program. Some payments have been to consultants with checkered pasts. New York Post

We know that Farina doesn't believe in class size reduction and always starts from the point that the problem is the teachers, who need outside "experts" to come in and show them how to do it.

If Farina added 10 real teachers to each school to reduce class size and just left them alone --- actually she also needed to put in a competent principal instead of some of her monsters. But she sure  does believe in sending in outside people to tell people in the school what to do. And oh what kind of people are they?

[Farina] claimed the 700-plus Support Center staffers would “ensure schools get the tailored supports they need,” including “teaching and learning, finance and human resources, operations, student services, special education and English language learners.”

But the source said, “These places are staffed by people who are not anywhere near experts in the field.
“In half the cases they were probably very good two-, three-, four-year teachers. But they’re not the people to be walking into a building telling [assistant principals] or principals what to do.”

Another one from the Post: Foreign language school doomed by bureaucrats

Leonie Haimson on her listserve:

With millions spent in more bureaucrats and consultants, nearly all HS in the program still have classes of 30 or more- despite specific promises to NYSED that they would focus their class size reduction efforts under the C4E law on these schools. 

De Blasio’s questionable school consultants cost taxpayers millions

Here's another article from a former student that the only change she saw when her school entered the Renewal program was more after school clubs and a health clinic- not likely to turn around a school with so many struggling students.

http://nypost.com/2017/03/05/going-to-a-de-blasio-renewal-school-didnt-prep-me-for-college/

SLOW RESULTS The city's "Renewal" school program has shown poor results for the amount of money it costs, according to a New York Post analysis. New York Post 

QUESTIONS REMAIN Anonymous staffers and students at the Coalition School for Social Change said the principal has pressured students to leave and asked teachers to pass certain students. New York Post

Can They Close a Zoned School Without CEC 9 Vote?

One of the major issues Joel Klein and crew pushed as to have CECs eliminate zoning lines - the reason being so they could close even zoned schools without push back from the local CECs

Leonie sent this interesting info:

Meeting tonight at JHS 145 about the closure of the school.  Please attend if you can – more info attached and below. 

As this is a zoned school it’s not clear to me how they can close it without a vote of CEC 9.  

CEC 7 voted to eliminate zoning lines in the district but not CEC 9.  Please correct me if I’m wrong.

For more on this issue, see this: 

https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/10/warning-to-districts-considering-de.html

 

In addition, though DOE promised to focus its class size reduction efforts on the Renewal schools, there are still classes as large  as 30 at this  school, according to DOE data, as well as a lack of bilingual teachers etc.  

All of which is unconscionable especially for a school with so many ELLs (43% according to Inside Schools), if not illegal.

See http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/city-failed-students-closing-renewal-school-article-1.2946153

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2017/01/9/struggling-public-school-closures.html

 Lisa Donlan chipped in affirming Leonie's points:

Right.

Sternberg and OPP worked with CECs to remove zone lines in  a number of districts but only D7 and D 23 actually did so.

They join D1 as the only all choice  community districts in NYC.

D1 started out with a form of controlled choice to control for fairness and equity but the controls were removed with Bloomberg/ mayoral control.

We have been advocating for a return to more equitable form of student assignment ever since.

BDB administration not much better on inequity and Sheraton, offering scattershot DIY fig leaf approach instead of meaningful structural change.

Maintaining bubbles of privilege works for the real estate industry as well as the well off families in NYC public schools.

Lisa

Eva Vs. The People: Battle to Keep JHS 145X Open - Hearing Tonight - 5:30

While closing schools is not as widespread as it was under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it is still occurring and it is very troubling. The Department of Education still fails to provide proper resources for schools and then calls them failures... James Eterno, ICE blog

 I'm taking the subway up to Yankee Stadium tonight, not for a Yankee game, but to take the long walk from there to 1000 Teller Ave for the JHS 145 hearing. I never go to the Bronx, even for Yankee games, because it is as far away from where I live as possible and still be in NYC.

If Eva and her little band of slimeballs show up to tell us about their scholars I'm going to be retching, so I better not eat.

This is not about closing a struggling school but about yet another giveaway of a school building to Eva Moskowitz, who has enough money to rent Radio City Music Hall for a test-prep rally, but wants to toss poor kids into the street in another avaricious grab. And the DOE is closing the school - or trying to - because they fear the slings and arrows of the charter lobby publicity machine.

As for the UFT -- they are supposedly doing things behind the scenes. Ho-hum --when what is needed is a strong public stand against the Farina/deB giveaway to Eva. DeB thinks if he pays off charters they will lay off him in the election. Good luck with that.

I reported on teacher Jim Donahue's heroic efforts to help organize resistance -- Closing JHS 145 So Eva/Success Academy Can Ge..

When Jim spoke at the UFT Ex Bd they acted dumb -- it was Jim and MORE that asked for the item to be pulled from the March 22 PEP agenda which so far has not happened. March 22 may turn into a redux of Bloomberg era resistance.

James Eterno reported on tonight's hearing at the ICE blog:

SCHOOL CLOSING BATTLE IN BRONX TONIGHT

The common perception from the UFT is that school closings are not a real problem under the current Mayor Bill de Blasio and his Chancellor Carmen Farina. While closing schools is not as widespread as it was under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it is still occurring and it is very troubling. The Department of Education still fails to provide proper resources for schools and then calls them failures.

Tonight there will be a Joint Public Hearing to save Junior High School 145 in the Bronx. JHS 145 is slated for closure. Eva Moskowitz has already claimed the building for one of her Success Academy charter schools.

The only trouble with this arrangement is the school community at 145 is waging a valiant fight to save their school. Tonight is their Joint Public Hearing, a public meeting required before a school can be closed. If you can make it to the Bronx this evening, I suggest that you attend the hearing to show your support for 145. Get there before 6:00 p.m. to sign up to speak. Schools targeted for closure need the public to be behind them to have any chance of surviving.

I certainly know how the JHS 145 people feel as Jamaica High School, where I taught for 28 years, was phased out and then closed in 2014.

Here is an email from MORE leader Jia Lee on tonight's JHS 145 hearing.

Colleagues, 

An injury to one is an injury to all. Success Academy is slated to take over the building where JHS 145 has been for generations. Incredibly, SA has advertised for their new middle school even before the vote has taken place at the March 22 PEP. 

The staff and families of JHS 145 are fighting to keep their school open. They serve students who have been mislabled based on faulty test score metrics. A large showing of support for the school and resistance against charterization will send a message to the DOE that we will not stand by while they destroy public schools. 

Please join me at this joint hearing with JHS 145 and Success Academy

JHS 145

1000 Teller Ave. Bronx NY

Take any train to Yankee Stadium or 

take the A or 1 train to 181 Street in Washington Heights, then take the Bx35 bus toward the BX.

NYSUT/UFT Finances in Distress?

UFT owes NYSUT almost $11 million for back dues, and $4 million of that is 90 to 180 days past due... If the UFT is having financial troubles, NYSUT, which declined to comment, can’t afford to bail it out. And if NYSUT is having financial troubles, its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, couldn’t afford to bail it out either, because about 40 percent of AFT’s income is the dues paid by those same NYSUT members. In other words, AFT doesn’t have enough members in the rest of the country to cover NYSUT’s losses.... Mike Antonucci, EIA 

With an upcoming NYSUT election coming up between ST and Unity Caucus, the question is what are they fighting over? Mike Antonucci reported at the Campbell Brown controlled site --- [whereby I spit on the ground] ---- that NYSUT is in deep financial trouble. Now I know people will poo-poo Mike's report due to political bias but as my readers know I take the facts Mike puts out seriously. And furthermore, Harris Lirtzman, one of our most astute people who was a former deputy comptroller, has been saying some of the same things for years.

We reported that the move to dump Karen Magee and give her a golden parachute into a newly created job at the AFT and replace her with the UFT's Andy Pallotta was a break in the 40 year tradition of giving a non-UFT the presidency while having the UFT control the money through the Ex VP - Shanker and Alan Lubin preceded Pallotta in that role. Now the UFT has decided to do a total takeover and the question has been WHY?

Karen broke ranks on opt-out before she was reigned in -- But we know a year ago she was dead meat and that was confirmed for us in Minn at the AFT convention when she barely made an apperance at the convention despite being president of the largest contingent of AFT members. 

Check out the salaries of current officers:

Leaders, Employees, and Salaries
Name    Title    Gross Salary
KAREN MAGEE    PRESIDENT    $268,951
PAUL PECORALE    2ND VP    $236,793
MARTIN MESSNER    SECRETARY TREASURER    $238,913
ANDREW PALLOTTA    EXEC VP    $238,370

I wonder if Karen's new position pays her the same salary? Bet they don't let white elephants take a cut.

Someone sent me this comment from someone in MORE who came up with some interesting reason for why the UFT is taking open control of NYSUT - to get control of the finances -

NYSUT will be bankrupt within a few years of Freidrichs II. No services to locals. And anyone who has ever worked for or now works for NYSUT would be at risk of getting pennies on the dollar for pensions and retiree health care. UNITY may have wanted to get full political control of NYSUT but it needs full economic control of NYSUT to try to 'manage' this disaster.....

Here are selections from Mike A's post on the [gag] 74.

Analysis—New York’s Teachers Unions Are Millions in the Red: A Look at the Numbers

Public schools in New York are among the best-funded in the nation, with the average spending per pupil exceeding $20,000 annually both in New York City and statewide. Not coincidentally, New York is also home to the largest state teachers union, New York State United Teachers, and the largest teachers union local, the United Federation of Teachers, in New York City.

Besides advocating for their members, the unions are also commercial enterprises operating in a market economy. They have buildings, employees, bills to pay, budgets to construct, and in-house “staff unions” they have to bargain with.

...... unions spend heavily on employee salaries and benefits — to the point of risking their future solvency. If a new court challenge similar to the Friedrichs case results in the end of agency fees — required union payments by non-members to compensate for collectively bargained benefits — the New York unions may find themselves unable to meet their obligations to members and employees alike.

The unions’ public policy agenda is designed to mitigate those risks, but ir would have the effect of placing the public treasury in similar straits.

That’s because most union revenue comes from member dues. These tend to increase along with increases in average teacher salary, either according to an established formula or by the vote of a body representing the entire membership. NYSUT collected almost $133 million in dues during the 2015–16 school year, an increase of 5 percent over the year before, according to its annual disclosure reports with the Department of Labor. 

UFT received $151 million in dues in 2015–16, a one-year increase of 5 percent.

Dues are a dependent source of revenue, however. As long as New York’s public schools hire additional teachers each year, and average teacher salaries increase, the unions’ income increases. No other legislative action or market condition has more than a marginal effect on union finances.

Having collected substantial sums, how do NYSUT and UFT spend them? 

Most of it goes to their officers and staff. NYSUT employed around 550 people (according to its most recently available tax filing) with a payroll of $60 million. That sum is trivial, however, compared with the union’s liability for post-retirement benefits. NYSUT estimates that it is on the hook for $504 million in health care for retired members and pension costs, according to its 2016 labor department report, an increase of 31 percent from the year before and 135 percent from 2010.

From 2010 NYSUT Organization Report — Dept of Labor:

 

Six years later, the union’s liability for retiree benefits and pensions had risen by 135 percent:

UFT had 690 employees and a payroll of $42 million in 2015–16; it ran up large post-retirement liabilities of $77 million — a one-year increase of more than 25 percent and a 30 percent increase since 2010.

The unions boast of their success in stifling efforts to reduce public employee pension costs, but NYSUT would have to devote its entire income for more than three years just to cover the cost of its own employees’ pensions and retiree benefits.

How will the unions remain solvent given their precarious current state? So far they’ve relied on deficit spending. Annual deficits have reduced NYSUT’s net assets to –$413 million, according to its most recently available federal tax filings. UFT managed a surplus in 2014–15 after a deficit the previous year, but its net assets were –$19 million.

Here’s another possible indicator of the union’s financial insecurity: UFT owes NYSUT almost $11 million for back dues, and $4 million of that is 90 to 180 days past due. This suggests — we would know for sure only if the unions were more transparent about their financial activity — UFT has at least a temporary cash flow problem.

“The UFT is confident it will meet its future obligations,” UFT spokesman Dick Riley said in an email.

If the UFT is having financial troubles, NYSUT, which declined to comment, can’t afford to bail it out. And if NYSUT is having financial troubles, its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, couldn’t afford to bail it out either, because about 40 percent of AFT’s income is the dues paid by those same NYSUT members. In other words, AFT doesn’t have enough members in the rest of the country to cover NYSUT’s losses.