Dear Friend of IS 278,
It is my great pleasure to inform you that I have just received official word that the HLA is withdrawing its request to be sited at IS 278. Assemblyman Maisel has just received the same call.
I do not yet have word from DOE as to our hopes and dreams for a Performing Arts School. We will continue to press forward on that front.
Nonetheless, it is truly a wonderful victory. There will be no charter school shoved down this community's throat for IS 278.
I want to thank and congratulate all who stepped forward at IS 278, the PA of all our local schools, the Marine Park Civic and Greg Borruso, the Madison Marine Civic, and my colleagues in government who stood with us: Comptroller Bill Thompson, Assemblyman Alan Maisel, State Senator Marty Golden, Congressman Anthony Weiner, State Senator Carl Kruger.
We should always remember that when we stand together united as neighbors, involved in our community, we can accomplish great things!
Sincerely (and a little giddy-happy),
Councilman Lew Fidler
Now let's see if the DOE which was offering them the 6-12 high school in 2 years takes it back. What are you betting?
12 comments:
The scary part of this is that it may be a victory for IS 278 but its going to be a defeat for some other school when they try to dump this charter elsewhere. I hope the people in the long neglected poorer part of Distict 22 are watching out for their schools because I wonder if those same politicians will defend them the same way they defended IS 278.
Ira Goldfine
Great victory!
The politics of this is very uncomfortable. Although this is a great victory for IS 278. Why haven't other schools been able to win this kind of battle? Why all know the answer to this question & it is very disturbing.
Mazel tov! How empowering this is!
Couldn't happen to a nicer billionaire charter.
Good news for Marine Park, BUT, this is a holding pattern by the DOE. After Bloomberg wins a third term, and has retained most if not all the powers of mayoral control, my guess is that the DOE will unleash their full agenda with unbridled power and no consideration to what the educators, parents or politicians think. Charters, school closings, more and more testing, ATIS, tenure, all the reform nonsense they have been touting will be ramped up and shoved down people's throats...
First off, HLA is not using public space at all- they'll now be leasing it, most likely from the Diocese of Brooklyn. This is what they should have done all along but obviously, they'd rather have had space for free.
Secondly, I don't know what anonymous is implying about why this particular fight was such a success but I tend to believe it was the incredible outpouring of the community. Nearly a thousand people showed up for the hearing on the 26th, thousands called 311 and over 6,000 signatures were collected on petitions. Show me another threatened school that put up that much of a fight. And we still had plans for more. It was a well-thought out, well-executed effort. Don't turn it into something it's not.
This is amazing. I am so happy for this community and applaud the huge efforts that were made. My name is Elva Croston and I am a concerned parent with a child who attends PS 160 in Co-op City in the Bronx. The DOE has already approved a middle school/high school charter to be housed in this "tiny" elementary school. Although, some parents are divided on this issue, the majority of parents are saying "NO". We had a march today to oppose this which can be seen on Bronx news 12. Another hearing is set for June due to a techinicallity on the charters original application. Apparently, the charter was already approved and set to open in District 12 but then the DOE decided to place them in District 11 without notifing the community first. The biggest mistake we made as a community is listening to those who think this move would be a good idea. The DOE is standing their ground to open the charter in September. But guesss what.... so will the parents!
Elva, I wish you and your community the best of luck. See my suggestions on gerritsenbeach.net. It's time to wrest the power away from the mayor and get it back where it belongs- the educators and the parents.
EXCELLENT NEWS!!!!!! Huge thanks to the community and politicians regarding this issue. Mr. Steinhardt has plenty of money to get his own place. Did they honestly think that the crock of crap we were told about not being able to find space was going to fly??? Found the wrong community to mess with. Now give us the high school that we want!
Happy Parent
After looking at how all of you conducted yourselves last year, I think you should be ashamed. You demonstrated to the world that Brooklyn of all places is still a place that supports hatred and discrimination. It was a dark and terrible day for human beings. Absolutely shameful.
Yes. Poor, poor billionaires.
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