Ed Notes Online: Report From PS 15 in Battle With PAVE Charter School

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.; Friday, July 3, 2009 at 1:52:00 AM EDT
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.; Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 9:38:00 AM EDT
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.

Visit Concerned Advocates for Public Education on Facebook!; Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 9:56:00 AM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Report From PS 15 in Battle With PAVE Charter School

3 comments: