PEP Reports from Eterno and Sullivan

ICE/TJC presidential candidate James Eterno, a chapter leader who defends his school and teachers to the hilt, reports on the Panel for Educational Policy (the joke Board of Education) meeting in Queens last week. Joel Klein said kitchy-koo to James and Camille's 4 month old daughter Kara.

JAMAICA TELLS PEP ABOUT BUDGET CUT IMPACT

Then there were two

Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan PEP parent rep, gives his report on the NYC Public School Parent blog. Patrick has been joined by Bronx parent rep Anna Santos in standing up to BloomKlein.

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2009/11/doe-demands-consultants-get-additional.html


Excerpt: Across the city, people school leadership teams are working hard to close growing budget gaps while the Chancellor and his team are squandering millions of dollars.
A contract with Hanover Foods to provide canned ravioli to schools passed 9-3. I voted against the contract because new DOE specifications resulted in only one bidder and a price increase of 41% amounting to $1.1 million in additional cost over three years. While nutritional standard are important, the upgrade was not significant enough to warrant the additional expense. For example, we were told the new specifications called for lower sodium but the reduction was minimal: from 880 mg per serving to 770.

A NY1 report had this nugget:
"The fact that there is only provider of ravioli is kind of absurd," said Panel for Educational Policy member Patrick Sullivan. "We are clearly doing something wrong, and my concern here is that we have to be aggressively taking cost out. Not looking for ways, or acting like we have abundant funds to be buying gourmet ravioli."

Sometimes it is fun to watch the reporters as they have to listen to these farces. Keeping a straight face is tough.

Francis Lewis HS CL Arthur Goldstein, an ICE candidate for the UFT high school executive Board, also attended and we expect a report from him soon. Arthur and James were featured in a recent NY Post piece on their schools. See Goldstein and Eterno: ICE Chapter Leaders in the NY Post

By the way, check out the activity of the ICE/GEM activist crew vs the Unity machine in just about every venue. (See my previous post on the DC union strategy.)