The Failure of the DOE at PS 114 in Canarsie

I've been intending to write about the PS 114 story for a few weeks. It is one of the more outrageous examples exposing the ed deform plan to undermine public schools. Basically, they put in an incompetent and vicious principal and despite pleas from teachers and parents the DOE kept here there for 5 years as she ruined the school. Now they want to close it as a failing school and put in a charter to take over. They finally remove her over something trivial and give her a job as an AP in the Bronx. Talk about no accountability. PS 114 parent Crystal King spoke at the rally we held on the snow day on Jan. 27:




An article in the Brooklyn Eagle: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=40834 says:

In Brooklyn, besides Robeson, five other schools are planned for phase-out and replacement: P.S. 114 Ryder Elementary; P.S. 260 Breuckelen; P.S. 332 Charles H. Houston; M.S. 571; and Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School.
At P.S. 114, the Ryder School in Canarsie, parents and teachers complained for years about the former principal. Now that principal is gone, but the city plans to close down P.S. 114 and replace it with a charter school and a new District 18 public school.
P.S. 114 “had been a terrific school in the past,” said Councilman Lew Fidler, “until it was shot in both feet by a DOE principal. This school should succeed. I know this city’s agenda is charter schools — but they sent one principal in to wreck it, one to chronicle it and one to close it.”

See Gotham Schools article: City officials confront blame for a Brooklyn school’s fall


Like we've been saying for years - the DOE deliberately chooses inept principals they know will be destructive to undermine schools and alienate teachers and parents - no matter what they do, Tweed supports them all the way as they wend their way through their path of destruction.

Lindsey Christ of NY1 (a former teacher who "gets" it) reported on the story. Some excerpts from her 3 part series:

Teachers begged the DOE for help and even chartered buses from Brooklyn to Manhattan to stage a rally. But Penaherrera was removed only because one day when she failed to show up to work, a carbon monoxide alarm went off and students were kept in class. This, because the school had no safety plan and she had left no one in charge. She also left the school $180,000 in debt. 
---
PS 114 is $180,000 in debt and hasn't been able to get back on track after former principal Maria Penaherrera was removed two years ago. Teachers say they've had to abolish programs, counselors and support staff. Yet the DOE knew about Penaherrera's mismanagement. "They knew this was going on for years, but I guess with the unions and all that it took time. But now the one's who are suffering are the children," said PS 114 Parent Michael Hall. The DOE won't say why Penaherrera remained principal for five years, but it wasn't because of her union. And it wasn't for lack of evidence.
 -----
If all goes according to Department of Education plans, PS 114 will slowly close over the next few years. A new charter school will take over part of the building along with many of the first, second and third graders currently in PS 114 -- a first for the city. All charters use a lottery system to fill their classrooms. The Explore Charter Network says it wants to give kids in a failing school a better shot at getting in.

See all 3 parts:

1/18/2011 The Failure Of PS 114, Part 1

1/19/2011 The Failure Of PS 114, Part 2

1/20/2011 The Failure Of PS 114, Part 3

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

A Principal Responds to Bloomberg Attack on Teacher Seniority

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says unless teacher seniority rules are changed, the city may have to layoff nearly every teacher hired in the last five years. Speaking at the Christian Cultural Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn on Sunday, the mayor warned that the state budget will probably contain deep cuts, especially to schools. Under state law, the most recently hired teachers must be laid off first, but Bloomberg wants merit taken into account.- NY1 report
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/?ArID=133094 .

Story in NY Times: http://nyti.ms/htmP3J

Brian De Vale, Chairman, Council of Supervisors and Administrators, Community School District # 14 

RESPONDS:

As a practicing Catholic and proud union man I find it despicable that Bloomberg stoops to showing up regularly at Christian churches to speak lies about the Teacher's union. Let him spill that nonsense somewhere other than in the House of God.

With over 20 years experience as both a teacher and principal I have the developed the greatest respect for the teachers who work in my school and District. If teachers do a poor job it is the job of their principals to write them up, get them the proper support and training and if they do not work out: get rid of them through progressive discipline.

It is not half as difficult for a competent principal to get rid of incompetent teachers as the media would have you believe. This entire campaign against teachers, printed in the major media outlets each and every day is part of the anti-union agenda pushed by billionaires like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Bloomberg and others from the billionaire hedge fund sector who want to totally do away with public education in order to eliminate public sector pensions.

They increase Charter schools so public school enrollment declines eliminate tenure so nobody can become a veteran and lobby to keep newly hired, cheaper teachers who usually leave within 5 years. It has nothing to do with children, quality education or anything else. Tenure is necessary and Last in-First Out is the only fair way to protect employees from vindictive, sexist, homophobic and/or racist termination and the very real possibility of political retribution from their employers.

Why do you suppose so few principals venture to speak up? They are afraid! To my young brethren starting out as teachers -We have been where you are, and understand your predicament. The budget situation the City confronts was created by the man managing this City for the past too many years-not your colleagues. I would be sorry to see you lose your jobs, but LIFO is the only fair way to determine layoffs.

[To Educators for Excellence]: Get off your high horses-who said you are "better" teachers anyway? Bill Gates who paid for your organization to get started up? The only way workers will ever overcome the current administration's onslaught against seniority is if ALL Municipal Unions stay united in support of LIFO protections.

Wishing you the Peace of God and the blessing of Unity,

Brian De Vale
Chairman
Council of Supervisors and Administrators
Community School District # 14
60 Cook Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206

Challenger Memories

The 25th anniversary of The Challenger shuttle disaster with teacher/astronaut Christa McCauliffe on board has brought back memories. I was one of the 16,000 teachers who had applied to be on that shuttle flight. I had to get my principal to sign the form. She couldn't get her pen out fast enough.

Two teachers from each state would be chosen as finalists and flown to Washington where the winners would be chosen. McCauliffe was the winner and Barbara Morgan was the backup. Ironically, Morgan was slated to go into space on the flight after the doomed Columbia (Feb. 2007) {and as a commenter pointed out did fly on the Enterprise}. Are teachers never to go into space? Though we know if it was up to Bloomberg, every senior teacher would be sent to the moon.

I was fascinated by astronomy since my youngest years - I always perked up from my sleepy state when teachers touched on the subject - which unfortunately was all too rare - until Sputnik - which we heard so much about as a result of Obama's speech this week. I tried to teach about space in my classroom even when it was not part of the grade science curriculum.

Around 1980 I took a year long telescope building class at the old Hayden Planetarium - there was a club that operated out of the basement and we had extraordinary access. Every week for a year I walked around a barrel rubbing two piece of glass together to make an 8 inch mirror for a reflector telescope, which I still have. The crew in the club was pretty funky- engineer types, mostly amateur - but brilliant people.

Through the club (which was eventually tossed out by a new director of the Planetarium) I became friends with Barry Levin, one of the most interesting people I ever go to know (Barry moved to California and we lost touch - if anyone comes across this and can update me please do). Barry could make mirrors of almost any size that was feasible for one person to do and build any kind of telescope. He lived on Sackett Street in Boerum Hill in a giant garage space where he operated his business, creating acrylic frames for artworks to be hung in museums with his living space in the back. It was a wonderland to visit.

As part of the application for the shuttle we had to write lesson plans. So I went to Barry to help me put together something relevant. We came up with a complex plan with Barry doing all the heavy tech lifting, probably our biggest mistake. It took seeing the simplicity of Christa McAuliffe's lesson plans for me to understand why I didn't have a chance - in retrospect Barry may have helped save my life.

I was on a study sabbatical in 1986 and we had gone to Antigua in January. The shuttle was due to take off on the day we were leaving Antigua. TV coverage was potty and I watched the preparations but we had to leave for the airport before the shuttle took off. It wasn't until we were on the plane that we found out what had happened. I spent the entire trip home in a state of shock thinking about what could have been if I had gotten my wish.

When we got home, there was a postcard a friend had sent out a few days earlier: "I'm so sorry you didn't get to go on the shuttle. I know how much you wanted it."

Whose Dictator? Your Dictator!

The American response to events in the Middle East where the dictator allies are beginning to fall is an indication of how far we have come from our revolutionary roots as a nation. When I was in school I always rooted for the revolutionaries because I identified with where we came from as a nation. Where did we stand when the French Revolution came so soon after ours? By the time of the Russian Revolution sentiments had shifted - better a Tsar oppressing the people than the scary alternative.

Thus, today's news about Egypt following so soon on Tunis and with Jordon and maybe even Saudi Arabia to come must be sending shivers down the spines of officials - and the pro-Israeli lobby as they know full well how possible it is for all these allies to slip away.

Well, when it comes to your favorite dictators who live high off the hog while leaving the people in poverty as opposed to places like Cuba we know where our government stands. Saudi Si, Cuba No!

Really, how amazing when people take to the streets in the face of tanks staring them down. And then you think of how many teachers say they are afraid to stand up. Will there be a day when masses of educators and parents take to the streets to battle the forces of ed deform in the face of the tank equivalents of Broad and Gates?
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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

The Wave: Cathie Black Faces Controversy and Jeers at First Panel for Educational Policy Meeting

I turned in a short news story for today - the Jan. 28th Edition of The Wave. I wrote it on a very tight deadline this past Wednesday between 7:40 and 8:25 AM. I never can write that fast - and I'm always amazed how reporters do it. This makes me appreciate what they do - when their articles are not suck up shills for ed deform, which they so often are - see one Carl Campanile in the NY Post. (Sorry Carl, I like ya but you are what you are.)

Special to the Wave by Norm Scott

Cathie Black got a rough introduction to NYC school politics at the January 19th Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting at Brooklyn Technical HS during the public comment period were each speaker was allowed two minutes. "This is what happens at these meetings," said one speaker. "Get used to it."

The most contentious issue was the placement of a 4th school, a clone of the successful Manhattan downtown Millenium HS, within the Park Slope John Jay Campus, which currently contains three schools. Children of color mostly populate these schools and many Park Slope parents are reluctant to send their children to them. There were concerns that Millenium will be geared to attract these white students, thus creating a segregated situation within the walls of the same building and charges of "racism" rang out from numerous speakers.

Representatives of the three current John Jay schools also charged that the campus had been denied resources for years, a common charge from schools claiming the goal of the DOE was to create a "failure" situation to make them prime candidates for closure. Remarkably, two of the three principals of these schools made strong statements condemning the DOE for this practice. A story emerged later in the meeting that one of these principals had spent $5000 of her own money to put in a bell system for the building. The same charges of purposeful under resourcing schools have been made by supporters of Beach Channel and Jamaica HS, the two large Queens schools targeted for closure. The proposal called for putting more resources into campus, but only if Millenium was added to the building. As expected, the PEP voted to insert Millenium.

Black had opened the meeting with a written statement that took direct aim at teachers calling for an end to last in first out (LIFO), reforming pensions and a solution to the ATR problem created when teachers are left without teaching positions when their schools are closed. "We must come to a compromise on the ATR pool, the one million one hundred thousand teachers who receive full salaries and benefits without having permanent positions in the classrooms," said Black, apparently getting confused between the number of children attending NYC schools and the number of ATRs, estimated at around 1200. Black was booed and jeered during her statement, especially when she mentioned Mayor Bloomberg's name.

Other groups used their time at the microphone to serenade Black and the Panel with lyrics like "You ain't gonna close this little ole school of mine." With closing school votes and more charter co-location votes due to come up, more PEP meetings have been scheduled for Feb. 1st and 3rd and March 1st.

The Feb 1 meeting is expected to be particularly contentious due to Eva Moskowitz's Harlem Success Charter school attempt to take over part of the Brandeis HS campus on the upper west side. Brandeis is similar to the John Jay situation in that it is situated in a mostly white neighborhood. Moskowitz has shifted from trying to attract children of color to white students, flooding the west side with ads arguing that by attending her school, parents can save $30,000 a year in private schools tuition, a tactic some other charter school supporters frown on, viewing at a perversion of the original charter school intention to reach into the poorest areas of the city.

Moskowitz is organizing buses of supporters to come down to the hearing while the UFT is organizing a pre-meeting rally, all to take place at Brooklyn Tech on Feb. 1.




Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Coming Soon: PhDs Lucky to Get a Job Driving a Cab- Fiorillo on "False Premises, False Promises: Corporate Education Reform and the Hostile Takeover of the Public Schools"

"the guilty secret of those screaming, “It’s all about the kids!” is that the occupations which the majority of public school students are being trained for are dead end, low-paying, high-turnover jobs that require little or no education beyond high school. And if you think about it, this is congruent with the education that teachers are increasingly being forced to give them: authoritarian, repetitive, tedious, dull and closed to larger worlds and opportunities." - Michael Fiorillo

Michael Fiorillo of ICE and GEM nails the entire lie being perpetrated - by Obama, ed deformers and even our own union which has bought into the "education trumps poverty" and the "teacher quality/effectiveness is the most important facto---blah, blah, blah" arguments that serve as the basic myth of ed deform in part 1, The Fallacy of the Knowledge Economy, of his guest blog at NYC Educator.

So if most jobs - think clerks, salespersons, etc only need high school degrees - and the narrow test prep schooling they get prepares them perfectly for these jobs - then the ed deform emphasis on college - think how the the charter school shills calls all their kids "scholars" when they full well know what Michael is reporting - makes sense. NOT! according to Michael.

“So,” the self-proclaimed reformers will say, “that just proves the importance of a college degree!” Unfortunately, no: for even highly educated and skilled workers are seeing their prospects diminish as a result of outsourcing enabled by digital technologies. According to Sarash Kuruvilla of Cornell’s Institute of Industrial and Labor Relations, “…many highly-skilled US jobs such as financial industry equity research, data modeling and actuarial analysis are being outsourced to India.”

     Kuruvilla also reports that other high-skill occupations being moved to Asia include “engineering services…particularly in aerospace and civil aviation, software research and development, and in animation…” The health industries will also not be spared, with “medical research jobs, including those in radiology, drug discovery and testing, and clinical trials… moving to India.”

     The inference to be drawn is clear: whatever connections may have existed between post-secondary educational achievement and economic advancement have been broken, and to claim otherwise is false. This is significant for public school teachers, since they are being herded into a forced march, and having their living standards threatened, based on the constant repetition of these false premises.

In order to perpetrate the lie and shift the costs of education from teacher salaries into the corporate/hedge fund ed deformers, teachers have to become the target:

     What’s the point of all this for teachers and supporters of public education? It’s that one of the major themes in the dominant narrative about education in the US, that (unionized) teachers (with due process and seniority rights, and pension and health benefits) are failing to prepare students for a future bright with unlimited prospects, prospects they would achieve if only their deadbeat teachers didn’t stand in the way, is straight-out false.

Read Michael's full piece at:

False Premises, False Promises: Corporate Education Reform and the Hostile Takeover of the Public Schools

After burn: 

Michael proves once again the strength of ICEers - serious analysis.

Jan. 27: Feelin' Groovy at the Snow Day Rally at Tweed

That seems to be the way people reacted to today's snow day "Stop Closing Schools and Charter Takeovers" rally with Tweed and City Hall hulking in the background. And Cathie Black didn't come, though she was nviLots of new face, lots of familiar faces, old, young, in-between teachers, parents and children. And a band too.
I wasn't even making snide comments when Leo Casey spoke representing the UFT (Michael Mendel called to say he was snowed in.)

Lots of good video to process and analysis to do.There were many groups supporting and sponsoring the rally but I am especially proud of the GEM activists who led to drive to make this event happen.

Updated: Video and photo links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToFQtc58eHw

Fightback Friday blog: Video & Images From The January 27th Rally

Jamaica HS student play reading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqXagbEMH-Y

NY1: http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/education/132963/group-protests-plan-to-close-underperforming-schools/=

Sam Coleman, GEM & NYCORE, speaks to crowd of 300 that navigated the 1.5 inches of snow to protest at City Hall unjust policies of school closings, charter takeovers and the privatization of public education. Message: activiate your UFT union at schools across the city to fightback!

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIiiWkLwSmk]

Thank you, Brother Radio Rahim of Coalition for Public Education, CPE

Here are a few stills I took soon after we got there to set up.

Rally On! Blizzard Nor Snow Day Will Stop Parents, Students, Educators, and Community Members From Expressing Their Outrage Over School Closings and Charter Takeovers.

Press Advisory

Date: Thursday, January 27, 2011

Contact:

Sam Coleman, NYCORE/GEM, Rally Coordinators: 646-354-9362

Angel Gonzalez, GEM, Rally Coordinators: 917-842-0381



Rally On! Blizzard Nor Snow Day Will Stop Parents, Students, Educators, and Community Members From Expressing Their Outrage Over School Closings and Charter Takeovers.



When and Where: Today, Thursday, January 27th 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. at Brooklyn Bridge Park, on Centre Street, to the east of the Tweed Courthouse building.



What: On Thursday, January 27th, parents, students, and teachers across the city will join together at a city-wide rally to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies. The event will feature Jamaica and Queens Collegiate students performing an abridged performance of "Declassified: The Struggle for Existence [We Used to Eat Lunch Together]" which is a reinterpretation of Antigone and a candid and scathing critique of school reforms. Parents, students, and educators from schools facing closing and charter takeovers, as well as those who sponsored the event will speak.



Snow Closings, Yes! School Closings, No!



Who: Sponsored by: The Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers, Grassroots Education Movement NYC (GEM), New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE),Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública (CPE-CEP), The Manhattan Local of the Green Party of NY State, Class Size Matters, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

Endorsing Organizations: Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Independent Community of Educators (ICE), Center For Immigrant Families (CIF), The Puerto Rico Solidarity Network - PRSN NY, People Power Movement, Renaissance School of the Arts-M377(UFT Chapter), City-Wide Coalition for Education Excellence Now, Black Women Against Urban Youth Violence, Teachers Unite (TU), South Bronx Community Council, NY with UPR (NY with University of Puerto Rico), Dee Knight, The Independent Workers Movement/Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores,, District Leader Chris Owens (52nd Assembly District, Brooklyn), Retiree Advocate Caucus-UFT, CUNY Mobilization Network, The Green Party of NY State, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Radical Women, Answer Coalition, Community Education Council 1 (CEC1), Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE), New Action/UFT, National Black Education Agenda (NBEA), State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson 56th AD, Youth on the Move (a Program of Mothers on the Move), PACE Network. Roots Revisited, S.E.E.D.S., Inc., The Healing Drum Collective, Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) Solidarity Network, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Councilman Charles Barron and Operation P.O.W.E.R., Time Out from Testing, The M.A.NY



Additional Contacts:

Stephane Barile, NYCORE and assisting students who are performing play: 650-218-3352

Crystal King, parent and PA President of PS 114: 347-789-5468

James Eterno, teacher, Jamaica High School: 917-693-5013

Stefanie Siegel, teacher, Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152

Muba YaroFulani, parent, CPE: 347-785-3418/347-442-5134

Brenda Walker, parent, CPE: 347-583- 5925

Leonie Haimson, parent and Executive Director, Class Size Matters: 917-435-9329

Edwin Mayorga, doctoral student in urban education at CUNY and NYCORE member: 917.400.6255

Christine Annechino, parent, CEC3: 917 593 4797



###

Today is Rally Day - Neither Snow, Nor Rain, Nor Sleet...Snow Closings- YES, School Closings -NO

Greetings to all  supporters and endorsers of the Rally to Stop School Closings & Charter Takeovers ,

Today is Rally Day.  

Snow or no snow. Our schools are being attacked by the draconian policies of the DOE  and we are not going to sit back and let this happen. Get out all of your members and supporters to ensure a huge turnout.  Let's tell City Hall and tweed that the parents, teachers, students and community members of this city will fight to defend public education. All of our kids must get the excellent education they deserve!
             
           At the rally we will be treated to Jamaica and Queens Collegiate students performing an abridged performance of "Declassified: The Struggle for Existence [We Used to Eat Lunch Together]" which is a reinterpretation of Antigone and a candid and scathing critique of school reforms. Also students and teachers facing school closings and charter takeovers as well as representatives from sponsoring organizations will speak. 

               We encourage all groups to bring signs, banners, instruments, and their favorite slogans and chants so that together we can make a strong statement to the Mayor, the Chancellor,   the PEP  and all other forces who are trying to destroy our public schools.

See you later,

Gloria Brandman
for the Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closing and the
Grassroots Education Movement (GEM)

Stop the school closings!

Stop charter takeovers
Defend public education
Say no to privatization

Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education plans to close 26 more schools this year.  Despite the DOE's claim that these school closings are aimed at reforming schools, they have instead opened the door to privately-run charter schools and have limited school options for those affected.  According to the accounts by parents, students and teachers, DOE policies have had the effect of sabotaging the schools that are slated to be closed, not "fixing" them.

Bloomberg has played a shell game with our most vulnerable children, shuffling them around from closing school to closing school.  This process has disproportionately affected students of color, only serving to further perpetuate a separate and unequal school system in New York City.

In addition to closing schools, the DOE plans to grant more public school space to charter schools through co-locations, undermining public school resources and pitting school communities against each other. 

We demand quality resources and support for our public schools, not closings and privatization!

Join parents, students, teachers and community members at a rally to stop school closings.

Thursday January 27 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
City Hall Plaza near the Brooklyn Bridge
Trains:  4, 5, 6, 2, 3, R, A and C

(Lists in formation)
Sponsored by: The Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers, Grassroots Education Movement NYC (GEM), New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE),Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública (CPE-CEP), The Manhattan Local of the Green Party of NY State, Class Size Matters, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

Endorsed by:Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Independent Community of Educators (ICE), Center For Immigrant Families (CIF), The Puerto Rico Solidarity Network - PRSN NY, People Power Movement,  Renaissance School of the Arts-M377(UFT Chapter), City-Wide Coalition for Education Excellence Now, Black Women Against Urban Youth Violence, Teachers Unite (TU),  South Bronx Community Council, NY with UPR (NY with University of Puerto Rico), Dee Knight, The Independent Workers Movement/Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores,, District Leader Chris Owens (52nd Assembly District, Brooklyn), Retiree Advocate Caucus-UFT, CUNY Mobilization Network, The Green Party of NY State, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Radical Women, Answer Coalition, Community Education Council 1 (CEC1), Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE), New Action/UFT, National Black Education Agenda (NBEA), State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson 56^th AD, Youth on the Move (a Program of Mothers on the Move), PACE Network. Roots Revisited, S.E.E.D.S., Inc., The Healing Drum Collective, Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) Solidarity Network, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Councilman Charles Barron and Operation P.O.W.E.R., Time Out from Testing, The Mothers' Agenda NY (The MANY)

Thursday: Major City-Wide Rally to Stop School Closings, Stop Charter Takeovers, Defend Public Education, Say No to Privatization on 1/27/11

Here is the Press Advisory for tomorrow's rally. Snow will melt in time and a thousand flowers will bloom. This is the first time so many groups have gotten together to organize a rally that is truly from the grassroots. The UFT signed on as a sponsor. All sponsoring groups will have a speaker and students from Jamaica HS are expected to perform a piece from their play (Jamaica HS: The Play WAS The Thing) on closing schools.

Contact:

Sam Coleman, NYCORE/GEM: 646-354-9362

Angel Gonzalez, GEM: 917-842-0381 

Major City-Wide Rally to Stop School Closings, Stop Charter Takeovers, Defend Public Education, Say No to Privatization

When and Where: Thursday, January 27th 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. at Brooklyn Bridge Park, on Centre Street, to the east of the Tweed Courthouse building.

What: On Thursday, January 27th, parents, students, and teachers across the city will join together at a city-wide rally to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies. The event will feature Jamaica and Queens Collegiate students performing an abridged performance of "Declassified: The Struggle for Existence [We Used to Eat Lunch Together]" which is a reinterpretation of Antigone and a candid and scathing critique of school reforms. Parents, students, and educators from schools facing closing and charter takeovers, as well as those who sponsored the event will speak.

Who: Sponsored by: The Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers, Grassroots Education Movement NYC (GEM), New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE),Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública (CPE-CEP), The Manhattan Local of the Green Party of NY State, Class Size Matters, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

Endorsing Organizations: Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Independent Community of Educators (ICE), Center For Immigrant Families (CIF), The Puerto Rico Solidarity Network - PRSN NY, People Power Movement, Renaissance School of the Arts-M377(UFT Chapter), City-Wide Coalition for Education Excellence Now, Black Women Against Urban Youth Violence, Teachers Unite (TU), South Bronx Community Council, NY with UPR (NY with University of Puerto Rico), Dee Knight, The Independent Workers Movement/Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores,, District Leader Chris Owens (52nd Assembly District, Brooklyn), Retiree Advocate Caucus-UFT, CUNY Mobilization Network, The Green Party of NY State, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Radical Women, Answer Coalition, Community Education Council 1 (CEC1), Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE), New Action/UFT, National Black Education Agenda (NBEA), State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson 56th AD, Youth on the Move (a Program of Mothers on the Move), PACE Network. Roots Revisited, S.E.E.D.S., Inc., The Healing Drum Collective, Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) Solidarity Network, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Councilman Charles Barron and Operation P.O.W.E.R., Time Out from Testing, The M.A.NY

Additional Contacts:

Stephane Barile, working w/ students performing play and NYCORE: 650-218-3352

Crystal King, Parent and PA President of PS 114: 347-789-5468

James Eterno, Teacher Jamaica High School: 917-693-5013

Stefanie Siegel, Teacher Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152

Muba YaroFulan, Parent CPE: 347-785-3418/347-442-5134

Brenda Walker, Parent CPE: 347-583- 5925

Leonie Haimson, Parent and Executive Director of Class Size Matters: 917-435-9329

Cathie Black: Soft Core Pornographer

"He pressed his hands between her thighs, spreading her legs. She moaned as he gripped the band of her silk panties and pulled them down...." - New curriculum for NYC schools proposed by Black?

Susan Ohanian sent this:

Warning: There is objectionable language here, language unsuitable for family viewing. This article raises the question of how the media mogul who sat at the top of the empire producing this material is now in charge of New York City Schools--without a peep from conservatives who claim to represent moral issues. David Berliner is on target: Why no MORAL outrage at Hearst chief Cathie Black's selection as the leader of schoolchildren in New York City? I've always preached that there's no escaping it: We can only teach who we are. I am happy that David Berliner forces the reader to face this issue.

by David C. Berliner

I must state at the start of this essay that I am no prude, no Victorian. In fact I am generally quite tolerant of contemporary mores in the area of sexuality. But I have my limits. I still expect my school leaders to behave with sobriety, to be prudent, to not push the limits of our secular and permissive society and to model more of what might be called traditional American values. Although I choose to live my personal life according to more modern and secular values, I do not see my position to be hypocritical. I think modern youth needs some grounding in prudence, restraint and responsibility, before their involvement in the difficult work of becoming a responsible young adult in our tumultuous times. Perhaps this belief is shared by others and is why there is such a furor over the new MTV show "Skins." The blatant sexuality of the young people in this TV show, understandably, is scandalizing many of those who worry about the moral behavior of our youth. But for some reason they let another questionable event go without protest.

For reasons I don't understand, the chairman of a large corporate entity that publishes salacious material was selected to be the leader of a major American school system. I always had considered some of this business leader's publications akin to soft-core pornography. Thus, I wondered about the propriety of this person's appointment to lead a school system and the lack of attention to the person's publication record. The new school leader in question, while in business, published magazines with suggestive photos and articles. For example, highly sexualized, barely clothed woman stare out at you from some of the chairman's best known publications. The women often have what on the street would be called a "come hither look." Often these women are in intimate positions. Some pictures suggest bondage by the woman, to please a man.

This chairman/now school leader has published prose like this:

Mikayla felt his lips trail down the side of her neck. Her body stated tingling with anticipation. He caressed one nipple with his tongue, then the other....

He pressed his hands between her thighs, spreading her legs. She moaned as he gripped the band of her silk panties and pulled them down....

Nik led her to the bed.... Then suddenly his mouth was on her, exploring her with his tongue as he gripped her ankles with his hands.

A month later another one of the publications of the chairman/now school leader included this:

His hands, hardened and callused ... ran up her thighs, until he reached her panties. She felt a quick tug and heard a ripping sound, then felt his fingers, gentle and tender, finding her, stroking her and bringing her to higher and higher levels of pleasure.

.... He entered her slowly, deeply, but then pulled back out. He groaned with pleasure.

"Please" was all she could utter.

In what genre might we classify the prose represented by these recently published excerpts from the chairman/now a school leader? Readers may disagree but I would label them "woman's romance," soft-core pornography, or both.

On another page of a publication by the chairman/now school leader one woman tells us that the casual sex she engaged in was "so good, it was worth the guilt." One can question the wisdom of such advice to any young woman, but to teenagers still in school it is simply bad advice. In fact, in the advice realm, the chairman/now school leader seems quite enthusiastic about what is possible sexually.

For example, the chairman recommends the following as fun: That woman/girls choose a deserted corner of the parking lot and back in. Then put up their sunshade on the windshield and hang their jackets on the hooks over the back windows, so it's harder for people to see in. The chairman then recommends: "Jump his bones." Other advice to spice up relationships include light whipping, or a new high-tech form for arousing a male partner, namely, texting pictures of your vagina via your cell phone to your boyfriend across the table while dining out. Apparently, when he checks his mail, his appetite is increased!

Other advice presented is from men to women. One guy says he liked it when his date undid her shoes under the table at a restaurant and gave him "a foot job under the table." Another reported "This girl was riding me in reverse cowboy when she stopped, leaned way forward and started sucking my toes." Still another told women what he liked about his ex-girlfriend: She would "put my whole package in her mouth. Then she would hum to create vibrations."

And we also learn from the horoscope in a publication of the chairman/now school leader that Aries men, in particular, are visual and thus would like to have sex doggie-style in front of a mirror. On the other hand, the chairman apparently believes that Taurus men would prefer woman to slowly lick down their chests and nibble their thighs, before ending up at their package. Gemini men, different than others, like to take the lead, so, ladies, bend over against a wall and have these gentlemen enter you from behind and let the Gemini guys set the pace and depth for themselves. Capricorn men are equality minded so, ladies, you might want to "Guide him into 69, with you on top, using your lips and tongues to trigger insane pleasure." And if you forget all these helpful hints the corporation headed by the chairman has an iPhone and an Android application offering you the sex position of the day, allowing your phone to choose your position!

Honestly, you cannot make this stuff up! As I stated at the start of this essay I am not personally offended by any of the text cited. What I do find distasteful is that women are presented as objects in these publications, apparently under the guise of making them powerful. To me, the major publications under the chairman, now a school leader, make objectification of women their theme. A smart business person like the chairman must understand that the stories told, the advice given and the photos that accompany them could be harmful to youth. That is probably why, stuck away in an obscure part of the publications from which I drew my illustrations and in small font, the chairman cautions "The models photographed ... are used for illustrative purposes only: [This publication] does not suggest that the models actually engage in the conduct discussed in the stories they illustrate."

The former chairman, Cathleen Black, was recently appointed by Mayor Bloomberg of New York to be the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools. By all accounts she is a successful businesswoman. Among other accomplishments she was chairman of the Magazine Division of Hearst publications, whose flagship magazine is Cosmopolitan. The examples I just provided of what Black has published for girls and young woman all come from the January and February 2011 issues of Cosmopolitan magazine, selling well on newsstands across the country right now.

Although many complained about the mayor's appointment of Black because of her lack of knowledge about schooling, I was surprised there was no mention of the appropriateness of her appointment on the basis of her ethical and moral fitness to lead our schools. Doesn't that count anymore? Where were America's conservatives, such as Alan Bloom and Bill Bennett, when her appointment was announced? I expected them to be outraged. Where was the Christian right, when so clear a secularist and morally suspect person as Black was appointed? Why did Pat Robertson and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council give Black a free ride? Where were the critics, now attacking "Skins," when Black was appointed? Why weren't critics pointing out that the success of Cosmo and other magazines over which Black has editorial responsibility (e. g. Seventeen, Marie Clair), is not based on their literary qualities, unless sexual titillation is the readers' goal.

I am afraid that I see a difference only in degree, but not much of a difference in kind, between Black and two other successful publishers, Larry Flynt and Hugh Heffner. But they would never be allowed to interview for the job, despite equal records of business success. My question is this: Shouldn't an appointment of this magnitude have generated more debate? Black's lack of knowledge for the position of chancellor of the New York City schools is surely matched by the questionable moral values expressed in the publishing empire she headed. But debate about her lack of knowledge has been muted and debate about her moral fitness to lead the system has been virtually non-existent and that makes me angry.

Debate should have occurred. What Chancellor Black believes and does will, literally, affect the lives of millions of American teachers and students in New York and the nation. I am appalled that a position of this significance can be obtained without proper and public vetting of the candidates qualifications, especially when it is quite clear that her knowledge and her moral vision are both questionable. Although we have been told that mayoral control of the schools would aid in reforming them, it looks to me like mayoral control of the schools simply allows for the old New York patronage system to continue.

David C. Berliner has authored more than 200 articles, books and chapters in the field of educational psychology teacher education, and educational policy, including the best-seller The Manufactured Crisis (co-authored with B. J. Biddle) and six editions of the textbook Educational Psychology (co-authored with N. L. Gage). He is a past president of the American Educational Research Association, and of the Division of Educational Psychology of the American Psychological Association. Berliner is a Regents' Professor at Arizona State University in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies division. — David Berliner
Truthout

2011-01-25

http://www.truth-out.org/soft-core-porn-and-crisis-school-leadership67125

On the Jan. 27 Rally and GEM

THE RALLY ON THURSDAY JAN. 27 AT 4:30 PM ON THE EAST SIDE OF CITY HALL PLAZA NEAR TWEED IS ON - REALLY A MUST ATTEND EVENT BECAUSE IT IS TRULY FROM THE GRASSROOTS. MOST ACTIVIST GROUPS IN EDUCATION ARE INVOLVED - AND EVEN THE UFT IS A CO-SPONSOR - WHICH MEANS THEY HAVE TO PAY 50 BUCKS - I HOPE THEY HAVE IT AFTER PAYING RANDI 200 GRAND IN SICK PAY.  THIS IS NOT A UFT CONTROLLED EVENT. THEY HAVE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ORGANIZING OR RUNNING IT - THEY DID MENTION IT IN THE CHAPTER LEADER UPDATE.


BEST OF ALL, WE EXPECT SOME OF THE KIDS FROM THE JAMAICA HS PLAY TO PERFORM. ALSO LOTS OF SINGING - AND MAYBE SOME DANCING TOO - I'M FOR A CONGA LINE AROUND TWEED - THIS WILL BE A FUN RALLY WITH SPEAKERS MINIMIZED SO BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

Follow events on these blogs

School Closing Coalition Blog 
http://stopschoolclosings.wordpress.com/

http://fightbackfridays.blogspot.com/

ATTEND THE D3 RALLY AND DOE CO-LOCATION HEARING 

TONIGHT

http://education.change.org/petitions/view/stop_the_co-location_of_success_academy_charter_school_in_the_brandeis_high_school_building

If you have specific additional comments you'd like to make, they can go to D03proposals@schools.nyc.gov.

Brandeis HS Campus (145 West 84^th St. between Columbus/Amsterdam)

5-5:30pm – Rally in front of Brandeis to support regular D3 schools

6pm – DOE Public Hearing on the Brandeis/Success co-location  proposal

Speaker sign up begins 5:30 and ends 15 minutes into the hearing; public comment will be taken until all speakers are heard, but you must sign up if you wish to speak. 

Jan. 25, 2011
Let me begin this joyous day with the wonderful news that Rahm Emanuel has been knocked off the ballot in Chicago - temporarily I imagine - how can all that Eli Broad/Donald Trump/Bloomberg money etc. money not be able to buy the state supreme court - see one Cathie Black waiver ruling.

Yesterday I attended the final prep meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers which is running the Jan. 26 rally. I counted at least 20 people. I'll post separately about the rally and why it is important. But I wanted to talk about how impressed I am with the people working on this - absolutely professional in every way - sound, martials, organized program, press, etc. So many groups involved - and I'm meeting new (and old) activists.

They held a phone bank at Teachers Unite on Sunday and called hundreds of people. These are full-time teachers and giving so much time and effort. I almost feel embarrassed for how comparatively little I am doing. On the home I was with a young second year teacher who just seems to be getting involved - first time I met her. She talked about how overwhelming teaching was and just how tired she always feels. I can see why we lose so many people - it is not just the teaching that is wiping people out - but all the other crap. My advice - keep being active politically with the growing Real Reform movement - even though it takes time it will provide the fuel you need to work in this system - and you will be working with some of the most amazing people I've ever met.


GEM has been the driving force in organizing the rally
GEM has become a force in the city. Last January it played a major role in the demo at Bloomberg's home. (Can't GEM do stuff in warmweather?)

The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) is about to hit its second anniversary since holding its first meeting at a diner with 4 people 2 years ago. Angel Gonzalez had come to ICE for support for the teachers union in Puerto Rico a year before and told me when he retired he would join me in political activity. "Sure" I thought. Everyone tells me that. But he did and joined ICE. But he felt ICE wasn't moving fast enough and did too much talking and not enough action (we are not youngsters, you know).

Angel suggested a committee of ICE designed to focus on ATRs, closing schools and testing and it quickly added people from NYCORE and other groups outside ICE and soon took on a life of its own. We held an all day conference on a Saturday in March 2009 which attracted a crowd. Up to that point I couldn't imagine organizing such an event but Angel pulled it all together - finally, someone with real organizing skills. And we followed up with a conference on charter schools at PACE in April and in May a march from Battery Park, past the UFT and on to Tweed. We attracted about 75 people. (Angel was wearing me out.)

It wasn't even called GEM until after that rally. In the first stage of evolution from an ICE committee into a broader based group we conceived of ourselves as a coalition of groups - a place where ICE, TJC, NYCORE, Teachers Unite and some parent activist groups could work together.

A big chunk of ICE people got involved, especially with the closing schools and charter invasions hitting us full in the face while also trying to deal with the upcoming 2010 UFT elections. The UFT seemed less important to many of us - and that might explain why we did so badly - we just didn't have the heart to waste our energies in a campaign to dent Unity.

In the summer of 2010 we went up to Harlem to support the teachers and parents at PS 123 which had been invaded by Moskowitz and met a bunch of activists, some with the Coalition for Public Education (which formed late that summer) and also State Senator Bill Perkins and some of his aides.

In July 2010 we were contacted by CAPE, a PS 15K based teacher/parent group fighting a charter invasion in their school. Kismet. GEMers came out to support them and the partnership has brought their activism and skills into the broader work and eventually some of CAPE's key people (Julie Cavanagh and Alev Dervish) began to work with GEM.

Brian Jones and Julie Cavanagh on the "set" in Williamsburg

This past summer, Julie and I decided to develop a film responding to Waiting for Superman and were joined by another key GEM person (a person at a school that was invaded by a Moskowitz charter but I'm keeping him nameless - he has become the key editor and partner on the film, allowing me to take a lesser role). And then by Brian Jones who was on the panel on national TV with Rhee, Weingarten and Canada. Brian and Julie are narrating the film. We're calling it "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman". GEM's Gloria Brandman is doing the outreach and publicity. We are doing a sneak preview of a rough cut in mid-February.

The idea of Real Reformers was hatched and we held a rally at the opening of Waiting for Superman. We also have attended PEP meetings in force - how many years did I go there all alone just waiting for the day we would stand up to them in force. The fact that there is a new face on the people opposed to ed deformers - younger, dynamic activist teachers who in many cases are critical of the UFT - is a force to be reckoned with. Note recently that the Real Reformers are actually starting to get some press.

Naturally, GEM has had some growing pains - trying to set up a democratically run organization in the midst of the chaos the ed deformers have brought to the schools. After the PEP hearings on Feb. 1st and 3rd I hope we take stock of where we stand as an organization and continue to develop a democratic structure that is flexible enough to handle growth.

-------------------

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

January 25 Update - It's Only Personal

Let me catch up on some of the personals - I get requests (occasionally) for updates on what I do outside of the educational/activists sphere. Yes, I do other things.

This is the annual family birthday week extravaganza and we're planning a gathering of all the B-day people in the next few weeks.

Danny (right), brother Jared (left) and Rachel at Passover

My wife's cousin Danny hit 27 yesterday- and living the good life - I don't even want to tell you how good it is. And my cousin Rachel will be 24 or 25 next week. She is originally from Washington DC but living the good young life in Manhattan working selling ads for a cable company. She and her boyfriend came to see me in the Odd Couple and we went out to dinner afterwards. A great couple. He listens to WFAN all day like I do.

My dad hits 93 this Thursday - the day of the big rally at City Hall - I think I'll have him carry the sound equipment - and is also living the good life. Still lives alone and if not for being almost blind from macular would be out looking for women. He has recovered from having 11 upper teeth pulled (read my report of that horror story here) and at the last weigh-in at the doctor has gained 5 pounds using his new upper choppers. Now all we have to do is have 6 teeth removed from the lower jaw and he'll have a full set. Looking forward to that.

Pinky and Dad - he's on the right.

And then there is Pinky the cat, who is 19 and a half years old- older than my dad in cat years. Pinky survived being abandoned while we went on our 5 day trip to Florida 2 weeks ago. She went to the vet yesterday because we found a lump on her back when we got home - he said do nothing - he couldn't believe the health and feistiness of this old animal. But she has a urinary infection. Just gave her her meds - like the battle of the bulge.  Here are some samples of Pinky, the wrecking crew's art work (don't make me tell you about the mucho expensive reupholstering job that she destroyed a half hour after it was delivered.)

Pinky amidst the wreckage

Pinky original art work

Carol and niece Jordan at Passover

Of course, the major event this week today- my wife's &*^% birthday. I gave her a choice. Attend tonight's massive outpouring of protest against Eva Moskowitz' attempt to invade the upper west side at Brandeis HS or have dinner at the River Cafe. Amazing. She chose the latter. So I won't see all of you there. For the first time in 40 years I didn't get her jewelry. Just a massage and a Kindle - but I had a hook installed so she can hang it from her ear. We're going to a movie this afternoon at the Malverne - best little suburban art movie house and then a Broadway matinee tomorrow. What a life since she retired last year and discovered mahjong.

 On other fronts, I have recovered from my acting debut in the Odd Couple at the Rockaway Theatre Company and have started taking a class in theater lighting at the Theater in Fort Tilden so I can join the backstage crew. It is being taught by a laste 20-something public school high school teacher who has 12 years working on lighting in the theater - he does all the school shows - yes it is one of the few large high schools left - (I wonder what the state of high school theater is after the small schools movement.) In the small world department, one of my oldest friends came to see my play and her boyfriend is the Department chair of the lighting guy.

Last Friday was the gala annual Rockaway Theatre Company party at El Caribe in Brooklyn. I made a highlight reel for them of all the shows this season. It's a wonderful 22 minutes and up on Vimeo - link here.

And finally, there is - or was - the j-e-t-s. I won't even go there.

Eterno: A Jamaica Diploma is Real and It's Earned

James made a fantastic presentation along with the student (pointing out the loss of services to Jamaica including AP classes and the parent at the Jamaica HS closing hearing on Jan. 20.  The presentation points out how the DOE targets schools for closing. James compares the Jamaica data with other schools. Powerful stuff. James points out they could have used the "make all kids pass" like Tapsco to raise grad rates and  to make the school look better but "Jamaica doesn't subscribe to any phony scams. A Jamaica diploma is real and it's earned."

The entire video is just short of a half hour. I didn't have time to do any editing - I just grabbed a chunk of film - let me know if I said anything dirty off camera.

It begins with a piece from John White- note Queens HS Supt Juan Mendez and the smug look on his face.

(I was riled up enough to go after Mendez later on - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgLTpfJiAmg?)

I did this all hand held so there will be some sea sickness. The camera settles down (it must have a mind of its own) after James starts speaking - about 4 minutes in.

Jamaica HS Closing Hearing: James Eterno Presents the Real Data

"Eterno points to the lies and distortions perpetrated by the NYC Department of Education as represented by John White as Queens HS Supt Juan Mendez looks smugly on."

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/19125497

My Article on Teacher Evaluation Running in the Indypendent

A slightly longer version appeared in the Indy a few weeks ago and got a lot of hits for this blog. Here's the link: My Article on Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping in The Indypendent

If you get the hard copy, please share with your colleagues.

If you would like to donate to the Indy you can click here and make a one-time donation or spread the damage out by signing up for a recurring monthly donation.

CLICK TO ENLARGE:

In the print edition of The Indypendent

Norm,

 

Lots of good information in the article.  Three things I would like to add.  

 

While teachers will be forced to prepare for reading and math tests for survival, and they can argue that teaching to the test is teaching if the tests align with standards,  where will the time be to teach social studies, geography, science, family living and sex ed, art and music, health ed, safety, foreign language, and just being able to build community in the classroom with fun stuff and trips?  Imagine a generation growing up without the tools that these areas teach which are necessary for survival as adults.

 

In addition, with these attacks and phony measurements, who will really willing go into our profession?  Certainly not those who know what a real education is and  what our kids really need.

 

And lastly, who will send their kids to these schools?  I know that -  wouldn't - and neither would savvy parents with a few extra bucks for tuition. A local Catholic school here is advertising computer programs, art and music as selling points - reading and math to attract parents.   Our schools will condemn our kids from families of poverty, mostly kids of color, to a life without the realized joy of a meaningful education and  the skills of survival.

 

Loretta Prisco

Jim Callaghan Comments on Principal Iris Blige Outrage: Charges UFT Protected Blige

"Mulgrew should save his outrage about the Blige case for the UFT comic pages"- 
"Weingarten told me that most teachers in the rubber rooms were guilty and crazy"
-----Former NY Teacher reporter Jim Callaghan

We always knew the UFT leaders took the side of administrators but now we have it from the horse's mouth. A must read below is Callaghan's exposure of how the UFT leaders abandoned a teacher at Blige's school who had trumped up charges filed against her and was fired.

The UFT allows attack on chapter leaders to go unanswered - I could go into a bunch of stuff - but when the very lifeblood of the union is under assault it calls for drastic action. I even put up a reso at the DA calling for special protections and cover for chapter leaders over 10 years ago that was overwhelmingly turned down by Unity Caucus.

Blige is the poster girl for why we need tenure and LIFO. She went after teachers for no reason, was found guilty but instead of dumping her she was fined $7000. Chump change.

Here are some background stories:

Bronx principal keeps her job after imperiling the jobs of others ...
Ruining careers for $475/month (18 month term) « JD2718

And Ed Notes covered it a bunch of times:

Education Notes Online: Teachers Protest Principal Iris Blige at ..

Mar 13, 2009 ... The principal at this school, Iris Blige, is abusive, arrogant, and disrespectful of teachers. She has framed several teachers that for some ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../teachers-protest-principal-iris-blige.html - Cached - Similar

Education Notes Online: UPDATE: Highlights of the protest at ..

Mar 14, 2009 ... Winderbaum slammed into Iris Blige and her wayward approach to educators, kids, and schools and said the union is “fed up” with the DoE's ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../highlights-of-protest-at-fordham-hs-for.html - Cached

As long as they support principals who engage in vendettas against teachers, they will have to drag teachers kicking and screaming out of fighting for protections.Jim Callaghan was the NY Teacher reporter who did the most intensive work exposing the Bliges of this world - until he was fired in July 2010 for attempting to organize a union of reporters at the UFT. Here is a report on what went on behind the scenes in a comment he left at Gotham Schools story on Blige:

What the UFT Did and Didn't Do in the Blige Case
by Jim Callaghan, former reported for the NY Teacher

Klein knew all about Blige and the recantation of an Assistant Principal because I wrote about it in the Spring of 2009 for the New York Teacher. It didn’t take a special Condon “investigation” to uncover the Blige horror show, supported by Mulgrew and Weingarten.

I quoted members who said Blige specifically went after chapter leaders and sent them to the rubber rooms on trumped up charges-they were never charged with anything and were all sent back to the classroom.

That was the last article I was allowed to write about Blige.

When the union had a rally on March 13, 2009, Weingarten sent out a press advisory (I have a copy) knocking the total number of protesters down to 50 after she was told that 500 would attend. So even then the union was protecting Blige.

The worst case of the Weingarten- Mulgrew Vichy collaboration involves the teacher accused of leaving a letter in Blige’s mailbox threatening to murder her! The letter said there was a “gang” led by the teacher who would kill the principal and her son.

Fifteen cops came to the school, interviewed no one except the teacher, lied to her and said they had her on video leaving the letter in the principal’s mailbox and had her fingerprints on the letter.

Then they changed the story to say it was her handwriting on the letter, which was announced by an Assistant Principal- tape recorded by a member- one week later- that was in February, 2009.

Now: think Tucson and the attempted murder of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords: What happened to the teacher after one “expert” detective said it was the teacher’s handwriting?

NOTHING! It is a New York State felony to threaten the murder of a public official. Nothing happened to the teacher until eight weeks later, in April, 2009, after I called Blige for a comment on my story.
The next day, the teacher was arrested and charged with a misdeameanor. (Even if she is found guilty, she will serve 15 days of community service picking up garbage on the Grand Concourse).

The Bronx D.A.- elected with help from the UFT- did not ask for bail, didn’t ask for the teacher’s passport to be lifted and the principal never asked for extra police protection for Blige, parents, students and the staff.

Despite my urging, Weingarten refused to call the D.A. and ask that he personally look at the case. There was no police probe of the gang. The teacher -this horrible accused murderer beloved by her students and colleagues-- was sent back to the rubber room.

Nearly two years later, after the D.A. Robert Johnson asked for 15 postponements, there has been no trial and the case is still open.

What would have happened if a teacher wrote a letter like that to Bloomberg of Klein?

The teacher ultimately lost her job because neither Mulgrew nor Weingarten nor NYSUT lawyer Claude Hirsch lifted a finger to help her. She never had a 3020A hearing. Klein used a loophole in the law saying he could refuse to approve her application for a work visa if she was merely “accused” of misconduct.

Incredibly, Weingarten and Mulgrew allowed this shanda, like so many others they were complicit in, to stand unchallenged. So the only question still open is: what did they get out of it for themselves and
their UFT cronies?

My editor Deidre McFadyen and staff director LeRoy Barr denied me a vacation day-for the first time since I worked at the union- so I could attend the teacher’s court hearing on my own time--to give her moral support (I have the Barr email).

Weingarten pulled my story the day after the teacher got arrested; Weingarten, Barr, Mulgrew and others all said she was guilty- because she had been arrested. Weingarten told me the teacher was “guilty” because she had “heard” ---from another UFT Staff Director Garry Sprung- that the cops had the teacher’s fingerprints on the letter. I asked Weingarten when the grand jury met, when the teacher was indicted, when she was convicted and when she had exhausted all her appeals.

I had to shame Weingarten the Lawyer/ part-time “teacher” into finally running the story-two weeks after the arrest- after I reminded her about the 6th Amendment (Weingarten told me that most teachers in the rubber rooms were guilty and crazy, which is why I was allowed to run only one rubber room story-in October 2007).

When an Assistant Principal wanted to tell me the story about how she helped frame the teacher, Mulgrew, Barr and McFadyen refeused to let me run the story and Mulgrew wouldn’t even call the D.A. to say he was sending over an important witness to help clear the teacher.

So it is clear- I have lots more on this story and other Weingarten-Mulgrew cover ups of corruption outside and within the union- that the UFT leaders were protecting Klein and the members could
go to hell in a hand basket.


Weingarten $200,000 vacation days myth - or theft of service from the union
The Blige case is one of many that will stand out as the defining Weingarten-Mulgrew legacy of cowardice, double-dealing and abusing the rights of members whose dues they collect for their fat $400,000 salaries, unlimited expenses, a car and driver and “I never took a day off in 24 years” benefits but then refuse to represent them. (The Cal Ripken award for never missing a day’s work goes to Weingarten, except for this inconvenient truth: she took plenty of vacation days, some disguised as AFT “fact-finding” missions and others at her Amagansett country home where she instructed her press office and NY Teacher editors to send her faxes so she could claim she was “working from
home.” Uh- huh- just like every teacher working from home on the beach.

I blame Klein and Blige but Weingarten, Mulgrew, Barr and McFadyen could have exposed this horrible principal two years ago and chose instead to be part of the cover up, as they were at so many other schools which you will be reading about shortly.

When Mulgrew fired me in August 2010 for organizing a union-after 13 years of praise from him, Weingarten and hundreds of UFT officials and the members, he told the press I was unprofessional!
And what other word can we use to describe his perfidy and Weingarten’s abandonment of an accused teacher who came to America from Jamaica to fulfill the immigrant’s dream yet was crushed by the DOE-UFT steamroller?

If there was ever a PERB case for non-representation, this was it- although I lived through so many others when I had to argue with my editor McFadyen and the Weingarten-Mulgrew apparatchiks like Barr, Ellie Engler and McFadyen to get the stories in the union newspaper.

Mulgrew is so paranoid and vicious that he had McFadyen -at $150,000 a year---sit for days on end and go through the New York Teacher archives on line and take stories like Blige off the web site- she has disappeared into the dark hole of corruption that exists at the union. Mulgrew even ordered my name off the obit of Jack Newfield, who once wrote for the union!

How low can a such a self-styled tough guy get? Stay tuned- lots more to come.

Jan. 25, 5PM: Rally to Stop Moskowitz/HSA Invasion on Upper West Side

"Posters promoting the school line bus stops along Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, and some people say they have gotten more than 10 fliers in the mail, several proclaiming the charter school as “the public-school solution to private-school tuition.”

Seung Ok nailed the charter school movement for what it is in this post on the GEM blog. Some excerpts:

charter schools in NYC are not so much a solution for closing the achievement gap but a deceptive horse and pony show for another more ambitious agenda - and that is to convince us to privatize the whole public school system. Imagine a city where the law limiting the number of charter schools was removed. All those years of pent up frustration by privileged parents spending thousands for private schools can be released with one great sigh of relief. We will start to see mostly white charter schools arise in neighborhoods like the Upper West Side. Let's not forget how expensive real estate is in NYC. A public school building is a million dollar gift.

And a unique and surprising thing will happen. All that private money funneling into black and Latino charter schools will dry up. The money that once surprisingly made its way to Harlem and Brooklyn, will support the charter schools that the millionaires' and billionaires' children attend. There is a finite amount of private money - and it's just a matter of practicality to ration it out if charter schools litter the educational landscape; the donors must prioritize their wads of money, and human nature being what it is - they will fund their own neighborhood's charter schools than not. 

So the fight to defend public education against charter schools, is more than about space, teacher unions, or a lottery system; it is to stop the manipulation of Black and Latino communities as chess pieces in a game to benefit the elite classes in our society. While the struggling parents in impoverished areas are positioned to fight each other for the scraps of space and funding that has been allotted by our society, the privileged lay waiting in the sidelines until all the energy is sapped out - and the doorway to unregulated access to taxpayer money opens. 

So, where will Black and Latino communities find themselves - a place much worse than they were before. Their successful public schools having been decimated - closed and phased out, their struggling schools left overcrowded, and their abandoned charter schools left under funded - all destroying the gains made in the past several decades of hard earned work by so many stakeholders.

Nice work Seung - he wrote this back in Feb. 2010.

Saturday's NY Times also nailed Eva Moskowitz for what she is all about in the long run: using public money to set up schools for rich people so they don't have to spend on private schools. I wonder if she will run them as test prep factories like HSA schools in Harlem because if people think they will be getting a Dalton-like progressive education they will be wrong.

What's it all about, Eva? Setting up separate and unequal segregated schools like they did in the south when schools were ordered integrated - what we knew charter to be about all along.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/nyregion/22charter.html

On Upper West Side, Hurdles for Charter School

Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Eva S. Moskowitz, who runs a network of charter schools, at the Harlem Success Academy.

By FERNANDA SANTOS

Published: January 21, 2011

The guests sipped wine and nibbled sushi, guacamole and Gruyère — lawyers, bankers, preschool teachers, managers and consultants of various kinds, bound by the anxious decision they must confront in the months ahead: where their 4-year-olds will go to school in the fall.

Enlarge This Image

Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Eva S. Moskowitz with parents at the Harlem Success Academy. At right, people on the Upper West Side listening to her talk about a charter school for the area.

Downstairs, a flier by the doorman’s desk had greeted them with a provocative question: “Why should you have to spend college tuition on kindergarten?” Back upstairs, in the stylish apartment on West 99th Street, Eva S. Moskowitz, a former City Council member who runs a network of charter schools in Harlem and the Bronx, delivered a tantalizing sales talk.

I know we are keeping people hopping - and our rally on Thursday just off to the side of Tweed is an important one - I'll go into it in more detail in another post - but if you can make this rally against Moskowitz on Tuesday (5pm) followed by the public hearing at 6pm you may see a biggie - with many West Side activists jumping in - I can't make it due to wife B-Day - shhhhhh!

Download and circulate widely
http://www.scribd.com/full/47438042?access_key=key-2cku4dm6gl9p5wg1q6g2

Jan. 25, 5PM: Rally to Stop Moskowitz/HSA Invasion on Upper West Side



Subject: We need your support- ASAP!!!!

Hello All-

I am writing to you to ask for your support. As some of you may know, my school, and many others have faced serious repercussions from being sited in a location desired by the Success Charter Network. In my school alone, community students have been coerced and forced out- through multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, Department of Education pressure, truncating of the school community through forcible erasure of Pre-Kindergarten classes as well as all middle school grades, as well as gentrification. We have been wrongly accused of being a failing school- despite much evidence to the contrary- including recognition of successful progress (in the top 10%) during the 2008-2009 school year. We have lost valuable classroom space, forcing our students to be placed in basement rooms and loss of our Art Studio. We have limited access to the cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium, and school yard. Everything that we have known has been turned upside down. In the past year, Success Charter Network has gone after many other schools, claiming space as their own despite total lack of community support. In fact, to the contrary- all affected communities have unanimously fought against this co-location- only to have their voices ignored- the co-locations occurred regardless. We have had to add new skills to our repertoires and new hats to our job descriptions in order to hang on to what our students deserve and should have equal rights to. We have forged new coalitions and are determined to stop this from happening to any more school communities. While we still need help to maintain our own viability- we hope to be able to stop this from happening elsewhere. District 3 schools are still under fire as the Success Charter Network (servicing students from all five boroughs by lottery) is looking to expand into the Brandeis High School building- a building currently housing four small growing high schools and constantly threatening to forcibly come into others (PS 145, PS 165, Wadleigh, etc.).

Help us by signing our online petition and asking others to do the same. District 3 has good schools, and a strong community. We do not have enough space for the students who live in the community as evidenced by severe overcrowding and many school with Kindergarten wait-lists. We have a multimillion dollar federal grant that is supporting schools in the northern part of the district to make serious changes to become available to lesson the load of the southern portion. We need all the space we have in our current schools to accomodate our growing population and support our new, growing magnet schools.
Please sign on, and tell others....
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/stop_the_co-location_of_success_academy_charter_school_in_the_brandeis_high_school_building

Thank you!!!!