Monday June 27: Planned school walkout and march to Tweed by parents of special ed students in Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy (District 14) out to protest Eva Moskowitz Invasion of IS 33

Ed Notes will be there to cover this. I was at the public hearing on June 16 and Khem Irby and I spoke (Norm Scott and Khem Irby take on Success Charter N...) after which we connected up with some of the parents who are organizing this event. GEM/CPE's David Dobosz who lives in the area has been working with them.

June 22, 2011

Good morning to everyone,

My name is Basilica EL Johnson and I am the  P.T.A. President of The Star/P368 program in District 70. I am also the parent of a 10 year old Autistic son who is in attendance in the public school program. My purpose for contacting your organization is request your presence/participation in a school walk out to protest the opening of Success Academy at  K03370 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206 in School District 14. The school site currently houses three schools, including Urban Assembly School for the Urban Environment-14K330, an existing DOE district middle school that serves sixth through eighth grade, Foundations Academy-14K322, an existing high school that serves nine through twelfth grade and an existing District 75 school-75K368,"P368@I033K. The building also houses an Alternative Learning Center-88K988, a suspension center serving students in ninth through twelfth. 

The Success Academy will alter the gymnasium space allocated for the children of District 70, which includes a population of Autistic, Learning Disabled and  Emotionally Disturbed. That will be the beginning of no end. Once the Success Academy is in place, it will start devouring space like the beginning stages of a Cancer growth that spreads until it has consumed the entire entity. This is evident at P.S. 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn where special education students are receiving their services in hallways and stairwells, all so that PAVE Academy Charter School can have more classrooms. Or, at P.S. 241, in Harlem, where public school students are now forced to learn in basement classrooms bordering the boiler room, all so that Harlem Success Academy Charter School can have more space upstairs.  What actions are to be taken next?  Our children with special needs are all going to be place in a one room school setting, where all classifications are to co-mingle together receiving services that are mandated to receive on their I.E.P. as per federal regulations order i.e DOE?

Therefore, we as parents of Autistic children, all children with special needs and/ or challenges are taking a stand to say NO MORE! Our children have been short changed and pushed aside for too long. And let it be dually noted that Autistic children do not conforn to change readily and acceptably.  Please join us at 70 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn to march from this site and travel to Tweed at 52 Chambers Street, NYC. Help us send a message to Eva Moskowitz, a former city-council member with no former teaching qualifications and whose only interest is that of her being the CEO of Success Academy, that we do not want Change at our school.  Help us to send a message to DOE that public schools matter. And our children matter.

Thank you humbly,

Basilica EL-Johnson

email: tom.n.tinys.house@gmail.com   

70 Tompkins Avenue
Between Martin Luther King, Jr. Place & Stockholm Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206
Date: June 27, 2011 @ 8:30am