Washington Irving Campus Acts Up Against Eva Moskowitz Invasion
here is a follow-up:
Press Release Subject: Opposition to Eva Moskowitz’ Elementary School Co-Location
at Washington Irving High School Campus, 40 Irving
Place, Manhattan, Union Square.
Parent & Teacher Rally &
Press Conference
Thursday, Oct. 25th, 2012
5pm, Main Entrance Stairs
(before the start of Parent Teacher Conferences)
I am the
Chapter Leader of "International High School at Union Square" one of
currently six proud public high schools inside the Washington Irving Campus. My
Name is Thomas Hasler. (hattom@mac.com)
I am a founding
member of the movement to stop Eva Moskowitz from being given three floors of
our school for another of one of her K-8 elementary schools.
We had 72
people from all 6 schools at our Thursday morning rally last week. You can see
the fired up and determined crowd in the Rally movie. A link (https://vimeo.com/51866144) and photos
including content is featured on ednotesonline.com under the title “Washington
Irving Acts Up Against Moskowitz Invasion”
This is such an
injustice. Above all this is the handover of prime real estate to a private
operator of schools. On her Harlem Success website http://www.successacademies.
You are very
much invited to report about this disgusting handover of our public school to
this woman. Our goal is to keep this woman out of our historic campus.
(All the while
they starve our schools to death so they can claim that we are failing and
offer her even more space once she is inside. We have not had a librarian on
staff for 3 years)
Our announced agenda is: Fighting
for a quality education for ALL of our students.
We oppose the setting up of separate
and unequal schools within schools.
We worry that our students will be made into 2nd class members of our campus. We worry that
Harlem Success will squeeze out our
schools in the coming years as the DOE letter to parents already states
that only “CURRENT” students will
not be impacted by the co-location.
We know that our schools will have no room to grow.
We are outraged that Success Academy is allocated 27 full size
classrooms when none of our schools has more than 16 or 18.
We have one big message for Bloomberg and Moskowitz: This is OUR
school, you NEVER asked us about this which is why WE DON’T APPROVE!
We find it outrageous that the vast majority of parents and
students are completely held in the dark about this proposal.
Non English speaking parents have no way to get information about
the public hearing as the DOE only hands out English versions that need lawyers
to be understood.
We are appalled by the undemocratic manner of how the DOE tries to
push this proposal through. Our voices should count more than the private
connection between Bloomberg and Moskowitz!
We don’t approve that they try to take out the PUBLIC from public
education.
We don’t approve that they make parents play lottery for school
seats.
We don’t approve that our schools are being denied a chance to
ever grow.
We don’t “counsel out” problem student who might bring down our
test scores.
We work with ALL the students and we are proud of it!
The community of teachers,
parents, and students is enraged that the DOE intends to put an elementary
charter school, led by Eva Moskowitz, into
the Washington Irving High School campus.
We know that it is a bad fit for a school that is
predominantly filled with high school students and fear that the loss of 3 floors, 27 full sized
classrooms, and numerous support rooms will take away resources, space and
opportunities from our students.
We also fear that some of
the famous Barry Faulkner Murals will
fall victim to the construction of a new cafeteria and that some of the scenes
that feature tasteful nudity, and scenes of historic battles, might be censored
to make them “1st grade friendly”.
We will speak out in strong
opposition to the DOE proposal at the rally and press conference.
Eva thinks she owns all the schools she plans to invade before she is given 'official" permission because ahe has been promised them by the DOE. The backdoor deal is already done. The hearings and PEP vote are a formality. She has done this with every building, She has NOT been turned away yet. Park Slope, The Upper West Side and the Southside of Brooklyn had strong resistnce against her and she "won" because the DOE gives OUR public School buildings away to her and others for free. We need to continue to fight against these evil takeovers. But we also need to make sure that all of Bloonberg's tentacles are voted out of office in the next election. Hopefully this will put a stop to more invasions. Also we need to encourage the courts to legislate and start making these charters pay for the space. Watch how fast they will run away or disappear when they hafe to fork out money to pay their way.
ReplyDeleteShe is going to destroy that beautiful, historic building. If the DOE has money to give her for renovations, they should put it into the building as it exists and do the needed repairs. They should give money to the schools that are there for their needs and for their students.
I hope that not only parents and teachers turn out on Thursday, but also students. They will be the losers in the end. They have to engage in the war as well. They have to realize that their spaces will be taken away by Success Academy. Those who are able should help any school they are able as they fight this ogre. She is going into schools all over our city.