DeBlasio Calls for Investigation of Moskowitz Operation: Monday 1PM Press Conf

“If they spent all that money, why are there still holes in the ceiling of the locker room?” asked Pamela Bynoe, president of the Global parents association. As for those special-education renovations, Cecila Green, whose child attends that school, says no major repairs have been done, except for a paint job last summer and some new smart boards. Oh, and those lighting fixtures leaking PCBs? They are still present in all the classrooms of the three public schools. ... Juan Gonzalez

Monday, April 22 at 1PM at Tweed (52 Chambers Street) event calling for an investigation into Success Academy. Bill deBlasio will be hosting a press conference calling for an investigation into Success Academy and Eva Moskowitz.

This alone might make diBlasio my favorite for mayor.

deBlasio will be talking about the special access the NYCDOE gives Eva Moskowitz and the disparities between the schools where she co-locates, her host buildings, and neighboring schools.

deBlasio will also ask for an investigation into the lower numbers of children with special needs and English Language Learners.

See the latest article by Juan Gonzalez.
 

The Department of Education counters that it invested more than $2.1 million in upgrades to the public schools and spent $350,000 on charter school Success Academy Cobble Hill on Baltic Street. The law requires the department to spend at least as much on the public schools, the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, the School for International Studies and Public School 368K.

Construction crews worked feverishly last summer to renovate space for Success Academy Cobble Hill, a new charter school that began sharing space in September with three regular public schools in the same city-owned building on Baltic Street in Brooklyn.

The workers removed decrepit asbestos floor tiles in the hallways and a dozen classrooms assigned to the new charter school. They outfitted new bathrooms. They got rid of old lighting fixtures that had been leaking dangerous PCBs and upgraded electrical lines. They installed new doors, carpeting and furniture, then painted the entire area.

“The Success portion looked like a brand-new school when it was finished,” one teacher said.

But angry parents and teachers say the Department of Education failed to provide similar improvements for three public schools in the same building, as mandated by state law.

That law was passed several years ago when the state lifted caps on the number of charter schools. It requires the DOE to “spend the same amount on each noncharter public school” co-located with a public school “within three months” of the charter school improvements.

DOE officials insist they have done more than the law required.
The agency spent only $350,000 to renovate the Success facilities, agency spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said, while the charter school, part of a chain of charters run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, spent another $340,000 of its own.

At the same time, Feinberg said, the DOE invested more than $2.1 million in upgrades to the three public schools — the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, the School for International Studies and Public School 368K, a special-education program.

The improvements included $1.3 million for new lockers, a new dance studio and fitness room used by the two secondary schools in the building, along with $770,000 this winter to completely gut and create new classrooms for the special-education program, Feinberg said.
But parents and teachers can’t see where that money went.

“That just blows my mind,” said Clare Daley, a longtime physical education teacher at Global Studies and chairwoman of the teachers union chapter. “There’s no way they spent $1 million on the gym improvements.”

Yes, the DOE cut the girls’ locker room in half and built a small new dance studio, Daley said. And yes, it put up a wall in the boys’ locker room and created a fitness center with some exercise machines. But nothing was done to repair the shower rooms that haven’t worked for years or the fetid bathrooms that adjoin the locker rooms.

“If they spent all that money, why are there still holes in the ceiling of the locker room?” asked Pamela Bynoe, president of the Global parents association.

As for those special-education renovations, Cecila Green, whose child attends that school, says no major repairs have been done, except for a paint job last summer and some new smart boards.

Oh, and those lighting fixtures leaking PCBs? They are still present in all the classrooms of the three public schools.
jgonzalez@nydailynews.com

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Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/gonzalez-public-school-parents-cry-foul-charter-school-improvements-article-1.1321367#ixzz2R9LKu06M