Last night I attended my first PEP meeting under the new administration and it was quite a lovefest directed at Carmen Farina, even from critics. Even my usually sour presentation was tempered. The meeting was sparsely attended and there were critics there, but even they thanked Farina for at the very least, the stand to defend the autistic and other special ed kids at the Mickey Mantle school from Eva's outrageous demands they be kicked out for her 194 "scholars." That the De Blasio administration couldn't make this point clearer - even with their own ads, is sad. At the very least the UFT should have done some ads, but then they would be subject to attacks over their own co-located charter that was resisted by parents and teachers they displaced.
Throughout the evening Carmen brought such charm and humor to the table for the first time in 13 years people felt good about the administration even when they disagreed on all the other co-locos Farina allowed. People from Mickey Mantle school made some wonderful speeches that should be put in an ad attacking the shit out of Eva.
I have a batch of videos, including one from Francesco Portelos. However, the event was for the first time livestreamed and will be available for viewing in a day or 2. I will try to save you the trouble of parsing through it by highlighting.
Naturally, I'll start with my speech where I compare Eva to global warming. When I ask what might have happened if Carmen closed the schools like Eva did, she said, laughing, "I did close them. For a snow day."I stayed within my 2 minutes - though they were very liberal in allowing more time - and had a lot more to say. Like if the millions spend on Eva ads were used to buy them a building. Or their phony stats. Maybe I'll do a follow-up in April. My belief is even though we are a spec, getting the info on the web serves as some minor counter to the Moskowitz machine. And one of my Wave columns this week also deals with the issue.
Busy day today with the DA and the District 14 forum. I'll add more videos to this post as I get to them and then repost this with the updates.
3 comments:
Too bad global warming can't extinguish eva moskowitch into oblivion so that we do not have to hear that obnoxious creepy self centered maniac cry out loud for her precious space that her nepotism partner in crime bloomshits gave her. You would have thought that bloomcrap was sleeping with moskowitz the way he gave her the store at the expense of high needs students who really need the space. How is it that the public does not get to hear the other side and how special needs kids are just something in the way that this creep moskowtich pays no attention to
Rumor was she was sleeping with DFER's Joe Williams not Bloomberg.
I saw the live stream already. I watched it last night. There was definitely a bit of a change in tone compared to the last PEP's under old administration. No panel members twittling with their phones or blackberries, all were non suits and I was impressed with the 2 student panel members. They even recorded EVERY person who spoke at the PEP yesterday, even if it was to criticize and ask to change. They did not even edit Francesco Portelos out.
I understand many are still unsure about the new administration because they have not done much since January 1. However, there is a different tone for sure.. and I think people need to be patient, which I know is very hard to do when you are constantly sitting on your hands.
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