Closing JHS 145: Farina Will Ignore State Law on Zoned Schools

Asked about the issue following a budget hearing Tuesday, Fariña denied the local education council had a role to play in the closure of JHS 145. “There are no zoning lines being eliminated and every school is choice there,” she told reporters. “Parents will be given three to four options of other schools they can apply to.”....

NY Post Public Advocate: City’s plan to close Bronx school is illegal

Yoav Gonen has a report at the NY Post. I love it -- a potential confrontation between Farina/de Blasio and Letitia James.

Typical Farina mimicking her former boss Joel Klein in the arrogant attitude of shutting community and parents out, especially when it comes to closing a bedrock school.

So for now I assume the PEP tonight will go ahead and vote to close JHS 145  -- Assume 4 votes - the boroughs - against with Staten Island voting to close. we might see some of the di Blasio appointments break ranks but not enough unless some of them react to the crowd, which will boo the hell out of them.

In a letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, James objected to the proposed closure of six schools — but said JHS 145 in The Bronx was of greatest concern because of the legal issues.
“We are particularly concerned about the proposal to close JHS 145, since it is a zoned middle school and should not be closed without a vote of Community Education Council in District 9,” James wrote. “This vote has not occurred.”

Yoav reported before the CEC vote last night which I reported on late last night - Community Education Council, District 9, Bronx Votes 7-1 Against Closing JHS 145 - A zoned school--- actually 8-1.

In 2009, then-Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and the NYCLU teamed up with parents to sue the DOE over a similar bypass of local community education councils, which have few powers other than drawing school zoning lines.

Given this history, the next step would be for James or the UFT to sue.

So maybe the fact of this overwhelming vote, the charges that will be made tonight that the Far/deB and PEP are executing the DeVos/Trump privatization plan when they turn more public space over to Eva Moskowitz, will nudge a few PEPers into line.

Here is more of the Post piece- note that the list of issues reported somehow leaves out that when the DOE gave space to Eva that split the school and finished off JHS 145, which was hardest hit by the charter.

http://nypost.com/2017/03/22/public-advocate-citys-plan-to-close-bronx-school-is-illegal/

The city Department of Education is breaking state law by moving to shutter one of its struggling Bronx Renewal Schools without a vote from the local education board, Public Advocate Letitia James charged Tuesday.

A decision to close JHS 145 and the five other schools will be made Wednesday by the 13-member citywide Panel for Educational Policy — a majority of whom were appointed by Mayor de Blasio.

Asked about the issue following a budget hearing Tuesday, Fariña denied the local education council had a role to play in the closure of JHS 145.

“There are no zoning lines being eliminated and every school is choice there,” she told reporters. “Parents will be given three to four options of other schools they can apply to.”

Parents and education advocates have pinned the failings of JHS 145 on the city’s Renewal Schools program — which they say didn’t come through with promised resources or support.
They say the school lacks needed bilingual teachers and a science lab, while a planned health clinic has yet to open at the site.
At the budget hearing, the DOE for the first time detailed the program’s costs, which are roughly $188 million in the current school year.

This includes $108 million allocated directly to schools and $40 million earmarked for community based organizations.
Providing a director of school renewal for each of the 86 schools still in the program was pegged at $7 million.