CPE1 Update: Parents Emerge, The Press - WSJ Reporter favored Over NYT, Leonie on SLT Meeting, Breakfast with Parents

The truth is despite all his promises and talk about how unlike Bloomberg, he would listen to parents, our supposedly progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina have been just as high-handed and dismissive of their concerns.... Leonie Haimson on SLT Meeting: https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/04/amazing-evening-parents-and-teacher-sit.html

Parents came out an unfurled their banner.

April 7, 2017: 2PM

I'm just back from spending the day so far at CPE1 for the rally and the emerging by the people who spent the night in the auditorium. (See my earlier report --Parents Occupy Auditorium - Central Park East 1 Update: Rally, SLT Meeting and Overnight Stay Surrounded by Police)

I got there at 8:30 and there was a rally in front of the school. They ended occupation and came out for a press conference at around 9:30. I am putting up some brief video excerpts on my FB timeline. Go check them out.

There was some press there this morning - NBC, CBS, NY Times - Kate Taylor was there last night too. There was muttering by some over the disappointing reporting she has done on education in general and on her previous report on CPE1 - like having a link to the website of a principal supporter but not the savecpe1 site. So they don't expect much -- like if 20 people speak against Garg and 5 for she will include a quote from one on each side, thus inferring an equal split.

So it was interesting after the press conf when they went back into the school to meet with YAUDOES - Yet Another Useless DOE Slug -- that someone said to wait outside to speak to Leslie Brody from the Wall St Journal who is a good reporter. How interesting that people seem to mistrust the so-called liberal NY Times and have more faith in Rupert's WSJ.

I'm more skeptical but when Leslie arrived I listened in to her questions and she was the only reporter who really seemed interested in what has made CPE a progressive school -- stuff came out that I wasn't aware of. Now the article she writes will be small and probably won't include much if any of what they said, but at least she asked.

She had already left when the people who spent the night without sleep came out from the meeting and packed up to go home and get some sleep.

I spoke at length to a guy named Bruce, who was a teacher at CPE1 and then the principal at CPE2 who filled me in on some remarkable stuff (his wife still teaches at CPE1). We are same gen and talked about the old days and found we knew lots of people -- he was in Teachers Action Caucus - TAC - which morphed into New Action and we know lots of people in common. He did look so familiar. And after he left I asked his last name and it is Bruce Kanze who I did really know back then. Bruce told me today the essence of the problem is that they just don't trust teachers and CPE1 did - until Monika Garg showed up as an agent from the DOE to destroy them. (I'll go more into this teacher trust issue, especially when I address the CPE2 principal support for Garg.)

A few parents went off to get some breakfast and invited me along. I got some education. One left after an hour. The other and I spent another hour or more talking about so much stuff my head is crammed. I learned so much about the real shit Monica pulled from day 1 and how betrayed parents like this, who moved into the area partially to get into CPE1, are -- also about the political and racial situation around East Harlem (she is white) and so much more beyond the CPE 1 story -- about immigrants and daily panic they feel every day when they wake up - if they can sleep at all- some too sensitive for me to get into.

Oh, the depths of this story. I feel like that reporter for This American Life - the people doing the Serial series - especially the latest must hear S-Town Podcast - shit town https://stownpodcast.org/

Yes, the DOE is Shit-Town in spades --Serial people, come calling if you are looking for a story for next time.

I may have more later tonight or tomorrow morning. I am going to head over to see my Unity slug pals at their little junket at the Hilton on 54th and 6th Ave. It is 3PM and I missed the Stronger Together meeting. Tomorrow I will meet up with Arthur and we will have some fun.

In the meantime, read Leonie's great report on last night's CPE1 SLT Meeting.

https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/04/amazing-evening-parents-and-teacher-sit.html