CSA Calls Abusive Principal Garg "an outstanding educator" While Revealing Farina Role in Hit Job at CPE1 For High Opt Outs

The DOE must support Mrs. Garg, who is an outstanding educator, as she comes under undeserved fire for doing the job she was asked to do.... Clem Richardson, CSA

The statement by Clem Richardson of the CSA is a laugh riot. Really, Clem, show us one example of Garg's history as an outstanding or even a semi-competent administrator. Her history working for the racist Minerva Zanca where all black teachers were targeted (Garg praised Zanca as a mentor recently).
{It you need to catch up on the school Garg was an AP at --

That's CSA head Ernie Logan to right of Mulgrew

The CSA, which apparently condones its members lying to parents and teachers, engaging in witch hunts against teachers and using children for their own political ends. Should the CSA which is OK with attacks on members of other unions, be allowed to be an AFL/CIO member? Our own UFT cowtows to the CSA by refusing to issue an open call for Garg's (or pretty much any principal's) removal.


But this comment in the CSA call for Farina to stand by Monika Garg is the most revealing:

We repeat: Chancellor Farina PERSONALLY asked Mrs. Garg to “right the ship” at CPE by helping it remain a beacon of progressive education, but one with standards, accountability and measurable outcomes. ... Statement from CSA

We knew it all along. That Farina ordered a hit job on CPE 1, as she's ordered on a number of schools, at times making Joel Klein's and Bloomberg's tenure look benevolent. Why else put in a high school person into an elementary school with a culture so out of sorts with Garg's history? Because they knew Garg would be ruthless -- her career track is to be a Supt and she will step on anyone to get there.

But let's parse this comment a bit. Can you remain a beacon of progressive education ... one with measurable outcomes -- meaning testing -- when the very process of gaining such outcomes degrades progressive education? One would ask why the elite private schools which offer progressive education don't stress measurable outcomes -- and parents pay up to 50 grand a year for that type of education.

In Garg's first weeks as principal she put forth the idea that the progressive education offered at CPE1 was not appropriate for poor children of color. So we know that the intent was not to maintain CPE1 as a beacon of progressive education but to degrade the very idea.

Let's be clear --- there were issues at CPE1 before Garg came on board. The solution would have been to put in a principal with a background in elementary schools and in progressive education, not a hit woman.

The Daily News article on the boycott had this quote affirming the line coming out of the DOE:

But Education Department spokeswoman Toya Holness said officials have met with families to discuss specific concerns and solutions. “We are committed to delivering a high-quality, progressive education with academic rigor, and doing what’s best for CPE 1 students,” Holness said.

Rigor? That's the buzzword used by ed deformers. More like rigor mortis.

The CSA and DOE are lined up in the attack on progressive education at CPE1 -- and their "freewheeling ways", which in the culture of that school, is necessary for democratically based progressive education.

In the world of oppressive top down administration, teacher/parent control - and often student centered decision making on what they will learn - is "freewheeling." Now I know many teachers are not comfortable with this idea, which is why only certain types of teachers  - and parents -- would enter a school like CPE1. Thus teachers who had basically been helping to run the school since its inception had to conform to the new top-down or be gone.

As to CPE2 -- its offshoot also founded by Debbie Meier - principal Naomi Smith has changed the culture of that school to conform to the DOE demands and has supported Garg all the way - in fact her daughter is a parent at CPE1 and also is among the few parents who support Garg -  and all of Smith's grandkids go to CPE1. (We'll deal with Smith and her personal vendettas another time.) But do note what Deb Meier, founder of both CPE1 and 2 posted tonight on FB:

Let NYCs mayor and school chancellor know that what they've allowed to happen to Central Park East (CPE) I, one of the first progressive democratically governed public school-opened in 1974-is an education crime. A vindictive and authoritarian principal placed in the school almost two years ago continues to threaten teachers and parents alike. They need to hear from the world. A petition signed by two thirds of the families, rallies, sit ins, reports by neutral observer's and much more has had no effect except to create an untenable educational climate. As one of the original founders of the school watching this happen breaks my heart.two very vulnerable children's families have been banned from the school because of their protests. Thanks for any help you can give them.

Note the schools Clem Richardson mentions -- Dewey, Harris, Clinton -- all with cheating, lying principals, who alienated their entire staffs. The CSA believes, along with Farina, that destroying a school by any means necessary is OK,

Here's the complete CSA Statement - go have a good laugh.


The DOE Must Not Abandon CPE Principal Monika Garg!!
New York, NY – May 5, 2017 – 

For Further Information contact:

Clem Richardson, Of: 212-823-2052, Cell:  718-207-2260

Email: clem@csa-nyc.org

We’ve seen what’s happening to Central Park East Elementary School Principal Monika Garg before.

John Dewey High School. DeWitt Clinton High School. Townsend Harris High School.

Mrs. Garg is a proven leader who, like the besieged former principals of those schools, is being scapegoated by the Department of Education.

CSA knows that Chancellor Carmen Farina, who asked Mrs. Garg to take the CPE job, understands that leaders are often required to make unpopular decisions because that is what leaders need to do.

But leaders attempting to orchestrate change need to be supported in the face of criticism, not abandoned.    

The DOE must support Mrs. Garg, who is an outstanding educator, as she comes under undeserved fire for doing the job she was asked to do.

The failure to do so sends the message to any person or group who disagrees with a school leader that they only need a camera, a petition, and gather a few disgruntled teachers or parents to complain for a television crew and Tweed will do their bidding.

School leaders expect and deserve more.

“The DOE recruits principals to take on tough assignments, then abandons them at the first grunt from affected teachers, staff members and an antagonistic press,” said Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest A. Logan

“How can a school leader change a school without making changes? And how can Chancellor Farina ask educators to take on tough assignments then look the other way when they come under attack?”

The Chancellor appointed Mrs. Garg to run CPE in 2015 to right a school that was not meeting the academic needs of all students.

Disgruntled CPE teachers, staff members and parents who disagree with Mrs. Garg’s methodology have since made it their mission to disrupt the educational process for all CPE students, first by occupying the school auditorium overnight and on Friday by holding a boycott which disrupted the school day for dozens of students.

We repeat: Chancellor Farina PERSONALLY asked Mrs. Garg to “right the ship” at CPE by helping it remain a beacon of progressive education, but one with standards, accountability and measurable outcomes. 

And that is what Monika Garg has tried to do. 

CSA says it is time for Chancellor Farina to publicly proclaim her support for this outstanding educator and show school leaders citywide that Tweed supports them in their work.