The Outrage of CPE1

Maybe it's because I have an endoscopy and colonoscopy in a few hours --- so excuuuse me for this rant.

I know this is becoming the CPE1 blog -- and I imagine some of you want to hear other news -- but I also try to link what is going on there to the larger complexities -- like I haven't even tackled the race, segregation and diversity issues surrounding the CPE1 situation. I have learned so much from my contact with so many CPE1 parents and teachers - but most of my conversations have been with the parents, as diverse a group of parents that exists in this system -- a model for any school and community despite the attacks by the DOE and Garg supporters that the school was exclusionary. I also haven't delved into the issue that the DOE wanted to change CPE1 to make it more competitive with Eva-like charters in District 4 which are attractive to parents who are nervous about the freedom children get in a progressive school. (Read some press reports the last 2 days to see the underlying attacks on the CPE1 people buried in the reports -- I don't have all the links to the WSJ, New York Times, New York Daily News, DNAinfo-- I'm too weak from hunger to look for them -- so leave a comment with any links you find.)

While the CPE1 community celebrates the victories - and there may be more breaking good news later in the day - I still have feelings
of outrage.

Outrage at the Farina admin at the DOE for basically leaving so much of the BloomKlein era intact where teachers can be brought up on firing charges for the equivalent of having a hang nail while principals go free for committing educational murder. In fact I was going to go to the PEP meeting tonight to spend 2 minutes yelling at Farina and the PEP members for allowing this situation to go on for so long - and for allowing people like Garg - and Jahoda - to run schools. And for dissing Debbie Meier's vision. Rumor was that she left in tears after a meeting with Farina. (My belief has been that Farina was jealous of the Debbie notoriety as an educator).

Outrage at the CSA for supporting monsters. CSA Calls Abusive Principal Garg "an outstanding educator.   and list others the DOE should have supported - John Dewey High School. DeWitt Clinton High School. Townsend Harris High School.
We need a rogues gallery for CSA superstars.

Outrage at the UFT, which actually got involved after we encouraged  dozens of parents and teachers to come to EB meetings - not as  much as we wished -- but we'll take the outcome -- they will surely claim full credit for the outcome, but only became woke when parents and teachers worked with MORE/New Action to put the issue right in front of their faces --- after over a year and a half of inaction.

Arthur points out in his excellent report today - CPE 1 Victory Is Model for Us All --

...we from MORE/ New Action spent hours meeting with the CPE 1 community and tried to address their concerns. We were part of it. Unity was part of it too, but they were also the part that applauded someone who trash-talked the activist parents and teachers at last week's Executive Board.

Yes, just 10 days ago, many people on the UFT Ex Bd applauded when a first year untenured teacher (also a parent at the school) appeared with two other teachers to support Monika Garg and say what a wonderful principal she was and while at it to attack the veteran teachers who said they would only meet with them off campus because their chapter leader, Marilyn Martinez, was in the rubber room awaiting the outcome of her hearing. (I wonder how these people are feeling today.)

They were joined at the meeting by 4 parent Garg supporters -- the ringleader was pointed out to me, but given what will surely be attempts on the part of our allies to bring peace to the school and mend rifts (if the other side won there would have been a bloodbath), I will refrain from going after her --- but will point out that one parent said to me incredulously -- "but her child was in Marilyn's class last year -- how can she support these attacks?" Yet there she was, seemingly to help orchestrate an attempt to muddy the waters at the UFT - everyone knows they will go both ways - and my thought was did the district rep tell them to come because she detected the leadership moving in the right direction?

And then I saw it -- UFT District 4 Rep Sevia Silva cuddled with them in the hall with smiles and backslaps. Applause and backslaps from Unity Caucus for people -- well while they were talking CPE1 parents were texting me using the word "Scabs." Note that not all teachers hired by Garg supported them. A few weeks ago when the large anti-Garg crew showed up one of the Garg hires was with them, and the CPE1 people were so proud of her not only for supporting them but to them most importantly, how much she has learned as a teacher.

The first meeting Peter Lamphere and I had with a large group of teachers c. Feb 2016 was off campus. (Let me point out that Peter has not only played a role in the CPE1 situation but also fired the first shot when Rosemarie Jahoda was installed as principal of Townsend Harris HS - a shot cited by the teachers at the school when they came to praise the UFT for helping them --they said they found anti-Jahoda pieces online but never mentioned Peter by name - I reposted this on Aug. 29, 2016 -- Peter Lamphere on Rosemarie Jahoda: What Does It Take To Get Promoted to Principal in NYC?)

They CPE1 teachers seemed shell-shocked. They had no idea of the blueprint Garg was following but  it was so familiar to us since we had heard this story time and again from other schools. I remember asking questions - like -- "and I assume the local UFT doesn't really support you and in fact often looks like they are supporting the principal and District Supt" -- nods all around. We told them about the PEP meetings where they could confront Farina in person every month and they send a group of people to the next one and every meeting until tonight when they won't be going. I remember that after that first PEP meeting Jia and I ran into some of them outside and we all went out to eat at a restaurant in Chinatown.

They were mistrustful of Garg from Day 1 in July 2015 but wanted to give her a chance and she was not quite vicious - until she was appointed after a rushed C30 process around December 2015 after which she escalated the assaults. BEWARE THE RUSHED C30 PROCESS -- THE UFT MUST GET CONTROL OF THIS AND GIVE TEACHERS A BIGGER VOICE.
 
The Garg post-appointment escalation caused a reaction from the vet teachers. Garg went through each of their files and found something in the past to trigger an investigation of all of them. (How dare the Garg supporters claim these investigations -- all of which have come to nothing -- were legit?)

One of the leaders of the teachers was the school delegate -- Catlin Prestin. He helped circulate a petition in Jan. 2016. His name was on top and on the email as the circulator. Garg immediately attacked the 9 year teacher so beloved by the parents with letter after letter in his file, soon to be followed by charges of corporal punishment, his removal from the school around February, and his being brought up on 3020a charges - his hearing was not until this school year and has lingered with a decision expected any minute. When I found out from the parent of the child who was involved with the charges what really went on with Garg's lies and manipulation of an incident where the teacher had been trying to comfort the child my response was that Garg should be fired if not arrested.

(Parents while celebrating Marilyn's return have not given up trying to get Catlin back to the school. Contrast the two cases by the way - Marilyn charged and removed in Feb, 3020a "emergency" hearing in March, decision in May.)

It was Catlin's removal that led to people contacting Peter for a meeting with some MOREs - why? Because Silva and the Manhattan UFT borough office were so unresponsive -- after all - the UFT knew this blueprint and due to what I assume is more loyalty to its relationships to the CSA and DOE Officials, take a basic hands off approach. The don't view themselves as our reps but as a neutral negotiating party.

With MORE/NA elected Ex Bd members joining with CPE1 parents at the EB meetings to pressure the union into action. I remember bringing it up in my 2 minutes and Howie Schoor acting surprised -- and I made the point that this was a failure of the UFT at the root level where so many people say that

Hey, in this case it worked but in the hundreds of others because there is no group of parent activists like at CPE1 -- and at Townsend Harris too where students and parents got active -- well people are often left to drown.

I'll close with this point from Arthur's blog today:

..primary credit should go to the CPE 1 community. I spent a lot of time listening to one of the parents in particular, and I rarely see the sort of passion and dedication that came from both them and the activist teachers combined with the activism it took to sustain this. The parents and  teachers who undertook this are fantastic role models. Many of us are understandably disheartened and disillusioned, and unwilling to take a stand. Perhaps it's natural that many of us need a crisis like this to bring us to our feet....

Common sense didn't work. Looking at the situation objectively didn't work. Relentless pressure and news coverage seems to be what finally took the Arg out of Garg. And that, my friends, is exactly what we need to practice more of. I'm ready. Are you?  

So I expect to be in a better mood after I eat something late this afternoon and hope I can report some more good news coming out of CPE1 ---

CPE1 Update: GONE GARG!!!!

A year and a half of struggle ended today with the announcement that CPE1 principal Monika Garg "has decided to accept another position with the DOE." The exoneration of Chapter Leader Marilyn Martinez was a repudiation of Garg's tactics and was the final straw even for the DOE. If even a fraction of Garg's crimes had been committed by a teacher imagine the outcome.

Garg did not show up at the school on Monday where the parents held an 8AM celebration for Marilyn's return. How could Garg face Marilyn who she had put in the gulag for months which denied the youngest children in the school their beloved teacher?

Here is the letter from Acting Supt Dolores Esposito:

Dear CPE 1 Community,

Since arriving at CPE 1 yesterday, I have met with members of the school community including students, school staff and families.

I want to share an important update. Principal Garg has chosen to take a new position in the Department of Education and will not continue as the Principal of CPE1. This is effective immediately. During her tenure at CPE 1, she has focused on serving the needs of the whole child while providing a high quality education.

During the transition, I will continue to serve as Acting Superintendent in charge of CPE 1. Together we will focus on identifying the next leader for this school in accordance with Chancellor's Regulations. My primary focus continues to be delivering a high quality education for all students in a safe, supportive and nurturing environment. With nearly 30 years as an educator and as a former graduate and adjunct professor of Bank Street College, I will use my experience in progressive education to support the school.

I look forward to working together with everyone at CPE1 to advance equity of opportunity and excellence for all students.

Best,

Dolores

And another false equivalency article by Kate Taylor in the NY Times who has the nerve to quote the tiny minority of parents who supported Garg "They said the investigations of teachers were justified and were not pursued out of animus." Really? When the hearing officer made it clear animus was on the table. Now the bullshit Garg made up about Catlin Preston, the school delegate, must continue to be fought. What did Garg do? Turn Catlin's comforting of a child into a sordid attack in an attempt to manipulate the parent who told me that Garg broke into tears telling her Catlin, who was one of the leaders of the teacher resistance, had to go. The parent when she found out the truth testified at Catlin's hearing. For that act alone, Garg should be fired.

The other charge the few Garg supporters made was that the school was exclusionary -- Garg had pulled the race card and some black parents fell into that trap. The school had always tried to be an integrated school -- roughly 1/3 black, white and Hispanic -- but at times that balance shifted and attempts were always made to redress that balance. Garg and Farina and the DOE used that to foment racial divisions. But a significant number of black parents - the majority - supported the anti-Garg savecpe1 coalition.

East Harlem Elementary Principal Is Out After a Yearlong Fight

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/nyregion/harlem-principal-is-out-after-a-yearlong-civil-war-at-an-elementary-school.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0&referer=https://t.co/7SYs1dy1i

By KATE TAYLOR

May 15, 2017

After a yearlong civil war inside Central Park East I, a progressive elementary school in East Harlem, the school’s embattled principal has stepped aside, New York City’s Education Department said on Monday, handing a victory to parents who had accused her of seeking to dismantle the school’s traditions.

The principal, Monika Garg, will retain her title and salary as a principal but will no longer have a school to run. The department said the change was effective immediately.

That was a sudden about-face from Friday, when the Education Department announced that it was giving Ms. Garg a new supervisor but said that she would remain the principal.

The conflict has consumed the school since last year, dividing the parents and the staff. What the groups are fighting over has at times been hard to discern amid the volleys of accusations and counteraccusations. The parents and teachers who opposed Ms. Garg said she was trying to squelch the school’s progressive spirit by bringing it in line with department rules. They also accused her of instigating investigations against teachers who defied her.

Parents who supported Ms. Garg, on the other hand, said that the school, which was originally intended to provide a rich, arts-filled education to the children of East Harlem, had over the years become exclusionary and that its traditions had calcified. They said the investigations of teachers were justified and were not pursued out of animus.

For months, the city’s schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, had resisted calls to remove Ms. Garg. Things seemed to change in recent weeks, when a group of parents occupied the school overnight and then began following Mayor Bill de Blasio around the city. Even so, when the mayor was asked about the situation at an unrelated news conference on Thursday, he did not give any hint that he was pushing the chancellor one way or the other on the issue, saying that parents and teachers were divided and that the loudest group did not have “a monopoly on the truth.”

 

Afterward, the Education Department had seemed to waver about what to do. On Friday came the announcement that a supervisor had been placed over Ms. Garg at the school. Then, on Monday, Ms. Garg did not return to the school. In a brief interview there in the early afternoon, her new supervisor, Dolores Esposito, said she could not say why Ms. Garg was not there or whether she would continue as principal.

“We can’t answer that,” she said as she hurried away from a reporter.

The Education Department did not immediately name an interim leader but said Ms. Esposito would continue to oversee the school.

Central Park East I was founded in 1974 by Deborah Meier, a leader in the small schools movement, who started several other schools and won a MacArthur fellowship, known as a “genius grant,” in 1987.

CPE1 Chapter Leader Marilyn Martinez CLEARED of ALL CHARGES - Estrella and Garg Should be Removed Immediately for Criminal Act

After a baseless and retaliatory investigation and termination hearing based on trumped up charges, Central Park East 1 teacher (and union chapter chair), Marilyn Martinez, was CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES! This is an extremely rare decision as only 4% of NYC teachers who go through these hearings are fully exonerated. But we need your help to tell the Mayor that the DOE needs to bring Marilyn back to her classroom immediately and that the campaign of harassment against teachers and parents must be stopped.... #Savecpe1 committee, http://www.savecpe1.org

Let's remember that Marilyn was suddenly removed from the classroom by the District 4 Elementary and middle school superintendent: Alexandra Estrella, (212) 348-2873. In an unprecedented move she was brought up on 3020a charges to fire her just a few weeks later which brought out an enormous parent response at her hearings. (And for those NYSUT lawyer bashers, she used one.)

How about that CSA call for the DOE to support yet another lying principal (YALP)? CSA Calls Abusive Principal Garg "an outstanding educator".)  Shame on the so-called union that supports attacks on other union members. The UFT should cut all relations and cooperation with these slugs.

Just think of it -- little kids, some with special needs, suddenly were cut off from the teacher who had given them so much support so early in their school lives -- one of the very best and dedicated teachers you can find -- the kind of teacher who writes 10 page individual analysis and reports for each child in addition to creating a vibrant classroom experience. I consider this a criminal act --- administrative and educational malpractice at the very least.

Also think of those 3 untenured teachers and 4 parents who showed up at the UFT Ex Bd meeting the other night to support Garg and in essence to endorse Garg's actions -- and was greeted with warmth and showered with love by UFT District Rep Servia Silva for engaging in what some termed the act of scabs who made statements attacking their fellow teachers. (From the first time we met with CPE1 teachers 15 months ago they were telling us she was pro-Garg and Estella.) See Arthur's Executive Board Takeaway.

The main complaint of these teachers who were hired by Garg against the vets were that they wouldn't meet with them other than offsite because Marilyn could not be in the school due to the charges. Now there's the union spirit of support. No wonder Garg hired them. 

Apparently Garg, who had lied about having anything to do with Marilyn's removal, was in it up to her ears, secretly taping a parent. Can anyone maintain trust in keeping her as principal? The UFT must call for Garg's immediate removal (and Estella with her) and Marilyn's immediate reinstatement to the classroom as of this Monday.

In the meantime, would we be surprised to see them try to file additional charges against Marilyn to keep her out of the school since her return would throw a serious monkey wrench into the Farina plan to undermine the school?

Parents are asking people to blitz de Blasio with calls today calling for Marilyn's immediate return.

We don't know how quickly she will be reinstated or if they will try to mess with it; at our SLT meeting today, Monika refused to say that she would support her return and looked really angry at idea of her returning.

So we want to get out ahead of it and build public political pressure for her immediate return and an end to the harassment; we're doing another call-in action tomorrow am around it. I know it's really short notice but anything you can do to get the word out would be much appreciated - it made a big difference last week.

Video - CPE1 Parents Speak at Strike/Rally - May 5, 2017

Parents point out why they are taking this drastic step. One goes after DOE for trying to break a school with an integrated, diverse parent and student population -- "they don't want integrated schools," she says.

https://youtu.be/cJ5ArgeJsco

Video: CPE1 Strike Rally - Zakiyah Ansari and Cordell Cleare

I will be posting short videos as they are processed. About half the students were kept out of school on Friday.

https://youtu.be/kGqiQgvwnY8



Zakiyah Ansari of Alliance for Quality Education makes a strong statement of support, as does Cordell Cleare.
I've seen Zakiyah at so many events over many years. She was one of the leaders of the takeover of a PEP meeting in August 2010 - forcing them to cancel the meeting. It was the first day Julie Cavanagh and I began shooting (https://theinconvenienttruthbehindwaitingforsuperman.com/watch-the-film/) and we caught some great footage that evening. She has been a consistently strong voice for justice.

We met Cordell Cleare in the summer of 2009 when we (GEM) went up to Harlem to take a stand against Eva Moskowitz. Cordell was State Senator Bill Perkins' Chief of Staff and she offered us space in Bill's office to hold meetings. In the spring of 2010 Bill Perkins held 10 hours of hearings on charter schools, which inflamed the charter industry and led them to running Basil Smikle against Bill Perkins (Political Strategist Basil Smikle Will Challenge Harlem State Sen. Bill ...)
in the fall of 2010 - Bill smashed him. Smikle is the NY State Director of the Democratic Party - just goes to show how much in bed the Dems are with the charter industry.

Excuse the poor sound. It was raining and I had to cover the camera.

CPE1 Update: Half the Students Stay Out of School Today

I'm still in the city but wanted to get this out before heading back to Rockaway to process some of the tape I got at the rally/press conference this morning outside CPE1 where over 50 parents and supporters rallied in an often driving rain. No one from the UFT was present - I will address the UFT tepid response in another post and it is addressed in the upcoming MORE DA newsletter coming out May 10.

Ninety students, about half, were kept out of school and housed at a local community center where they had day care take care of them while the parents were at the rally.

There was press present - WNBC, WINS, NY1 - the wonderful Lindsey Christ still covering ed for so many years - first time I'd run into her in years. She and her camerawoman did interviews and I am looking forward to seeing how she deals with the story. In giving Lindsey some background info it was clear that she knows the history of CPE1 and all about Debbie Meier -- the benefit of hiring former teachers like Lindsey to cover education. The press feels they have to give both sides of a story even if one side is distorted so I imagine conventions will be followed with the DOE side - which is pretty funny-- like there is another group of parents who like Garg -- yes-- a tiny group but in DOE reports they make it sound equal.

Matt, one of the parents standing in the rain, called into Brian Lehrer to talk to de Blasio -- who gave a bullshit response but Matt wasn't allowed to counter -- listen - Matt is 2nd caller -
http://www.wnyc.org/story/askthemayor-about-affordable-health-care-act-vote-pontes-getaways-and-fair-fares ---

I love Brian Lehrer but not when it comes to covering ed deform -- very unbalanced.

I have so many blogs to write on ed deform, the Democrats, the left, social justice unionism, etc. but the CPE1 story has so many complexities that I haven't even touched on yet, I can't shake it.

Here's a section of the press release this morning:

Fly NYCDOE United Airlines: How Many Chancellor's Regs Did Garg Violate?

Is the DOE our own version of United Airlines? A teacher sneezes the wrong way and - boom - 3020a. I got some hints at the possible charges against CPE1 chapter leader and they are laughable. In the meantime, below is a list of regs principal Monika Garg has violated. The list was turned over to the chancellor's cabinet in a meeting with some parents and teachers last Friday - CPE 1 Parents Meet With DOE Officials at Tweed. 

At the meeting the parents repeatedly asked for even one reason Garg should be principal and there was no response.

Summary of Violated Chancellor’s Regulations

on CPE1: Norm in The Wave - Legendary Progressive School Under Assault

The Binder

CPE1 Update: 
Parent and teacher reps met for hours yesterday with the Chancellor's "team" which included Phil Weinberg, Laura Feijoo, Louis Herrera, Yolanda Torres. A group of supporters sat on the steps of Tweed as a show of support. A 120 page binder listing Garg transgressions, including violating numerous chancellor regs, was handed over.

Below is my column this week, a brief attempt to explain the CPE1 situation to the Rockaway community in a nutshell.

Published in The Wave, April 14, 2017
http://www.rockawave.com/node/243225?pk_campaign=Newsletter

Legendary Progressive School Under Assault

 
Parents support UFT Chapter leader Marilyn Martinez at her hearing. When I was a young teacher dreaming about teaching in a child-centered progressive school (which I never got to do), the model school set up in East Harlem (District 4) in the mid-1970s by Debbie Meier, one of the gods of teaching in this country for 50 years, was a magnet for teachers and parents looking for alternative ways of working with kids that were far from the mainstream. Central Park East (CPE) became a nationwide model, offering elementary school children a private school model of education and making it available to parents who did not have the means to send their kids to elite schools. A major component of such education in Debbie’s vision was a non-segregated and diverse population that would be roughly one third black, Latino and white in a neighborhood where such an option was not available. Call it the one of the early concepts of choice within a public school system which is so pushed by the charter school lobby. Debbie won a McArthur Genius Award for her ground breaking work in New York and in Boston.

The CPE model was the furthest thing from today’s no excuses, test-driven, anti-union, rigid, corporate as opposed to student-driven charter factory floor concepts.

People from all over the nation came to study the practices in the school, which involved student choices in what they would learn, in addition to a wide degree of latitude for teachers; a democratically run school where major decisions on hiring and practices were decided jointly by teachers and administrators with a lot of parent input. Principals sometimes referred to themselves as “head teachers.” The closest model in Brooklyn is the Brooklyn New School in Park Slope.

The original CPE, now known as CPE1, was replicated into a CPE 2 and then a CPE middle and high school, though over the time the practices diverged in the different schools. CPE1 was the school that retained many of the original constructs, one of which is that testing is the least important aspect of a rich education in an elementary school especially since our youngest children grow at different rates intellectually and emotionally and branding kids based on test scores at such an early age is debilitating. Thus most parents who choose to send their kids – in fact, fight to send their kids – to the few progressive public schools there are have been opting out of taking tests once they became the measure of success and drowned out all the other factors of what makes for a good school and a good education.

In the past year and a half, CPE1 progressive education, the teaching staff and the majority of parents have come under attack by the Department of Education with the installation of a principal, Monika Garg, who has no experience in progressive education, was a high school administrator with little or no knowledge of how elementary schools work, but especially of how CPE1 has operated through its history. Garg has gone after experienced and tenured teachers which culminated in the recent removal of chapter leader Marilyn Martinez, which has galvanized an already active parent group that has been fighting back against Garg and the DOE. At Martinez’ hearings, between 50 and 100 parents showed up in support. Last week, after a massively attended School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting that attracted over a hundred people, including State Senator Bill Perkins and former City Councilman Robert Jackson, the parents read a statement calling on Garg to resign.

Garg read her own statement refusing to resign saying that she answers only to her superiors, the Superintendent Alexander Estrella and Chancellor Farina. In our system the people running schools do not have to answer to the stakeholders – the parents, teachers, or the general community. Since the mayor was given control over the schools in this city in 2002, the arrogance of whoever is running the system, no matter what party, has only grown worse.

After the SLT meeting, parents at CPE1 were fed up enough to refuse to leave the auditorium and engaged in a sleep-in, not emerging until 9 a.m. the next morning. I was there to cover the story for my blog and The Wave, along with the NY Times, Wall St. Journal, WCBS, WNBC, The Daily News and other press.
I have been the only one embedded with the parents and teachers since I first met with them a year ago.

CPE 1 Parents Meet With DOE Officials at Tweed Today at 11AM -- Join Supporters Outside

Parent leaders of CPE1 are asking anyone available today at 10:45 to come to Tweed to support the parents and teachers before they go in for the meeting.

April 6: Massive police presence at rally 

Did de Blasio tell Farina to get a meeting with parents and teachers of CPE1? Hell yes. I heard one very liberal parent say last Friday that she would rather vote for a Republican than de Blasio unless the CPE1 situation was resolved.

After over a year of agitating at PEP meetings, rallies at Tweed and organizing the parents and community to call for the removal of Monika Garg, it took the sit-in at the auditorium following an SLT meeting last Thursday/Friday overnight and a phone call from a parent raising the issue with de Blasio on the Brian Lehrer show to get the DOE to invite parents and teachers (two of each) to Tweed today for an 11 AM meeting.

While one of the teachers should be Chapter Leader Marilyn Martinez, still banned from the school until the outcome of her hearing, the DOE is apparently pushing back on allowing her into Tweed. The story is that the UFT supposedly tried to get permission and at this point has not been successful.

This is clearly a show by the DOE to give some cover to de Blasio - lame duck Farina is irrelevant at this point - and we have seen the focus shifted to de Blasio whose base is being undermined by stories like this. While he doesn't face much of a challenge, the number of votes he gets make a difference and given the Trump win, anything is possible. If my local city councilman, Republican Erich Ulrich, had run I would have voted for him, that is how annoyed I am at deB over ed policies.

Now people are not going in with their eyes closed and understand this is a PR stunt of sorts and that the idea that Garg will be gone is not in the DOE game plan. The hostility is at such a high pitch, that there is no bridging the gap. How can teachers who have been under attack work under Garg? How can parents whose children have been called in and questioned in attempts to "get" something on their teachers without parent permission trust Garg?

So the outcome will be a promise to monitor the situation, etc, etc and to try to split the parents and make  the most militant look unreasonable. Now we do know that about a dozen parents and some teachers support Garg and the DOE is hoping to woo people over to that position and give those supporters a wedge. To me that is what this meeting is about. Stall until Garg can get a new batch of parents into the school to try to shift the balance of power -- and she has the ability to do that by manipulating the admission process. (I'll have more on how admission to CPE1 has worked over the years -- CPE 1 had the biggest waiting list per student of any school in the city according to some parents - before Garg, that is.

What next for parents? More sit-ins, boycotts, hunger strikes? Everything is on the table.

Keep up to date with the CPE1 story at: savecpe1.org and sign their petition.

The "New" PEP Under di Blasio/Farina - New Boss, Same as Old Boss?

Aixa Rodriguez (right) led the battle to save her school. Jia Lee and Marilena Marchetti from MORE were present to support her.

Where have you gone Joel Klein?
Our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.

Would we ever have imagined that the current DOE administration could look as cold stone deaf and heartless as the previous administration? From what I saw up there last night I can't say I see any difference. I even saw a di Blasio appointee, a former principal who came to a MORE meeting 2 years ago and I spent an hour in the bar afterward arguing with him over his anti-union, blame the teacher attitude. That this guy was appointed by di Blasio is indicative of why so many people in the schools - principals and teachers - and parents - think that when it comes to transparency and response and over regulations, nothing much has changed.

Aixa makes a powerful speech

A large crew from Central Park East 1 called for removal of principal Monika Garz

Watching the Farina led PEP with the Panel sitting on a stage so far away from the audience, but not far enough away not to see the blank looks on their faces as issue after issue came up with people practically pleading for a response to repeated requests over months and even years - any response at a all - but not getting any.

I have loads of video to process so this will only be a quick hit of the 3 major issues that came up.

"Renewal Means Removal"
I posted yesterday:Today at PEP: Mayor de Blasio's "RENEWAL"

High on the agenda was the closing of FLAGS whose building is being invaded by a charter school - which sent a busload of people to the PEP. I asked them when we were leaving if we could co-locate their bus for people going to the Bronx so they could get a ride home. They have money to use for buses for political events.
I have a lot of good video of speeches made on their behalf.

Chalkbeat has an article on this aspect of the PEP quoting Aixa and Jane Meisel:

“If they wanted to revitalize the school they could do that,” said Jane Maisel, a member of the advocacy group Change the Stakes, before the vote. “We think it’s a very bad precedent.”
“Parents and kids were like, ‘Didn’t we have an understanding that this would be a community school?’” said Aixa Rodriguez, a FLAGS teacher. “We had the sword of Damocles over us the entire time.”

Here is the brief press conference before the meeting. The charter bus arrived and they cut it short to make sure to get in and sign up before they packed the sign up list so not everyone got to speak - but at that point I was the only "press" there and I have all their comments from inside the PEP to post in a followup.

https://vimeo.com/163684178




Civil Rights lawyer Norman Seigel leads battle for true education for Jewish boys
This item surprised me. A group of former Hassidic yeshiva students were with Norman to protest the education they got which violate state laws. The DOE is supposed to monitor them. The Bloomberg and di Blasio admins both covered up for political reasons. Farina has been unresponsive. The powerful speeches laid bare the political arrangement as these schools get millions of dollars that are misused and misdirected. I'll cut the videos of their speeches and put them up in a few days.

CPE1 Organizes
You've been reading their story here:
Parents at Central Park East 1 Issue Press Release...

• TONIGHT AT PEP: Demand to Remove Abusive Principal...
• #savecpe1 - Support Legendary Debbie Meier Founded...

 I have some great footage of them at the PEP but have to process it all. When they described how 40 years of teachers having their voices heard in setting school policy was dismantled in months by Monika Garg my thought was that she is the perfect principal for Farina who I can't conceive of sharing power with teachers. I believe Farina is behind the move to dismantle CPE1 - a decision to put in such an inappropriate principal can only come from the top. The teachers who spoke were amazing, yet most of them are under investigation on bogus charges. Garg pulled kids in to be questioned without parent permission or notice. And Garg has made racial comments which may prove to be the trigger - Beth Fertig from WNYC was interviewing a parent and that point seemed to interest her the most.

For now I do have their press conference before the PEP. Wait till you see the two 12 year old alums have to say about how they learned at CPE1.

PEP CPE Pr Conf April 2016
https://vimeo.com/163678111

Parents at Central Park East 1 Issue Press Release Calling for Removal of Principal Monika Garg

....the petition has been signed by more than 58% of current families. More than 1,700 supporters have also signed, including educational experts, NY Senator Bill Perkins, former New York City Councilman and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson, former NYC Councilman and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson, education professor and activist Dr. William Ayers, and large numbers of former teachers, family members and students.... Parents of CPE1.

I am at a Comfort Inn in Rocky Mount NC, an hour out of Raleigh. I didn't think I could do all the driving in one day so I cancelled my reservation at the Marriott for tonight but in actuality found the drive pretty easy - just me alone blasting the music and singing along - if my wife were with me we would have seen road rage.
But I wanted to get readers caught up on the fast moving CPE 1 story which I posted this morning: 

#savecpe1 - Support Legendary Debbie Meier Founded Central Park East 1 in Battle to Remove Monika Garg, Abusive Principal
Things are heating up as the story is getting out. I have a lot more to write about this especially on how Garg pulled the race card as a way to divide parents, which unfortunately a few parents fell for. Attacking the school's diversity and claiming progressive education is not beneficial to children of color is just part of the attack - she should be fired for that alone as it is racist to say children of color are somehow not able to deal with a progressive education that the rich kids in private schools get.

For Immediate Release

For more information contact:

Kenya Dilday: kdilday@gmail.com

Kaliris Salas Ramirez: ksalasramirez@gmail.com

Jennifer Roesch: (917) 319-7008; jenroesch@gmail.com

More information at www.savecpe1.org

Parents at Central Park East 1 Launch a Website and Petition Drive to Defend Their School’s Progressive Practices and Remove Principal

The website and information about the petition can be found at www.savecpe1.org

East Harlem, NY. April 13, 2016---On April 8, a group of parents at Central Park East 1, a 41-year old elementary school that is the oldest progressive school in Harlem and the first formed by legendary educator, Deborah Meier, launched a website: SaveCPE1.org. The website — savecpe1.org — which has received nearly 8,800 page views since launch-- is part of an effort to defend the school’s core progressive practices and asks parents and supporters to sign a petition calling for the removal of the current principal, Monika Garg. Within four days, the petition has been signed by more than 58% of current families. More than 1,700 supporters have also signed, including educational experts, NY Senator Bill Perkins, former New York City Councilman and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson, former NYC Councilman and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson, education professor and activist Dr. William Ayers, and large numbers of former teachers, family members and students.

Parents cite several reasons that they believe Principal Garg is not a suitable leader at Central Park East 1:

• In March, Monika Garg, principal for nine months, interviewed several very young children as part of investigations of veteran teachers and staff. The parents of these children were not notified before or after these interviews. One parent discovered interviews had taken place when her child was found crying at night without explanation and subsequently revealed it. It is only through parents coming forward that other parents were able to know to ask and appropriately support their children. The school counselor was unaware of the interviews and thus unable to provide support. Principal Garg has failed to respond to several parents who have asked who was present during the interviews or for transcripts. Some of these investigations are based on charges that are two years old and involved interviewing 7-year old children about events that took place two years earlier. While parents understand that investigations are an unfortunate part of school life on occasion, they believe that the way these interviews were conducted and the subsequent lack of respect for parent concerns showed extremely poor judgment.
• Principal Garg has no experience in progressive education, no experience in early childhood education and minimal experience in elementary education. Central Park East 1 has a rich and well-documented history of progressive education and an approach based on individualized instruction and assessment. Principal Garg has consistently implied that the schools style of education is not suitable for “black children and poor children” as it is practiced at CPE1. This is contradicted by several quantitative and qualitative measures that have been well-documented and highlights of which are available on the website.
• Veteran teachers have described their working conditions as intolerable. Several have considered leaving. Since many members of the staff issued an open letter to the community detailing their concerns with the principal’s leadership, multiple investigations have been initiated against veteran teachers and several have had other disciplinary measures taken against them.

These are just some of the reasons that a majority of parents feel that the current principal must be removed in order for the school to move forward. This decision was not taken lightly and follows months of attempts to get answers from the Principal and District Superintendent Alexandra Estrella. Their has been a consistent pattern of lack of communication and disrespect for both parents and staff. Parents do not feel that the district has been responsive to their concerns and that is why their petition is addressed to the mayor and school chancellor.

The website, savecpe1.org, offers an extensive timeline detailing the pattern of administrative mistreatment over time. It also provides just a few samples of more than 20 testimonials from families about what a Central Park East 1 education has meant for them and their children. It explains Central Park East 1’s unique curriculum and pedagogy as well as its success - as measured by the Department of Education’s own metrics.

# # #

#savecpe1 - Support Legendary Debbie Meier Founded Central Park East 1 in Battle to Remove Monika Garg, Abusive Principal

Sign the petition to save CPE1: http://www.savecpe1.org/petition/

I'm leaving soon to drive down to Raleigh, NC for the NPE conference over the weekend. But I wanted to get this out before I leave. I'm hoping to run into Debbie Meier at the conference since CPE was her brainchild so many years ago. I heard about that school when it opened and even thought about trying to teach there because the educational concepts fit my ideas and I was often like a fish out of water at my school.

I heard the entire story about the crap this principal, Monika Garg, has pulled and will report more details in a follow-up. Needless to say she is following the standard Principal Academy and DOE legal blueprint on how to undermine a school with veteran teachers.
The problem is that our union has no blueprint for teachers on how to respond and the teachers were overwhelmed by the constant assaults for half a year before they began to look at ways to fight back. MORE was contacted for advice and we met with some of them.

Why would so-called progressive educator Carmen Farina sanction an assault on Central Park East 1 (there is also a CPE2 under separate management) through the installation of abusive principal  Monika Garg last July who immediately set about undermining 40 years of progressive education at the school? Naturally the long-time teachers there were the first to come under attack, including bogus investigations. The UFT, district borough and central have been of little help.

Which is why some of us in MORE met with a batch of people from the school and have been offering some organizing advice over the past few weeks. We are helping publicize what they are doing. The important thing in situations like this is to assess the abilities of the people on the ground to build support from parents and community when calling for such a drastic action as the removal of Principal Monika Garg who was an AP at a high school with no experience in a progressive school like CPE1 or even in an elementary school.

As the links to the article in DNAinfo and the web site below indicate they have done quite a job in organizing. I'm not sure of exactly how much I can say at this point as to the plans but I will update as they unfold.

New Principal Ruining Legendary Progressive Public School, Parents Say

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160413/east-harlem/new-principal-ruining-legendary-progressive-public-school-parents-say

The web site with the full story:
http://www.savecpe1.org/

The petition which has almost 2000 signatures - which will be presented to Farina.
http://www.savecpe1.org/petition/

For 40 years, CPE1 has been a leader in progressive education. It was the first of the original progressive public elementary schools started in East Harlem by Debbie Meier. It has been studied and celebrated internationally and replicated across the country, but the current administration is undermining CPE1’s philosophy and purpose. CPE1 must be protected.

What will we lose if the current principal remains? 

• Our experienced teachers - the heart of our school
• Inquiry-based, child-centered education is being replaced with prepackaged curriculum
• Collaborative approach and cooperative projects  
• Individualized learning accounting for each child’s personal goals
• The understanding that art, movement and music are integral to children’s education  
• Valuable learning time lost to increased focus on “teaching to the test”
• Democratic decision-making 
• Small class sizes and small school community

The newly hired principal has no previous experience in progressive education. None. 

Why would a superintendent choose a principal with no progressive background and with limited elementary experience to lead NYC’s oldest progressive public school? 

Our veteran teachers have said that their working conditions are unbearable.  Many are considering leaving.   

Our long-time teachers are crucial to preserving CPE1.  

Administrators are interviewing our children without parents' knowledge or consent.

7-year-olds being asked to recall information on incidents occurring two years prior.  This was not the usual "calling a child into the principal's office;" interviewers included a deputy superintendent and an outside investigator.   Children were told to keep their interviews secret.

Administrators have launched investigations against our veteran teachers.

After senior teachers sent an open letter to the community expressing concerns about the principal’s actions, they have all been subjected to investigations.  Some are complaints re-opened from several years prior.  

Administrators routinely fail to answer parents' and teachers' questions. 

Parents asked the superintendent to a town hall in November to express their concerns. She said no. The principal remains silent about direct questions concerning her decisions.

---

An unprecedented number of leaders in progressive education stand ready with our community to recommend qualified individuals to the DOE and to support the success of a new principal. 

Please join us in saving our school and preserving progressive education at CPE1.