Deb Meier, Jane Andrias, Two Former CPE1 Principals Question Farina/DOE on Intentional Destruction

While Meier soared, Farina soured --- into a Joel Klein flunky.

Does Farina hate Deb Meier for her success and national and international recognition over the same time period Farina was an active educator and yet Farina never received similar accolades?

Or is it just that Farina can't stand the idea of democratic governance of a school? Then we hear that Farina knows full well how awful Monika Garg is but hates the parent activists so much she believes they (and their kids) must not be allowed to get away with winning this and must be punished. After all, what if other parent groups spring up?

Even if Farina goes out on a legacy of forcing most of the parents out of CPE1 and turns it into a charter clone, those parents who remain in the public school system at other schools around the city may just bring their level of activism along with them.

Unless the unstated intent of the recent failure to end the turmoil of these past few years has been to close CPE1 so the space could be used for other purposes, it’s clear that we now face a choice between either replacing the principal or replacing the students, families and the school’s mission. ... Jane Andrias, Deb Meier, former Principals of CPE 1

Unless you understand the unique culture of democratic decision-making at CPE1 over 40 years, the attack on the school by Farina and henchcrew seems to fall into the usual DOE attempts to drive out vet teachers. But there is something different going on here - it is the style of education at the school that is under attack. And maybe something personal.

This comment was left on the Diane Ravitch blog when she posted a link to Unsafe at Any Speed at CPE 1:

Jane Andrias

April 24, 2017 at 7:45 am

Deborah Meier has been having difficulty with her vision and is now dependent on voice activated devices for reading and writing. As a result an earlierresponse to the blog was incomplete.

In early April, Deborah and I wrote a response to Kate Taylor’s article in the NY Times on the conflict at Central Park East 1 (“CPE1”). The letter was not published. Taylor’s article raised many of the right questions confronting the institution but failed to explore why there has been no constructive solution to address the continuing conflicts within the school community and restore the safe and supportive learning environment for children and adults, which had been the hallmark of the school.

CPE1 was founded in 1974 as part of an East Harlem initiative to show what could be possible in what was at that time one of the poorest and educationally deprived communities in the city. The then District Superintendent, Anthony Alvarado, invited us to start a small, progressive and democratically governed school. Over the ensuing 30 years the school developed a national and international reputation for success in educating its children while maintaining a democratic culture. Faculty, staff, families and children all felt respected and heard even in times when internal differences or external policy changes challenged the integrity of the school’s core beliefs and highly developed practice. All important decisions were made collectively. One of the most notable features was the relationships that developed among staff, families and children, many of which last to this day. This continued and flourished long after Deborah left the school in 1985 under the leadership of the two principals who succeeded her.

While many of the attributes of the school have been threatened over the last decade, a third principal, who was the choice of the school community, succeeded in supporting the school culture and mission until she left to form her new school based on the principles and practices of CPE1.

The next principal who followed was also recommended by the school community but was not a strong enough leader to sustain and build on the mission of the school and the school began to erode. Three tenured teachers left the school at the end of her last year. Monika Garg was then appointed as the principal without the input or support of the school community. During the past two years with Ms. Garg as principal, the school’s mission has been totally undermined. Three more tenured teachers and one promising new teacher left the school at the end of last year.

A community that was once built on trust, compassion, the power of ideas and democratic process of decision making has become too distracted by controversy to function as a united and safe learning community for children and adults alike. Unless the unstated intent of the recent failure to end the turmoil of these past few years has been to close CPE1 so the space could be used for other purposes, it’s clear that we now face a choice between either replacing the principal or replacing the students, families and the school’s mission. We have made efforts over the past two years to join with the DOE to identify leadership that would build on the foundation of the past and restore the school’s excellent educational and democratic principles and culture. We are disappointed by the resistance of the DOE to take the necessary steps to constructively resolve this unrelenting and destructive conflict at CPE1.

Deborah Meier-1974-85-Founding Teacher/ Director, MacCarthur Award Winner
Jane Andrias-1981-2003 Art Teacher and Principal

CPE1 and Global Tech - East Harlem Dist. 4 Supt Alexandra Estrella: Evil Death Star School Destroyer

Alexandra Estrella Sans Disguise

Alexandra Estrella, the District 4 superintendent, has shown Baiz the door in what is expected, by most educators who know both Global Tech and the district, to mark the beginning of the end for the school. Last week, the staff sat stunned and teary-eyed, when Baiz announced at the weekly staff meeting that he would not be returning after spring break.... Global Tech may turn out to be among the first Bloomberg-era small schools to be dismantled by the de Blasio-Farina administration. Those close to the school see Global Tech as a victim of an expanding bureaucracy where “who you know matters more than what you know.”...........Andrea Gabor, Gotham Gazette

David Baiz, the award-winning teacher who was handpicked by Global Tech’s founding principal to become her successor.

Do you see a pattern here, a pattern to put in closer principals with a blueprint to drive out veteran teachers -- a pattern the UFT refuses to acknowledge? 

Despite the turmoil, several teachers at the school, which is also known for low teacher turnover—not a single teacher left last year—are clearly reluctant to leave. ... Several other teachers, though, are updating their resumes. Thanks to Estrella’s decision to push Baiz out early, they have the entire upcoming so-called open-market period to look for new jobs within the department.

Yes, Virginia, Estrella is the very same Supt. who supports CPE1 Prinipal Monika Garg, branded the worst principal in NYC, but has inserted herself into Global Tech to bring in yet another one of her buddies as principal.

....it turns out that she is moving one of her lieutenants, Ellen Johnson Torres, a teacher evaluation and development coach, into the job temporarily—another sign, education sources say, that the school will be merged with P.S. 7.

Global Tech also traces its lineage to the era of collaboration and teacher-leaders that flourished in District 4 under Tony Alvarado and Debbie Meier, beginning in the 1970s, and was, to a limited degree, revived under Bloomberg. That legacy of grassroots leadership and collaboration, which was intended to foster creativity and innovation, is now widely seen as endangered—not just at Global Tech, but throughout the city.

Yes, can we say that DeB/Farina rule is as bad or worse than Bloomberg/Klein? Well, not to the UFT/Unity leadership which has its seat at the table that BloomKlein denied it, but certainly not using it to defend teachers and schools. (Nothing new here: Remember when the DOE under Klein refused to appoint the principal of Bronx High School of Science and put in the awful Valerie Reidy who then hired the equally awful Rosemarie Jahoda of Townsend HS fame?)

It is clear that mayoral control, which the UFT supports, must be gone.

Global Tech has known for nearly two years that its days might be numbered. Soon after Baiz become principal, in 2013, he learned that the superintendent was considering merging Global Tech, which has never had more than about 175 students, with P.S. 7, the K-8 school that shares its building. Russell and other friends of Global Tech within the education department urged Baiz to fight for the school; in what proved a short-lived victory, the principal of P.S. 7 moved to a job at DOE headquarters, and Estrella tapped Pryce-Harvey, Global Tech’s assistant principal and Baiz’s friend, to be the interim-acting principal.

Andrea Gabor gets to the crust of what is happening all over the city as the supposedly progressive de Blasio and his agent Farina, makes war on schools where teachers and parents have played a major role.

last summer, Baiz learned that Estrella had turned down his tenure application; under education department rules, there was a good chance that he would lose his principalship. A few months later she overruled his tenure recommendation for a respected Global Tech teacher—a Math for America master teacher for science who also holds a special-education certification. Getting rid of Baiz appears to be a first step in consolidating the two schools in the East 120th Street building they share, under a principal hand-picked by Estrella. Pryce-Harvey will retire from P.S. 7 this year; her successor has already been chosen.

Below are more excepts from the article - but go read it in its entirety at http://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/6858-requiem-for-a-school-that-works

Requiem For A School That Works

April 07, 2017 | by Andrea Gabor

UFT/Unity Splaining - UFT passivity in face of massive assault on teachers = complicity.

My theme for today is: The UFT being allies with CSA is like USA being allies with ISIS.
James Eterno writes:

The UFT will claim their behind the scenes strategy worked here. Let's hope this is not just an exception. It took an enormous effort just not to have one disastrous interim acting principal appointed permanently.

In fact it was the students who led the action.

But oh the distortions coming from the UFT leaders -- I'm too kind to call them outright lies -- but when I heard Manhattan borough rep Dwayne Clark get up at an ex bd meeting and defend the actions of District 4 rep in the CPE1 situation I almost spit up my Philly cheese steak sandwich - (well actually I was already in the process of doing so anyway - which is why some of us are eating BEFORE the Ex Bd meeting.)

Clark defended the district rep and uft reaction and there should be push back. When Peter and I met with with CPE1 people over a year ago a major complaint was UFT seeming to side with admin. I mean why else ask MORE to meet other than UFT wasn't helping? That it took you guys showing up a year and a half later is a sign of dysfunction in the UFT- maybe intentional dysfunction since we hear similar complaints from other districts. In most places there is little support and admin wins.

Why do so many teachers say UFT officials do not take their side but seem to take the side of admins?

UFT Splaining:
The UFT hierarchy does not view itself as teacher advocates but as mediators between the rank and file and school, district and central administration. For them to say they are working behind the scenes means they are negotiating -- but are they making minimal demands like the fact that almost the entire staff of CPE1 came under investigations that led nowhere and 3020a charges against teacher leaders makes Garg unacceptable as principal and the UFT must say that privately and publicly.

DOE communications to parents of CPE1 and to the activists show that they are not looking to remove Garg - which is not acceptable. (The DOE is offering "instructional support." Like master teachers in progressive ed need more PD.)

In fact, Jonathan Halabi helped parents write the reso rejected by the DA and the Ex Bd and sent it to Leroy Barr saying that everything in that reso is negotiable except for return of teachers and Garg must go -- he got no response.

In fact the UFT will never call for a principal removal due to CSA being an ally -- that's like Trump allying with ISIS.

Our reps on ex bd must continue to pound this point.

UFT passivity in face of massive assault on teachers = complicity.

James Eterno touches on this at the ICE blog where he reports on the end of the Jahoda reign at Townsend Harris HS

At the April Delegate Assembly, the UFT refused to support a resolution raised by the elected Delegate from CPE 1calling in part for the Union to work to remove Principal Garg from that school. The Union believes that back channel communication with the DOE is the best way to go. UFT Secretary Howie Schoor in speaking against the CPE 1 resolution said that once we pass a resolution calling for the principal to be removed, it stops all communication with the Board of Ed. That strategy is questionable after both the Delegate and Chapter Leader from CPE 1 have been removed from the school. Directly going after school union representatives is not acceptable...

JAHODA NOT APPOINTED PERMANENT PRINCIPAL OF TOWNSEND HARRIS

Watch the UFT take credit when in fact they should have been going after Jahoda after she gave Bronx HS CL Peter Lamphere 2 U ratings and wiped out the math dept.
The UFT had years to hound the DOE on leaving her out there but did nothing. Then put her in THHS? Wasted almost a full academic year?

The DOE can do that because UFT allows them to without repercussions. If some process was in place - checks and balances on who gets appointed, principals like Garg would never have been able to set foot in CPE 1 in the first place. 

The UFT leadership plays the dangerous game of offering up bogus and superficial support.

See NYC Educator:  UFT Delegate Assembly--We Still Love CPE 1, But We Still Won't Pass a Resolution in Favor of CPE 1


At this Monday's Ex Bd meeting, MORE/NA must hold the leadership's feet to the fire.

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.

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

Parents Occupy Auditorium - Central Park East 1 Update: Rally, SLT Meeting and Overnight Stay Surrounded by Police

Hey Serial at This American Life - have we got a story for you.

rally outside went on all evening - we left at 9PM

We don't expect to be arrested and strategizing- going to do 8am press conference and rally to support the demands of the occupiers
1:26am

The cops straight up said no arrests.
And doe guy said they just want you all to stay in the auditorium
Yeah - they keep coming and counting us:)
We're thinking of playing hide and seek with them
There are literally more cops here than there are of us
The janitor said we were paying his car note because of overtime------ Messages from inside

Breaking: Parents, saying they won't leave until principal Monika Garg is gone, spent the night in the auditorium without being arrested, despite the school being surrounded by enough cops and vans to invade Syria. I posted a video on my FB page showing all the cop cars around.

It was the DOE's call and they decided to not have people arrested. They are a diverse group of parents, though one immigrant had to leave and we know why. I do wonder how this would have been playing out if a group of all black parents did this in Brownsville where no one was watching.

This morning we hear that parents not arrested, spent night in auditorium, rally in front of school at Madison av and 106th st at 8am followed by press Conf at 8:30. I'm going to head over to check it out and offer support. I'll post pics of that later.

Here is the press release:

Parents of NYC Public School Central Park East I, calling for removal of  principal, are occupying their school 

Yesterday afternoon there was an SLT meeting of NYC public school Central Park East I, followed by a rally outside the school. While many demonstrated outside, seven stayed in the school, and are now inside, occupying the school. There is a large group of police at the school but so far the occupiers have not been arrested. 

WHAT: Rally and press conference 

WHERE: Outside Central Park East Elementary School

1573 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10029, at E. 106th Street, NYC

WHEN: Families are planning a rally for 8 am this morning, followed by a press conference at 8:30 am.

I posted a video of immense police response I shot last night around 9pm. A good night to commit a crime in the 23rd precinct. De Blasio is a progressive when under his watch an authoritarian principal undermines 40 years of a democratically run school by teachers, parents and even students. Clearly that concept is a threat as we are seeing at Townsend Harris hs where students and teachers also has wide latitude before an authoritarian principal mini-trumpet is being fought. The students there sent a message of support yesterday.

When I tried to take photos of the cops themselves they turned away or look at me in a way to make me concerned about my phone. One school safety officer told me I had no right - it was illegal -- to use the phone in the lobby of the school as he took out his phone to use himself. I pushed back and pointed that out (I have some video which I may post later). He later came over and apologized. A cop told me to get his good side. But they are clearly very sensitive on the issue and we have to be careful.

Chapter leader Marilyn Martinez, had to stay camped out all afternoon in the rain and damp across the street since she is still in the rubber room and can't be at the school. There were shouts all day for her to be brought back. Marilyn is a Latina and has her child in the school and is one of the amazing teachers and when she was removed in Feb that seemed to be a final straw -- the Supt did the dirty work for Garg and Farina. From all reports the charges are politically related but Marilyn has been told by the lawyers not to talk specifics.

Back to the beginning

SLT - Garg, center

Where do I start? I guess at one the most remarkable School Leadership Team (SLT) meetings one could imagine. It could be a movie. It was packed with over a 100 people and more kept coming. Included were state Senator Bill Perkins who was recently elected to the city council and Robert Jackson, as well as Leonie Haimson and a whole batch of we MOREs and Leroy Barr from the UFT, our new best friend who loves to hang out with us.

Garg began by reading a statement defending herself - I came in as she was finishing. Most of the SLT seemed to be lined up against her, though there was a very vocal parent on her side and critical of the SaveCPE1 coalition. There were also parents in the audience who supported Garg and also some of the newer teachers, whom Garg characterized as being more afraid of the senior teachers than of her. Now these are people she has brought in herself, one of which at the very least was a friend. Standard operating procedure for these take-over principals -- first rule - divide the staff.

There was a lot of hack and forth as Garg kept trying to place blame on the senior teachers while some of them pointed to the attacks Garg was making on them.

Garg has also divided the parents by pulling the race card -- getting support from some black parents - I will go into the complexities of the race issue in another post. But clearly if you look at the optics, the parents are diverse in an east Harlem community that is going through gentrification. However, CPE1 has been in that community for 40 years and has always tried to maintain a one third, one third, one third mix. But that mix has slipped in recent years as more white parents came into the community. And that is where there some people are exploiting the race issue in their attack on the savecpe1 people. The DOE hierarchy seem to line up on this side and probably the mayor integration initiative may be at play here too. But it is interesting that Bill Perkins and Robert Jackson came to the SLT meeting.

Progressive education is a system used in many elite private schools and as we see with the no-nonsense test-driven charters, some parents don't want that for their kids and there has been some charges that that is a "white" thing. But the key Debbie Meier concept in starting the school was to prove it was appropriate for all children. Remember - East Harlem was far from gentrifying in the 70s.

The SLT meeting got so crowded in the music room, it had to be moved to the auditorium and went on for hours with lots of rancor on both sides, though clearly the sentiment was more anti-Garg than pro. This is more complex than I thought and someone I'm close to told me that someone she respects a lot is opposed to the savecpe1 campaign.

One of the arguments being used is that there were a lot of problems at the school before Garg came. There had been 4 principals. Now the school had always been run basically by teachers and parents, with all key decisions being a partnership, so a hands-off principal has been the rule. Even an incompetent principal or leadership vacuum has not been a bad thing.

Now the savecpe1 people admit there were issues but that an authoritarian principal who makes all decisions is not the answer, though apparently it is for the current and past DOE, which has had a history of sending in authoritarian principals to undermine progressive schools used to power sharing principals. IE -- Brooklyn New School would be in some danger when the current founding principal retires.

The CPE high school principal in the building, Bennett Lieberman, trashed the school and the savecpe1 people and said he supported Garg because she brought leadership, which makes it easier for him to deal with one person instead of conglomeration of people -- yeah, Bennett, democracy is messy.

The principal of Central Park East 2 is also opposing the savecpe1 parents and also spoke last night. So, yes, this is complicated.

I heard last night that Garg ran the open house for new parents on her own without the teachers and other parents, which had been a tradition at the school -- her way of hand-choosing the parents she wanted, I guess.

I mean so much came out at the meeting. There was a professional guy who is connected to one of the parents who sat in filming. Someone could make a film of that meeting alone. Hey Serial at This American Life - have we got a story for you.

Garg basically sat there cool as a cucumber during immense attacks on her, with parents showing how she lied numerous times, contradicting her remarks. One parent told how Garg told her to come to the school because of an incident of her daughter with a teacher, indicating something inappropriate sexually, one of the most beloved teachers in the school. It turned out that Garg had made that up but the teacher, who told his story at the UFT ex bd meeting a few weeks ago, was pulled out into the rubber room a year ago and recently completed his 3020a hearing and is awaiting a decision as he still sits in the rubber room, one of the most talented teachers in the system according to parents -- sure, children first.

The incident occurred not soon after he pushed back against some of Garg's directives. This was a turning point in the school as teachers and parents, who had tried to give Garg a chance, were so shocked they contacted some of us in MORE - since despite what the UFT says -- Manhattan UFT leader Dwayne Clark made the false claim the UFT has been there for them -- then why did they contact us in MORE?

The fact the UFT is doing anything at all at this point is due to the push from our people at the Ex Bd. If you read Arthur's reports (

NYC Educator

Executive Board Takeaway. you will see how the resolution in support of CPE1, basically written by the parents and teachers at the school, with the assistance of New Action's Jonathan Halabi, was tabled by Leroy Barr, who did show up and speak at the SLT last night. (I have video but won't have it up until Sunday.)

Arthur motivated the reso with a fabulous speech. Barr tabled it so they could work behind the scenes with the DOE -- I guess their claims to be doing something were not quite true.

In my 5 minute speech opening Monday's Ex bd meeting I asked why the UFT has been silent for the past year until we brought it up? Don't you have a district rep to tell you what is going on? When the teacher was removed a year ago that should have triggered an sign to the union (I compared it to Munich - shame on me). When the chapter leader was removed a year later that was like the invasion of Poland -- war needs to be declared. A group of CPE1 parents stood up while I spoke and later were joined by about 15 more who stood in the back when Arthur spoke.

Later Dwayne Clark defended the district rep as having been there. I asked the teachers if she did anything, they scoffed - in fact at our earliest meetings a year ago, they indicated that the UFT people seemed more sympathetic to the supt and admin -- not the first time I've heard that.

Well, it is getting late and I have to head over to the school for the rally and press conf. Unfortunately my camera battery is dead and I can't film. I will report later on what happened.

By the way, the NYSUT convention begins today through Sunday and I may stop by later and tomorrow morning where I will repay Arthur for buying me that $14 beer 3 years ago.

Back to you later.

Video: Stop Abusive Principals - April 6 - 4:30 PM - Central Park East1 Parents to Issue No Confidence in Principal Monika Garg

Join the battle against abusive administrators - don't just leave comments about how bad things are -- come out and be inspired by these amazing parents who are standing up for their teachers under attack. April 6 at 4:30 PM - 1573 Madison Ave. at 106th St.
 
There is a lot of info in this report. CPE1 is a special progressive

school started by Debbie Meier - who is one of the top educators in the nation - remember that Diane Ravitch and Debbie began doing a sort of blog together to argue their differing views on education. Since the 70s I admired Debbie and thought about how great it would be to teach at her school -- but I felt I didn't have the skillset as a teacher to work in a school like that. So understand, these are very special teachers who take on the challenge of working at CPE1 and t come under assault by a vicious principal is like one of those ice bucket dunkings.
I got to meet Debbie a few times and once interviewed her and her views of children and how they learn were amazing - she then introduced me to the great voice of early childhood education, Nancy Paige Carlson, (Matt Damon's mom).

Debbie is celebrating her 86th birthday on April 6 and asks that we help her by showing up at the CPE 1 rally at 4:30 - or earlier.
1573 Madison Ave. at 106th St.

I'll have more later but what an amazing meeting at the UFT Ex bd last night as 20 CPE1 parents and teachers showed up as MORE/NA presented a reso in support which was tabled by Unity slimebags who ignored what was happening at CPE1 for a year and half until we made them face this issue. They say they will show up this Thursday to make a show of support. But they won't pass a reso.

The reso is at the MORE site:

morecaucusnyc

Reso to Support CPE1- Tabled by UFT Leadership 

Arthur has minutes of the meeting: 

NYC Educator

UFT Executive Board March 27th--We Love CPE1 But Won't Pass Resolution of Support
Here is a great video made by a CPE1 parent:
https://youtu.be/YKFBEHwMON8



Join CPE1 Parents and Teachers As They Say "No Confidence" in Principal

Thursday, April 6th at 4:30pm
Central Park East 1 - 106th  Madison (entrance on Madison)
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1506717109361942/

CPE 1 parents and teachers have been fighting an abusive principal, Monika Garg, for more than a year. Garg has carried out a campaign of harassment and retaliation against teachers; both the UFT chapter leader and delegate found themselves facing investigations and removed from the classroom after speaking out. Parents say that Garg has caused harm to their children by conducting unnecessary and invasive interviews of very young children, removing trusted teachers without warning, failing to provide support and undermining the school's unique pedagogy. Garg has lost the trust and support of the vast majority of parents and teachers - with more than 70% signing a petition for her removal last year. The DOE's own school survey shows Garg with the lowest level of trust in the whole city and the steepest declines in both parent and teacher satisfaction. Despite appealing to the Chancellor, the Panel for Educational Policy and the Mayor personally, our situation remains unresolved.

Once again, CPE1 parents and teachers are mobilizing to have their voices heard. At the school SLT meeting on April 6th, parents will be presenting a statement of "no confidence" backed by the majority of parents and demanding decisive action to address their concerns. At 4:30pm, parents and teachers will be holding a press conference and rally outside the school in support of those inside the SLT meeting.We need your support! The issues that CPE1 are facing are not unique. All over the city, parents and teachers lack democratic recourse to have their voices heard, while administrators are protected. We have to fight back.

Please note: By law, SLT meetings are open to the public. If you are able to arrive before 4:30pm and join parents and teachers inside the SLT meeting (which starts at 3:30), please sign in and come up to the 2nd Floor art room to join us.

CPE1's principal has to go

Parents and fellow teachers have come to the defense of a victimized educator in the latest battle to shake a New York City elementary school, writes Peter Lamphere.

March 30, 2017

Parents and fellow teachers show their support for a Central Park East 1 educator (Save CPE1)

Historic 3020a: Massive Parent Turn-Out to Support CPEI Chapter Leader on Few Hours Notice

They came by train, bus, cab. Maybe by planes too. Some took time off from work. The waiting room at 100 Gold Street where DOE legal holds its witch hunts was overflowing with 60 parents of Central Park East I who only began to be notified 15 hours earlier. Many more would have come. The entire room was overflowing.

Teachers can only dream about the kind of outpouring Marilyn Martinez received today from the parents at CPE I. Lisa, Gloria and I were there from MORE to show support. No one from the UFT was there. Ho-hum. They are working hard behind the scenes you know -- even when principal Monika Garg had 10 teachers put under investigation within months of her arrival at the school, put in as a hit woman. Ho - hum -- we endorsed di Blasio without asking for these outrages to stop -- but you know the UFT has to weigh stuff - and make sure they don't lose their little stool at the table. Parents were not saying very good things about the UFT.

I had to leave at noon - parents were drifting in as I left and word was that there was still a crew there at 3PM waiting for a batch of teachers to come down.

Tomorrow is Day 2 - what better way to spend my birthday - and I better get there early if I want to get in.

So proud to wear this tee-shirt

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