The Madness Continues: Another Co-Loco Hearing Oct. 23 - JOHN DEWEY HS !!!!!!

I was looking forward to an evening at home Weds night. Guess not. Those good ole boys and girls at Tweedle Dee keep 'em comin' like the Top 40 hits. But hey, no worries. Big Bill will just reverse the PEP rubber stamp on Oct. 30 -- the day before Halloween -- and please join everyone at the PEP - wearing your costume.

PLEASE POST AND DISTRIBUTE !

ACT NOW

STOP THE Co-locations IN DISTRICT 21

A PROPOSAL IS NOW UNDER CONSIDERATION TO ALLOW

Opening and Co-location of a New District High School with John Dewey High School  

THIS WILL IMPACT OUR CHILDREN, OUR SCHOOLS, and OUR COMMUNITY.

        SPEAK OUT AGAINST THIS PROPOSAL!

RALLY WITH US AT 5:30PM

At John Dewey High School

Come to the Joint Public Hearing

At John Dewey High School (50 Avenue X)

On October 23^rd at 6:00 pm

       

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD:

COMMENT ON THESE PROPOSALS!

Come to the hearing on October 23^rd and sign up to speak

By Email: D21Proposals@schools.nyc.gov; DMWalcott@schools.nyc.gov; Panel@schools.nyc.gov

By Phone: 212-374-0208

Attend the Panel for Educational Policy Meetings (PEP) taking place @ Prospect Heights Campus, 883 Classon Avenue, Brooklyn, NY on October 30^th, 6 PM  

Monday: Public Hearing and Rally to Protest Co-Location by Parents and students: PS 196/MS 582, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

I'm heading over to cover this. PS 196 is a few blocks away from the school I taught at for 27 years and I covered the school for tech support when I was a Project Smart district tech staff developer for 4 years. Lots of people I knew are still there. A solid building -- but give me a break- 3 schools? The whackos at Tweed - here they go again.

Media Advisory for Event on Monday, October 21, 4:30 PM, PS 196, 207 Bushwick Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn

MEDIA ADVISORY
*****PHOTO OPPORTUNITY*****
Contacts: Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents: Our Public Schools! (WAGPOPS!), williamsburggreenpointschools@gmail.com, Brooke Parker, 917/251-1596 

WHO: Parents and students at PS 196/MS 582, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 

WHAT: Parents, students and teachers will rally in front of the school to oppose third school co-location. There will be a Joint Public Hearing inside the school following the demonstration. 

WHEN: Monday, October 21, 2013 — Rally: 4:30 pm; Public Hearing: 5:30 pm 

WHERE: PS 196/MS 582, 207 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11206 

WHY: A DOE proposal to ‘shoehorn’ an unwanted additional middle school into the building, which currently houses one middle school, M.S. 582, and an elementary school, P.S. 196, has aroused intense community opposition. Parents have publicly charged the DOE with low income families of color regarding their decision-making process. They have stated that, but for the fact that they are a poor, minority community, this would not be happening. Concerned about the loss of space and programs at their children’s schools, and feeling abused and ignored by the DOE, hundreds will protest on the street before attending the Public Hearing to share their displeasure with DOE officials. 

Co-Location Madness: PS 196, MS 582 Petition to Stop 3rd School Co-location

Why would the DOE put a 2nd middle school in the same building where one already exists in addition to an elementary school?
Another act of madness by the exiting madmen and women at Tweed.

PS 196 is in District 14 on Bushwick Ave. just a few blocks north of the school I taught at for 27 years. I know Rob and many teachers at the school since I was the district tech liason there from 1998-2002 when I retired. Putting a 3rd school in there is beyond outrageous --- This came from Rob Burstein. I'm not a big believer in petitions. These things are reversed either by someone with enough political pull to scare the Tweedies or if there were a massive response from the community like there was in Marine Park years ago --- the only successful community charter resistance I can remember.

Dear Friends,

As many of you are aware, I am a teacher in a NYC Public School. My school is in a fight to protect itself from a devastating and inappropriate co-location of a third school into our building. I would be most appreciative if you would take a minute to sign our online petition and consider forwarding it to others, posting it on your Facebook wall and any other social media that you wish. We need all the help we can get to try to stop Mr. Bloomberg's last acts of pedagogical madness from hurting our students!
Thanks so much for your help--it's really appreciated!!

I just signed the petition "Stop The Damaging Third School Co-Location at P.S. 196 and M.S. 582!" on Change.org.

It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-damaging-third-school-co-location-at-p-s-196-and-m-s-582?share_id=pVUizqnuGu&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Thanks!

Rob

Thursday Oct 3: Rally to Save I.S. 2 Staten Island

And the beat of co-location goes on.

 

Thursday October 3^rd @ 5:30 pm
(Outside I.S. 2 on Midland Ave)

Followed by a DoE PUBLIC HEARING @ 6:30PM at I.S. 2 in the Auditorium
We need every student, parent, teacher, elected official and community member on Staten Island to raise their voice and be heard!

Laura E. Timoney
(O) 718.987.6411
(C) 917.667.2711
Laura@Timoney.com

Co-Locos Exposed

In Patrick Sullivan’s opinion, the only real hope for PS 9 is if the chancellor has a change of heart, and grants them the right to expand into a K-8 school. “Rather than help successful public schools,” Sullivan said, “the DOE is more focused on giving preference to charter schools…and certainly the fact that the money behind the schools is from a lot a people the mayor knows helps the charter school agenda.”

Julie Cavanagh also believes cronyism is at play, and points out that the founder of PAVE, Spencer Robertson, received $26 million to build his charter school after his father, hedge funder Juilan Roberson donated $6.75 million to Bloomberg’s New York City Center for Charter School Excellence, and various other pet projects of Bloomberg’s. (There are other claims of the Robertson Foundation and Bloomberg’s funny business here.)

Good article on co-locations from popular Brooklyn Based blog

http://brooklynbased.net/blog/2011/06/tracing-the-roots-of-co-located-schools/

Comments on the NYCEDNews Listserve:

This article has some serious factual errors.  Though clearly there are far more co-locations now, and many more highly damaging ones b/c of increased overcrowding and an administration out of control, there were far more than 12 co-locations when Bloomberg came into office in 2002.  

The article completely ignores the fact that the  small schools reform movement, which resulted in many co-locations, was founded by Debbie Meier and Ted Sizer about 25 years ago.

Leonie Haimson


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I never said the therapists do not see kids if they can't find a space. I said they find a substandard space such as staying in the classroom, or spend their time looking for space. I did mention programs being canceled due to space, but not mandated programs. I cited my boys group, a partnership with the Red Hook Justice Center, which I had to cancel on a few occasions because we didn't have a space to meet. No less egregious, but want to be clear that we make every effort for our kids to get their mandated services despite the cancer that has consumed our school building.

Next year we will have two rooms that seven related service providers will have to share. One of those rooms is not a room "assigned" to ps 15, but a room our community partner will share with us. I have no clue how we will meet our kids needs after next year and the last several years have been insufficient in terms of space.   I will continue to repeat myself on this issue ad nausium until it is fixed: the DOE MUST account for services for children with special needs in the instructional footprint. Any less is discrimination.

Thanks to Nicole for this article- it is impossible to navigate this issue and get it all right, but this was a fair piece and does a good job of highlighting the inequities of co-location. It is a very complicated problem; I understand space is an issue across the city-- but we shouldn't deny space to some for the benefit of others. You can't rob occupational therapy from Paul to give Peter's charter school office space.

Julie Cavanagh
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While I feel like an old timer  pointing to  a more accurate vision of "history' ,  there are some slight nuances to the points made  in this article that deserve mention. As the article makes clear, "Bloomberg and then-Schools Chancellor Joel Klein resurrected NYC’s small school movement."  Indeed, the small schools movement that predates these gates funded "reforms"  differes greatly from the 'close 'em and start over w/ new kids' model BloomKlien set up after taking control of the governance of our schools in 2003.A number of East Village school were spawned  a result of that earlier movement;  new, alternative-visioned schools, sharing space in the traditional district schools that had emptied out during the city's fiscal crisis. When DoE employee, MAK Mitchel, the Executive Director of School Governance for the Department of Education,  states that:  "Few schools were co-located back then", which she estimates  as " less than 12",  she negates the trans-formative nature of  these new schools and the all-choice equity and diversity based  admissions plan the elected school board introduced in District One.  By 2005 when BloomKlien began parachuting charters and other new schools into communities, more than 80% of District One  community schools were sharing space. The prior methodology, based on 5 years MOU's  that took into account growth and changes in programs; building councils consisting of all the stakeholders;  and a common supervisor, the community superintendent, to set the vision and work through conflicts, worked to actually reform the community district schools.The history of schools within schools goes back well before it was captured by this administration's attempt to reform schools by offering a portfolio  of choices , privatization of public education , and accountability by high stakes standardized tests.Those attempts have failed miserably- maybe it is time we go back to our roots- our grass roots, and let communities make decisions about our kids and schools again. 

 

Lisa Donlan