Harlem Success Acad After School Activity: Marching Kids Up and Down Stairs For An Hour

Norm-

Just spent 20 minutes watching Eva's staff at HSA (redacted to protect personnel from the usual vicious Moskowitz retaliation)  make approx. a dozen kids march two by two down the hallways - back and forth, around and around during Detention. According to the (redacted) they had been at it for an additional 10 minutes and would be continuing for another 30 (as overheard stated by the HSA staffer).

The children were repeatedly barked orders at and told to keep their eyes straight, not put their hands this way or that etc. I have seen this before on a Friday after school (4:30-5:30pm) as have several others from my school. I understand this to be corporal punishment!!!

What a disgrace - and DOE touts this as a top school? Supports it at the expense of others! Earlier this week an HSA teacher was seen dragging a student down the hall and shaking him. Will the wonders never cease?

Hi everyone,

We have many people from across District 15 that have signed onto the lawsuit against the co-location of Success Academy in the K293 building. But we need more! 

The lawsuit is centered around how Success Charter Network applied for the charter in DIstrict 13 & 14 with a mission to serve at-risk students, and then illegitimately placed it in District 15 to serve a very different demographic/mission (still we don't want Success charter, in D15 or anywhere else in NYC!). Also, the lawsuit challenges the fact that they would only pay $1 a year to use the space inside the K293 building.

Signing onto the lawsuit is our last way to show that we're opposed to this unequal and corporate education reform being forced onto the K293 community & District 15 as a whole. Please consider signing on, if you haven't already, by filling out the form (ATTACHED) and call me, Julian (203) 313-2479 ASAP! 

Also Very Important!! We need you to join us to announce the lawsuit to the press. Can you be there?

Entrance the K293 School Building 

284 Baltic St. between Court and Smith St.

=>Wednesday, Feb. 8th at 10 a.m.

PLEASE RSVP to julianvinocur@gmail.com!

========
FEB. 4- STATE OF THE UNION: TIME TO FIGHT BACK Register at: http://stateoftheunionconference-estw.eventbrite.com/

See Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Play Poker for Eva and Harlem Success

I'm signing right up for this  one. Ed Notes will take 2 – tables, Whitney. The check is in the mail. Leonie said:

Just like they’re gambling w/ kids lives; only $2,500 for a seat; only $20,000 for a table.

From: Whitney Tilson <wtilson@t2partnersllc.com>
Date: October 19, 2010 1:54:14 PM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Success Charter Network Poker Tournament in NYC tomorrow night

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow night at the 4^th Annual Charity Poker Tournament in NYC to benefit the Success Charter Network, which was founded by my friends Eva Moskowitz, John Petry and Joel Greenblatt.  I've been a supporter since Day 1 and I think that they are building one of the best school networks in the country.

I've attended this event for the last four years and I am certain that in addition to being an incredibly worthy cause, it will be a lot fun and there will be great networking among New York’s top investors. 

It’s at the W Hotel on 49^th and Lex.  Cocktails start at 6:30pm and the Texas Hold’em Tournament starts at 7:30pm.

It’s almost sold out (there are only 7 seats left for poker and 15 for cocktails), so if you’d like to come, please register at: www.scnschools.org/events/poker10

I hope to see you there!

AFTER BURN
New developments on the upper west side since yesterday's blog -

West Side Inflamed at Prospect of Eva Invasion

NOTE:

Pedro Noguera, who all too any view as one of the good guys, voted to grant the charter to HSA. 

West Side Inflamed at Prospect of Eva Invasion

"What’s particularly disgusting is the way she is using DOE’s own negligence to build enough seats as a way to recruit parents." - Leonie Haimson

"About 92% of the third- and fourth-graders who attend Harlem Success Academy I passed the state math and English tests, making it the top-performing nonselective school in District 3 this year, according to a Harlem Success spokeswoman, Jenny Sedlis.- The Wall Street Journal

Note the fate of the other 8%

Please Join Our Press Conference and Protest Today to Reject the Success Charter Network's Pending District 3 Application and Co-Location at PS 145: Tuesday 10/19, 3:45 PM at PS 145, 150 West 105th Street

For Immediate Release

Please Join Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell, Council Member Gale Brewer, Other
Elected Officials, Community and School Representatives, and District 3
Parents at a Press Conference Today, 10/19 at 3:45 pm at PS 145 (150 West
105th between Amsterdam and Columbus) to Reject the Success Charter
Network's "Upper West Success" Application and Instead Improve the Prospects
of All of Our District 3 Schools

Currently, the SUNY Board of Trustees is considering an application
submitted by Success Charter Networks for a new K-8 school to be co-located
within a district school building within Community School District 3.
Apparently, however, the legislated charter approval process and its public
input component do not apply to Eva Moscowitz and her Success Charter
Network Schools. While the SUNY Board of Trustees vote on her latest
Success Charter network application has yet to take place (it is planned for
tomorrow, 10/20), and no building location has been specified within her
pending 1000+ page charter application, Ms. Moscowitz has picked out a
public school building of her choice and already begun advertising her new
"Upper West Success" school at bus stops on the Upper West Side and on a
website.

 MORE

 AND READ THIS TOO

Community District Education Council 3 on the potential co-location of a new Success Charter Network School

See also Class Size Matters' Comments to SUNY board on the application of Success Academy charter in District 3 (pdf) and Comments to SUNY board on the application of the Bronx Success Academy charter in District 7 (pdf)

Firstly, elementary school overcrowding has become endemic to District 3 and there is no room for the co-location of Success Charter school without increasing this already dire situation. Overcrowding predominates in the Southern portion of the district and given the level of new development in Harlem, such overcrowding is moving uptown. Unfortunately, SCA and DOE projections have continually underestimated this enrollment growth - and overestimated existing capacity - leading to increased overcrowding.

Yet even if we use the SCA's own projections for 2012 showing a capacity of 4,043 middle school and elementary school seats and projected enrollment of 3,745 students in Harlem, the 298 available seats the DOE show will not suffice for the proposed new school planned by Harlem Success. And these numbers assume that all the students in the new HSA school would come from District 3, which - unlike the strict in-district policy being imposed by the DOE on all of our D3 elementary and middle schools - is not even the case for Harlem Success who will be drawing students from a number of districts.

More

Two articles on the press conference:
 
http://www.dnainfo.com/20101019/manhattan/angry-upper-west-siders-protest-harlem-success-academy-charter-schools-plan-move-into-neighborhood

and 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562693063956972.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

websites are both are accepting comments

Anatomy of a Walkout at Hearing Over HSA 3 Charter Expansion in Public Space - Revised

[Revised video to slow the crawl of the Jiminez letter to SUNY's Jonas Chartock.]

Harlem activist Bill Hargraves points out the shoddy methods in how the DOE runs a so-called public hearing and then leads a walkout.

From Concerned Educators Network:
There was a walkout at the DOE sham hearing to expand Harlem Success Academy in a Public School building on Monday June 21, 2010. Those sham hearings have become a pattern around the city set by the Bloomberg/Klein DOE bureaucracy. They always say, “we come to hear your concerns” only to go back and proceed with their own agenda anyway, namely, close down schools, undermine, underfund, and sabotage them in a systematic way. The New York State Education Law makes the provision for these hearings where communities get to make their voices heard. However, after watching several of these hearings around the city, we have discovered a major flaw in the law. There is no oversight as to the real implementation of the law from beginning to end. In other words, there is no oversight to make sure the DOE honestly and respectfully give weight to the communities concerns in the decision-making process. There is never any change in the DOE’s original proposals, no adjustments that show they really take into account anything members of communities present at those hearings. Therefore, those hearings are pure sham, pure fraud. They become meaningless until such a time when concerns of communities really carry some weight in the decision-making process.

Bill was able to expose some of the mechanisms of this sham and fraud at the “hearing”.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7bb1OrfbAE


For background info see:

Walkout at Harlem Success/Mosaic Prep Hearing

Mosaic Prep/HSA Charter Invasion Follow-up

Charter School Parent Scripts Trash Joel Klein Management

One of the consistent themes at last night's PEP from many parents at Harlem Success and PAVE calling for choice was how BloomKlein managed public schools had failed their children, their other relatives and goodness knows who else. It is pretty funny to watch. One HSA parent, an entrepreneur/businesswoman told us about her awful zoned school when she was a kid growing up in Harlem, a school with a horrible principal. She moved back to Harlem and said the same principal was still there 20 years later. There were lots of signs saying "Don't reward failure." Did anyone see Moskowitz' emails to Klein trashing his management of the schools and calling for the kinds of changes that would improve schools for all kids, not just lottery winners?

Another theme was the talk about the number of people on the wait lists. So how come HSA has to send out glossy recruiting brochure after glossy recruiting brochure if there are so many people on the wait list? It's known as building false demand.

This has been on the sidebar of Ed Notes for a few weeks:

Upper West Side Parent Comment on HSA Mailings

Last school year, at a D3 CEC meeting, outraged parents brought with them the HSA mailing that featured photos of a peeling, worn public school door and a shiny, freshly painted charter school door; the text asked where the recipients would rather send their kids. I feel like that was the first HSA mailing that many of us received & it was so outrageous that I think I saved one. John White was at the meeting and didn't have much to say about HSA's 'message,' but when asked why public schools didn't get funds and assistance to do the same glossy PR, he promised the K-2 school under discussion that they would receive comparable DOE help marketing themselves (...that has, to my knowledge, not materialized). At a subsequent meeting, when the mailings kept coming, parents asked what list they were on and who exactly had access to their children's info. The CEC said that mailings were done by a service which printed labels with names of public school parent s/children in the zip codes the sender selected. We were told that the actual names and addresses never went to HSA but were affixed to the mailers by the mail house.

I have been receiving these mailings (in duplicate!) for two years in your friend's same zip code; I always send them back marked return/remove from mailing list, which of course never works. The latest came today: "Around here, every child is college material."

NY1 Ad for Harlem Success Academy this morning!

From Steve Koss to NYCEDNEWS:

Wow, I am simply stunned! At 9:20 am on Wednesday, March 10, I watched a 15-20 second, voiced-over TV ad on NY1 for Eva Moskowitz's Harlem Success Academy.

I have never seen a TV ad for ANY school in NYC, public or private or charter. These people not only have no shame, they seem to have so much money they don't even know what to do with it. It's not only wasteful and (in my opinion) immoral to be buying TV advertising for elementary schools, it's just plain weird.

Why would a school that proudly proclaims its admissions even-handedness by lottery, which they and their supporters persistently insist is hugely oversubscribed, need to spend money on TV advertising? To get even more applications, so they can be even more oversubscribed and turn even more parents and children away? Or is that part of their "we need more charter schools" strategy? If so, who's really paying for this TV time? Couldn't whoever is behind this find a more socially useful way to use their money to benefit needy schools and children around NYC?

I am just sad and disgusted to see things come to this. Surprised the ad didn't feature Joel Klein as a talking head, doing a Slap Chop gig for Ms. Eva.

Geez, is it just me?

Steve Koss

Related: See today's NY Times piece on how Harlem public schools have to compete. But there's a fly in the ointment which I'll write about later.

PS 241, Portrait of a Harlem School, 2008-2009

This powerful summary of the last school year from an educator at PS 241 in Harlem exposes the predatory practices many of the charters schools and their partners the BloomKlein administration engage in and that many of their school closings are politically motivated, in essence a real estate grab for charters. A classic case of how the quasi stewards of the NYC public school system work as quislings to undermine the very institution they have sworn to fix. I'll just pull a few quotes as a preview to emphasize this point:

A charter school [Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success Academy], had sent hundreds of their parents to the hearing to lay claim to our building. We were repeatedly referred to as failures throughout this hearing. The charter school representatives asserted that our school should be completely replaced with their school. There were many things disturbing about that hearing and its disrespectful tone, but nothing more so than the charter school's refusal to commit to enrolling all of our students if they did, in fact, take over our building. Some parents of PS 241 students attended school in our building as children themselves. They were now being told that, should the charter get our school building, their children would have to win a seat in a lottery to gain admission. No plan was offered for lottery losers.

In early April, the Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education sent letters to the families of PS 241, in an attempt to persuade them to leave our school.

In May, PS 241 again appeared in the New York newspapers. This time, however, it was announced that we had made the top 10 list of New York City’s MOST IMPROVED SCHOOLS that had the greatest test score gains.

The following 2009-2010 school year had over 200 students report for the first day of school. This was about 50-60 fewer students than the previous year. Nearly half of PS 241's staff are now gone. As we moved further into the month of September our community received the news that we had earned an A on our annual school report card for the previous 2008-2009 school year. It was a small consolation for the Department of Education's maltreatment of PS 241 and for the loss to our community. The news was taken in stride, there was work to be done, routines to set, students to understand and teach.

PS 241 continues to fight for its survival even though we are now considered an A school. The Department of Education is not only phasing out our Middle School, but it also denied us a pre-kindergarten class that we've had for the many years and for which we received 20 applications. They are now working more covertly to replace our school.

Related: The UFT, which helped file the suit, has since sat back and will allow PS 241 to be undermined. What weren't they allowed to begin a pre-k despite 20 applications? How about a suit about that clear sign the DOE would chop at PS 241 until Eva Moskowitz had the entire building for her empire? Harlem Success, by the way, which has no charter for pre-k, illegally has pre-k as part of their program by calling it something else.


PS 241, Portrait of a Harlem School, 2008-2009
by an educator at the school who for obvious reasons wishes to remain anonymous

[Meaning, this person will probably end up as an ATR, with demands he/she be fired if he/she doesn't get a job within a year and a google search of his/her name if out there would doom him/her - a perfect example of the real reason we have tenure - to defend the people who really stand up for kids and their community from reprisals.]


In December of 2008 the PS 241 community was informed by the Department of Education that our school would be closed down. This news was reported in most of the New York newspapers. What followed was a school year filled with confusion, anger, frustration, a lawsuit, intimidation and, at times, a little bit of celebrating.

During the 2007-2008 school year, PS 241 received a D grade on its annual school report card; this followed a B grade the previous year. The fact that our school needed to improve was understood by the teachers, students and families of our community. What caused great confusion was how abruptly the decision to close our school was made and that no input from anyone in our community was sought. The Department of Education had rendered their verdict and thought that would be the end of our story. They were wrong.

In January, a hearing was announced and presided over by the Department of Education. It quickly deteriorated into a yelling match that pitted charter school parents against the PS 241 community. A charter school [Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success Academy], had sent hundreds of their parents to the hearing to lay claim to our building. We were repeatedly referred to as failures throughout this hearing. The charter school representatives asserted that our school should be completely replaced with their school. There were many things disturbing about that hearing and its disrespectful tone, but nothing more so than the charter school's refusal to commit to enrolling all of our students if they did, in fact, take over our building. Some parents of PS 241 students attended school in our building as children themselves. They were now being told that, should the charter get our school building, their children would have to win a seat in a lottery to gain admission. No plan was offered for lottery losers. We all struggled to understand what would happen next.

In early February and into March teachers, support staff, students and parents from PS 241 began to organize a petition to stop the Department of Education's plan to close our school. Several hundred signatures of support were collected.

In March one of our fifth grade classes and their teacher testified before District 3's Community Education Council about their anger regarding our school's closure, but more specifically their anger over being called failures. Many students stood up to speak on that night, but one fifth grade student put it this way, "I am not failing and neither are my classmates. So why are they calling me a failure and planning to close my school?" This question was never sufficiently
answered.

As we moved further into the month of March members of PS 241, the District 3 Community Education Council, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the UFT came together to file a lawsuit on behalf of the entire PS 241 community against the Department of Education and their plan. We weren’t willing to give up our school, especially to a charter school that wouldn't enroll all of our students. New York City is divided into zones and state law mandates that each of these zones have a public school, one where every child living in that zone can attend. The Department of Education could not replace PS 241, who accepts everyone in the community, with a charter school that would not. They did not contest the lawsuit and withdrew their plan to close our elementary school. The plan to phase out our middle school, however, would move forward.

In early April, the Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education sent letters to the families of PS 241, in an attempt to persuade them to leave our school. The Chancellor was essentially asking families to abandon our school community at a time when we needed to come together. We struggled to comprehend why he would encourage our families and students to abandon their school community. Why didn’t the Chancellor offer us real support and encourage us to work harder, smarter and to come together?

In May, PS 241 again appeared in the New York newspapers. This time, however, it was announced that we had made the top 10 list of New York City’s MOST IMPROVED SCHOOLS that had the greatest test score gains. We were one of only two Manhattan schools to make the list. The other, PS 150, had also been slated for closure by the Department of Education back in December.

Despite the test score gains and the lawsuit, the Department of Education continued to move forward with their plan to give the charter school operator, Harlem Success Academy, a huge part of our classroom space. They were in and out of our classrooms during the last month of the school year, analyzing our space for renovations. Teachers and students, who occupied future charter school classrooms, were made to relocate during the school day so that renovations could
be completed. Teachers boxed up their classroom supplies and materials during the last week of school for removal at the conclusion of the school year.

The 2008-2009 school year came to an end quietly and without the celebration that often accompanies the last day of school. Many from our staff had plans to teach elsewhere the following year, while other's futures were less certain. What we all knew was that our school would be drastically different the following year and that PS 241's future was in doubt.

The following 2009-2010 school year had over 200 students report for the first day of school. This was about 50-60 fewer students than the previous year. Nearly half of PS 241's staff are now gone. As we moved further into the month of September our community received the news that we had earned an A on our annual school report card for the previous 2008-2009 school year. It was a small consolation for the Department of Education's maltreatment of PS 241 and for the loss to our community. The news was taken in stride, there was work to be done, routines to set, students to understand and teach.

PS 241 continues to fight for its survival even though we are now considered an A school. The Department of Education is not only phasing out our Middle School, but it also denied us a pre-kindergarten class that we've had for the many years and for which we received 20 applications. They are now working more covertly to replace our school.

Unfortunately, our story is not unique. School closures are becoming standard operating procedure for our country's educational leaders, many of whom are not educators themselves. PS 241's story has introduced many interesting questions for further exploration. Here are a few of mine:

Is giving up on a community of children ever wise?

Does (prematurely) closing a school deny a community of the opportunity to persevere and grow?

Is struggle an inherent part of the learning process for students, teachers and for schools?

Do schools require the same nurturing guidance that works so effectively with students?

Conversely, is the punitive approach that is so ineffective with struggling students just as ineffective when applied to schools?

Does closing schools improve our public system of education or make it worse?

Should public elementary schools be permitted to exclude anyone from their local community?

Should an education be won in a lottery?


To learn more about what is happening in our public schools, please visit these informative web sites:

Grassrootseducationmovement.com,
ednotesonline.com,
gothamschools.org,
nycparentschoolblog.com,
Coalitionforpubliceducation

More on Moo-Moo Here

Thanks to Susan Ohanian for mentioning our spoof of the NY Times article about a class trip taken by Harlem Success as a way to do test prep. She sent me a nice note that she was rolling with laughter. Unfortunately, an hour later she sent a note that Gerald Bracey had died and she didn't post her daily list that evening. So, I just came across the full range of her wonderful comments on the article in the Times titled, A Moo-Moo Here, and Better Test Scores Later, which she includes on her web site at the end of her comments.


Ohanian Comment: I made a 'regular' comment on this nutty news item [see below] but now the penultimate comment has just appeared over at Ed Notes. I wish I'd thought of this, I wish I'd thought of this, I wish I'd thought of this. Test Questions on Outer Space Lead Eva Moskowitz to Book Space Shuttle for Harlem Success Field Study.

Eons ago, I was a teacher in a special federal program, given the mandate of helping urban kids do better in school. In those days, if a school got a federal grant, teachers made the decisions on implementation. I know, I know: Some people are smarter than others. But I didn't hear of any systematic abuse of children, which is so pervasive in schools now that I can't keep up with it.

One thing we did was take a busload of kids from upstate New York to the Barnum & Bailey Circus in New York City. It wasn't a matter of thinking "clowns: or "elephants" might appear on the standardized test kids took in the Spring. It was a matter of expanding children's horizons, helping them see beyond their insolated and isolated neighborhoods.

Hell, when I taught in Queens, New York City, I used Federal dollars to take two busloads of students to the Cloisters, also in New York City: expanding children's horizons, helping them see beyond their insolated and isolated neighborhoods.

Back with the circus trip: I've never forgotten one 5th grader asking, "Do they have different money in New York City?"

Unlike the five-year-old in the story below who thought he was visiting the farm so he could "get smarter on tests," our students looked forward to a good time for the sake of a good time. Only we teachers looked to the possibility of some deeper, longterm benefit. Unlike the folk at the Harlem Success Academy, we didn't have "a relentless emphasis on data," but we did believe that children should have many opportunities to explore the world--in books and in field trips."

Imagine reading stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table so children will "glide through questions" on this topic.

For Eva S. Moskowitz, even a visit to a farm has to be "rigorous." And when children are required to come up with an "I didn't know" statement, they'll tell you they didn't know chickens made eggs. . . right on schedule.

In my analysis of the NAEP items for fourth grade I found that topics include an American female astronaut on Mir, crab hunting, wombats, and life in the American Colonies. Two items, a West African tale and a pourquoi story from William Bennett's edited collection The Moral Compassare in the folklore genre. There are two stories about rural children and their dogs. Field "study: possibilities are staggering.

Take a look at the spot-on comments of a teacher who quotes a great observation a New York City principal left in the "comments" section of the article.

Test Questions on Outer Space Lead Eva Moskowitz to Book Space Shuttle for Harlem Success Field Study

Ed Notes News Scoop

Having learned from her impeccable sources that there would be a passage on outer space on the next reading test, Eva Moskowitz has booked the Space Shuttle to prepare the Harlem Success Academy kids for the exam. "This should be the difference we need to kick the rest of the PS 123 crowd out of the school so we can take it over completely," said a HSA spokesperson. "Our scores will be so much higher that there will be no question as to who should occupy the building."

The $2 billion for the booking came from the Gates Foundation, with an extra $2 billion for the trailer to tow the 200 kids who will going on the trip. "We leave no one behind when we are scrounging for points on the exams," said the spokesperson. Moskowitz will go along on the trip and be compensated accordingly with a million dollar bonus.


Related:

A Moo-Moo Here, and Better Test Scores Later

by Javier Hernandez, who seemed to have his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, as evidenced by this:

"On a chilly morning last week, the kindergartners, in blue-and-orange school scarves, crowded around a corral at the Queens County Farm Museum to gaze at an elderly cow named Daisy and a sheep standing nearby. In the background, children from other schools giggled and played as the Harlem students huddled quietly."

Read it in full at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/education/20farms.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire - Another Deep Throat Emerges

Deep throats at HSA seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Starting tomorrow: lie detector tests. Can't wait for the people who left to start talking.

I saw that you posted on the principal (Jacqui Getz) leaving Harlem Success Academy. It's true! She and two school leaders left with her. This is the second principal to leave in two years. Last year's principal was fired mid year, just before the third grade exams. He was good, just didn't fit Eva's idea of what a principal should be.

I don't know how she can get away with not having an Administrator in that school. Doesn't the State follow through on it. She should be out of compliance somehow!

I think they'll be bleeding teachers and staff by the boat-loads this year.

They already lost a teacher this year. So you have a number of people leaving in the first two months already.

Earlier in the year, she told teachers that it was not in her "vision" for the school to have teachers unionize - I bet you they would, if there was anyone planning on staying longer than a year or two. Plus, people are too afraid to even attempt that.

Happy Birthday, Evil Moskowitz

This evening was Evil Moskowitz' big birthday bash for Harlem Success Academy held at Roseland, with guests of honor Joel Klein, Michael Bloomberg, and Dracula.

I hear there was a loud group there to greet them. Here is a brief first report from a GEMer who attended:

PS 123 protested tonight at the HSA opening night dinner party. The picket line was predominantly made up of kids from 123. I think they may have made it a bit difficult for some of the people waiting on line to enjoy their party. They had to wait on line for a half hour listening to these kids chant and picket. I talked to one grandparent who said she was planning to leave HSA because "they never listen" to her concerns about her granddaughter's education. She said the teachers there cannot differentiate instruction.

I"ll add to this post as more pics and reports come in and I'll be following up with a piece on how HSA may be violating its charter.

Separate and Unequal: First Day of School Protest at PS 123 against HSA Charter School’s Invasion

Ed Notes has been reporting on the escalating battles between charter schools and the public schools they co-occupy all summer. PS 123 and PS 241 in Harlem are two of the schools occupied by Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success Academy and they have garnered most of the publicity. The Patrick Daly School in PS 15 in Red Hook has been battling off the PAVE demand for 3 more years in the school. (Attend the CEC15 meeting this Thurs night at PS 15 to support them.)

GEM has been trying to get people together from the various locations to develop strategies for fighting back against an alliance of the DOE, who are supposed to be running and protecting the public schools, but always favors the charters. It is clear the BloomKlein crowd just wants to see public schools disappear. This is one tough battle for people at the rank and file level, who have few resources. Their school admins even though often disturbed at having their resources dwindle, cannot really help, as they risk removal by Klein.

Here is Angel Gonzalez' long-awaited video of the rally at PS 123 on the first day of school last week. Compare this with the Gotham Schools report that has quotes from Moskowitz but none of the parents from PS 123, who seemed open to speaking, as they do on Angel's video. But than Gotham is partly funded by the same sources that fund HSA. Note how charter school defenders always attack protesters as being from the UFT when in fact the UFT can't protest because they themselves have charter schools occupying space in 2 public schools. In fact, the teacher protesters are almost universally connected to the opposition parties in the UFT to the Weingarten/Mulgrew Unity Caucus.

Cross posted at the GEM blog: Last Wednesday's protest at PS 123

SEE THE VIDEO

and GET READY TO BE SHOCKED


Parents speak out, see pictures of the rooms.




One telling moment at around 6:32-6:45 — The charter schools kids are being lined up against the wall of the building. They're obviously a little frightened in the hubbub and it is not clear why they have to be there at all instead of being taken inside. The demonstrators are certainly not preventing them from entering the building, as reported in the press. One certainly has to question what's going on here. - JW at GEM blog.



By Angel Gonzalez of the Grassroots Education Movement, GEM

September 9, 2009 – District 5, Harlem NYC


On this very first day of classes, early at 6:30AM, the Community Public School 123, the Harlem Success Academy (HSA), an invading Private Charter School in the same public building on 141 St., and the Dept of Education (DOE), were unusually treated on the street to a excellent hands-on lesson in justice, equality and democracy. Arriving parents and children were greeted by a spirited yet outraged group of 25 parents, teachers from other schools, and education activists who picketed outside with signs and chants.

The protest denounced the chaos precipitated by the HSA charter takeover of PS 123 classrooms, the disarray to their supplies and furnishings, the DOE’s dictatorial imposition of charter schools, privatization and the resulting “separate and unequal” conditions.

Since the spring, PS 123 parents and teachers have been organizing against the disparities in treatment and are vowing to keep up the struggle to stop this discriminatory, unequal, and emotionally damaging learning environment. They have also vowed to continue to provide a successful education for their PS 123 students despite the unfavorable odds.

About ten PS 123 African-American teachers stood close by in solidarity during Wednesday's protest, but did not join the picket line. The fact that the UFT and DOE had asked them not to shows a total lack of leadership and insensitivity in the face of these glaring, unjust and stressful conditions at PS 123. Mr. Michael McDuffy, of the DOE Office that approves charters, was present but would make no comment.

The invasion and takeover of PS 123’s public school space by Eva Moskowitz’s Charter School, facilitated by Mayor Bloomberg’s dictatorial control of schools, have divided this Harlem facility. It is important to note that by DOE standards, PS 123 was not even a failing school: it received a grade of A for 2008/9. Despite its obvious success, PS 123 students are not seeing the same kinds of classroom renovations and supplies that the lottery-selected HSA charter students have been treated to, even though all students share the same building.

Upon returning to work this Tuesday, tensions flared up again when PS 123 teachers found their first and second floor rooms and corridors in an unwieldy mess (right). As the HSA charter took over the third floor this summer, their movers had evicted the PS 123 teacher materials and consequently left PS 123 books and supplies in disarray. The DOE, UFT officials, and politicians, all of whom had been apprised of the impending chaos, did nothing over the summer. At the start of this new school year, the HSA charter had its entire third floor facilities immaculately cleaned, freshly painted and newly supplied with modern lighting fixtures, toilets, doors, furniture, air conditioning, rugs and smart-board computer technology. HSA also has smaller class sizes.

The disparate conditions angered some PS 123 parents. Betty Barriento remarked, “We want all our children at PS 123 to have the same super-excellent facilities and opportunities. There should be no exceptions to good quality.” William Hargraves, a parent activist, said that PS 123 students are not allowed to use the HSA toilets or pass through their hallways and stairways. After seeing the HSA elite conditions, parent Chris Singleton sadly reacted, “I feel as if my fourth grade daughter is being raped.”

Moskowitz (left), who stood nearby welcoming students, pays herself $360,000+ yearly – a blatant misappropriation of monies that should be earmarked instead to upgrade services for all of PS 123. If Moskowitz had appropriated these funds under our public school system, she would have been indicted for grand larceny.

[Charters by law are exempted from such public oversight, laws and regulations. See “The Truth About Charters” brochure.]

Angel Gonzalez of the Grassroots Education Movement likened Moskowitz to the first Dutch invaders of the Americas: “Just as Conqueror Henry Hudson raided Manhattan, kidnapped Lenape Indians and hijacked their public lands, Moskowitz does the same today. With HSA charters, she takes over public school spaces and dollars as well as hijacks our community’s right to democratic school governance.” Interloper Moskowitz has arrogantly denounced the protesting parents and teachers as folks who “don’t want change and don’t want great schools.”

The picket vociferously denounced this charter-school hijacking and privatization of public schools that is fomented by the DOE. They alternately shouted, “Better Public Schools, Not Private Charters! Money for Public Education, Not Privatization! One City, One School! Stop the Drive to Privatize!”

Jitu Weusi, a member of the Coalition for Public Education, said, “Our protest shows that the public school community sectors are beginning to wake up and exert their voice for collective school governance. It’s a struggle between the attempt to privatize public education and an attempt to keep education public and equal for all — one system for all people. Not this stratified, a privatized system, creating classes within the community. ” Weusi urged parents to get involved and to take a firm stance against these charter school invasions, their attempt to privatize and to sow divisions among our people.

Sonia Harris shared her insights, “Unfortunately disparity is suffered by our children. They will grow up thinking that this group is better than that one. It is not a good picture. Charters need to be regulated. Let’s mobilize and organize. We can do it. Make sure that everyone is served properly. That’s what Martin Luther King died for.” Hopefully, the irresponsible DOE Officials will heed the words of this humble parent and learn a lesson in justice and democracy.

“Beware of those DOE-Charter-School wolves in sheep’s clothing who bear gifts of donuts, drinks, hors d'oeuvres and live music!”


More details by NYC teachers Emily Giles and Bill Linville

Related:

CAPE Press Release: Support Red Hook Public School Sept. 17

Separate and Unequal Schools in NYC: Rally at PS 123 on First Day of School

This the first in a series, with a focus on the tactics of Eva Moskowitz and her Harlem Success Academy machine.

Join our Protest!
Eva Moskowitz and Her Charter School Must Go!
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
6:30am in the Morning! (and at 3:30PM)
West 141st Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (8th Avenue)
For more information please contact William Hargraves (718) 812-1102.

Click to enlarge. Pdf available on request.


Here is an email from Mark Torres of the Coalition for Public Education:

Support on the struggle being waged by students, parents, staff, administrators and community of P.S. 123 in Harlem. they have been fighting theft of space and many other injustices perpetrated by Eva Moskowitz and the Bloom/Klein dictatorship.

The P.S. 123 community has worked hard, for over a year, to reach out and resolve problems forced upon them by the charter school invasion of their building. However, Eva Moskowitz and the Bloom/Klein dictatorship have not resolved any problems and are only concerned about pushing more and more private charter schools into public school buildings.

P.S. 123 is now ready to stand up for all public schools in our city and they need our help.

Please support P.S. 123 and defend our public school system.

SHOCKED IN HARLEM AT EVA MOSKOWITZ, HSA EXCESS

A teacher at PS 241 sends an anguished outcry as the Eva Moskowitz blitzkrieg runs over another Harlem School just as school is about to open.

Ed Notes has been reporting summer at the battles at PS 123 in Harlem (search the blog for PS 123 and check out all our videos).

PS 241 had a different story. It was supposed to be a failed school and be closed, with the entire building being handed over to Eva Moskowitz. But that would leave that area of Harlem without a zoned school. What's a law to these gangsters? But the UFT sued and Klein was forced to keep the school open. But he cut out the PS 241 middle school and sent a letter to parents basically telling them they were crazy to send their kids to the school. (Similar to this letter – Klein Letter to PS 150 Brownsville Parents, the other similar school in the suit.)

The Moskowitz attack dogs came out in force attacking the UFT for trying to keep "failing" schools open. Then low and behold, PS 241 gets a good grade of B on the DOE's own stupid grading system - since we laugh at that system, we don't like to credit schools with "success" or "failure" based on Leibman's folly. But, hey, they wanted to close it based on a grade.

So, the summer passes and just as school opens, we get the letter to follow today from people at PS 241.
Check all the Ed Notes sources below which includes a previous letter from April.

Aug 26, 2009
Opening of School at Harlem's PS 241 Hindered by Moskowitz Harlem Success Charter School Moving In

by SHOCKED IN HARLEM

News from PS 241- one of the schools embattled in early spring 2009 to save themselves from "Phasing Out" and being replaced with Harlem Success.

While news of the lawsuit pushed the DOE to back off and give us another "chance", it did not stop Harlem Success from being given the green light to move into the building anyway and target our students to fill their spots.

Our parents received heavy mailings, phone calls, and personal visits, as Harlem Success employees stood outside the school building at every dismissal accosting parents and cajoling them into signing up for HS. Staff members were told by parents just how persuasive and persistent Moskowitz's team was and wondered if they really had a choice. All the while DOE and Moskowitz/HS staffers were in and out of our building, offices, classrooms- sizing up what they wanted and making plans to get their way.

Her people even walked in and out of classrooms- DURING lessons (without asking our permission) and hovered daily after school in certain rooms (my office in particular as she practically drooled over where she would put her desk, etc. ) It was offensive, disrespectful, and inappropriate! But, DOE once again, gave M her free reign- at the expense of the two other schools already housed there (Opportunity Charter School has been in the building since 2006-2007 as well, chipping away more and more space each year.)

We acknowledge that our enrollment is dropping- certainly partly in due to the myriad of Charter Schools in the area sending their beautiful full-color brochures and promising longer hours (daycare!) and sometime monetary rewards as well for students to transfer out of the public schools. Add a well-funded, pushy Harlem Success Academy to the mix and we do not stand a chance!

Our funding has been cut so that we can not provide much in the way of after-school programs, so when they offer an opportunity to attend their school which starts at 7:00 and ends at 4:30- what parent would decline?

And now, we have had to give up so much space to HSA. Mind you they were caught in the spring time stacking their enrollment numbers to nearly impossible numbers so as to gain more space than needed. Our principal called them on this and M had to admit she had less than previously stated. Who knows what else she lied about. The DOE blindly accepted- seemingly happy to shove PS 241 out of the way?

Our Middle School students will be relegated to several classrooms in the basement, our principal has given up her office (adjacent to the main office) to a first grade classroom, we have lost our Art Studio, our elementary school science lab, our teachers lounge, parent room, offices for pull-out instruction, and now must share the gym, school yard and cafeteria with two schools. One can only wonder what time lunch will be served?

Recess will go on forever with the screams and laughter that permeates the classrooms and disturb the learning environment (the school yard is situated in a courtyard fashion) – no problem when it was only for an hour a day- but now?

Moskowitz is trying to smooth out the wrinkles by purchasing our silence and complacency. She has offered the following: new cafeteria tables, new gymnasium, new auditorium.

If these were so sorely needed, shouldn't our own DOE have made arrangements??? Don't our students deserve things too!

They have completely renovated the wing HSA took over: air conditioners (our students did not have any), new walls, new doors, smart boards in every room, beautiful cubbies placed in the hallway so as to leave more room for who knows what kind of furniture and other goodies that have an overabundance of money to purchase.

They also have staff members manning the hallways providing the much needed security to keep our students and staff members (and those of Opportunity Charter School) out.

This is just what I know about- I am sure there is much, much more!

I know our cafeteria staff and custodial staff members will be working longer hours (extended meal prep and serving, longer hours for custodial staff as their school day is longer and their teachers stay until 9-10 in the evening and request to come in over the weekend as well.)

Who pays for this? DOE, not HSA!

The last item I will mention- due to HSA moving in - our entire school has had to be shifted from one wing (separate building) to another and redistributed over four floors with several classes isolated either in the basement or on the third floor with the other Charter school.

Every classroom had to be moved. Every classroom teacher spent countless hours packing up during the last week of school– not just into closets,etc. as usual, but into packing boxes that could only hold a specified number of pounds. Boxes were supplied by DOE but ran short early on.

Teachers were overwhelmed with trying to teach and supervise their students while also ensure that no item was left behind. No teachers were compensated for this extra work- not in time or money. No movers were brought in until the teachers did all the packing. The movers simply moved boxes from one room to another.

Our custodial staff still had to clean up and move all the boxes themselves in order to do do. It is a MESS! Now, as we get set to return to school we are invited in to come next week- one week early, to start unpacking and setting up our classrooms.

The principal has tried- to no avail- to get DOE funding to compensate us for the amount of time it will take to start over this year. We know many teachers chose to come in early on their own - but this is not the normal new classroom set up! With everyone doing their best- boxes are still everywhere. Furniture is an issue as elementary classes will now be housed in previously middle school rooms. It will take a monumental effort an everyone's part to get classrooms up and running. However- teachers must volunteer their own time to do this. No help will be available to move boxes- many of which are stacked high- and remember what is in a classroom and imagine the weight in some of these boxes.

How can this be allowed?

How can DOE make us move and do nothing but provide one-time movers with no time, support, or understanding of what it will take to give our students warm, inviting classrooms to come back to on Sept. 9?

Forget what will be a stark and painful difference between the HSA classrooms that many of their friends, siblings and neighbors will be sitting in around the corner?

I am, and will probably remain,

SHOCKED IN HARLEM!

Some previous posts on PS 241

From teachers at PS 241 in Harlem (back in April):

April, 2009

Good Morning All-
As some off you may have heard- DOE will not be closing the school down- they have been put off by the lawsuit! This is not a true victory however.
Please read the letter being sent to the parents carefully.
Parents are still being bullied to send their students to other schools.
Harlem Success Academy will still be placed in our building.
Middle school will be phased out.
Where will there be room for HSA? We would only lose our grade 6 students. We will be attempting to get back all of our parents who were forced to apply elsewhere- but how will they all be housed? Sharing facilities with 3 schools- how? We already do not have use of our gym- and struggle to share the other common areas with another charter school in the building. We will lose classrooms, we will lose our art room, we will have to figure out lunch and breakfast times and children will be eating at all kinds of hours.
PS 242 [another Harlem school]- has shown that three buildings cannot live peacefully and successfully in one facility without children suffering. Also- DOE says that if students come back to the school- and if 241 progresses well (by what standards and whose say so) we will stay open- otherwise we will still be closed. That means with HSA already in the building- they can take over. They will still have a way to rezone illegally in the future.
This must stop. This is not a victory- they have only shifted that battle.

More from Ed Notes

Civil War in Harlem Over Charter Schools

Destroying the Public School System in Harlem

Tweed Undermines Law Suit "Win" on Zoned Schools

Klein Letter to PS 150 Brownsville Parents

Letter to Klein from O'Donnell and Nolan re PS 241

Harlem Public Schools Outscore KAPPA, Schools Threatened With Closure Make Top 10 List

Raging Inferno on PS 123/HSA Controversy at Gotham

When I saw Francis Lewis HS Chapter Leader Arthur Goldstein's piece at Gotham Schools last week while I was in LA, I figured it would inspire a lot of controversy. So I was surprised that after a few days, there was not much reaction. Until blogger Ken challenged some of Arthur's facts yesterday. Since then there has been a battle between defenders of public education and pro charter commenters - almost all anonymous. (Do you think there are some HSA PR people lurking?)

Patrick Sullivan has weighed in with some great responses as has Murray Bergtraum HS CL John Elfrank-Dana which begs for a blog post all its own.

One of the edges of the debate has been whether the DOE slips data to charter schools like HSA so they can cream fours and threes (scores) or early childhood ECLAS test results. Sullivan reveals some amazing stuff gleaned by CEC One (lower east side parents council) president Lisa Donlan. More on this later today, but you can read it all at

http://gothamschools.org/2009/07/30/more-equal-than-others/#comments

I did do a bit rewriting of the Emma Lazarus poem for the occasion in this comment:

I would argue there is a generic use of the terms 3’s and 4’s to come to mean students who would be successful. The renovation of the Statue of Liberty now reads:

“Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

As long as they can score a three or a four.

Out takes (a new feature to celebrate the start of our 4th year in the blogosphere):
I bought 2 suits at L&T great August sale because of great prices. Joseph Aboud for about $200 each. Now when you invite me to visit your schools to talk about ICE or GEM or charters or used cars, I can look like the suits at the UFT, only better because these suits actually fit.