Hello all-
I am reaching out to you after reaching some deeply troubling information.
This morning as I welcomed students into the building, one of my fourth grade students approached me with a look of anger on her face. She has been with us since she was in Pre-K and feels very strongly about our school and the community. Her brother is a first grader currently attending HSA 1. She has been outspoken that she believes he is not being properly educated- her words, not mine. She hears her family complain as well, and implores them to take him out and let him enjoy school with her, at PS 241- again her words- not mine.
She stated that she had attended a Harlem Success Academy event last night at the Apollo (THe Lottery?), during which Eva Moskowitz spoke. Eva stated that Joel Klein had told her that PS 241 students had failed their Gr. 8 ELA exams and he was going to shut down our school.
Scoring of ELA exams is still in process, the state has not yet received all manually-scored information- nor has it had time to determine final scores. How could Klein have this information? He can't- he must have lied- or Eva lied and is spreading misinformation- slandering our school (and others such as PS 194 and PS 123- according to my young, articulate source).
Klein and Moskowitz must be called to task on this- we must speak out against the lies, the slander, the coersion, the audacity of this kind of misinformation. Please stand together with us to defned our public schools. Make phone calls, send emails, what ever can be done to let the public know this outrage- this is sabotage and outright looting of our school buildings and communities!
All educators should be worried- your school could be next!
Please reach out to all you know.....
Showing posts with label PS 241M. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PS 241M. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Thursday, December 3, 2009
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:
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
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
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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
Friday, April 3, 2009
Tweed Undermines Law Suit "Win" on Zoned Schools
The epicenter of the battle over public and charter schools is Harlem, where public schools, long denied resources have been forced into unfair competition with charter schools with sleek advertising, supported by corporations making short-term investments with a long view of profits to be made off the privatizing of public schools. Most egregious is that the DOE, the very agency that has run these public schools under attack for the past 7 years, is lining up on the side of the charters.
No sooner did I write this in my previous post-
--than we received communications from teachers at PS 241. I thought it would take Tweed a few days to strike back. Yesterday, Moskowitz' gang struck organizing parents to demand PS 241 be closed. Today came the move by Klein to divert parents from enrolling in PS 241, the equivalency of police commissioner Raymond Kelly urging people in high crime districts to replace the NYPD with a private police force.
Before you read the letter from PS 241 and the letter Klein sent to parents, I wanted to mention the story a teacher from PS 242 in Harlem told at our conference to save public ed on Saturday. She talked about the horrors of 3 schools sharing her building, especially when PS 242 is playing the role of the unfavored step child of the DOE, forced to accept every child tossed from the charter schools in the building.
From teachers at PS 241 in Harlem:
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- 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.
We must come together to rethink how we will move forward.
Send this out to everyone- elected officials, the press, community organizations and let them know that this is not a victory. We are being swindled! I am sure DOE's press release will sound very different!
The letter from Klein to parents has been deciphered by Ed Notes code breakers. Here it is with annotations from our code breakers:
April 3, 2009
Dear parents of P.S. 241:
The most important thing I can do as Chancellor is to make sure that you have excellent school choices for your child [as long as they’re in schools I don’t have to run]. As you know, several months ago, the Department of Education (DOE) said that P.S. 241 had not proven [see, we don’t have to prove nuthin’] that it was preparing enough of its students for middle school, high school, and beyond. The school received a Progress Report grade of D, and only11 students are enrolled in its kindergarten class [heh, heh, heh- we made sure of that]. The DOE thus announced that P.S. 241 would phase out, not accepting kindergarten, first grade, second grade, or sixth grade students next year.
As you also know, after meetings with parents and community officials, the DOE issued a plan to provide a choice of six schools for parents whose children would be in kindergarten, first, and second grades next year. Five options were nearby DOE schools, [which we’ll get to closing down one by one in our version of dominoes] and one was Harlem Success Academy Charter School 4, which would relocate into the P.S. 241 building and would give students attending and zoned to P.S. 241 priority to attend [but only if their parents commit to attending every Harlem Success pep rally].
Already, 50 families residing in the P.S. 241 zone have signed up for Harlem Success Academy 4 and the surrounding DOE schools [after loads of slick advertising.]
Since that time, the teachers union and other parties have attempted to take legal action against the DOE for this plan. I think it’s important that we not confuse the already difficult process of choosing a school. So I’m writing to inform you of two decisions we have made that will impact your school choices for next school year:
1. Harlem Success Academy Charter School 4 will be located in the P.S. 241 building next year and will continue to give an admissions priority to families attending P.S. 241 or living in the P.S. 241 zone.
Children going into kindergarten, first grade, and second grade will also still have the opportunity to apply to P.S. 76, P.S. 149, P.S. 165, P.S. 180, and P.S. 185.
I think you should seriously consider joining the 50 other P.S. 241 zone parents who have already applied to one of these options [so we can claim no one wants to go to PS 241.]
If you do not have an application to Harlem Success Academy 4 or to the other DOE schools you are entitled to attend, you can obtain one from your guidance counselor or parent coordinator; [who are like prisoners in war camps who are made to dig the graves of their fellow prisoners] or you can find a Harlem Success application online at http://www.harlemsuccess.org/apply-to-learn.
As you know from the letters and calls you have already received, as well as the bulletins passed out around the school, the application deadline is Monday, April 6.
2. The P.S. 241 elementary school will not be phasing out starting this fall. The school will be open with all elementary school grades this fall. Rather than waiting to let the courts decide, we think you, the parents, will make the right elementary school choice for your child [meaning, no way choose PS 241, which we guarantee will be starved of resources so we can give the entire building to Eva, who has dirty pictures of me.] You can choose Harlem Success Academy 4, you can choose one of the other five DOE elementary schools, or you can choose P.S. 241. We will continue to support the school [ha, ha, ha] and will review its performance in the year to come [you know what to do Jimmy Leibman]. If zoned parents enroll in the school, and if the school serves children well, it will remain open [but watch out for the fire traps and asbestos that may be spread all over the place]. If it continues to perform at a low level [and don’t worry, we’ll make sure it does], it will not. Please also note that the P.S. 241 middle school will continue to phase out; all current 5th grade students have already applied to a District 3 middle school.
The Parent Coordinator at P.S. 241, the District 3 Family Advocate, and the Borough Enrollment Office have information about all of the schools you are entitled to attend, including Harlem Success Academy 4 and P.S. 241.
Joel I. Klein
RELATED: Report from ISO's Jeremy Sawyer on the March 28 conference
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No sooner did I write this in my previous post-
We've reached the bizarro stage where Eva Moskowitz, miffed that her real estate grab for publicly funded NYC school buildings went temporarily awry, incites parents in Harlem to demand the DOE close the local zoned school when the DOE rescinded its plan to close PS 241 after the NYCLU and UFT filed suit.
I am all for the suit, but ultimately the DOE will figure out a way to force the "saved" schools into closing. This is all about real estate for charters, man. How about starving them of resources? Or putting in a lunatic Leadership Academy principal? A law suit has to be backed up by action. While the UFT might support individual school protests, it refuses to organize all the threatened schools into a force to demand the kinds of resources they need. When faced with yet another moratorium on school closings resolution, the UFT leadership removed the call for a meeting of all schools threatened with closing.
--than we received communications from teachers at PS 241. I thought it would take Tweed a few days to strike back. Yesterday, Moskowitz' gang struck organizing parents to demand PS 241 be closed. Today came the move by Klein to divert parents from enrolling in PS 241, the equivalency of police commissioner Raymond Kelly urging people in high crime districts to replace the NYPD with a private police force.
Before you read the letter from PS 241 and the letter Klein sent to parents, I wanted to mention the story a teacher from PS 242 in Harlem told at our conference to save public ed on Saturday. She talked about the horrors of 3 schools sharing her building, especially when PS 242 is playing the role of the unfavored step child of the DOE, forced to accept every child tossed from the charter schools in the building.
From teachers at PS 241 in Harlem:
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- 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.
We must come together to rethink how we will move forward.
Send this out to everyone- elected officials, the press, community organizations and let them know that this is not a victory. We are being swindled! I am sure DOE's press release will sound very different!
The letter from Klein to parents has been deciphered by Ed Notes code breakers. Here it is with annotations from our code breakers:
April 3, 2009
Dear parents of P.S. 241:
The most important thing I can do as Chancellor is to make sure that you have excellent school choices for your child [as long as they’re in schools I don’t have to run]. As you know, several months ago, the Department of Education (DOE) said that P.S. 241 had not proven [see, we don’t have to prove nuthin’] that it was preparing enough of its students for middle school, high school, and beyond. The school received a Progress Report grade of D, and only11 students are enrolled in its kindergarten class [heh, heh, heh- we made sure of that]. The DOE thus announced that P.S. 241 would phase out, not accepting kindergarten, first grade, second grade, or sixth grade students next year.
As you also know, after meetings with parents and community officials, the DOE issued a plan to provide a choice of six schools for parents whose children would be in kindergarten, first, and second grades next year. Five options were nearby DOE schools, [which we’ll get to closing down one by one in our version of dominoes] and one was Harlem Success Academy Charter School 4, which would relocate into the P.S. 241 building and would give students attending and zoned to P.S. 241 priority to attend [but only if their parents commit to attending every Harlem Success pep rally].
Already, 50 families residing in the P.S. 241 zone have signed up for Harlem Success Academy 4 and the surrounding DOE schools [after loads of slick advertising.]
Since that time, the teachers union and other parties have attempted to take legal action against the DOE for this plan. I think it’s important that we not confuse the already difficult process of choosing a school. So I’m writing to inform you of two decisions we have made that will impact your school choices for next school year:
1. Harlem Success Academy Charter School 4 will be located in the P.S. 241 building next year and will continue to give an admissions priority to families attending P.S. 241 or living in the P.S. 241 zone.
Children going into kindergarten, first grade, and second grade will also still have the opportunity to apply to P.S. 76, P.S. 149, P.S. 165, P.S. 180, and P.S. 185.
I think you should seriously consider joining the 50 other P.S. 241 zone parents who have already applied to one of these options [so we can claim no one wants to go to PS 241.]
If you do not have an application to Harlem Success Academy 4 or to the other DOE schools you are entitled to attend, you can obtain one from your guidance counselor or parent coordinator; [who are like prisoners in war camps who are made to dig the graves of their fellow prisoners] or you can find a Harlem Success application online at http://www.harlemsuccess.org/apply-to-learn.
As you know from the letters and calls you have already received, as well as the bulletins passed out around the school, the application deadline is Monday, April 6.
2. The P.S. 241 elementary school will not be phasing out starting this fall. The school will be open with all elementary school grades this fall. Rather than waiting to let the courts decide, we think you, the parents, will make the right elementary school choice for your child [meaning, no way choose PS 241, which we guarantee will be starved of resources so we can give the entire building to Eva, who has dirty pictures of me.] You can choose Harlem Success Academy 4, you can choose one of the other five DOE elementary schools, or you can choose P.S. 241. We will continue to support the school [ha, ha, ha] and will review its performance in the year to come [you know what to do Jimmy Leibman]. If zoned parents enroll in the school, and if the school serves children well, it will remain open [but watch out for the fire traps and asbestos that may be spread all over the place]. If it continues to perform at a low level [and don’t worry, we’ll make sure it does], it will not. Please also note that the P.S. 241 middle school will continue to phase out; all current 5th grade students have already applied to a District 3 middle school.
The Parent Coordinator at P.S. 241, the District 3 Family Advocate, and the Borough Enrollment Office have information about all of the schools you are entitled to attend, including Harlem Success Academy 4 and P.S. 241.
Joel I. Klein
RELATED: Report from ISO's Jeremy Sawyer on the March 28 conference
Defending public schools in NYC
Make sure to check the side panel for updates and other important information.
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