OUTRAGE NUMBER 2 OF THE DAY: EVA CALLS DIVERSIONARY PROTEST AT UFT AT SAME TIME AS AUTISTIC CHILDREN BOYCOTT

With parents of autistic children set to boycott a Brooklyn school being invaded by Moskowitch and rally at Tweed, Moskowitz is trying to draw press coverage away from them. But of course since they will arrive at Tweed at 10:30 there is still time for the press to cover their arrival if not the official start of their protest at the school at 8:30AM. Ed Notes will be there to cover even if not other press shows up.
See my earlier post for the parent press release:cOutrage at Eva Moskowitz: Parents of Brooklyn Autistic Students to Boycott PS 368K, Vow Not To Move Aside for Success Academy Charter Invasion/PEP Monday Night

YES, CONTACT  Contact: Eva press flack Kerri Lyon  917-348-2191  to express your outrage

FROM LEONIE HAIMSON:

See the just-released press advisory  from Eva’s press/political machine below. 

This new protest tomorrow morning appears to be cleverly designed to draw media away from the long-planned boycott planned by the parents of autistic children at PS 368Kat 8:30 AM tomorrow, and their march to Tweed,  to protest the co-location of Brooklyn Success Academy at their school. 

Contrast their protest, organized by real life public school  parents who wrote their own press advisory, to the advisory put out by  Kerri Lyon, a PR flack now Senior Vice President at SKDKnickerbocker, one of the largest PR firms in NYC, hired by Eva to handle her media relations. 

Kerri was originally hired away as a reporter from Channel 2 news by DOE in 2007 at a large salary, reportedly to put a “good spin” on their news, and then was subsequently by the Charter School Center, probably at an even higher salary. 

Her official bio credits her for the following achievement: “She even booked Chancellor Klein on “The Colbert Report.” (though Colbert’s chief booker is married to Jon Alter, and is a big charter school booster herself, so this was probably pretty easy.)

http://www.skdknick.com/about/kerri-lyon/

her advisory follows the one from the parents of PS 368K.

Outraged Parents of Brooklyn Autistic Students to Boycott PS 368K and Vow Not To Move Asidefor a Brooklyn Success Academy Charter School Invasion

What, When and Where: On Monday, June 27 at 8:30 am, courageous, fed-up parents from PS 368K will gather for a press conference in front of their school at the IS 33 campus on 70 Tompkins Ave. Brooklyn. Then they will march with their children and travel from this site to Tweed at 52 Chambers Street, NYC for a second press conference at 10:30 am.

Who: Basilica E. L. Johnson, P.T.A. President of The Star/P368K program in District 75, is also the parent of a 10 year old autistic son, who attends this public school program of about 100 special needs students.. She has organized a parent walk-out to protest the co-location of Success Academy at K03370 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206 in School District 14.

Basilica EL-Johnson, email: tom.n.tinys.house@gmail.com  and   732-688-8099(cell) 

Contact: Kerri Lyon

917-348-2191

PARENTS PICKET UFT HEADQUARTERS

(NY, NY)—On Monday, June 27 at 8:30 a.m., parents will picket outside UFT headquarters to demand the teachers union stop jeopardizing their children’s futures and allow their schools to open as planned. The UFT and NAACP have refused to withdraw their lawsuit hurting 7,000 children, despite the fact that all the claims in their lawsuit have been addressed.

With some charter schools set to start the school year in as early as  37 days, these 7,000 families have no idea if their children’s schools will be able to open.

WHAT: Parents Picket Outside UFT Headquarters

WHO: Parents affected by UFT and NAACP's ongoing lawsuit

WHEN: Monday, June 27. Parents will picket starting at 8:30 a.m.

WHERE: Outside UFT Headquarters, 52 Broadway, NY, NY

Outrage at Eva Moskowitz: Parents of Brooklyn Autistic Students to Boycott PS 368K, Vow Not To Move Aside for Success Academy Charter Invasion/PEP Monday Night

Ed Notes will be there to cover events.

Panel for Educational Policy

On Monday, June 26 the DOE's Panel on Educational Policy will discuss Charter School Relocations at IS 308 in Brooklyn and a number of other schools. Join the UFT, NY Communities for Change and the Coalition for Public Education to protest at Prospect Heights High School 883 Classon Avenue (near Eastern Parkway)-- take the 2,3 or 4 trains to the Eastern Parkway/ Brooklyn Museum Station.

See you on Monday @ 6 PM!

 The Grassroots Education Movement will also be there.
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Press Advisory
Date: Monday, June 27, 2011
Times: 8:30 am, PS 368 Entrance/10:30 am, DOE Tweed 52 Chambers St. 

Contact: Basilica E. L. Johnson (732-688-8099)

Outraged Parents of Brooklyn Autistic Students to Boycott PS 368K and Vow Not To Move Aside
for a Brooklyn Success Academy Charter School Invasion

What, When and Where: 

On Monday, June 27 at 8:30 am, courageous, fed-up parents from PS 368K will gather for a press conference in front of their school at the IS 33 campus on 70 Tompkins Ave. Brooklyn. Then they will march with their children and travel from this site to Tweed at 52 Chambers Street, NYC for a second press conference at 10:30 am.

Who: 

Basilica E. L. Johnson, P.T.A. President of The Star/P368K program in District 75, is also the parent of a 10 year old autistic son, who attends this public school program of about 100 special needs students.. She has organized a parent walk-out to protest the co-location of Success Academy at K03370 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206 in School District 14. The school site currently houses three schools: Urban Assembly School for the Urban Environment-14K330, an existing DOE district middle school that serves sixth through eighth grade, the Foundations Academy-14K322, an existing high school that serves nine through twelfth grade, and lastly, an existing District 75 school "PS368 . The building also houses an Alternative Learning Center-88K988, a suspension center serving grades 9-12.

Why a walkout? 

Ms. Johnson asserts, “The Success Academy has already made it known that it plans to alter the gymnasium space allocated for the children of District 75, which includes a population of autistic, learning disabled and emotionally disturbed children. That will just be the beginning with no end. Once the Success Academy is in place, it will start devouring space like the beginning stages of a Cancer growth that spreads until it has consumed the entire entity. This is evident at P.S. 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn where special education students are receiving their services in hallways and stairwells, all so that PAVE Academy Charter School can have more classrooms. Or, at P.S. 241, in Harlem, where public school students are now forced to learn in basement classrooms bordering the boiler room, all so that Harlem Success Academy Charter School can have more space upstairs.

Help us to send a message to the DOE that public schools matter because our children matter. Help us send the same message to Eva Moskowitz, a former city-council member with no former teaching qualifications and whose only interest is that of her being the CEO of Success Academy. We do not want her idea of “change” at our school.”

Therefore, the emboldened parents of PS 368K with their special needs children are taking a passionate
stand to say NO MORE! Ms. Johnson insists, “Our children have been short changed and pushed aside
for too long. And let it be duly noted that autistic children do not conform to change readily. They cannot
be pushed from this space to that space, this floor to that floor and still maintain the fragile stability their
teachers so expertly nurture.”

Very Real Parent Fears: 
With unfair public school cut-backs, and so-called “modifications” to special education guidelines that supposedly “streamline” services, the parents of special needs children live in daily fear about what actions will be taken next to marginalize their children. Charter schools do not educate these high needs students, yet they flourish on billionaire funding and DOE privileges, absorbing more and more public school space and resources. Ms. Johnson concludes, “Are our children with special needs all going to be placed by the DOE in one-room school settings, where all needs classifications co-mingle together and where all mandated services, as per federal regulation orders, are only a pretense on an I.E.P. form?” What happened to real and humane differentiation of instruction?

Jitu Weusi, life-long activist for educational and civil rights justice, astute veteran of the successful 1968
Brownsville community-control-of-public-schools movement and current chairperson of the Brooklyn chapter of the city-wide Coalition for Public education, cogently predicts, “Success Academy has a history of vamping on the dreams of the poor. Their day of recompense is coming!”

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

Eva HSA Hearings in Harlem and Williamsburg Tonight

Harlem- from Noah Gotbaum

Please join us tonight at the Harlem PS149/Harlem Success I charter expansion hearing at 41 W 117^th St. at 6 pm.  The parents, students, and teachers at PS 149/The Sojourner Truth School are phenomenally eloquent and remain passionate and resolute after 5+ years of fighting Eva Moskowitz and the DOE. 

Please come out to support them, to hear their stories, and to bolster them and the NAACP against the continuing PR storm.

IS 33 Old Building - 

I'm covering this one as I monitor the extent of opposition in District 14 towards Moskowitz invasion. She has no foothold with parents there yet though I imagine some will come out tonight. IS 33 is in the middle of housing projects and has always been viewed as one of the least safe environments. The last time I was in IS 33 there were gunshots. No, not from the UFT directed at me.

Significant Changes in School Utilization - June Vote - 2010-2011 - New York City Department of Education

Date, time and place of joint public hearings for this proposal.
June 16, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.Foundations / Urban Environment / P368K@I033K
70 Tompkins Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11206
Questions about the proposal can be directed as indicated in section IV above.
Speaker sign-up will begin 30 minutes before the hearing and will close 15 minutes after the start. Interpretation services will be provided in Spanish. To request interpretation services in another language, please contact Mr. Taylor at the e-mail address or telephone number above.
VI. Date, time and place of the Panel for Educational Policy meeting at which the Panel will vote on the proposed item.
June 27, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
Prospect Heights Campus
883 Classon Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Summary of all public comment received to date.The following comments and remarks were made at the joint public hearing on February 17, 2011, regarding the co-location proposal:
1. The CEC 14 representative stated that the DOE’s engagement process moved too quickly. Specifically, she stated that the CEC was not able to meet with the Success Academy Charter Network or to spread information to their community about the proposal. She also stated that the signatures supporting the proposed school came from the Bronx, not from the District 14 community.

MORE:

Video: The NAACP Strikes Back

Recently, the charter school lobby helped orchestrate a rally at the NAACP NYC offices protesting the law suit on closing schools. Charter schools closed down for a few hours in the morning, making blatant use of children and parents for political purposes. On June 3, the NAACP held a press conference in front of the headquarters of Success Charter School Network to emphasize the law suit is about bringing equality to ALL children, not just a favored few.

This is unedited video of the press conference called by the NAACP in front of Eva Moskowitz' headquarters. There is a lot of powerful stuff packed into these 54 minutes. I will attempt to edit it a bit and put up an abridged version if I find time. This is definitely worth watching even if you scroll through it. Mulgrew is near the end and he does very well. Mona Davids was a bit late but got to say here piece at the very end - and she makes a powerful comparison to apartheid in her native South Africa.

Go to directly to vimeo for faster play. http://vimeo.com/24644676

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

Harlem/Brooklyn Success Academy Video Week Finale

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Boy, time is flying. End of April already.

I hope you've seen some of the videos I've been posting from the District 14/Success Network meeting on April 14. This is the finale. A good question is why when so many charters have impacted on Williamsburg, Success has raised so much opposition? I'm not sure but I may seek to find out some answers. Whatever the reasons, it has been fun to watch. As Success now attempts to add 2 more schools we will watch carefully to see if the resistance crumbles.

Today's video is the final one I processed. CEC 14 asks why Success didn't reach out to CEC 14 or why there are not math or reading scores listed for HSA (how are they claiming their schools are such a success?). She reads a letter from Leticia James representing Dist 13 and 14 calling for no more charters in either district. I wonder what other charter chain operators think of Eva who may be killing the golden goose for all of them.

http://youtu.be/o3IxuKRtg9w