NYCDOE Charter Hits Keep Coming on PAVE Favoratism as DOE to Hold Hearing But Won't Tell Anyone Details

Please note that if you would like the specific amendment to PAVE’s charter, please file a FOIL request with the DOE’s Records Officer.   .... Sonia Park, NYC DOE Charter Schools Accountability & Support,  212.374.6883

The hearing is today. Another Tweedie perpetrating another outrage unreported by the semi-useless NYC Press corps.

Remember billionaire run PAVE charter, which we give credit to for turning on the motor of activism for Julie Cavanagh? They moved out of PS 15 and got their own 34 million building. You see charters aren't supposed to have Pre-K. But if pre-k kids go to a great public school like PS 15 they won't want to leave to go to semi-dysfunctional PAVE. So PAVE is trying the oft-used ploy used by Eva's Success chain of going around the rules -- with the encouragement of the DOE which wants the competing public school to die as soon as possible so they can make the buildings available to charters. By stealing kids in pre-k, advantage charter.

Aside from the lack of transparency noted by Jim below, I thought NY state had determined it was illegal for charter schools to get state funding for preK; can someone please clarify?.. Leonie Haimson

I'm sure the DOE will bend any rules they have to and will be supported by the criminals at State Ed.

Jim Devor is on the case: Read bottom up.

Are you serious?  You intend to hold a public hearing on a proposed amendment to a Charter School's Charter AND you decline to make the actual proposal public before the hearing?

AND even though I made the document request almost a week ago, you tell me to file a FOIL request less than two and 1/2 hours before the hearing begins? 

AND you plan to retroactively approve the results a lottery held approximately one month ago in violation of the school's then existing Charter?

AND the Division of Early Childhood intends to approve an application by PAVE Academy for a pre-K affiliate -  thereby displacing a Red Hook Seniors program - even when (by the DoE's own data) there is capacity for 750 more seats in existing Red Hook public elementary schools?

AND you really think that this blatant attempt to contravene the Charter School Act's prohibition against pre-K Charter admissions will pass legal muster?

Is Orwell's Big Brother your patron saint or just your role model?  

________________________

Jim Devor; President, CEC-15     Follow me on Twitter: @JimDevor     “Who does this guy Jim Devor think he is?”  --   NY Times;  Nov. 23, 2012

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From: Park Sonia <SPark15@schools.nyc.gov>
To: "James W. Devor, Esq.
Cc: Marlin Carrie <CMarlin@schools.nyc.gov>; Lewis Daree <DLewis14@schools.nyc.gov>; Campo Maria <MCampo3@schools.nyc.gov>
Sent: Monday, May 6, 2013 3:24 PM
Subject: RE: CSD 15 Public Hearing Notice: Charter Revision

Mr. Devor,

 

This is a summary of the proposed charter amendment to the PAVE Academy Charter School.

 

On March 25, 2013, PAVE Academy Charter School submitted a proposal to amend its charter.  The school is proposing to amend its Charter in regards to its Enrollment process.  Specifically, PAVE Academy administrators and trustees would enroll Kindergarten students one year and five months in advance of their first day of Kindergarten.  Subsequent to Kindergarten enrollment, PAVE Academy Charter School will recommend students selected via the lottery to attend PAVE Pre-Kindergarten, a separate non-profit organization that has responded to the Office of Early Childhood’s RFP process for full day Pre-Kindergarten seats.  To clarify, students who are selected in PAVE Academy Charter School’s Kindergarten lottery one year and five months in advance are not required to attend PAVE Pre-Kindergarten.

 

Please note that if you would like the specific amendment to PAVE’s charter, please file a FOIL request with the DOE’s Records Officer.

 

Best regards,

 

Sonia C. Park

NYC DOE Charter Schools Accountability & Support

212.374.6883

 

website:  http://schools.nyc.gov/charters

 

From: James W. Devor, Esq.
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 4:12 PM
To: Park Sonia
Cc: Cec15 D15; Dan Wiley; Campo Maria; Marlin Carrie; Barboza Meg; Sternberg Marc
Subject: Re: CSD 15 Public Hearing Notice: Charter Revision

 

Dear Ms.  Park,

I have recently been made aware of a "public hearing" regarding a proposal to permit PAVE Academy charter school in Red Hook to hold its K admissions lottery seventeen  months in advance (sic).  Frankly, given our prior correspondence on the subject, I am disappointed that neither you nor anyone from your office showed me the courtesy of informing me directly about the "public hearing". 

Nevertheless, in order to adequately prepare for and comment upon said  proposal, demand is hereby made for copies (preferably electronic but paper will suffice) of all documents submitted to the NYC Department of Education and its various departments and offices by PAVE Academy and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates in support of its application to amend its Charter with the New York City Department of Education.  Appropriate redaction of personal identifying information would be acceptable.

As you know the hearing is scheduled for next Monday.  As such, time is of the essence.  We are aware this is a very short deadline.  The very limited time available, however, is ENTIRELY of the DoE's own making.  Accordingly, we expect IMMEDIATE compliance with this demand.

Thanks in advance for your anticipated courtesy and assistance.

Very truly yours,
_____________
Jim Devor; President, CEC-15              

From: Campo Maria
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 5:33 PM
To: Tsang Helen; White Mary F.; Rosales Juan; Pankratz Connie; Wong Alice; Puglia Devon ; Marlin Carrie; Skop Anita
Cc: Orbegoso Yolanda; Cheong Yoo Jin; Barboza Meg; Lewis Daree; Cruz Jorge
Subject: CSD 15 Public Hearing Notice: Charter Revision

 

Hi all-

 

Attached is the notice for an upcoming public hearing around a charter revision for a DOE-authorized charter school:

 

·         PAVE Academy Charter School- CSD 15 on 5/6/13

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks,

Maria

 

 

Maria E. Campo

Director of Oversight, Cohort 3

Charter Schools Accountability and Support

New York City Department of Education

(212) 374-5419

mcampo3@schools.nyc.gov

http://schools.nyc.gov/charters

 

The Passion of NY State Senator Bill Perkins

School Scope Column in The Wave: Friday, April 30, 2010

(Ed Note: The first section is an expanded rewrite of a posting from a few days ago, now tied into the Bill Perkins charter school hearings.)

Passion

by Norm Scott

"These guys must be crazy," I was told by someone I know. He was referring to those who keep fighting no matter how bleak things look. "Why would someone of retirement age stuck in the rubber room not just retire," he said? I can't explain it but I understand it. Why stand up to BloomKlein when they own the world, including the press (except the Wave, of course)? Or the UFT leadership?

Not that there is any comparison in terms of danger, but I thought of that guy standing in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square. Or the people who stand up for human rights against Putin in Russia no matter how many of their friends are killed. Or any number of people throughout history who were mad as hell and wouldn't take it any more.

I thought of this as I was watching the academy award foreign language winning film The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina). One review states: "A thoroughly entertaining murder mystery, The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) stars Ricardo Darín as a retired prosecutor who can't let go of a 25-year-old rape and murder that he considers still unsolved, but solvable."

Benjamin, the detective, is relentless in pursuing answers. But the movie is really about passion. His 25 year unrequited passion for his married boss, who may have had similar passions (they keep you guessing.) The unending passion of a husband for his murdered wife. Benjamin's alcoholic sidekick Sandoval helps track the killer by figuring out he is a passionate soccer fan. "You can change almost anything," he tells Benjamin. "But you can't change passion. It will always win out."

I find many Humphrey Bogart films fall into this category. In "Deadline-USA" he edits an independent newspaper standing up to the mob while it is being sold to a Rupert Murdock type publisher who will kill the paper so his sleazy NY Post prototype will have a monopoly. Bogart gets the gangster in the end but loses the paper. However, his speech to the judge about the need for a democracy to provide divergent points of view is a must see. In Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" Bogart is a seemingly cynical boat captain who does the right thing by his rummy helper (Walter Brennan) and a woman on the loose (Lauren Bacall), finally standing up to the WWII German tyranny by helping resistance fighters. And then there is Casablanca, my favorite movie of all time, where Bogart (Rick) jumps off the fence and begins a beautiful friendship with the resistance.

Maybe passion is what explains so many inexplicable actions by so many people. And thank goodness for these crazy, passionate people. If not for them we would all be living like the zombies in that revolutionary Apple commercial at the 1984 Super Bowl. Or like the drones at Tweed.


The Passion of NY State Senator Bill Perkins

Speaking of joining "The Resistance", a national network has been forming to fight the attacks on public education with lots of action in Florida (where some teachers engaged in a sick-out), Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC where a dissident, Nathan Saunders is running for president and if elected would throw a spear at a dirty contract deal being set up by Superintendent Michelle Rhee and AFT President Randi Weingarten.

With it being open season on politicians, NY State Senators have been amongst the most ridiculed in the nation. Our own Malcolm Smith, Pedro Espada and recently deposed Herman Monserrate are prime suspects. But then comes along Harlem State Senator Bill Perkins, who gives you a little faith.

Perkins, you see, has been one of the lone politicians to swim against the charter school tide, not only in NY but perhaps the nation - including President Obama, whose market-based support for undermining the public school system takes him as far away from being a socialist as possible.

Pretty gutsy stuff for a Harlem politician to push back against the policies of the most popular president in history in the Black communities. And Perkins has been vilified. The sleazy NY Post has been rabid, with up to three articles, editorials and columns a day attacking him for holding hearings examining the activities of charter schools.

If you have read the Wave over the past few months on the activities of Malcolm Smith and his Peninsula Prep charter school, you know what "activities" I'm talking about. Scandal after scandal has emerged about these schools that put our tax money into the hands of private interests with little or no oversight. Their partners in crime at BloomKlein headquarters are aiding and abetting them by favoring charters over the public schools they run, especially with the co-location shenanigans where they purposely declare a public school underutilized - see our own Goldie Maple here in Rockaway, where parents have attempted to push back.

Perkins leads an emerging line of resistance coming from Black and Latino/a communities undergoing the charter school influx. Harlem is the epicenter, with 28 charters, and more Harlem politicians are joining Perkins.

Hedge fund managers and other Wall Street types who led us into the world of financial meltdown support charters. (Why miss an opportunity to get their fingers on public funds?) Democracy Prep charter school founder Seth Andrew is so outraged at Perkins that he is calling on his buddies on Wall Street to raise a massive amount of money to defeat Perkins who is running for reelection this year. In what may shape up as the modern equivalent of "The Battle of Hastings" in 1066, the Norman conquest of Britain, Wall Street backed armies, joined by charter school advocates, will invade Harlem this summer in an attempt to knock Perkins off as an example to any politician who might dare to question how charters are misusing public money. I know of at least one Norman who will be there standing with Perkins.

Perkins' hearings were held on April 22 and started at 8am. I was the last speaker when it ended at 9pm. Boy, was I hungry, since I got there at 10am with my trusty little video camera and tripod. See some amazing parent voices on the ednotesonline you tube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/EdNotesOnline