UFT Chaos at John Dewey HS

A result of closing so many south Brooklyn schools

The impact of closing schools is far reaching. The pushed out kids who don't make it into the more selective charter or small schools function as a sort of floating crap game, bouncing from just-closed school to soon-to-be-closed school. The next wave of large comprehensive high schools quickly become overcrowded and resources get taxed. A mentality of "we are next" sets in as administrators use the threat to drive instruction towards pushing testing and grad rates at any cost to the detriment of educational value and integrity. Teachers, worried about thrown into ATR purgatory if the school should close, start back biting at each other, even in the midst of marking exams if one should dare give a student a low score.

That this mentality should infect John Dewey HS (in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn), one of the more progressive high schools in NYC for over 35 years, shows just how far the state of the BloomKlein destructive ed reform agenda has reached.

John Dewey HS is not misnamed as so many schools are, as it offered a special brand of education to students, with a longer school day and all kinds of enrichment, so rarely found in NYC schools, actually touching on some of the educational philosophies of Dewey. It attracted kids from many parts of the city and also attracted some very dynamic teachers. The attitude was somewhat permissive: if kids roamed the halls, it was tolerated. They were socializing, not destroying.

But enter the kinds of kids forced to go there because no small school would accept them or because their families weren't together enough to figure out an alternative; kids who would never apply to a school like Dewey in the first place – and suddenly you have a different kettle of fish. The extra-curricular activities are not quite in line with their interests. Photography club, anyone?

Now don't get me wrong. The needs of these kids could be addressed, but certainly the school is not given the kinds of resources that could make a difference. Thus, schools like Dewey enter the death star spiral and become a target for the school closers at Tweed - maybe some Bloomberg contact is looking for some real estate in the area and needs the cache of charter schools to get those values up.

Recently, reports that divisiveness has reached deep into the UFT, a former proud chapter – and don't think the destructive acts on large schools by BloomKlein doesn't have this in mind.

We received this report:

The UFT executive board is revolting against the chapter leader. There are many issues, but the two most recent have to do with

(1) the lack of administration and union response to the threats by DoE to close Dewey (the DoE's most recent gripe VIA the School Comprehensive Assessment has to do with things like policy and practices regarding school entry, dress code, confiscation of prohibited items, school safety protocols, cafeteria access, etc.);

(2) The chapter leader's accusations of anti-semitism was directed against two teachers. The anti-semitism furor followed the posting of leaflets that advertised a demonstration against Israeli's attacks on Gaza. One of the accused teachers (who happens to be Jewish) claimed he didn't post or distribute the leaflets, but he was defending the right of anyone to do this.

Regarding the bullshit Comprehensive Assessment, the committee wants the school to take a strong stand on Dewey's right to fashion its own rules regarding student use of the building in the light of Dewey's history and philosophy.

The reason for safety incidents has to do with the influx of students who are rejected from all the other South Brooklyn schools that have been closed/divided/restructured/small schoolized. In the light of these immediate events plus a whole host of complaints about how the chapter leader behaved in the last year, making personal accusations against the principal and disseminating misleading information to staff, the executive board is talking about having a recall election.

Leaflets from the UFT executive board critical of the chapter leader are floating around.

And there's a leaflet from the UFT District Rep, Useless CHarlie Friedman (or UCH! ) on behalf of the chapter leader. What else do you expect from the UFT? To side with the forces that actually want to protect the Dewey philosophy and fight Tweed?

How bad can things get when a Unity stalwart not in the school urges ICE to run a candidate in this spring's chapter leader elections?

SOS Tilden Rally - Feb. 6, 2007

Pictures from the rally.
See commentary posted on this blog below in "Deconstructing the System, School by School"
Check out http://www.allout4tilden.com/



John Lawhead on the right presents reasons Tilden should remain open.







School psychologist Kimberly Partington























Principal Diane Varano

More on Tilden from Lawhead and Schmidt

After I sent out the Wave piece (see below) I wrote on Tilden,
John Lawhead sent me this follow-up.

Thanks Norm. In all fairness Randi stayed in the building all morning meeting with teachers and the principal. Tilden people went to an info session for parents on the new schools in Gowanus last Thursday. Charlie Turner (UFT B'klyn HS Dist Rep) was there and made a good statement from the floor on the shortcomings of the decision-making process and high turnover of the small schools. Their support is belated but welcome given the long odds of reversing the phase-out. We're building for a public forum on Feb. 6.

Hands Off Tilden!

Town Hall Meeting

7:00 p.m. ~ February 6, 2007

Tilden High School Auditorium, Brooklyn

Check out the site
www.allout4tilden.com

Let me say a few words about John Lawhead. He was one of the people I met when he saw a copy of Education Notes in his mailbox at Bushwick HS in the fall of 2002 and wrote some wonderful articles for the paper. We both had major resesrvations about the high stakes testing craze, No Child Left Behind, mayoral control and many other issues. He got me involved in a national group called ACTNow headed by the wonderful Susan Ohanian, amongst others. John and I went down to Birmingham, Al to attend their conference at the World of Opportunity (The WOO) headed by the equally amazing Steve Orel (currently undergoing the battle of his life against cancer). I'll write more about this experience some other time.

In Sept. 2003, John and Sean Ahern, another teacher we met through Ed. Notes, went out for an evening of merriment and over quite a few beers, the idea of a group like ICE emerged. John has been a stalwart of the group from the very beginning (he is our webmaster) and his ideas and knowledge of the impact of national educational policies have often served as a guidepost for many of us in ICE.

John and I do not always agree on the role the UFT plays in these kinds of situations but at this point I will agree that we should give Randi Weingarten the benefit of the doubt on Tilden and see if there is real support for fighting to keep Tilen open or whether these are just public relations moves. Having John there on the spot to monitor the situation will be invaluable for all of us waiting to see exactly how the UFT plays this.

One of the people working with ACTNow is George Schmidt from Chicago who has been putting out Substance, an alternative newspaper in the teacher union for almost 30 years (Yikes! I remember seeing it back in the late 70's). Substance was the model for the expanded newsprint edition of Ed. Notes after we had a visit from George in the summer of '02. George has been our guru on mayoral control (amongst many other issues), which hit Chicago in 1995 and the very day Randi announced her support of the idea in May 2001, I put a copy of an analyis George had written in front of everyone on the UFT Exec. Bd.
George wrote this in response to my column.

George Schmidt from Chicago writes:

One of the things that confused people here until we began tracking it was that the policy of closing schools was able to be based on any "policy" they cocked up on the spot. As John points out, Tilden is in the middle of "failing" schools, so why target it? Here, they added declining enrollment and safety and security issues. They can manipulate any of the Big Three excuses -- low test scores are almost a given in the hard core inner city general high schools; you produce low enrollment by sabotaging incoming 9th graders; sabotage a school's security by cutting security or simply not providing backup. If the union doesn't call them out on it, they have a field day and every high school except the elite ones becomes a potential target. School closings haven't solved anything in Chicago.

The schools that were closed and converted to "small schools" are still in the same boat (Chicago's Bowen, Orr and South Shore high schools).

The schools that were closed and turned into elite schools are "better" because they got rid of all the kids and replaced them with college prep kids (Chicago's King High School).

And the schools that were "reconstituted" (1997) and then subject to "intervention" (2000) are now being turned over to charter operators while the charter schools that are actually serving the same populations in Chicago are facing even bigger problems than the public schools. Chicago has now reached such a large number of charters -- more than 60 --that it's critical mass time. Filling the charters with FNG teachers -- all of them in their 20s with nobody who knows anything about reality -- has become a prescription for disaster, starting with the breakdown of classroom management and then leading to massive hallway disruptions and finally gang predators both outside and inside the buildings. This is the big cover up in Chicago's charter "community" right now. (Of course, their test scores also tank when the school goes up for grabs, but they have more control over manipulating those data and do so...).

I'm going to try and stay on top of the variations on these scams that they use in New York. Thanks for reporting them.

Give my best to John and everyone. Hope to see you all soon.

Second, the story that Jeff Kaufman forwarded from Oakland also spells of a Chicago script. KIPP is a real piece of work, and seems to have major ruling class backing, including, of course, those Ivy League pundits who practice New York Times Magazine style "journalism." (Tough's recent puff piece for KIPP; 60 Minutes).

In Chicago, KIPP never wanted to really manage a public school, even under the privileged conditions of the "small schools" nonsense. KIPP originally began in Chicago doing one of four "small schools" inside a school they closed here (one of the first closed under "Renaissance"). As soon as KIPP could, they pulled out, saying their "model" (read "Business Model") was for charters. I'm doing a short piece on it calling it a bait and switch. All of these assholes are now working with long-term (five to ten year) business plans and models, since they are confident that mayoral dictatorships will continue to subsidize their stuff.

Third, are other people willing to call out Deb Meier on the entire "small schools" scam, there, here and elsewhere? I like her, but this shit has now become second only to charters as a plan to bust unions and screw veteran teachers. In one Chicago high school (DuSable) they have "small schools" which are still officially "public" and a charter in the same building!

If she were to widely denounce it (and Klonsky along the way), it might actually help. Anyone there know her well enough to demand that she do that? Otherwise, she's really aiding and abetting the attack on public schools and unions.

Hell of a Happy New Year, huh?

George Schmidt
Editor, Substance

UFT Advice to Teachers at Closing Schools? How to Fill Out Your Resumes

It has always been clear that the UFT will not take a position of support for teachers at large high schools that are being closed. That was most clear at Tilden HS when Randi Weingarten made an appearance, showing up 15 minutes late for a half hour meeting, leaving teachers little time to make their points.

Instead of assisting the teachers, parents and community to fight for the school, the union ignored pleas for help. A teacher commented later that the UFT seems only interested in helping people fill out resumes. The fact that the UFT bargained away rights that would protect the teachers in the 2005 contract lies over the entire situation like dead fish.

But what do we expect from the collaborationists at the UFT. Know how the principal found out the school was being closed? From the union rep. "No way," was her response. With their "I surrender" mentality, he union hierarchy should be taking French lessons (instead of the Spanish certain UFT leaders are studying.)

Only after a favorable evaluation came out did Weingarten respond and offer to come to the school, in what amounts to a public relations move so she can say, "See, I am concerned."

Read her lips: Phew! Got through that. Now we can help our pals at the DOE close that sucker down. Maybe even get some of my people like Peter Goodman work as consultants in setting up the small schools.

When ICE Executive Board members with the support of TJC offered up a resolution at the Jan. 9 UFT Executive Board meeting that called for a moratorium on the closing of small schools, it was rushed to Weingarten who was not in attendance but in hiding behind the magic curtain. She quickly ordered the Unity hacks to put up a substitute that would make it appear the union was doing something, saying something along the usual lines of "We urge the DOE to... blah, blah, blah." UFT leaders are great Urgers.

Not surprisngly, one Unity member rose to bow in thanks to Randi after having complained years ago how the union abandoned that member's school when it was closed years ago.

Can't wait to see the New Action suck-ups, who often put Unity hacks to shame in their desire to heap praise on madam Weingarten on the Executive Board next year. The guaranteed 5 seats will be known as "The Gift of the Randi." Pucker up boys!

Read more about Tilden from teacher John Lawhead posted on this blog a few days ago.

A few more things happened at the Exec. Bd. (I skipped the dinner as I had to cook up all that dead fish you see above for the Delegate Assembly today.)

Of most interest, the election committe made its election announcement tonight. ICE tried to amend it by asking for the UFT to get an announcement in the Principal's Weakly from Klein telling principals about the rights to use mailboxes during the election campaign. Guess what? Randi is afraid of asking big, bad Joel to do this because he might interefere in the election. Har, Har, Har. How would he be able to close down so many schools so easily if he lose his best buddies in Unity? Parlez-vous franaise, anyone?

ICE asked for the UFT to send out literature from the caucuses to their email list. They adamantly resisted, pointing to the ads in the NY Teacher, which just happen to come out as ballots are being mailed out. Gee, are you surprised?

When ICE Ex. Bd. member James Eterno thanked Randi for ignoring a calling of the question to allow him time to make an amendment, her comment was, "I won't be reading that on the blog tonight." Well, here it is. Hope she can sleep well now. (Note: is it possible the president of the largest union local in the world has nothing better to do?)