Sexually Harassed by Your Principal? You will be removed

This Daily News article says it all about how the NYCDOE has a double standard towards principals and the school workers they rule.

A Bronx principal found to have sexually harassed a staffer last summer is under investigation again on similar allegations, the Daily News has learned.

Investigators with the office found last year that Richard Bost of Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology groped his payroll secretary and repeatedly made lewd comments about her clothing and cleavage, sources said.

The Education Department removed the secretary from the school but kept Bost in place.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/06/24/2010-06-24_bx_principal_probed__again__in_sex_harass_charges_from_staffers.html#ixzz0rmB
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The best part of this story is this:

An Education Department official noted that none of the findings involved students. "If further allegations are determined to be true, we will take swift and appropriate action," said Danny Kanner. "We strongly encourage anyone who has been treated improperly to come forward, and we will investigate."

Sure. "Swift and appropriate action" means they will give this guy a promotion. I mean, come on. As long as the school gets good test scores, what's the problem?

I've even heard stories about non-tenured teachers who brought sexual harassment charges and won a judgement at the EOC being given U-ratings and fired.

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

Walkout at Harlem Success/Mosaic Prep Hearing

UPDATED, June 22, 2010, 12pm
There was a mini explosion at the Harlem Success attempt to expand for more space at Mosaic Prep hearing last night as people walked out over the procedures, which they claimed were illegal. Some parents from Mosaic were supportive of the walkout, but they also wanted to say their piece, so some didn't walk out and others came back. The people who walked out said there was no point in going through this sham since the DOE wasn't going to listen to any of the comments. Bill Hargraves pointed out that the meeting wasn't being taped and no notes were being taken so how could their comments be heard? There was no table up front so people has a sense of where their comments were being directed. The DOE people went scrambling, as the DOE rep sat in front with a notebook and pretended to take notes. The looks on their faces were priceless.

I was ambivalent about the walkout because I could see the Mosaic people were confused as the walkout was not part of a plan. I stayed to continue taping.

A section of HSA parents at times looked stunned over the vehemence and passions unleashed.

One of the Harlem Success Charter (Eva Moskowitz) parent activists who is passionate about charters has become sort of a buddy at these meetings - always comes up and wants to chat. We ere on the same panel at the Pekins hearing. He often brings a stack of books to show how well his daughter is reading at Harlem Success. He is a very nice guy - a NYC policeman. Last night the rubber met the road in a sense when he said he understood the attacks on the teachers was based on anti-union and he was disturbed by it. We will continue the dialogue.

On the train going home I thought about this guy. In our conversation we touched on many issues, including history and politics (a lot to cover in 5 minutes) and he is clearly a well educated guy, though he told me he was a knucklehead in high school. I thought - here is a guy who is a wonderful parent. His children's success is due to his efforts yet he goes all over giving Eva Moskowitz the credit for why his child reads so well. I asked him if he taught her to read before she ever set foot in HSA. "Of course," he said. He added - and I'm paraphrasing - "No one should expect the schools to do the main teaching" - I can't remember exactly what he said schools should be doing. HSA requires parent participation, while public schools can't. He blamed the parents who don't do what he does.

And therein lies the genius of the HSA propaganda machine. His children will do well in any school because of HIM and his passion. But he is convinced that HSA deserves the credit.

The public schools are losing these parents to charters.

I have some good tape from this meeting, including the mass walkout.

I had to leave before Jim Devor, the lawyer who also heads CEC 15 in Brooklyn, spoke but maybe the 2 man film crew HIRED by Harlem Success Academy will loan us the clips.

Boy, the charter money flows at a higher rate than the BP spill.


Some Facts: HSA vs. PS/MS375 Mosaic

----------------------HSA Mosaic

Number of students 186 305
Special Ed (Ungraded) 0 54(17%)
Free lunch ------------53% 94%
Reduced lunch -------13% 2%
Limited Eng Proficient 2% 16%
Hispanic/Latino/a ---- 27% 65%

(excuse the rough formatting)

Look at the last numbers: the area is 65% Hispanic yet they are only 27% of the kids in HSA.

From Parent Leader Annette Jiminez

Thank you everyone for your support today at the hearing in our school mosaic prep academy which we all know was a total fraud and it was finished off by the presentation of our lawyer who let them know that everything was illegal and they would be held accountable. Please stay encouraged we will win the fight against this charter epidemic. I love you all for what you are, stand and fight for,

Your sister in the struggle
Rose Annette Jimenez

---------
Important background info at Norms Notes: Mosaic Prep/HSA Charter Invasion Follow-up

Annette Jiminez writes a letter to Jonas Chartock who heads the SUNY charter authorizing center - and yes he is biased, Patrick Sullivan gets involved and points out a few things to Ralph Rossi if SUNY about how state law is being violated:

Ms. Jimenez refers to the schools governance law passed by the State Legislature in August. As the Manhattan member of the city school board ("Panel for Educational Policy") I can assure you that none of the legally mandated process for such a significant change in utilization of a public school building was followed in this case. There has been no Educational Impact Statement, no joint hearing of the Mosaic SLT with the Community Educational Council of District 4 and no vote of the Panel for Educational Policy.

The SUNY trustees have a legal obligation to ensure all legally mandated procedures are followed prior to allowing the expansion of a SUNY chartered school. Expansion of HSA 3 in the Mosaic building without adherence to the above process constitutes a violation of law for which SUNY trustees must be held accountable.

Frankly, given that SUNY recently came very close to losing its chartering authority, I am extremely disappointed that its first instinct is to deny any responsibility for compliance with the very clear guidelines under state education law. This law was implemented to protect public school students from the very type of encroachment now being attempted by HSA. Instead of washing their hands of the very real issues facing Manhattan public schools in co-location
situations, I suggest the trustees begin to more seriously consider their moral and legal obligations to help all our students.

Patrick J. Sullivan
Manhattan Member
Panel for Educational Policy
NYC Board of Education

DC Union Leader George Parker Sends a Message - Pins Weingarten as Culprit in Election Mayhem

The AFT will do anything it can to keep Nathan Saunders from becoming President of the Washington DC union. They lost Chicago and don't want things to spread too far. This message from George Parker nails the AFT as the reason the scheduled elections for May were postponed. Randi knew her little sweetheart deal with pal Michelle Rhee would be endangered if Saunders won.

WTU ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The WTU is aware that several candidates seeking to run for a WTU elected office have distributed misleading and inaccurate information regarding the AFT’s postponement of the May 2010 election of WTU officers (Aril 29, 2010 membership letter form AFT President Randi Weingarten) and the WTU constitutional process for setting the new election schedule. Within the next two weeks, the WTU Executive Board will send a letter to the homes of all WTU members to provide you with correct and accurate information regarding the election process and the new fall schedule for election of WTU officers.

"Rescued" Closing Schools Dying a Slow Death Due to Lack of Incoming Freshman

Many people cheered when the UFT/NAACP "won" the law suit over the 19 school closings a few months ago. While schools got a year extension to stay open, the DOE went ahead with plans to install new schools in their buildings, knowing full well the reality would be that the extra year would become an empty shell due to a lack of incoming freshman. James Eterno's post on the ICE blog brings home this reality.

PRESS DISCOVERS CLOSING SCHOOLS HAVE VIRTUALLY NO INCOMING NINTH GRADERS

A high school needs freshmen to keep going but the Department of Education has basically starved the closing Queens High Schools of new students. You can read all about it at these links. We are quoted extensively and are still fighting this injustice. Please help us if you can.

http://gothamschools.org/2010/06/16/saved-from-closure-a-queens-high-school-faces-phase-out/

http://gothamschools.org/2010/06/17/after-ruling-kept-schools-open-city-discouraged-enrollment/

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/few_kids_at_rescued_schools_vxSPjS8F8YGNBZHWITK5MM

http://www.queenstribune.com/deadline/Deadline_061710_SavedSchools.html

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100616/FREE/100619875

--------
Today at Norms Notes:

Boston Teachers Get a Dose of Ed Deform

What They Remember

A former 4th grade student from around 1983 found me on Facebook:

As I recall, I recieved my introduction to computers from you. At the time you stressed how important it would be to know how to use one! You were certainly right! I also remember going over to your house with a small group of other students from the class. If my memory serves me right, you had built a telescope that year.

School Scope in The Wave

My June 11, 2010 column in The Wave

Rumblings
by Norman Scott

It may turn out to be a minor quake, the equivalent of two rocks rubbing against each other, or something much bigger. It started at PS 24K in Sunset Park where teachers decided to picket on the morning of June 4th. The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) that I work with started to promote the idea and other schools began to pick it up. By June 4th over 20 were participating, focused on the budget cuts, the on again, off again Bloomberg game with layoffs and other issues of importance to the schools. GEM produced a toolkit for schools to use: a press release, a flier, a petition and signs.

The week before a group of us gathered in Prospect Park for a sign-making party. Someone said it is a shame that all the schools can't get together. "Let's go to Tweed after school," someone said. And we did. Maybe a hundred people but this was not a manipulated rally. There are reports and videos (and a list of schools) for the individual schools and the Tweed rally on the GEM blog: http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

On Seniority
When The Indypendent's John Tarleton asked me to do an article in defense of seniority, I started tossing in all the things I wanted to say, starting with a complete history of Joel Klein's use of the issue, from his early years to claim the "best" - senior teachers - were not in the schools most in need because of the UFT transfer policies - to the fair funding formula that made senior teachers an economic liability to the schools. The bullshit the Ed deformers throw around would fertilize a small nation. Shill, baby, shill! When I stopped writing I had 2200 words, well over double the space John had given me.

John was the editor on the piece and we had a few very long conversations that revealed the complexities of the seniority issue. I found it a very rigorous exercise to go through a process like that with someone who was very astute but not tuned into all the details that boil up when you start drilling. John took my scattered thinking (see the recent front page article in the Times on the distractions of the internet to see why) and focused things in a way that makes sense, to such an extent that I hesitate to take total credit for the article.

The article is at http://www.indypendent.org/2010/06/03/teaching-under-assault/


Bloomberg Machine to Run City Until 2225- at the very least
Term limits? Don' need no stinckin' term limits. Last week's NY Times puff profile on Bloomberg's mate Diana Taylor is practically an announcement that she will run for mayor when his term is over. And when her term is over, Emma will be ready. Add the Unity Caucus lifetime control of the UFT with designated successors and, you see, we do live in a monarchy. Long live the king (and queen).


No thorns in Cactus Flower
I did the video of the Rockaway Theatre Company's' current production of Cactus Flower last Saturday night and the RTC keeps topping itself. In a play that takes perfect comic timing to pull off, the RTC players have perfect comic timing. Every single performance is of the highest quality. The set design is stunning. And the direction by Susan Corning as stunning as every other thing she does at the RTC. Three performances left to see a play that costs as much as many movies today. You are crazy if you are spending hundred of bucks going to Broadway and miss this Broadway quality play for fifteen bucks.

Guess the School?
This comment was left on my blog.
Guess the school and win a
When? When will this nonsense stop? On June 2, 2010, there was a ‘Code Blue’ at PS ____ and principal ---- was not in the building. What does it takes to remove this crook? She showed up at 2:35PM after she was called about the ‘Code Blue.’ She did not drive her car when she finally showed up at 2:35PM because of course she was pretending that she was already at work. Liar, she is late every day. Who is she supervising when she shows up for work at 2:35PM? She is blatantly stealing time. Check with the teachers in the building she has been on time on no more than four occasions this school year. If the NYCDOE is lucky she shows up by 11:30AM. She has the acting assistant principal, math coach, IEP teacher, senior school aide, Core Knowledge facilitator, and parent coordinator covering for her.

Superintendent Michele Lloyd-Bey, you must be aware of this blatant theft of time by now. What do you intend to do about it? I must remind you that you are also paid by taxpayers’ dollars. Does this scoundrel have secrets for you? Why aren’t you doing your job? We all know she is incompetent but you can relief her of her position because she blatantly steals time. She has not earned her pension or sick time. Who is keeping tabs? Certainly not a particular OSI investigator. I wonder what his hours are? He ‘investigates’ at PS ----- late evenings when the principal shows up.

The mayor and school chancellor should be investigating the principal of PS ----and the superintendent for district 27. They should not be allowed to collect their paychecks. One for theft of time and the other for negligence. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The people of Far Rockaway pay taxes and deserve better for their children. Who cares for the poor? Wake up people in authority and get rid of the crooks running this school.

Eva Moskowitz Wants Mosaic Prep Academy- Hearing, Monday

It goes on and on. Co-locations are temporary - for the public schools, not the charters, which by growing a grade a year while the public schools are stifled, will take over public school building after public school building. Monday it happens again. Be there if you dare.


06-18-2010


To whom it may concern

I Rose A Jimenez Parent Association President at Mosaic Preparatory Academy in East Harlem am writing this letter to invite you to our School on Monday June 21, 2010 at 4:30 pm to a hearing hosted by Harlem Success Academy 3.

You all know Mosaic has been housing this Charter School for 2 years and now they have put in a proposal to take over our School Building and all the procedures have been done in an illegal manner so the East Harlem Community is outraged and is standing up once again to fight back as we have been for the last year and a half, only this time we are asking for the resignation of our Principal because Mosaic Parents and Scholars WANT a Leader whom is not scared to stand toe to toe with their Parents and Community to provide an Equal Education for our Kids.
Our School has everything a Charter School has including the College readiness theme with very little money we make sure our Scholars receive a Quality Education.

Please come out and join us the Parents, the Community, the Boro-President Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Council Woman Melissa Mark-Viverito, all the candidates for the 68th Assembly District seat, community Leaders, Organizers, UFT Reps, CEC4, Presidents Council 4 and many others to save Mosaic Prep Academy and be a part of History in East Harlem because we will WIN, WIN, WIN!


Yours in Education,

Roseannette Jimenez
(917) 406-1091

From the GEM blog:

MOSAIC PREP ACADEMY IS CALLING ON GREAT FIGHTERS FOR SUPPORT

EVA MOSKOWITZ AND CHANCELLOR JOEL KLEIN

REALLY HAPPY PLOTTING TOGETHER!

ABOUT TWO MONTHS AGO MOSKOWITZ WAS QUOTED SAYING “THAT SHE WANTED THE BUILDING WHERE HARLEM SUCCESS 3 DWELLS IN IT’S TOTALITY NOT IN PIECES AND THAT WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH PARENT INVOLVEMENT TO FIGHT BACK” WELL WE ARE HERE TO INVITE YOU TO EVA MOSKOWITZ’S WORSE NIGHTMARE A REALITY CHECK OF HOW MUCH OUR PARENTS AND COMMUNITY CARE ABOUT OUR COLLEGE READINESS SCHOOL MOSAIC PREPARATORY ACADEMY AND HOW WE ARE NOT GOING TO LET NO NEW COMER TAKE AWAY OUR SCHOOL. A BUILDING THAT HAS BELONGED TO THE EAST HARLEM COMMUNITY FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO LET YOUR VOICE GET HEARD BY COMING OUT WEARING RED TO THIS COMMUNITY HEARING AND SPEAKING LOUD AND CLEAR ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL AND WHY THEY CAN’T HAVE IT OR THE BUILDING IS AS GOOD AS GONE!

STOP EVA MOSKOWITZ ONCE IN FOR ALL AND TELL HER VERY LOUD AND VERY CLEAR GO ANYWHERE YOUR HUGE SALARY CAN PAY BUT NOT OUR SCHOOLS

PUBLIC COMMUNITY HEARING

WHERE: 141 E 111 ST NEW YORK NY 10029 AUDITORIUM

WHEN: MONDAY JUNE 21, 2010

TIME: 5:00 PM SHARP

CONTACT: CEC 4 MEMBER ROSE JIMENEZ (212) 876-2414

(917) 406-1091

ALL SCHOOLS DEALING WITH CHARTER SCHOOL ISSUES OR WANT TO SUPPORT IN THIS FIGHT AGAINST CHARTERS ARE WELCOME

THIS EVENT WILL BRING FORTH A SERIES OF EVENTS THAT WE WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT ON

We Demand that ALL New York City schools be held to the same standards to ensure every child in the city has access to a Quality Education!

Charter Schools should not come into our neighborhoods and expand at the expense of the District Schools the Parent Associations of our Schools is telling DOE NO MORE!!!!

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS

Damn That Antonucci, Beats Me to Kirk/Randi Story

When I heard the story about challenges to Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk's claims that he was a real teacher:

According to the NY Times: "a year in London at a private school and part-time in a nursery school as part of a work-study program while he was a student at Cornell University."

--- I said to myself: He has more teaching time that Randi did. But before I could blog about it EIA's Mike Antonucci came up with this:

U.S. Rep. Mark S. Kirk (R-IL) is being accused by his Democratic rival of overstating his teaching experience. His campaign failed to issue the obvious response:

“Rep. Kirk has enough teaching experience to lead a national teachers’ union.”

From the Village Voice:

“[Weingarten] has been on union leave since 1997, accumulating a total of nine years of pensionable city time though she only did one semester of full-time teaching.”

Make sure to click the above link to the Voice piece - it is priceless even thought it was written by the vicious anti-teacher/UFT Wayne Barrett. [See Afterburn for a section.]

I once heard Randi claim on NY1 that she taught 5 classes a day for six years. Or I think I heard it because it is hard to believe that someone would lie so openly and feel they could get away with it. Foolish me! You hear that Joel Klein is not an educator. But even he taught for 6 months or so during the Vietnam great draft escape (I was one of them too). Funny how Randi talks about her minimal teaching experience while Klein never seems to mention it. Even though he taught full time I know full well that it must have been hell for a new and untrained teacher - the 6 week special! He went running the minute he could. But so did many others, so I am not blaming Klein for that. What I blame him for is not having exhibited even a clue to how schools really work based on even that minimal experience.


Why would someone use a claim to have been a teacher as a positive talking point when teachers have been degraded for so long. You know the "those who can do, those who can't teach" mantra? It turns out that Kirk wsa trying to use his "experience" in controlling a nursery school class as a resume for how he would function in the US Senate. Hmmm. He may be on to something. But it turns out he didn't even run the nursery school class.

Follow-up reports say that Kirk wasn't even a nursery school teacher at all but came in to "play with the children." The Huffington Post piece says, "As a former nursery school and middle school teacher," Kirk said in a March speech to the Illinois Education Association, "I know some of what it takes to bring order to class." His supervising teacher said "Kirk was not responsible for "bringing order" to the nursery schoolers."

Well, if he wins (it is the Obama Senate seat by the way) Kirk can go in and play with the Senators.

------------
Afterburn
The VOICE Article:

In urging Klein "to walk in the shoes of teachers" .... she described how she'd done it, claiming that she "taught, sometimes full time, sometimes part time, at Clara Barton High School for six years." Actually, records reviewed by the Voice indicate that she taught 122 days as a per diem teacher from September 1991 through June 1994, roughly one in four days. She then did what she told the Voice was her only full-time term in the fall semester of 1994, followed by 33 days as a per diem teacher in the spring of 1995.

I don't believe that Randi actually went in even as a per diem sub and taught a full load. People at Barton said she usually had 2 periods of teaching and then left.
--------
Why that graphic? Just a representative of the look on people's face, whether Randi or Klein or the Teach for America crew as they escape from teaching.

Gothamist Reporter Briana Parker on Labor Rally at City Hall

Gothamist Reporter Briana Parker has written an account of the rally at City Hall on Wednesday, titled "Our City Needs Saving! Municipal Workers to the Rescue"

Briana, a Hunter HS grad is entering her sophomore year at Smith College.

Story and pics are at

http://gothamist.com/2010/06/17/our_city_needs_saving_municipal_wor.php?

The daughter of an elementary school chapter leader from Brooklyn, Briana also took this photo.



Excellent foreground. That old guy with the hat in the background is grimacing at the cars on Broadway that wouldn't honk. Or he's just constipated.

DC Union Elections Ignored by AFT - Well Sort Of

Funny how when it comes to Randi's people they can do anything but she did get involved in the DC elections over the composition of the election committee. That in effect killed the election before the contract vote. To what ends will she go? I bet the AFT/UFT/Unity caucus war room is figuring out ways to undermine CORE in Chicago. It certainly looks like there will be no representatives honestly elected from DC at the AFT convention in July. My guess is that Parker is acting under the advice of the AFT because the election of Nathan Saunders would put another hostile big city AFT leader in office.

Norm

Washington Teachers' Union Election Tampering: Time To Impeach George Parker?

Did Tweed Give Principals a Quota on Holdovers in Attempt to Bump Summer School Numbers?

UPDATED: June 18, 8am

THIS MIGHT NOT BE AS BAD AS IT LOOKED. HERE IS A MEMO FROM A PARENT:

Here is what the principals were told. It is actually a good policy.

"principals may presumptively promote two students without portfolio review by Community Superintendent; any additional promotion recommendations require that the principals send portfolios for review to Community Superintendents."


In the their own version of Monopoly, the NYCDOE seems to have given principals the equivalent of 2 Get out of Jail cards, at least based on this email I received from an elementary school teacher.

Norm, I wonder if this is happening all over the city:

As you know, principals were notified which students did not pass the state tests. There weren't given the actual scores, they just got a list of students with the phrase they "did not meet standards" next to their names. My principal was told she could only appeal two students of the few that did not get the benchmark test score. Even though more than two could have had portfolios assembled to appeal for promotion! How is that legal? Of course children who did not meet standards must attend summer school! Is the city trying to fund summer programs? I just wonder what other nonsense the DOE is cooking up in relation to the test score nonsense, considering twice as many students as last year did not meet the so-called criteria!!!

I was reading this on the train home from the rally yesterday when 3 teachers from an elementary school in Brooklyn got on. I showed them this email and they said it was true. That a 2 child limit for exemptions from being held over throughout the system, no matter the size of the school or the number of kids in danger. Hey, got to fill those summer school slots. Summer school is part of the ed deform blueprint and we can't go outside those lines.

Let us know if this is true in your schools. Better yet, if you can get ahold of any directive, send it along. Right now we are hearing that district supt are telling this to principals. Are they trying to hide the paper trail?

Bad photoshopping by me so don't blame David.
STRIKE THAT. DAVID CAME ACROSS WITH ANOTHER BEAUT!

-----
Make sure to check out recent posts on Norms Notes. Lots of juicy articles.
CORE Update: Emergency Board Meeting 6/15/2010
Class Size Versus Teacher Raises in Chicago

Pondering Legal Implications of Value-Added Teacher Evaluation

Today: INDYKIDS 5TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AND FUNDRAISER

Date: Thursday, June 17, 2010

Time: 5:30-8:30PM

Where: Town Tavern, 134 W 3^rd St (b/t Ave of the Americas & MacDougal St)

Directions: Take the A, C, E, B, D, F, V to the W 4th St.; walk one block south to W 3^rd

Special: $15 donation gets you one free drink and $3 beers/$4 wells

-Auction for cool prizes

-Bake sale

-Coloring in the IndyKids coloring book

Please make a donation to IndyKids, whether or not you can be there on June 17!

IndyKids is sustained though individual donations and grants. Due to the economic crisis, some grants were not renewed this year. We really need your support! The IndyKids budget is small, so your donation makes a big difference in the life of IndyKids. Think about the impact you can make. Every $50 contribution pays to print 700 additional copies of the newspaper. That’s 700 more kids who you help to reach with a fuller understanding of the news and the world.

HOW TO DONATE

1. Donate online at: www.indykids. org

2. Write a check made out to “IndyKids” and mail it to the address below.

3. Donations of $50 or more are tax deductible if made out to the IndyKids fiscal sponsor, the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. Write your check out to “UC-IMC” and send it to IndyKids at the address below.

MORE INFO:

We’re very excited and proud to say that IndyKids is turning five this year! Although we are only five, we realize that many of our friends are of drinking age, and so we will be offering a drink special all night ($3 domestic beers, $4 wells) and one free drink for those guests who can give a suggested donation $15.

WHAT IS INDYKIDS?

IndyKids is a free newspaper, website and teaching tool that aims to inform children on current news and world events from a progressive perspective and to inspire a passion for social justice and learning. It is geared toward kids in grades 4 to 8 and high school English Language Learners. IndyKids is produced monthly during the school year with five print editions and four online editions.

CONTACT:

WEB: www.indykids. org

EMAIL: info@indykids. org

PHONE: 212-592-0116

ADDRESS: P.O. Box 2281, New York, NY 10163

Did Alex Russo he really say that?

This tidbit came in from Leonie on the increasingly clueless Russo:

"... so many of the tests kids take have little or no effect on their lives (or, I would argue, the lives and careers of most teachers and educators)."

If so, I wonder what universe he must be living in.

http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2010/06/tests-no-way-to-be-certain-about-cheating-explosion.html

June 16 - Blooms Day

See today's Times op ed on Blooms Day, (June 16 from Joyce's Ulysses) - The ‘Learning Knights’ of Bell Telephone - where corporate leaders felt they needed people with liberal arts education:
"The sociologist E. Digby Baltzell explained the Bell leaders’ concerns in an article published in Harper’s magazine in 1955: “A well-trained man knows how to answer questions, they reasoned; an educated man knows what questions are worth asking.” Bell, then one of the largest industrial concerns in the country, needed more employees capable of guiding the company rather than simply following instructions or responding to obvious crises."

"The capstone of the program, and its most controversial element, came in eight three-hour seminars devoted to “Ulysses.” The novel, published in 1922, had been banned as obscene in the United States until 1933 and its reputation for difficulty outlived the ban. The Bell students “found it a challenging, and often exasperating, experience,...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/opinion/16davis.html?ref=opinion

Afterburn
I never read Usylsses. The only time I read Joyce was in freshman English - and barely survived.

Antonucci's EIA on CHI: Teamsters in the House

There are few out there with more knowledge and a better understanding of the underlying forces in teacher union politics (more so about the NEA than the AFT) than the Educational Intelligence Agency's Mike Antonucci - once you get past his spin. Mike loves to dish dirt on the unions - he will ignore the most extreme malfeasance from the people running schools while reporting on a union leader who sneezes into his sleeve.

I get criticism from my leftie friends - and my UFT enemies like Leo Casey (I'm too busy to find Leo's links) - for even mentioning Mike, one of the early bashers of teacher unions. I've been on his list since being connected through Sol Stern (I think) many years ago. Now there are some strange bedfellows - but I have had some of the best discussions with both of them over the years. You learn a lot more from trying to defend your policies when not preaching to the choir.

For a while I though Mike had forgotten where Chicago was and was going to send him a map. Finally, his long-awaited comments appeared yesterday. There is some cogent analysis and truths buried within, though from his distance he is missing some essential differences between CORE and Debbie Lynch's PACT reform slate that need to be examined.

One of his key points is that the Chicago teacher union staff - the equivalent of the UFT's district and field reps - are unionized - unlike in the UFT (I have more info on why and will deal with that in a separate post.) When he refers to the "reform crowd" he means the ed deform crowd. CORE represents the real reform crowd. Call it Real Ed Reform - RER.

First, here is Mike's post, followed by my comments and an after burn follow-up.

The Education Intelligence Agency

COMMUNIQUÉ – June 14, 2010

On the Web at http://www.eiaonline.com

Is Chicago the Flip Side of DC? Once again, EIA finds itself in the role of wet blanket, smothering the fiery claims of those who want the events in a single district to be replicated everywhere else. Last week I tried to douse the enthusiasm of the reform crowd who saw the DC teachers' contract as a harbinger of the future for other troubled urban districts.

This week, it's the turn of the old guard unionists who think the results of the Chicago Teachers Union leadership vote is a portent of a new wave of militancy from teachers, in reaction to the recent beatings public employees' unions are taking in press and public opinion.

The Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) united other opposition groups and achieved victory for presidential candidate Karen Lewis and her slate. Lewis defeated incumbent president Marilyn Stewart by a 3 to 2 margin.

First, let's not deny the obvious. CORE did campaign on taking a harder line against the district administration, and that's how it won. In fact, that's the only way an opposition slate ever wins a union election, particularly in the AFT.

Few remember now that Stewart won election to the CTU presidency in 2004 by criticizing incumbent Deborah Lynch for being insufficiently protective of teachers' interests. "This is a labor union, not a university," Stewart famously said. Stewart promised to focus the union on contract enforcement and filing grievances.

Stewart was criticized for jumping on the protest bandwagon too late - only rallying against layoffs and budget cuts when it became clear her own reelection was in doubt. In 2004, that criticism was also leveled against Lynch (see item #5, here) who faced Stewart in a runoff after layoff notices were sent to 2,180 teachers and 1,300 support personnel. Lynch appeared at a media event to protest the layoffs during the runoff campaign.

Lewis's election may have large implications for the Chicago Public Schools. Her politics are significantly to the left of the machine Democrats who run the city and the school system. "What drives school reform is a single focus on profit. Profit. Not teaching, not learning, profit," she said in her post-election press conference.

Nevertheless, she may find her platform difficult to implement. It includes repealing mayoral control, stopping school closings and reconstitutions, and bargaining class size. But those will be easy compared to her plan to "cap CTU officer and staff salaries to the average teacher salary prorated over 12 months."

She may get her way with the officers, but the staffers are represented by the Teamsters, and their contractually guaranteed minimum base salary for next year is $101,517.80. So good luck with that.

Lewis could reverse the trend of outsiders becoming insiders, but history isn't on her side. The last "next big thing" was A.J. Duffy in Los Angeles. He survived his reelection challenge, but was also criticized for too much compromising. A lot of same kinds of internal reforms Lewis proposes were instituted in Miami after the Tornillo scandal. It's hard to argue that any of this led to a mass movement for teachers' unions - in either direction.

One of the aspects of the 2001 Chicago election was that the UPC (Unity, Chicago version though thoroughly inept) that lost the election kept control of many staff positions through the Teamster contracts Mike talks about. The old guard UPC used these political operatives to undermine Lynch with the members, though she did lose support on her own. I assume, they will try to do the same with CORE (and don't forget, they will have the help of Randi and the AFT who I bet are already plotting strategy on how to undermine and divide CORE and bring the UPC back into power.) Addressing this issue will be quite a task for CORE.

I saw some comments on the Substance site urging CORE to not sign these contracts. Hmmm. Could be interesting with the Teamsters involved. {I have more info on the difference between the UFT staffers who have no union and will follow up later.]

CORE does not come across as "old guard unionists." From the people I hung with in LA this past summer many of the leaders are fairly young, progressive teachers with a social justice outlook. They say they have been building connections to the parents and communities and to students. Real connections at the school levels, not the kinds of leadership to leadership connections we see from the UFT.

The CORE platform (make sure to read Karen Lewis' speech):

Repealing mayoral control, stopping school closings and reconstitutions, and bargaining class size.

It may be difficult but nowhere as difficult in NYC where the union doesn't even have these items in its platform. At least with CORE there's a chance for a fight.

Norm
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After Burn
I got to hang with Mike in the press section of the AFT convention in 2004 and we had some excellent discussion. It was Mike who picked up the ball immediately when the FMPR from Puerto Rico appeared at that convention with their disaffiliation from the AFT and reported on the rift extensively (though I was too dense to see it at the time.) There has been some glee at seeing the autocratic, blood-sucking AFT take a hit. (Since then through Angel Gonzalez' friendship with Rafael Feliciano, the president of the FMPR, GEMers have developed close contacts.) If you search the ednotes blog or Mike's EIA site (http://www.eiaonline.com) you can find the links to his reports over many years.

Mike incidentally reported yesterday that he uses the Network Solutions and faced similar problems that Substance (as reported here yesterday) has, speculating that there was no cyber attack on either of them. I mean, who would want to attack EIA other than Leo Casey. Hmmm. Leo also doesn't like George Schmidt very much. Hope Leo has an alibi.

Mike was born and bred in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn and I in East NY a mile or two away, so we grew up not far apart (though he is much younger.) East Brooklyn - Feistyville.
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Double After-burn
Speaking of Chicago, my wife has gotten me to start reading "The Devil in the White City" a book about the Chicago world's fair in 1892.

TODAY: Join GEM and the CPE at Today's Rally

Rally against the budget cuts with the

Coalition for Public Education and the

Grassroots Education Movement

Wednesday June 16th, Start gathering at 4pm.

From 4pm-4:30pm gather outside

Brooklyn Bridge train station on the City Hall side (4,5,6 Train Lines).

At 4:30pm March to Tweed Courthouse (DOE Headquarters)

52 Chambers Street

New York, NY 10007

Join the City-Wide Rally

Against Budget Cuts!

WEAR RED!!!

WEAR RED!!!

WEAR RED!!!

BRING BANNERS, BRING FLAGS, BRING DRUMS...

MAKE SOME NOISE!!!

Join us on Broadway for the City Hall Rally .

If you can't find us call Akinlabi Mackall at (646) 824-4723.

Directions: 4,5,6 trains to Brooklyn Bridge train station.

Bring your colleagues, family, friends and neighbors! It will take all of us standing together to stop these devastating cuts!!!

Calling All Volunteers!

We need your help to spread the message. Please meet up with John L to help pass out fliers and see Diane for a clip board and sign-up sheet.

For more info:

CPE
www.forpubliced.blogspot.com

GEM
http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

Substance Web Site Under Cyber Attack, Needs Assistance

Those of you following the Chicago union story know that George Schmidt's Substance, in the midst of a media blackout, is our major source of information. But if you try to get into the site it is like watching grass grow. Here is a request from George:

6/15/10

I've spent the better part of the day monitoring the attack on SubstanceNews and on the phone with Network Solutions about it. I've learned some very interesting things, and was wondering if you could ask ICE people, when they have the time, to do the following:

Please go to the Substance website at

www.substancenews.net

Every eight to twelve hours and e-mail me a copy of what happens

My email for this is

Gnschmidt@aol.com

I am beginning to document this third time we were sabotaged by Network Solutions since January, and how this always happens at a mission critical time. In January they were supposedly "sweeping for hackers" and had our site stats down a total of four full days (January February 2010). In April, they let another site basically piggy back on Substance, and CPS blocked us for a week from local Chicago schools access. This time, within 24 hours after our announcing the CORE victory, there have been a half dozen different Network Solutions explanations about why nobody can get to Substance.

So I need to document each iteration, and from different places. We're at this point working with lawyers. Needless to say, these problems haven't hit all (or even most of) the site hosted by Network Solutions. While it's an honor in a way, we can't let them continue to disrupt us every time we're in the middle of some large scale political activity here in Chicago or elsewhere, and that is precisely what they have been doing and are continuing to do as I write this.

Thanks for your help,

George N. Schmidt

Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.net