Mulling IT Over: To Go to Delegate Assembly, To Not Go to Delegate Assembly

ALERT:

GEM Teach for America alums will be live blogging from the 20th anniversary in DC this weekend. We will be spending the weekend doing semi-final editing on "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" for our sneak rough cut preview on Feb. 17 and will be transmitting the blogs to the GEM blog.

Today's Diary:
Goal- Do long awaited analysis on Moskowitz/Mulgrew strategy on Feb. 1 and Feb. 3 in bringing out hordes of people to the respective PEPs.

8:30AM
I got up at 5AM to take my wife to the airport for her trip to a fancy resort in Cancun with her former co-worker gal pal, a celebration of sorts on her first anniversary of retirement. How did I feel driving in the dark in 14 degrees? (&*(***). That leaves me and Pinky to hold down the fort and eat cat food together. I think I'll head over to hot yoga to warm the old bones.

11:00AM
Ahhhh, back from yoga. An hour and a half in 100 degrees. I'm warmer than my wife will be in Mexico. There's a UFT Delegate Assembly today. Maybe I'll skip this one and stay warm at home. But then again I have to go over to my 93 year old dad in Brooklyn and take him food shopping. He's gained 5 pounds since he got half a set of teeth. He consumes tubs of Bryers ice cream. Can't wait till I hit real old age instead of semi-old age and can eat all day and all night.

Once in Brooklyn, I'll make a game-time decision. I have nothing to give out at the DA. Expect a wild afternoon with so many dislocated shoulders from all pats on the back from the Unity Caucus faithful over their semi-disruption and walkout at the February 3 PEP, there will be emergency medical personnel on the premises.

I expressed a bunch of reservations about the walkout, (Debating UFT Strategy on PEP Walkout as a A UFT Leadership Member Declares: "We're Going in a New Direction"), though not the rally and demo which I think should have continued throughout the meeting until the PEPSQUEAKS walked off in frustration.

I was thinking as we all were screaming "puppets" at the Pathetic PEPpers: How different are the Unity Caucus clones than the Bloomberg PEPers? Both sets follow the orders of their leaders mindlessly. I considered putting out an Ed Notes today for the DA to address these issues, but who am I really talking to other than a majority of Unity people who will walk off the cliff if told to. If I go to the DA I might get riled up enough to expand on this point. Well, off to shower after that hot yoga class.

Here is a piece I wrote for this Friday's edition of The Wave:

PEP Votes to Close More Schools, Including Beach Channel

by Norm Scott, Education Editor

A raucous crowd of 2000 students, teachers and parents organized by the UFT, the Coalition for Educational Justice and the Urban Youth Collaborative

shouted, blew whistles, and booed throughout Chancellor Cathie Black's speech at the February 3 Panel for Educational Policy meeting, the 2nd meeting that week.

After an hour of disruption, most of the body left in a pre-planned walkout, leaving a sparse crowd to observe the Mayor Bloomberg dominated Panel complete its major order of business, which was to vote for the phasing out of an additional 12 schools and to allow co-locations in eight more public schools, including Queens high schools Beach Channel and Jamaica, with a new small high school to be opened in each.

Two days earlier, the PEP had voted to close ten schools and co-locate five more. Both meetings generated an outpouring of politicians, mostly from Brooklyn and Manhattan, who are opposed to the drastic DOE policies, but no politician connected to the Rockaways showed up to defend Beach Channel.

While most people supported the UFT-led walkout, some organizers opposed to the closing and co-location policy of the Department of Education were critical of the decision. Julie Cavanagh, a teacher in Red Hook, Brooklyn and a member of the Grassroots Education Movement, a group of NYC teachers organizing and fighting the school closure and co-locations said, "I didn't feel right about the walk out and didn't participate in it. To me, it would have been much more powerful if everyone there either a) stood in solidarity with the parents, students, and teachers who came out to speak for their school, b) we all participated in a vigil of some kind or c) if instead of walking out, we walked forward and really took the needed steps towards a revolution (which, in a dictatorship is not that radical).  The messaging of a walk out is 'nothing matters'- that is fatalistic and serves no purpose. I doubt any political capital was gained from the action."

Jeez, can Julie nail an issue or what? Where was she hiding all these years? I don't think I've ever seen someone go from zero to a 160 in a little over a year. Well, maybe not exactly zero. - I had to say that since we'll be editing the film this entire weekend and she'll probably kill me.

And you  must check out Paul Moore's commentary on the Michelle Rhee controversy over her claims she radically raised test scores, which retired Wash DC teacher and blogger GF Brandenberg proved was bogus. (His blog is on my blogroll-GFBrandenburg's Blog- How Teach for America Could Have Been Useful – But Wasn’t.) 

Rhee shill Jay Mathews acknowledged the work Brandenberg did but Moore won't let him off easy.

Well Mr. Mathews, your death bed confession is on the record. But you must count heavily on the most merciful of gods. For the monster you helped to create still roams the land. One day standing beside the teacher-hating Governor Christie in New Jersey, the next day visiting an Opa-Locka charter school with voucher loving Governor Scott in Florida. One day sitting before Oprah Winfrey's national TV audience and being lauded as a "warrior woman", the next collecting the checks of the oligarchs and the Wall Street bankers for her teacher's union busting cult.

I'm at a loss to understand the distinction you make between lying and memory lapse. I got the distinct impression you were a proponent of "data driven" education. Data is precise. Test scores are there or they are not. But I'm going to give your new take on this a try. When they come to rate me as a teacher on a value added basis, no matter the scores, I'll tell them that I clearly remember teaching my students those test taking skills.

Wish me luck and may God have mercy on your journalistic soul.

And just for old time sake, one more time, "The Fable of Michelle Rhee" by Jay Mathews.

Once upon a time, there was a young Ivy League missionary with a couple years to kill before getting on with her life's work. Rather than backpacking through Europe or climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro after a safari in Africa, our intrepid heroine plunged into the mean streets of Baltimore where children who live in poverty test poorly.

One day the Ivy League princess was struck down like St. Paul on the way to Damascus. Sit the poor children in a circle, the voice told her. And sit them in a circle she did.

They forevermore scored like rich children on tests. Just take my word on that. I swear its true. And they all lived happily ever after. No, no really, stop laughing. How rude. Ok, that's enough, get up off the floor. Geez, its a fairy tale. You know like Pinocchio?

Paul A. Moore

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 Success to Co-Locate at Rikers?

Jeff Kaufman sent along this item:
The UFT chapter at  Island Academy brought this information to D.79's attention  and nothing happened.
 

Are the Guards in the Rikers Juvenile Wing Allowing Inmates to Police Themselves? -- New York Magazine

Thanks for the info Jeff. Reminds me of the movie "Escape from New York" where they turned Manhattan into a massive prison and blew the bridges and left the prisoners to fend for themselves. True negligence on the part of all, including the DOE.

I wonder if there are any charter schools that wants to take some of these juveniles?

Any charters looking to co-locate at Rikers? Harlem Success Academy at Rikers?
--------------
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.

UPDATE Parents Across America

Last Update - Weds, Feb. 9, 9:45PM
NOTE UPDATED BROAD LIVING DEAD POSTER TO INCLUDE MORE TWEEDIES:

I found last night's PAA event organized by Leonie Haimson and parents from, well, across America, a powerful experience and a sense that the resistance to ed deform is growing.

Diane Ravitch, introduced by Leonie Haimson: 38 strong minutes:
http://vimeo.com/19755379

Here is an excellent 5 minutes from Julie Menin, chair of Community Board 1 in lower Manhattan with some comments from Leonie Haimson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gieAYxCIC2I

More videos in this space as they are processed. I have to leave Diane Ravitch till tomorrow because it is almost 40 minutes and take hours.

I extracted some stills from the video.

Sharon Higgins, of awesome Perimeter Primate blog, Oakland

Karran Harper Royal, New Orleans

I am processing the video as fast as I can and will put up links in this post over the next day or two - I'll put a link at the top of the sidebar. I forgot to mention that our pals from Rochester who are battling former Klein slug and Broad Academy grad Jean Claude-Brizard were in the house last night - I met a bunch of them when they came to town on July 5 to protest mayoral control and held a demo at Malcolm Smith's Queens office. This time they were joined by teacher Mark Friedman who blogs at the Colorado-based Failing Schools blog.

And guess who was in the house? Remember that great blog Chancellors New Clothes? Both of them were there and it was to nice to see them. They are thinking of restarting the blog. Hope they do.

As I was watching one parent after another present the horror story of ed deform going on in their city, I felt I was watching a version of the Night of the Living Dead, starring graduates of the Broad Academy. A quick email to David Bellel and Voila:

New Orleans Wasteland and Seattle Stuff

UPDATE: Midnght
 Just back from the city - had dinner with Leonie and 6 other amazing parent leaders from around the nation, including a few I knew or knew of: Caroline Grannan from SF, Sharron Higgins from Oakland, Dora Taylor and Sue Peters deom Seattle, Karren Harper Royal from New Orleans. They are up for the battle with the ed deformers through building Parents Across America.


Charter school operators talk about choice. Karran Harper Royal just told us about the New Orleans nightmare where you end up with no choice - but KIPP.
She was followed by a wonderful Sue Peters presentation as a neighbor to the Gates foundation. She pointed to Broad polution nationwide.
Chicago's Julie Woestehoff from Pure is up now. More ed deform horrors. It's like watching tales of the Night of the Living Dead Ed Deformer zombies. In 3-D.

Cheers
Norm Scott
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
Education Editor, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Ravitch Rocks

I'm taping the Parents Across America event at PS 89 in Tribeca. Much of the NYC edurati resistance seems to be in the room along with out of town visitors. Sharron Higgins is here from Oakland and Mary Adams from Rochester among others.

Ravitch doing a fabulous presentation and this one nails every single issue. She just slammed Chicago Renaissance. That's 16 years of mayoral control. Even the business community slammed them. But all this is ignored by the privatization pushers (like drugs). "We need to do what works. Early childhood. Parenting workshops. Lower class size. For teachers more professionalization not less. Teach for America cannot be the solution for a nation that has 4 million teachers. We need principals who have been educators....send teams of educators to low performing schools where they stay and analyze how to solve the problems ....sooner or later the corporate strategy will fail....most hope is pushback.....national teacher march on Washington in July not org by nea or aft but teachers...parents are sleeping giant. If sleeping giant awakens we can take back education. "
Cheers
Norm Scott

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement

Education Editor, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sue Peters: Satus Quo = Ed Deform, Plus Some Real Reforms

I am co-posting this piece by Sue Peters of the fabulous Seattle based blog "Seattle Education 2010" because it is so right on and goes beyond criticizing the ed deformers and goes into the Real Reforms. A must read. Sue was at some of the events in Seattle during the AFT convention this past summer and she is part of the Parents Across America group that she helped start with Leonie Haimson to battle the ed deformers. Sue will be at the PAA event tonight with Diane Ravitch. I'll be there to tape it.

If you agree that our nation needs a new vision for public education, I invite you to join a forum of parents from across the nation who are launching a new organization, Parents Across America, in New York on Feb. 7. Our keynote speaker will be education historian Diane Ravitch. The event is free and open to the public. It starts at 6 p.m. and will held at: PS/IS 89 – Liberty School, 201 Warren Street, New York, N.Y. 10282.

Why I am not a defender of the ‘status quo’ in education — because the ‘status quo’ is failed ed reforms

Posted on February 4, 2011 by seattleducation2010| 7 Comments
 

The current crowd of ed reformers like to dismiss any of us who disagree with their agenda as “defenders of the status quo.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
I am not a defender of the status quo in public education – because the status quo is currently “No Child Left Behind” and its insidious spin-off, “Race to the Top.”

Conspiracy Theories: Let Discipline Go to Undermine Public Schools

Note: Check Ed Notes for live blogging from Teach for America 20th Anniversary celebration in Washington DC next weekend, February 12-13 as a GEM TFA alum goes undercover - lots of ed deform guests of honor, including Randi Weingarten. We look forward to getting reports on how Randi sucks up - if hookups are available for our spy.

Teacher complaints about the deterioration of discipline and the mantra of school leaders who don't support teachers when students are disruptive with the charge that there are no discipline problems, only poor teaching practices is highlighted at An Urban Teacher's Education where Frank Beard, a TFA alum, tells it like it is. I left a comment that this is part of the subtle and not so subtle conspiracy to undermine and privatize the public schools by making conditions so intolerable for parents of the kids who do not disrupt that they will jump at the charter school option as a safe haven since charter schools can counsel out the very students that are disruptive or at least keep their numbers to a minimum. Also note that charter schools can insist on parent involvement - Harlem Success penalizes parents who bring children to school late by making them come in on Saturdays. Here are some excerpts from Frank:

When people ask me what I believe was the number one barrier to student achievement at my school, I always offer the same answer: the failure of the school and district to address chronically disruptive students. It was a problem created by negligent leaders who willingly allowed a free-for-all environment that was conducive to chaos instead of learning.   

           

I’ll never forget the first day of staff development my second year. During the “welcome back” talk, my principal handed out a sheet which detailed the number of discipline referrals submitted by each teacher the previous year. We were informed that it is wrong to submit a lot of them because discipline is a classroom-management issue and therefore must be addressed within the classroom. Sending students to the office, she said, is simply not acceptable or allowed.

Nearly ever discipline referral sent to the office was returned with a polite reminder to please contact the students’ parents. Clear and consistent consequences simply did not exist—even though they were mandated by the district’s code of conduct.  

Once that realization spread, the school effectively went from quality to chaos overnight.

When students are subjected to a toxic environment that prevents learning, all other education concerns—curriculum, standards, integrating technology, etc—become totally irrelevant. Unfortunately, this is something rarely ever addressed in both local and national media. And education reformers—whether from watching Freedom Writers one too many times or just understanding that blaming teachers is politically expedient right now—repeat until they’re red in the face the idea that a teacher with leadership skills and high expectations can fix everything short of the conflict in the Middle East.

So what did our school leaders focus on, if not the toxic atmosphere in the schools? The superintendent—a product of the Broad Superintendents Academy—was concerned mostly with “right-sizing” the district, preparing to implement standards-based learning at pilot schools, and token efforts towards “community involvement”. the chronically disruptive atmosphere was by far the most significant and destructive. It’s a problem that’s conspicuously absent from successful suburban schools—which don’t tolerate outrageous misbehavior—and is usually never mentioned by education reformers, policy experts, consultants, and the other people who pretend to know what’s best for our schools.

Perhaps my expectations are too high. After all, how can I expect them to understand the seriousness of this problem if they’ve spent little or no time working in the very schools they pretend to be experts about?

Read the entire piece and comments:  TFA Alumnus Describes Barriers to Student Achievement

Labor Notes links:

Julie Cavanagh on billionaire school reform.
Mark Brenner on the big public moneys that the privatizers are going after.
Howard Ryan on the teachers unions' partnership strategy.
Julie Cavanagh New York City's heated-up battle over school closures and charter schools muscling in.

Check out new blogger- NYC parent and community activist Susan Crawford: http://susanink.com/

Afterburn:
Neutral on Superbowl. Would normally root for Pittsburgh as AFT team but hard to root for Ben the rapist.

Debating UFT Strategy on PEP Walkout as a A UFT Leadership Member Declares: "We're Going in a New Direction"

Is Mayoral control and the PEP the UFT's Rosemary's Baby?

Yesterday I received a call from an upper level UFT member of the leadership. After hearing me do my usual "Ed Notes was warning you about mayoral control, the entire PEP process is the UFT's Rosemary's baby, yada, yada, yada for at least a decade I was told, "You may have been right but now we're going in a different direction."

We'll see. Based on history and the analysis below and some follow up stuff I want to do based on what Mulgrew didn't say at the E4E appearance (no real defense of LIFO or ATRs)as reported at Gotham, I don't think so.

When I wrote my Wave column Wednesday morning (Poison Pep Pills) for the print edition I blacked out my last sentence for the blog because I didn't want to give anything away.

By the time you read this you might be hearing about a major disruption of the PEP at that meeting to attempt to stop the vote to close the schools. Or not.

It turns out the "or not" was operative. You see I was actually fooled again. I really thought the UFT might stop this meeting cold so they couldn't conduct business, just like the CEJ-led August 16 PEP meeting when the PEPsqueaks were driven off the stage.

If you were roaming around through the grim looks of the DOE officials before the walkout and the look of relief after the walkout you would know exactly what I mean. They were really worried that they wouldn't be able to have a vote and would have to reschedule the meeting. And I believe the UFT and their partners in the event, the Coalition for Educational Justice (more on this relationship soon) and the Urban Youth Collaborative could stop every single PEP meeting if they have the will. But do they? (CEJ was involved in that $10 million that Bloomberg gave the schools to help struggling kids, something CEJ lobbied very hard for, though critics say that money is going for Saturday test prep academies.)

Now, I was as caught up in the evacuation as anyone and since then I was on the fence on the walkout. I got an earful from parent Lisa Donlan (who had a discussion - which I may have mischaracterized in my post yesterday as "in the face"of Michael Mendel but Lisa cleared up as a nice talk - about how upset she was) and teacher Julie Cavanagh at a bar when we left the meeting.

Yesterday, the debate raged all day on the NYC Education News listserve (run by Leonie and the most influential ed listserve with both Diane Ravitch and Debbie Meier commenting frequently). Before I jump in with more analysis of UFT strategy and tactics in a follow-up here are some of the comments I culled. I will add more as they come. Weigh in with your own.

After the Napoleonic Wars, Bar Von Clausewitz wrote a little book, On War. It is still used in military strategy classes in the USMC and at Sandhurst. These are three primary rules on war.....

*Never underestimate your enemy.....or, s/he ain't half as dumb as you would like her/him to be.

*Never arm the enemy.....or don't leave ammunition lying around

and

*Never abandon the field in the face of your enemy.....or don't walk out.

Although I understand the frustration of watching a preordained vote, leaving was a mistake,

Or

Another strategy is being developed.

If the latter is true, it's time for the troops to know something about the strategy. No one will follow a leader(s) who keep secrets. And, if there isn't a new strategy, WTF?

Ellen

-----------------

I am glad you returned to support the co located schools that were left alone w/ ERN and their astroturfed bussed in parents with scripts, as the text below documents.

 Of course it was all decided- and the majority of mayoral appointees have the votes to perpetuate the sham, voting as ordered.

That is the definition of Mayoral control- the DoE and its controlled  PEP do not have to listen, they do not have to follow the law, as the last 9 years has demonstrated.

My question is a sincere one- 

What was accomplished by the walk out?

Lisa Donlan

All we have is right now is to try to exert more public pressure on Bloomberg  through the media; watching NY1 last night (I didn’t see the other channels) it appeared to me that the walkout and the interviews w/ students and others who walked out made a powerful point.

Leonie Haimson

-------------

I didn't feel right about the walk out and didn't participate in it. To me, it would have been much more powerful if everyone there either a) stood in solidarity w the parents, students, and teachers who came out to speak for their school, b) we all participated in a vigil of some kind or c) if instead of walking out, we walked forward and really took the needed steps towards a revolution (which, in a dictatorship is not that radical). The walk out left a very bad taste in my mouth because it was very much political staging on the uft's part; that kind of staging usually leads to some kind of sell out deal which will not benefit the majority of stakeholders in education. It also upset me bc the messaging of a walk out is "nothing matters"- that is fatalistic and serves no purpose. I doubt any political capital was gained from the action and sadly, even if it generated some, the uft has no desire or will to stop the drive to privatize- which at the root, is what this all is really about. I understand the catharsis of walking out, but having been in the position of the PS 9 families that were there; even though you know it most likely doesn't matter, when its YOUR school- you hold out all hope against hope that something you say will make a difference and it feels so good to have a room of people there with you, I am sure it did not feel good to them that everyone was gone by 7:30. . To marginalize their opportunity to be heard just made me feel sad. It should also be noted that yes, the youth collaborative was a major player in the action, and I admire those kids so much, but the action was planned and implemented by the uft- to me the role of teachers should always be to support parents and kids, not bend them to your will. Uft grandstanding will not get us anywhere. Ask them if they are going to fight, now, to end this dictatorship. The answer will be no. They need to do something real, or not bother. Unpopular opinions here I am sure, but my two cents. 

Julie Cavanagh

--------------

My understanding is that the idea of the walk-out came from the students first, not the UFT.  And I entirely sympathize w/ how they felt.   There is huge frustration from sitting for 6-8 hours, sometimes at multiple hearings,  and being entirely ignored.

We can differ on tactics; and what makes more of a difference, either politically or in the public eye.  It is very hard to say at this point which tactics may be more effective, but  I don’t think it’s helpful to criticize other people’s motives or intentions.

Another thing….it was clear from the message sent around that even if you chose to join the group and walk out, no one was discouraged from coming back if they wanted to speak later or show support for other parents or groups afterwards.

Leonie Haimson

---------------

I did not hear that the idea came from the students first, that is not how the UFT sold it, branded it, etc.  It changes the political part of my feelings about the walk out some certainly if that is the case.  Just to be clear, every email I received that was written by the UFT messaged this walkout as their own, and in fact, they tried to encourage members to come promising they would only have to be there unit 7:30.  It is true people could have walked back after the walk out.  Some did.  But certain UFT emails also did make clear that walking back in was not on the agenda.

As I stated, I admire the students and the work of the Urban Youth Collaborative, and understand (to the greatest extent that a non-student could) their feelings of frustration. 

I am not trying to be critical of those who chose to walk out.  I was simply sharing a different opinion on last night in a strand of emails, knowingly (and I stated) that it was probably not a popular opinion.

What I am being critical of is the lack of authentic action on the UFT's part.  Historically I have pushed back against those who have been critical of the UFT.  I do think it is important however to question and criticize any power structure when I disagree, especially when I am paying the dues and more importantly when the magnitude of their action is disproportionate to the severity of the situation, namely 25 of our public schools being closed, not to mention charter takeovers. Further I think sometimes this kind of criticism can be helpful.  I am not just going to agree w/ something or keep quite about something I disagree with when it comes to the union that represents me.  Disagreement is healthy. Maybe that discourse moves one side or the other and maybe we just agree to disagree.

I was uncomfortable with the walkout for two reasons:  one because, again, I have sat w/ the parents and their children whose schools are being destroyed (including my own), I know what it feels like and I know how much you need to look over and see a friendly face or have folks there standing in solidarity with you.  That comes from my very specific subject position, it doesn't mean the alternative is wrong, but it was wrong for me.  Second, I don't agree with the tactic and I think it is helpful to discuss tactics that are employed, that is how we learn what is effective and what is not, what can be improved, what comes next etc. 

When it comes to UFT action what I have seen over the last year is obfuscation and capitulation.  The UFT has not provided the truth to its members about the destructive policies of this Mayor and those we see nationally, as my friend Sam Coleman said at a rally last week (paraphrasing), 'I couldn't wait for my union to educate, organize, and mobilize me... it didn't happen.'  We have also seen questionable concessions such as the backroom deals that happened after last year's school closings lawsuit, which allowed the change in utilization process to be usurped in order to place schools in the buildings of the schools that would no longer be closed, undermining those schools that the UFT claimed to be saving.

Again, I am not the person to go after the UFT and I have long said, I don't think it is helpful for union members to attack their own union... but I am growing tired of inaction.  The UFT is, at this point, the only organizing body that has the resources to take action that might meaningfully bring us changes that would stop these unfair and destructive policies.  I understand that the UFT has to spend their political capital and their organizing power wisely, but what is more important than mobilizing your masses to fight back the attacks on our schools and our kids?  A walkout does not accomplish that.  Maybe this is a prelude.  I certainly hope so.

Julie Cavanagh

 -------

As a UFT member I support the walk out, but believe the correct tactic would have been to not allow the PEP to go on. We should have all stayed and continued the disruption.  For me, it was a let down to walk out.  For once WE had control, not them!  Yes, I know that they would meet another time and still do what they did, but WE need to take the power back from them.  I think that would have been empowering.  Everyone should have stayed until there was a real treat of arrest, which I am not sure would have happened with all the media there.  I stayed to support the PS 9 people.  It was very depressing listening to the charter people totally control what went on for hours afterwords.The PS 9 parents were left mostly alone against the charters...and there were LOTS of them.  I totally understand the closing schools not coming back as they poured their hearts out last year and  were still closed.  The problem with the UFT is that the walk out IS the UFT strategy.  I think they will move on to the budget cuts ( which does need to be organized around), but nothing will be done about these closings now and next year there will be more closing schools....and we will do the same thing.  Perhaps there will be a walk out again and the schools will be closed again. The UFT, students and parents need to say that  NO PEP will continue doing business..or perhaps one or more of the closing schools need to do a sit-in at the school.  This can NOT be the end of what to do about school closings.  

Lisa North 

PEPSQUEAKS

Well of course the Bloomberg PEPSQUEAKS came up small once again last night. I left with Lisa Donlan and Julie Cavanagh around 10-something and we hit a bar on Lafayette S.t where we ran into other PEP fugitives. But I'll have to delve into the PEP details later. These late nights and all this activism just isn't leaving me any time for thoughtful blogging. When I got home around 12 last night, I realized I had left my video power pack and battery plugged in by the stage and I couldn't download the video without it. Oy! A trip back to Tech? Was the meeting still on? A check at Gotham and sure enough, there was Anna Philips still going at it. A few text messages back and forth and she found it. So now I have to head into the city to pick it up. And maybe some lunch and a movie. Thanks to Anna for this big favor. I owe her a scoop. I might have a goodie for her reward.

Before I leave, let me say that not everyone was happy with the UFT-led walkout and I'm in the process of sorting all that out, even my own feelings. I'm listening to all sides. NYC Educator was in the house and walked out (The Party's Over). 

I was thinking that they might all come back in and totally disrupt the meeting to such an extend that business couldn't be conducted, sort of what a parent group did on August 16. See my reports and videos:

• More PEP Video - PEP members walk off the stage to...
• Parents Close Down PEP - Commentary and First Vide...

Parent activist Lisa Donlan got into Michael Mendel's face during the walkout telling him that the PEP and all the other mayoral control crap is their RoseMary's baby and how dare they claim their own creation is illegitimate and then walk out leaving the people from PS 9K battling the DFER-led charter robots alone? We stayed to try to support them and I trailed after the green-shirted paid DFER gang even as they tried to run away from me and refuse to answer questions - but I got video of them distributing food - hey Joe Williams, with all the billionaires supporting you can't you afford to get something better than sandwiches?

It's even more fun listening to Lisa (who along with GEM's Gloria Brandman did a redux of the puppet show and the song "Which Side Are You On" when they spoke after the walkout, which really could have had an impact if the people had stayed) after a drink.

Here is a comment she made this morning:

The momentum that has been building for a year, died when the UFT and their followers walked out, leaving the victims of the closings and co-locations alone with the PEP and the astroturfed ERN coached charter folks. What exactly was accomplished by that stunt?

Other than making it clear that some give marching orders and the rest mostly march when told?

After all, the groups that led the walk out are now declaring the governance structure broken beyond repair- which is ironic because they are the very same groups that asked for this tweaked version of Mayoral control.

 Now its not working?

 Really?

What did last night do to advance any cause or strategy?

What are you proud of exactly?

See some of her other comments this morning below the fold.

Of course, this has been a tumultuous week. Monday's mostly student rally ending in a civil disobedience action opened things up with a bang (Video of CEJ Rally and Civil Disobedienc...)
followed by Tuesday's PEP meeting - Ed Notes links here

• And Now Folks, For the Entertainment Portion of Ou...
• Poison Pep Pills
• More PEP
• PEP Report

Gotham Schools blow-by-blow Feb 1 account with Anna Philips on the gun:

and of course last night's follow-up. Here are Gotham links - see especially Anna Philips' marathon effort: The Panel for Educational Policy voted to close 12 more schools. (GS, Times, DN, Post, NY1, WSJ). And make sure to read the comments.

MORE FROM LISA DONLAN

Talk Like an Egyptian: Daily News Editorial Calls For Mubarek-Like Response at PEP

Preview of tonight's PEP meeting

The Daily News today called for Egyptian president Hosni Mubarek to resign so he would be free to take the NYCDOE Chancellor position when Cathie Black goes screaming off the stage of a PEP meeting, preferably tonight.

Urging Mubarek to bring his camel riders with him so they could rampage through the opposition speakers and people rallying against Tweed policy, the editorial calls for arrests of people voicing their opinions. "We want the audience to sit as silently as the children are made to do at a Harlem Success School," the editorial stated. [See Steven the Trasher "feeding at the trough of charter schools" sucking up to Eva article in The Voice.]

Rumor is that Black and Bloom have recruited scores of camel drivers for tonight's PEP meeting and pre-UFT led rally at 4:30PM.

Here are some comment on the editorial and Black's crack(up) at the PEP meeting (NY1 report):

This was truly disgusting.  When I read this I nearly choked.  What was she thinking!?!?  What a nasty, nasty, mean thing to do!  The arrogance continues to astound me. It is important to keep the pressure on at these meetings.  The media coverage, like this report below, reaches folks who may  not know the horrific nature of what is going on in our public schools and it is an important education tool.  We can build a movement to fight back united and widely.  I hope folks will consider coming to the next GEM meeting; parents, educators, students, and community members... all are welcome!  Check in at the GEM site for upcoming meeting information over the next few weeks.
Julie Cavanagh

She didn’t “talk back”—she mocked them. It was a disgraceful performance, worthy of a high school girl, not a public official. But about what you’d expect from someone who began her public career by gushing: “I feel fantastic. I just went to a couple of parties and people said, ‘How wonderful. Thank you for doing this for the city.’ And I feel great.”
What a difference being forced to listen to the populace for a few hours a month can make!
Paola de Kock

And not a word about the other side of the social contract for a public hearing: that the officials at the hearing hear, engage, integrate, and consider what folks of all opinions are contributing to the debate.  Or, does the Daily News feel  that a hearing is some bankrupt liturgical exercise in its own right whose sole content is in its form. Meanwhile, we need to ask ourselves why we line up 350 people deep to participate in this charade.

JMB it is all we have. 

It is our only form of expression, the only place victims can tell their side of the story. It is a charade, it is a rubber stamp for pre-made decisions by faceless powerful bureaucrats, but it is the only locus where people can come together to express their thoughts, concerns fears, and hopes. Collectively.

The act of sharing our stories humanizes these very human problems that the bureaucrats have reduced to spreadsheets and dispassionate formulas, that are in truth our children, our jobs, our schools and our communities. Furthermore, this charade also helps us to connect the dots.

 Through these exercises of expression, thousands of victims have come to understand that this is failure by design, in the aim to privatize public education. Thank your electeds- thank Squadron and Padavan, who concocted this sham, and all the legislators that voted for this charade.

Thank the UFT and the Campaign for Better Schools that fought to get  this charade enacted into law. And most of all, thank Mayor Bloomberg, the emperor with no clothes who parades behind  this charade. Without this charade what would we have?

 Isolated problems in hundreds of isolated schools?

 or Cairo?

Lisa Donlan

Here are Leonie Haimson's comments on the real Daily News editorial which is not far off my imaginary one.

Daily News editors want rowdy protesters at PEP meetings arrested; martial law anyone? http://nydn.us/eQoA6d

Full piece below, which is shocking in its stupidity and arrogance:
First they that “When the Legislature renewed mayoral control of the public schools two years ago, lawmakers were oh-so-concerned to give parents an opportunity to be heard about school decisions. So the pols mandated public hearings on seemingly everything down to clapping the erasers.”

Oh yes, we get hearings on erasers, right?  The DOE changes policies and reorganizes constantly without holding a single hearing. They don’t even tell the PEP members most of the time, who are left in the cold.

Then the editors proclaim: “The panel must set strict rules of procedure, including a prohibition on vocal disruptions. Audience members must be required to sit and politely listen to all opinions. Those who do not must be ejected.  If parents want to protest, they can do so outside. If they choose to bring it indoors, they can tell it to the desk sergeant at the stationhouse.”

Talk about the huge outcry that would occur if the police started arresting people in mass.  Then Bloomberg would really have  a PR disaster on his hands; which even the Daily news could not help him tamp down. 

In a dictatorship, which is what our education system has become, the public must use what tools that it has: peaceful if vocal protest.  The world recognizes this in the case of the Egyptian protesters, but the Daily news editors would apparently deny this to NYC parents, teachers, and students.
Meanwhile NY Post starts its tiresome drumbeat to eliminate teacher seniority protections, and runs three different pieces today about it -- similar to their push last spring to eliminate the charter cap when the paper became a full-fledged propaganda rag. 

Clearly Klein and his “close friend” and now boss, Rupert Murdoch, along w/ Joe Williams of ERN, have this as their current legislative goal.  Not to prevent budget cuts, since the charter schools have gotten their big boost in pay, and are draining the public schools dry,  but to ensure that there is an end of seniority and they can engineer the deprofessionalization of the teaching force, under the guise of improving its quality. The Post editors write: “Bloomberg's legacy -- and the city's future -- depend on public-education reform. Repealing LIFO has to be the mayor's No. 1 priority.”

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/pick_this_fight_mike_zMR1ITt8WBpa5ZllEJVv6M#ixzz1Cu8oBFnM

This drumbeat includes the second piece of the week, featuring Jonathan Bing, the favorite pet of the hedge fund privateers and the sponsor of last year’s bill to eliminate these protections. (Post)  I hope Upper East Side parents, who don’t  usually read the Post, pay attention .

Leonie Haimson

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.

Which side are you on: Join GEM/Real Reformers in Song at the PEP

Going to PEP Meeting Thursday?

Join the GEM "Real Reformers" tomorrow  at the PEP, here are the lyrics and music on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g 

Print out some copies and pass it along. Imagine if the entire audience rose up and sang together. The UFT has been sent the lyrics and hopefully will be on board.

Which side are you on

Gather round good teachers
Listen to my tale
Of how the ole DOE
Put our schools up for sale

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

In nations the world over
Teacher unions rise
Its time in NYC
To open up our eyes

which side are you on. . .

Calling all stakeholders
Hold those stakes up high
Drive them right into the heart
Of the plan to privatize

which side are you on. . .

Come down to new york city
And look us in the eyes
Either you want community schools
Or you want to privatize

They want to close our schools down
They say our time has come
We will struggle, for our rights
Until this fight is won

****Grassroots Education Movement 2011****



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.

And Now Folks, For the Entertainment Portion of Our Program - PEP Video: GEM Real Reformers Sing and MCA Steppers

Some lyrics:

They don’t know how to teach history,
they don’t know how to teach biology,
They don’t know much about science books,
they don’t know much about the cuts we took,
but they do know how to close down schools,
we’re fighting back you know that we’re not fools,
What wonderful schools they could be.

They know a lot about charter schools,
and that they think that merit pay is cool,
..Parents, teachers, students know there’s more
They know there’s more than just test scores
What wonderful schools these could be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbVojmHITR4






See Cathie Black buckle when faced with jeers - look how nasty and annoyed she is. How much more abuse can she stand?
http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/education/133278/chancellor-black-criticiz

Also see commentary here: (Daily Politics, City Room)

Poison Pep Pills

The good thing about print journalism and writing a regular column is that you have to get your thoughts together in some orderly way, as opposed to ranting and doing stream of consciousness on the blog. The deadline for my semi-monthly Rockaway newspaper Wave columns is Wednesday at 9am. How to summarize last night's PEP in a thousand words? I began at 7:30am and just about hit the deadline - ok, so I missed by 10 minutes. (Boy, I think back to those 350 word compositions we had to write in school and how painful pulling every word was.)

I have a lot more to say about the UFT and Moskowitz strategies. Maybe after breakfast. Or lunch. Or the gym. Jealous? You can retire after 35 years. Or if it's up to Cuomo and Bloomberg, maybe not.

I copied the Gotham Schools links to stories about the meeting:
The city school board voted to close 10 schools. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News, Post, WNYC, NY1)

Poison Pep Pills

by Norm Scott

February 2, 2011

With so many schools being closed this year by the Department of Education – 26 at last count ­– and charter co-locations – the word the DOE uses while I use "invasion" (one commentator compared them to bed bugs) there seems to be a Panel for Educational Policy meeting every day. Actually, there are two this month and two in March. Memories of last January's marathon ten hour horror story meeting where 19 schools were being closed still haunts people. So  now will we have two 5-hour marathon horror story meetings? Not so fast.

The Feb. 1 started at 6pm and ended at 1am. I gave up by 10:30 and headed home (which might explain some wobbly grammar in this column). This meeting was billed as a big confrontation between the UFT, which had called a pre-hearing rally akin to the one last January that packed Brooklyn Tech and led to a massive round of booing during Joel Klein's speech and Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success Academy machine which followed up the next month with busloads of parents who cheered Joel Klein while spending the evening talking about how they need charters because the school Uncle Joel ran were so awful. But Eva loved Joel because he gave her whatever she wanted. Rumors she had him locked up in her basement with a ball in his mouth have not been confirmed but I suspect the real reason he left the DOE to earn millions as a propagandist for Rupert Murdoch was to get out from under Eva.

Well, the UFT decided to postpone their rally supposedly because the weather report was bad from Feb. 1 to the Feb. 3rd PEP (where the final nail is expected to be driven into the coffins of Beach Channel and Jamaica High Schools, among others). I don't think it was the weather but a strategy to avoid a major confrontation with the HSA parents. One of my colleagues in the Grassroots Education Movement commented: "I think their moving the rally date from the 1st to the 3rd is a tactical  disaster (compounding the fiasco of their wider strategy).  Moskowitz will able to dominate the hearing (hopefully the D3 parents will out mobilize them), the vote will happen and the result will dominate the news cycle - leading to demoralization and decreasing turnout for Thursday."

Eva didn't postpone anything and showed up, depending on the reports, with either hundreds or thousands of busloads and food for them all. How many buses does that take and what did this all cost? Money that could have gone towards getting her own buildings instead of take overs of public school space. But she has a political, not an educational agenda. She is pushing into white middle class areas where public schools are overcrowded and the massive Brandeis HS campus, which already has four high schools in it, is her target. There was a lot of pushback from just about every upper West Side politician and parent leader. The community board voted 40-0 against Eva and every single PTA lined up against her. But the final outcome of the Bloomberg-dominated PEP was a foregone conclusion (Egypt's Hosni Mubarek often complains he allows way more democracy than Michael Bloomberg does) and Eva prevailed again, but leaving in her wake another neighborhood of people filled with outrage. This time she picked the wrong neighborhood and look for some severe hostility from parents who want more high school space at Brandeis but will be denied as Eva expands her school grade by grade and pushes out some of the existing high schools - which I predict at least two will be set up for failure so they can be closed and have their space given over to Eva over the next few years.

The UFT did show, but mostly with staffers. At times it seems there are almost enough of those to fill a few busloads. I didn't see food for them but then again many of them have UFT credit cards. They did have blue tee shirts to counter Eva's orange ones. The UFT shirts said, "Chancellor Black Do Your Homework" on the front and "Fix Schools = A+, Close Schools = F". Okay, a little lame but at least there was a sense of some pushback at the charter juggernaut.

One of the highlights of the evening occurred when my pals in the Grassroots Education Movement ­– who term themselves the "Real Reformers" – did their usual thing, wearing their red capes with a big "RR" on the back and this month singing "What a Wonderful World This Could Be" with lyrics like "They don't know much about history....but they do know how to close down schools..."

Battle over public schools escalates with civil disobedience

Joel Klein called the misnamed "achievement gap" the "civil rights issue of our time." Fighting back against the ed deformer strategy of forcing the closure of many inner city schools to make way for favored privately controlled charters is the real civil rights issue of the time. On Monday January 31, I attended a rally of mostly NYC  high school students near City Hall  and Tweed focused on the forced closing of schools as part of the drive to privatize by short-changing these schools of resources. Shouting “Fix Schools, Not Just Close Them" and "What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like" two New York City Council Members and dozens of parents and youth were arrested for blocking traffic at Chambers and Centre Street following the rally. Council Members Jumaane Williams and Charles Barron were among those arrested. 

Students began a march to the precinct but on the way they were told that the police, to curtail the march, took the arrested to another precinct. The event was organized by the Coalition for Educational Justice, consisting of community-based organizations, and the Urban Youth Collaborative. I put up a 14 minute edited video of the rally, excerpts from speakers, the push into Chambers St., the arrests and the follow-up march to the police station. Fabulous stuff from a great bunch of students who did us all proud.  You can view the video at

http://vimeo.com/19443862

I'm loading up the camera for the next PEP meeting on Feb. 3rd where the UFT promises to come out in force. By the time you read this you might be hearing about a major disruption of the PEP at that meeting to attempt to stop the vote to close the schools. Or not.

Above blackout due to CIA censorship of sensitive material. B

When Norm is not spending his life videotaping PEP meetings, he blogs at ednotesonline.blogspot.com

 ----------
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.

More PEP

Got back home around 11. They were still going at 12AM. More Thursday.
I got in right at the beginning and got to watch the HSA captains give out food and check their scripts. Most of the parents seem OK - not all though. Some I know from previous events - we know where we stand but can talk.

Meeting went right to the public comments without a chancellor report - keeping chattie cathie quiet. You have to use a telephoto and take a good look at her face during these meetings. Really a hostage tape.

I found an extra bag of HSA food and some GEMers and I broke into it and held up each item - I have video - no one wanted to eat HSA food.

I ran into my fave HSA PR person - Jenny Sedlis at the back of the room - even got a hug - shhhh! I can't decide whether to hire Jenny or David Cantor do be Ed Notes' PR person. I had nice chats with both at the Gotham party. Actually found some interesting common ground with Jenny. No matter how provocative I get she is always calm. I guess you get that way working for Eva. I shoulda married her - my wife has the exact opposite reaction when I get provocative - which she says is all the time.

Jenny was with a parent and left me with her and we got into a good discussion - she's a flight attendant who hopes to get into HSA - says her zoned school is too crowded and also claims one west side school is rigged to keep black people out. I told her I don't blame her for trying to do what's best for her kid but the end game is destruction of the public schools which in the long run will be bad for her and her children. Says she will home school if she doesn't get into HSA.

Got so side-tracked, almost missed a GEMer make a great speech - but got it for the archives.

A white west side parent who hungers for HSA spoke and said she wasn't sure if she will make the lottery and get into HSA- I told Leonie I bet she will - HSA will figure out how to get a white parent in. Wait till the day when most of Eva's schools are loaded with white middle and upper class kids- though it will be interesting to see how they react to the world of charters schooldom which is not exactly a progressive private school-type education even if they are trying to sell it that way,

The UFT? Well, they were there - seemed like a lot of staff and Unity people. They were loud though and it wasn't as uneven as you would think from the orange HSA tee-shirts, tough HSA also had a bunch of blue tee-shirts, as the UFT did.

The GEM/Real reformers led by Lisa Donlan and Jeremy Sawyer were awesome, as were the steppers from Robson.

'nuff for now.

Check Gotham's gavel to gavel coverage.

There are lots of comments. Here was mine:

Congrats to Anna for outlasting me. I left after taping Leonie’s speech. Lots of UFT officialdom there tonight - but they gave me a tee-shirt so they’re may pals - for tonight.
Anna is right on about the reactions of some HSA parents of color who had mixed feelings when students from closing schools spoke so passionately. A bit of Eva’s strategy backfiring? A look at the HSA overseers has hints of —I better not go there.
Lisa Donlan just didn’t sing - she said repeatedly “SHAME on the PEP for …. list the reasons.
It wasn’t only Lisa Donlan up there - she really doesn’t sing like a bird- it was a Jeremy, a teacher from Brooklyn wearing the red cape with the RR - Real Reform on the back who led the singing with about a dozen Real Reformer/GEM people standing behind him - they were joined by people in the audience and the gang made sure to give the UFT honchos copies of the song for Thursday so they can practice - they really weren’t following too well - see, we all can get along. Look for a real GEM/UFT songfest on Thursday.
Important to point out - every single west side politician and most Harlem politicians came out against HSA. The community board voted 40-0 against. Every singe PTA came out against HSA. So has the community spoken? But it will be ignored - which will lead to more civil disobedience as we saw at Tweed on Monday - see the video I made running at ed notes.
I was getting ready to tape Leonie after a break when she pointed out there was an altercation between Patrick Sullivan and another PEP member. I swung the camera around and just caught Patrick making a motion to adjourn the meeting due to the weather - there were 4 votes.
He did say something about being taunted by a mayoral PEPie.
Some people who are on our side and didn’t seem to know who Patrick was or his motives started agitating that he was trying to shut them down - not understanding the strategy- hold all the votes till Thursday when HSA won’t be organizing and the UFT will. At least how I interpret it.
Patrick scared me with that ice storm talk and I left since I had a long walk to my car. Picked up a bag of chips and a snickers for the ride home. Started the car and get a call - “Did you tape the fight?” Drat!

One more thing: Every PEP meeting it opens with a chancellor report - but not tonight. No words of wisdom from Unchattie Cathie. Boy is the muzzle on - Dennis Walcott was racing around the place to keep lids on when people got hot over having the mic turned off. Might as well make him chancellor.

 Anna got an HSA script and put it up at Gotham - I got this from a GEMer:

Literally a brainwashing script read to HSA families (who were bused, fed, clothed and god knows what else)... it makes your stomach turn!

Leonie made this speech addressing the phony choice issue - tape is being processed now:

Choice is not real choice if someone else’s child is being squeezed out into hallways, closets or basement rooms.  Choice is not real choice if someone else’s child is being forced into larger classes or you are closing their school, against their will.   Every time you close or co-locate a school you are creating more overcrowding and more disruption of someone else’s education.  Every time you close or co-locate a school, you are undermining choices for all parents and their children, and imposing your own will on a community.  Clearly the people whose lives are most affected oppose these proposed closing and co-locations.  I urge you to listen to their choices, and to vote against these proposals.

PEP Report

Eva with big crew. Food being served. Parents wear orange tee shirts, staff blue tee-shirts. Talk about a racial divide. But under Klein public schools suffer same with so many tfa. Wait till HSA parents see how Eva abandons them for the rich vein of white people she is aiming for at Brandeis.

Numerous elected off and reps all opposed to HSA on west side.
Mulgrew charged them with malfeasance for targeting schools for closing. will follow procedures carefully and if they screw up will see them in court.
Uft is here. Not in force as expected but still vocal.

Kids from some closing schools very eloquent. Also cec 3 peoople opposing Brandeis has coloco.
HSApeople weren't sure weather to cheer or boo on closing school issue.
Some HSAparents beginning to slip away.
Real Reformers with Lisa Donlan leading with "shame on you" followed by singing. Wild scene. Will try to get that piece of tape up tomorrow. If I ever get home.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Exclusive Video of CEJ Rally and Civil Disobedience at Tweed

A rally of mostly NYC students near City Hall in NYC focused on the forced closing of schools as part of the drive to privatize by short-changing these schools of resources. Over 20 people blocked Chambers Street near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and were arrested. Students began a march to the precinct but on the way they were told the police to avoid the march were taking the arrested to another precinct. The event was organized by the Coalition for Educational Justice, consisting of community based organizations.

We have heard for weeks that this rally called by CEJ (Coalition for Educational Justice) would ramp up the protests into civil disobedience. Originally scheduled for last Weds, the day before the Stop School Closing Rally but postponed by the snow it was held on Monday, Jan. 31.

Why two rallies? Complex, but the simple answer is two different messages and approaches between GEM and CEJ but we are communicating and supporting some efforts. We are mostly teachers and they are mostly parents and students and one day soon the train shall meet.

Joel Klein called the misnamed "achievement gap" the "civil rights issue of our time." His and the other ed deformer strategy of forcing the closure of many inner city schools to make way for favored privately controlled charters is the real civil rights issue of the time, as this video shows with students and parents declaring that their schools have been purposely set up for failure so justification can be found to shut them down and turn the valuable real estate their buildings represent over to charters.

Here is 14 minutes of edited video I shot: the rally, excerpts from speakers, the push into Chambers St., the arrests and the follow-up march to the police station. Fabulous stuff from a great bunch of students who did us all proud.

http://vimeo.com/19443862


Here is Lindsey Christ's story on (NY1)

Also check out this amazingly supportive piece from Gabe:
Gabe Pressman Supports Teacher Experience

Mulgrew Postpones Rally at PEP While Moskowitz Keeps Coming

Charter school advocates are planning to show up en masse to support the few charter school co-location votes before the Panel for Educational Policy. Last year, few charter school supporters came to the vote and many said they felt bruised by the show of anti-charter sentiment. So the following month, they arrived at the meeting in busloads to make their views heard.

Tomorrow {Feb.1}, charter school supporters may outnumber their opponents. Because of the threatening weather forecasts, the teachers union has postponed its rally — and attendant jumbotron — until Thursday.

 Gotham Schools preview of tonight's PEP meeting at Brooklyn Tech

We heard weeks ago that Bloomberg had told Joe Williams from DFER to bring people out to this meeting to support Moskowitz and Cathie Black I guess. The UFT decided on a show of strength of its own by organizing a rally at 4 today. GEM and the Real Reformers were looking forward to supporting the UFT in its efforts, but it looks like we will have to battle the Moskowitz meanies on our own.

What was billed tonight as a possible confrontation between Moskowitz busloads and the UFT has been punted - due to the weather the UFT claims. The UFT will hold its rally before this Thursday's PEP meeting. Maybe it shows who is tougher: Moskowitz or Mulgrew.


Let me take you back to last January when the UFT packed Brooklyn Tech and Joel Klein was booed throughout his speech. But after that the UFT folded up their militant tent and went to court, leaving the February meeting to Moskowitz' hordes cheering and praising Klein - except when they trashed the schools he was supposedly running as a reason why they needed charters - as we sat there watching in frustration and asking, "Where was the UFT?" I guess tonight be a repeat.

The Gotham Schools report is a good summary of what is/was to go on tonight at the PEP meeting and what happened last January at the 10 hour marathon meeting.

Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the Success Charter Network of schools, is bringing parents of students at her school. A spokeswoman for the network said that 2,100 parents had signed up to make the trip to Brooklyn Tech High School for the meeting. Last year, this swell of charter school supporters would have been matched by turnout from the teachers union, but the union has postponed its rally until Thursday because of the snow predictions.

Don't expect the place to be devoid of public school teachers, parents and students - unless the weather interferes - no hedge fund money to get buses and pizza like Eva has - due to the number of closing and co-location schools on the agenda. Real Reformers will be there with capes and song.
Here is the list from the Gotham article:

Closure:
Metropolitan Corporate Academy
Paul Robeson High School
School for Community Research and Learning
Urban Assembly Academy for History and Citizenship for Young Men
New Day Academy
Monroe Academy for Business/Law High School
Academy of Environmental Science Secondary School
I.S. 195 Roberto Clemente
KAPPA II
Academy of Collaborative Education
I.S. 231 Magnetech

Co-location (nee - INVASION):
New high school 12X521 to replace Monroe Academy for Business/Law High School (12X690)
New middle schools I.S. 355 and I.S. 356 to replace I.S. 231 Magnetech
Harlem Success Academy 1 (grades 5-8) with Wadleigh Secondary School and the Frederick Douglass Academy II Secondary School in 2012-13
Success Academy Charter School with Brandeis High School

Grade Expansion / Truncation: (Shrink a public school, expand a charter)
Harlem Success Academy 1 (from K-5 to K-6) with M149/M209 in 2011-12
P.S. 40 Samuel Huntington (from K-6 to K-5)



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.

The Failure of the DOE at PS 114 in Canarsie

I've been intending to write about the PS 114 story for a few weeks. It is one of the more outrageous examples exposing the ed deform plan to undermine public schools. Basically, they put in an incompetent and vicious principal and despite pleas from teachers and parents the DOE kept here there for 5 years as she ruined the school. Now they want to close it as a failing school and put in a charter to take over. They finally remove her over something trivial and give her a job as an AP in the Bronx. Talk about no accountability. PS 114 parent Crystal King spoke at the rally we held on the snow day on Jan. 27:




An article in the Brooklyn Eagle: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=40834 says:

In Brooklyn, besides Robeson, five other schools are planned for phase-out and replacement: P.S. 114 Ryder Elementary; P.S. 260 Breuckelen; P.S. 332 Charles H. Houston; M.S. 571; and Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School.
At P.S. 114, the Ryder School in Canarsie, parents and teachers complained for years about the former principal. Now that principal is gone, but the city plans to close down P.S. 114 and replace it with a charter school and a new District 18 public school.
P.S. 114 “had been a terrific school in the past,” said Councilman Lew Fidler, “until it was shot in both feet by a DOE principal. This school should succeed. I know this city’s agenda is charter schools — but they sent one principal in to wreck it, one to chronicle it and one to close it.”

See Gotham Schools article: City officials confront blame for a Brooklyn school’s fall


Like we've been saying for years - the DOE deliberately chooses inept principals they know will be destructive to undermine schools and alienate teachers and parents - no matter what they do, Tweed supports them all the way as they wend their way through their path of destruction.

Lindsey Christ of NY1 (a former teacher who "gets" it) reported on the story. Some excerpts from her 3 part series:

Teachers begged the DOE for help and even chartered buses from Brooklyn to Manhattan to stage a rally. But Penaherrera was removed only because one day when she failed to show up to work, a carbon monoxide alarm went off and students were kept in class. This, because the school had no safety plan and she had left no one in charge. She also left the school $180,000 in debt. 
---
PS 114 is $180,000 in debt and hasn't been able to get back on track after former principal Maria Penaherrera was removed two years ago. Teachers say they've had to abolish programs, counselors and support staff. Yet the DOE knew about Penaherrera's mismanagement. "They knew this was going on for years, but I guess with the unions and all that it took time. But now the one's who are suffering are the children," said PS 114 Parent Michael Hall. The DOE won't say why Penaherrera remained principal for five years, but it wasn't because of her union. And it wasn't for lack of evidence.
 -----
If all goes according to Department of Education plans, PS 114 will slowly close over the next few years. A new charter school will take over part of the building along with many of the first, second and third graders currently in PS 114 -- a first for the city. All charters use a lottery system to fill their classrooms. The Explore Charter Network says it wants to give kids in a failing school a better shot at getting in.

See all 3 parts:

1/18/2011 The Failure Of PS 114, Part 1

1/19/2011 The Failure Of PS 114, Part 2

1/20/2011 The Failure Of PS 114, Part 3

---------------
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.

A Principal Responds to Bloomberg Attack on Teacher Seniority

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says unless teacher seniority rules are changed, the city may have to layoff nearly every teacher hired in the last five years. Speaking at the Christian Cultural Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn on Sunday, the mayor warned that the state budget will probably contain deep cuts, especially to schools. Under state law, the most recently hired teachers must be laid off first, but Bloomberg wants merit taken into account.- NY1 report
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/?ArID=133094 .

Story in NY Times: http://nyti.ms/htmP3J

Brian De Vale, Chairman, Council of Supervisors and Administrators, Community School District # 14 

RESPONDS:

As a practicing Catholic and proud union man I find it despicable that Bloomberg stoops to showing up regularly at Christian churches to speak lies about the Teacher's union. Let him spill that nonsense somewhere other than in the House of God.

With over 20 years experience as both a teacher and principal I have the developed the greatest respect for the teachers who work in my school and District. If teachers do a poor job it is the job of their principals to write them up, get them the proper support and training and if they do not work out: get rid of them through progressive discipline.

It is not half as difficult for a competent principal to get rid of incompetent teachers as the media would have you believe. This entire campaign against teachers, printed in the major media outlets each and every day is part of the anti-union agenda pushed by billionaires like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Bloomberg and others from the billionaire hedge fund sector who want to totally do away with public education in order to eliminate public sector pensions.

They increase Charter schools so public school enrollment declines eliminate tenure so nobody can become a veteran and lobby to keep newly hired, cheaper teachers who usually leave within 5 years. It has nothing to do with children, quality education or anything else. Tenure is necessary and Last in-First Out is the only fair way to protect employees from vindictive, sexist, homophobic and/or racist termination and the very real possibility of political retribution from their employers.

Why do you suppose so few principals venture to speak up? They are afraid! To my young brethren starting out as teachers -We have been where you are, and understand your predicament. The budget situation the City confronts was created by the man managing this City for the past too many years-not your colleagues. I would be sorry to see you lose your jobs, but LIFO is the only fair way to determine layoffs.

[To Educators for Excellence]: Get off your high horses-who said you are "better" teachers anyway? Bill Gates who paid for your organization to get started up? The only way workers will ever overcome the current administration's onslaught against seniority is if ALL Municipal Unions stay united in support of LIFO protections.

Wishing you the Peace of God and the blessing of Unity,

Brian De Vale
Chairman
Council of Supervisors and Administrators
Community School District # 14
60 Cook Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206

Challenger Memories

The 25th anniversary of The Challenger shuttle disaster with teacher/astronaut Christa McCauliffe on board has brought back memories. I was one of the 16,000 teachers who had applied to be on that shuttle flight. I had to get my principal to sign the form. She couldn't get her pen out fast enough.

Two teachers from each state would be chosen as finalists and flown to Washington where the winners would be chosen. McCauliffe was the winner and Barbara Morgan was the backup. Ironically, Morgan was slated to go into space on the flight after the doomed Columbia (Feb. 2007) {and as a commenter pointed out did fly on the Enterprise}. Are teachers never to go into space? Though we know if it was up to Bloomberg, every senior teacher would be sent to the moon.

I was fascinated by astronomy since my youngest years - I always perked up from my sleepy state when teachers touched on the subject - which unfortunately was all too rare - until Sputnik - which we heard so much about as a result of Obama's speech this week. I tried to teach about space in my classroom even when it was not part of the grade science curriculum.

Around 1980 I took a year long telescope building class at the old Hayden Planetarium - there was a club that operated out of the basement and we had extraordinary access. Every week for a year I walked around a barrel rubbing two piece of glass together to make an 8 inch mirror for a reflector telescope, which I still have. The crew in the club was pretty funky- engineer types, mostly amateur - but brilliant people.

Through the club (which was eventually tossed out by a new director of the Planetarium) I became friends with Barry Levin, one of the most interesting people I ever go to know (Barry moved to California and we lost touch - if anyone comes across this and can update me please do). Barry could make mirrors of almost any size that was feasible for one person to do and build any kind of telescope. He lived on Sackett Street in Boerum Hill in a giant garage space where he operated his business, creating acrylic frames for artworks to be hung in museums with his living space in the back. It was a wonderland to visit.

As part of the application for the shuttle we had to write lesson plans. So I went to Barry to help me put together something relevant. We came up with a complex plan with Barry doing all the heavy tech lifting, probably our biggest mistake. It took seeing the simplicity of Christa McAuliffe's lesson plans for me to understand why I didn't have a chance - in retrospect Barry may have helped save my life.

I was on a study sabbatical in 1986 and we had gone to Antigua in January. The shuttle was due to take off on the day we were leaving Antigua. TV coverage was potty and I watched the preparations but we had to leave for the airport before the shuttle took off. It wasn't until we were on the plane that we found out what had happened. I spent the entire trip home in a state of shock thinking about what could have been if I had gotten my wish.

When we got home, there was a postcard a friend had sent out a few days earlier: "I'm so sorry you didn't get to go on the shuttle. I know how much you wanted it."

Whose Dictator? Your Dictator!

The American response to events in the Middle East where the dictator allies are beginning to fall is an indication of how far we have come from our revolutionary roots as a nation. When I was in school I always rooted for the revolutionaries because I identified with where we came from as a nation. Where did we stand when the French Revolution came so soon after ours? By the time of the Russian Revolution sentiments had shifted - better a Tsar oppressing the people than the scary alternative.

Thus, today's news about Egypt following so soon on Tunis and with Jordon and maybe even Saudi Arabia to come must be sending shivers down the spines of officials - and the pro-Israeli lobby as they know full well how possible it is for all these allies to slip away.

Well, when it comes to your favorite dictators who live high off the hog while leaving the people in poverty as opposed to places like Cuba we know where our government stands. Saudi Si, Cuba No!

Really, how amazing when people take to the streets in the face of tanks staring them down. And then you think of how many teachers say they are afraid to stand up. Will there be a day when masses of educators and parents take to the streets to battle the forces of ed deform in the face of the tank equivalents of Broad and Gates?
---------

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.

The Wave: Cathie Black Faces Controversy and Jeers at First Panel for Educational Policy Meeting

I turned in a short news story for today - the Jan. 28th Edition of The Wave. I wrote it on a very tight deadline this past Wednesday between 7:40 and 8:25 AM. I never can write that fast - and I'm always amazed how reporters do it. This makes me appreciate what they do - when their articles are not suck up shills for ed deform, which they so often are - see one Carl Campanile in the NY Post. (Sorry Carl, I like ya but you are what you are.)

Special to the Wave by Norm Scott

Cathie Black got a rough introduction to NYC school politics at the January 19th Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting at Brooklyn Technical HS during the public comment period were each speaker was allowed two minutes. "This is what happens at these meetings," said one speaker. "Get used to it."

The most contentious issue was the placement of a 4th school, a clone of the successful Manhattan downtown Millenium HS, within the Park Slope John Jay Campus, which currently contains three schools. Children of color mostly populate these schools and many Park Slope parents are reluctant to send their children to them. There were concerns that Millenium will be geared to attract these white students, thus creating a segregated situation within the walls of the same building and charges of "racism" rang out from numerous speakers.

Representatives of the three current John Jay schools also charged that the campus had been denied resources for years, a common charge from schools claiming the goal of the DOE was to create a "failure" situation to make them prime candidates for closure. Remarkably, two of the three principals of these schools made strong statements condemning the DOE for this practice. A story emerged later in the meeting that one of these principals had spent $5000 of her own money to put in a bell system for the building. The same charges of purposeful under resourcing schools have been made by supporters of Beach Channel and Jamaica HS, the two large Queens schools targeted for closure. The proposal called for putting more resources into campus, but only if Millenium was added to the building. As expected, the PEP voted to insert Millenium.

Black had opened the meeting with a written statement that took direct aim at teachers calling for an end to last in first out (LIFO), reforming pensions and a solution to the ATR problem created when teachers are left without teaching positions when their schools are closed. "We must come to a compromise on the ATR pool, the one million one hundred thousand teachers who receive full salaries and benefits without having permanent positions in the classrooms," said Black, apparently getting confused between the number of children attending NYC schools and the number of ATRs, estimated at around 1200. Black was booed and jeered during her statement, especially when she mentioned Mayor Bloomberg's name.

Other groups used their time at the microphone to serenade Black and the Panel with lyrics like "You ain't gonna close this little ole school of mine." With closing school votes and more charter co-location votes due to come up, more PEP meetings have been scheduled for Feb. 1st and 3rd and March 1st.

The Feb 1 meeting is expected to be particularly contentious due to Eva Moskowitz's Harlem Success Charter school attempt to take over part of the Brandeis HS campus on the upper west side. Brandeis is similar to the John Jay situation in that it is situated in a mostly white neighborhood. Moskowitz has shifted from trying to attract children of color to white students, flooding the west side with ads arguing that by attending her school, parents can save $30,000 a year in private schools tuition, a tactic some other charter school supporters frown on, viewing at a perversion of the original charter school intention to reach into the poorest areas of the city.

Moskowitz is organizing buses of supporters to come down to the hearing while the UFT is organizing a pre-meeting rally, all to take place at Brooklyn Tech on Feb. 1.




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.