LA Teachers to Protest Budget Cuts by Cutting First Period

LA Teachers to Protest today
Judge allows L.A. teachers to protest California education budget. The school district loses a bid to block the demonstration. Teachers can skip the first hour of class while aides and administrators monitor students.
From LA Times, posted at Norm's Notes

A Victory for Public Education at Julia Richman...

... but the fight is far from over

Does the BloomKlein administration want to destroy the Julia Richman complex, a successful small school model, because it was not created by them? Or precisely because it has such successful community outreach and roots in the community? Why shouldn't Hunter College build its building downtown? Or here's an idea: give them Gracie Mansion. A total white elephant. The mayor doesn't sleep there anyway. And such wonderful views of the East River.

My guess is that Julia Richman just has to wait out the end of BloomKlein but keep agitating and embarrass Hunter College for their land grab as much as possible.

By James Trimarco
From the Indypendent, June 6, 2008

Opponents of a plan that would relocate one of the city's most successful experiments in public education in order to make way for a new Hunter College science center won a victory on May 21 when members of Community Board 8 voted in favor of a resolution opposing the plan.

Supporters of the Julia Richman Education Complex, which houses six small schools that serve 1,850 elementary, middle and high school students in a single 84-year-old building on Manhattan's Upper East Side, leapt to their feet when the results of the vote were announced and chanted "thank you" for nearly a minute.

"I think the board heard the arguments and showed leadership in approving this resolution," said Ann Cook, a co-director at Julia Richman. She has spent two years fighting Hunter's plan to construct a new high-rise science center on Julia Richman's site.

The plan would involve demolishing Julia Richman's building at East 67th Street, building a new complex for its students at a 25th Street location, currently occupied by Hunter's Brookdale Campus, and selling the rest of Brookdale to a private developer in order to raise funds to pay for the science center.

But Julia Richman is fiercely loved by its parents, teachers and students. Since Hunter announced its plans in the spring of 2005, they have organized two demonstrations, hung a 40-foot banner from their building and launched a website and media campaign.

"It's a real community," said Jane Hirschman, a parent of three children who attended Julia Richman. "There are no metal detectors. There's respect for the students. My daughter can leave anything on her desk and it will not disappear."

And it's not only parents who speak out for Julia Richman. New York State Senator Liz Kruger, New York City Council Member Jessica Lappin and New York State Assemblyman Michah Kellner all spoke in support of the resolution at the public session, as well as urban planners, parents and experts in education.

"These are great schools," said Leo Casey, the vice president of the United Federation of Teachers. "They are not instruments that can be picked up and put down miles away."

Julia Richman wasn't always so popular. Founded as an all-girl's school in 1923, it went into decline during the 1970s and in the 1990s was ranked dead last in Manhattan by the Board of Education. So when a progressive education group asked for a place to try out their idea of improving large, dysfunctional schools by breaking them into smaller units, the board picked
Julia Richman.

That experiment seems to be working well. Four small high schools, an elementary school and a middle school for autistic children all share the building's major amenities, including spacious, marble-floored hallways, an auditorium that seats 1,400, two gyms and an elegant swimming pool lit by skylights. The children graduate at rates above the city's average, and
quite a few of them end up at Hunter. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has called Julia Richman a model of what urban public education can be, and in 2007 the American Architectural Foundation presented the complex with the Richard Riley Award, which honors schools that serve as centers of community.

The professors and administrators who spoke on Hunter's behalf at the community board meeting held their ground, however. They emphasized the importance of training new nurses and scientists and the difficulties that would be caused by making them commute between classes.

"I have 432 students I had to turn away because I don't have classrooms for them," said David Steiner, the Dean of Hunter's School of Education. Benjamin Ortiz, a professor of biology, said that a vote against the plan would be a betrayal of "America's scientific workforce" and "a declaration of indifference to Hunter's needs."

Although these arguments failed to convince the members of Community Board 8, it's uncertain precisely what impact the vote will have. Jane Hirschman, who says she supports the new science center as long as it's not at Julia Richman's site, said her next move will be to solicit the support of the Mayor.

But Hunter College officials appear unmoved by the community's resolution. "We are continuing to move forward with our plans," said Meredith Halpern, a Hunter spokesperson, while Marge Feinberg of the Department of Education said she didn't know whether the community board's position would have any effect. "It's still up in the air," she said. "No decision has been made pending the ability of Hunter to build a new school."

Why Has the Education Press Missed the Boat...

...on the real story about small schools? Eduwonkette has some theories.

Ross Tweed

Thanks to DB over at pseudo intellectualism.

The Assault on Teachers Worldwide...

... is explored by A Voice in the Wilderness.
This dovetails with some of the work being done by Lois Weiner, who spoke about this very issue at out Teachers Unite forum in April. Check out Lois' new book:

The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and their Unions: Stories for Resistance (Paperback)by Mary Compton (Editor), Lois Weiner (Editor)

How Regressive Ed Reform Robs Neighborhood Schools of Their Base

(Revised)

Education Notes has maintained that the small schools movement and alternative parental choice undermines neighborhood schools by robbing them of their base of students who are succeeding.

To the regressive education reformers, the BloomKlein "reforms" are a wonderful thing. But on the ground in the schools, there is a different view. PS 3, in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant, has been viewed as a fairly successful school, with a somewhat middle class base that brings stability.

At a Manhattan Institute breakfast a few months ago starring Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and others, one of the themes was the "success" of the implementation of charter and small schools.
When some of us talked about the creaming of the top students by these schools, I remember panelist Joe Williams claiming that if kids are successful (those who score 3's and 4's on the tests) in a neighborhood school, why would they move to a charter?

I went up to him afterwards and told him that the kids who are succeeding are the ones that move because their parents are more proactive and are looking for a school without kids who score ones and twos on the tests, special ed, ELA's, discipline problems, high class sizes (even if the actual number looks small on paper the level of difficulty of working with an at-risk population is impacted). In other words, they themselves want to get their kids away from the most at-risk kids, the local form of what used to be called "white flight."

Thus, the neighborhood public schools - from elementary through high school – become drained of the very kids that provide the school a somewhat stable environment by shunting the top students to places like KIPP. And by the way, do not underestimate the positive impact these kids have on teacher morale, which is affected by seeing kids succeed.

If one wanted to design the perfect program to accomplish the destruction of the neighborhood school by shunting higher performing students into a semi-privatized environment BloomKlein and their high-priced consultants have designed such a program.

The latest attacks on elementary schools go after the youngest kids by the modifications in the gifted and talented programs and in the registration process for pre-kindergarten. (We always found that the students whose parents rush to register, turn out to have the highest level of success over the following years.) By moving this registration from the school to some central office one more obstacle is added to the process.

Chapter Leader Lisa North expresses the frustration being felt in the schools as she nails all of these issues in this email to the NYCEducationNews listserve:

My school, PS 3 in Brooklyn, has had 3 pre-k classes for the last 2 years. Parents would come to the school to register. Now they have to go downtown Brooklyn first. Our parents DO NOT do that! At this time we only have enough students for ONE class. Why can't parents register directly in the school?

We are also in danger of losing our "gifted and talented" program – one of the few in Bedford-Stuyvesant, because of the new DOE testing.

On top of that, the charter schools are beginning to take a number of our level 3/4 students (as well as some of the others), but especially students whose families are more involved with their education. The DOE is wreaking havoc with our school!

Entropy Sucks

With the universe expanding almost as quickly as the number of administraters at Tweed, this week's NY Times science section delivers the very bad news that this expansion may go on forever, very bad news for those who want to close the achievement gap. It all has something to do with Einstein's constant which he may or may not of erred in calculating, (which would earn him a trip to the rubber room if he wrote E=Mc2 on a blackboard instead of a chart tablet. Why do things for free when you can funnel money to companies that make the stuff.)

Gravity having a greater than usual effect on the NYC Department of Education, as Tweed (upper right) accelerates expansion at double the rate of the rest of the universe.

A Shout Out to...

Eduwonkette for exposing the BloomKlein budget cut sham in All Purpose Equity
So much good stuff in here, but here's a highlight:

When it comes to school funding, what does it mean to treat students "equitably?" Does equity imply treating each student the same by providing each student the same level of funding? Or does equity require a recognition that students bring different levels of disadvantage to school, and as a result, disadvantaged students must be treated differently in order to be treated equitably?

and to David B. at Pseudo-Intellectualism for some fun support.

Teach for America to Announce Accelerated Program

Updated June 16, 2008:

ED Notes News is reporting that Teach for America is planning to introduce a program to cut the time its recruits must teach from two years to two months. The NY Times is preparing to run an editorial in support of the idea that a teacher can make a significant difference in 2 months, as demonstrated by a study of 2 teachers in a school in New Orleans.

A TFA pokesperson gave the top 10 reasons:

Number 10: Do you know how hard it is to come up with a new plan to close the achievement gap every single day?

Number 9: Our people are burning at a tremendous rate. Spending two months in the culturally deprived ghettos of our cities should be enough for our people to impress future bosses with their willingness to sacrifice.

Number 8: Two years is way too long to take out of their busy careers. Now that I think about it, so is 2 months. Any chance we could get away with 2 days?

Number 7: After realizing that the achievement gap is not being closed due to their efforts might prove discouraging, get them out of there before they find out.

Number 6: If too many TFA recruits stay in the system they begin to see the problems go beyond their own classrooms with potentially cataclysmic results.

Number 5: Like, becoming critical of the wonderful reforms set up by BloomKlein.

Number 4: Or they begin to support the idea of public education while opposing TFA's role in its undermining.

Number 3: Instead of automatically supporting their supervisors, as we urge, the awful principals that have come empowered under BloomKlein turn them into carping critics, which distracts them from their main mission, which is to demonstrate the system is not a factor and only what they do as individuals counts. They lose the belief that if every classroom was filled with a TFA, all problems in society will be solved.

Number 2: Too long of an exposure to non-TFA lazy, stupid teachers with low expectations can infect them before they enter the corporate world and make oodles of money those same stupid lazy teachers who make careers of teaching will never do. Suckers!

And the number 1 reason to cut the Teach for America program from 2 years to 2 months:
Some of our recruits who remain in the system see the need for a union and - horrors - a few have even become union reps.

Chaos at Ross Charter at Tweed

There's a lot more of this stuff as reported by Elizabeth Green in the NY Sun going on in a lot more schools around the city. But in their own building? Tweedles can't manage their way out of a paper bag.

Leonie Haimson posted this on her listserve:

Here is an excerpt [complete email at Norm's Notes] from an email that Garth Harries of DOE sent to Patrick Sullivan of the PEP on April 16 of this year– and copied to Mary Silver of CEC D2 and Lisa Donlan of CEC D1;

Ross School Quality: it is absolutely true that last spring, Ross was a struggling school – as authorizers committed to school quality, through our Charter office we explicitly called that struggle out to ensure that the school took appropriate action. The oversight played out exactly the way that it should – the school has stabilized, and made substantial improvements. That progress is documented in the same place as the original report, and is evidenced by continued strong parental interest and support from the Lower East Side, around Manhattan , and the City. (As an aside, we have been frustrated by the various aspersions cast about the school, insofar as they cherry picked the original report, and not the more recent review noting the improvements.) Certainly, Ross has work to do to continue to improve, as we note in our more recent report – but so do all schools, and Ross has done a good job recovering from their first year difficulties.

This clearly contradicts the information in today’s NY Sun, at http://www.nysun.com/new-york/charter-school-at-tweed-being-probed/79083/
The Sun article reports on continued loss of teachers, letters of protest from parents, hand delivered to Tweed, and a cheating scandal, which they first learned about last spring, and has now led to the fifth principal in two years departing in a cloud.
The article specifically says that “Before Ms. Clagnaz's abrupt departure in May, eight staff members had left by the middle of this school year.” And 10 more out of 37 do not intend to return next year.

Please see that Harries’ email is copied to Michael Duffy, head of charter schools for DOE, who now says that the school is “on probation” and may even be closed.

Yet their actions show the opposite: that DOE is determined to keep the school open at any cost. By giving them new space in the School of the Physical City, the DOE is enabling the school to expand into new grade levels and in overall enrollment – which the Bd of Directors of Ross admitted in a letter to parents at the school was necessary to ensure its financial stability.

Mismanagement had led to a real fiscal crisis at the school. As DOE pointed out in January, http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/3A42B137-91F8-4243-A5B4-75148DD7CD03/31248/RGAFollowUpVisit_12208.pdf

”The school spent only 56% (excludes start-up costs) of its funds on educational programs, 41% on administrative expenses, and 2.68% on fundraising…”


In letter sent to parents on March 17, the Board of the Ross school said that they were canceling their summer program and their mandatory Sat. program and had to focus on expanding the middle school in order to be financially viable. http://www.rossglobalacademy.org/home/pdf/Summer_Program_RGA_Board.PDF

“It is clear that the focus of our faculty and administration this summer needs to be on middle school, planning for the expansion of grades for next year and on the continued development of the curriculum and professional development of our faculty. Additionally, this expansion is necessary to ensure the continued financial sustainability of the school.”

Only by expanding enrollment could they reap more taxpayer funds through increased per capita payments.

Interesting that DOE seems determined to allow a school to expand by means of taxpayer funding in the midst of a cheating scandal and continued serious problems at the school.

ASK THE UFT TO MAKE THE TESTING BOYCOTT A PRIORITY ISSUE

CONTINUE TO DEFEND ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
ASK THE UFT TO MAKE THE TESTING BOYCOTT A PRIORITY ISSUE

We ask that you continue to write e-mails to Chancellor Klein in support of a teacher who teaches critical thinking.

We are also asking the UFT to make this issue of academic freedom and freedom of speech a priority. Please e-mail UFT President Randi Weingarten rweingarten@uft.org and Vice President Leo Casey lcasey@uft.org asking the UFT to continue to defend teacher rights in this matter and to make this issue a priority for the UFT.

A sample letter is below:

Dear Leo Casey and Randi Weingarten,

As a member of the UFT, I ask that the teachers' union continue to be proactive in the struggle to defend the academic freedom of public school teacher Douglass Avella, who wanted his students to think critically about their education.

As an educator concerned with the abuse of standardized tests, I also support the 160 8th grade students who used their freedom of speech to boycott the practice test to demonstrate how excessive testing has taken away valuable learning time from the classroom.

Because of the large amount of support from teachers, educators, organizations, parents and students, I ask that our teachers' union make this issue of academic freedom and freedom of speech a priority.

Sincerely,

____________________
Teacher/UFT Member

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Supported by:
Center for Immigrant Families, NYCoRE, Teachers Unite, Time Out From Testing

Clinton Campaign Declares McCain the Winner: Obama to Withdraw

Modified after discovering the ENN Reporter was suffering from a hangover.

Ed Notes News is reporting that Barack Obama is considering withdrawing from the presidential race upon hearing Hillary Clinton political consultant Harold Ickes declare Obama flat out has no chance of winning against John McCain and that the only chance the Democrats have is to choose Hillary Clinton as the nominee.

Obama understands that these criticisms from Clinton are sending a signal to Democrats: Don't waste your money and time on Obama since he can't get elected.

The final straw for Obama occurred when Ickes dropped the dreaded "McGovern" bomb. If Obama suffers a McGovern-like disaster that would also take him out of the running as a viable candidate in 2012 (losing by a little would not be good enough to accomplish that.)

So his strategists have decided to get out now, figuring the Republicans want Hillary as the candidate all along and that she might have the better chance of pulling a McGovern disaster than he, which would make him the 2012 candidate, while giving him time to win over all the demographics that have opposed him. The nation will be better prepared to accept a black man as a candidate in '12, especially after 4 more disastrous years of Republican rule.

Clinton strategists are reportedly rethinking the question and have decided there is a better strategy to make Hillary president. Keep Obama in the race, graciuously agree to make him the presidential nominee, browbeat-er- even more graciously accept the vice-presidential nomination, unite the party, beat McCain, wait for shit to happen.

Report from the May 30th Anti_privatization March/Demo

The march [from GHI to Gov. Patterson's office] began with a surprise announcement that Randi Weingarten, the head of the Municipal Labor Council and the President of the UFT, had penned a letter to Superintendent Dinallo expressing concern about possible increases in premium rates and denial of access to care should the conversion be approved. She stated that the municipal unions were in the process of reviewing their support of the proposed conversion. This is an important victory for CAP since we have consistently argued that premium rates and access would be jeopardized by a for-profit carrier. Activists in ICE have also attempted to bring this message to the floor of the UFT Delegate Assembly for the past three months and have had many positive conversations with DA representatives.

Posted by CAP. Read the full report at Norm's Notes.

What have YOU done to close the achievment gap today?

A little satire from The Eggplant at Susan Ohanian:

My neighbor is teaching her two-year-old to read the Wall Street Journal

It all began when she woke up one morning
and heard on NPR that US kids are behind.
And there was her son squshing Cheerios with his thumb,
Not even counting them.
Just squishing.

"Ohmygod," she worried, "I'm leaving this boy behind.
How will he ever get ahead in the Global Economy?"

Too old for Baby Einstein, she bought her boy
a subscription to the Wall Street Journal,
figuring it's never too young to get a feel for the landscape.

They read together after morning vitamins.
He sits beside her, his sticky little fingers
tracing the letters SMART MONEY,
While she reads the Nasdaq numbers,
Nuzzling his neck and whispering encouragement
into his soft, pliant ear.

He is a handsome child with curly hair and bright brown eyes.
And she is a good teacher.
Persistent but not impatient,
Later encouraging him to fingerpaint the page
orange and purple, his favorite colors.
Princeton's colors, too.

Admittedly, phonemes are still a frustration,
But she's making flashcards to upgrade the
Wall Street Journal breakfast experience.
Phonemes for the Global Economy.

Too young to pick stocks on his own,
For now, she manages
his portfolio as well as his phonemes.
And he's on the A-list for the right sort of pre-school.

http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.html?id=729

What Budget Cuts? Tweed Central Staff Increase: 18% in 4 years

Graphic and article at Eduwonkette.

Why teachers should be running things

http://avoicecriesout.com/2008/05/31/meidiate-your-way-to-suspension/

I Will Derive

Math to a beat. http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1817395

Place Blame For School Cuts Where It’s Due

We have not been covering the budget cuts in NYC because there's been so much coverage elsewhere, especially on the NYC Parent blog and listserve.
Leonie Haimson writes (note her comment on the NY Times as MIA).

I want everyone to read the excellent editorial in the Queens Chronicle – far more on target than the NY Post or the Daily news– both of which have written intemperate, inaccurate and biased editorials about the budget cuts to schools, blaming the City council and the State Legislature respectively, instead of where the true responsibility clearly lies – on the shoulders of the mayor and the chancellor.

The Chronicle editorial is also far better than anything that the NY Times is likely to write on the subject. The Times editorial page, as usual, continues to be missing in action on this and nearly every other important issue that relates our schools in this city.

Place Blame For School Cuts Where It’s Due

Key to Success in "Raising" the NYC Grad Rate Discovered

"I was sitting in an Assistant Principal’s office the other day when a guidance counselor walked in. The Assistant Principal smiled. “There she is! The queen of credit recovery!”

I just couldn’t help myself. “I’m sorry. Did you just say credit recovery? Wasn’t that due about a month ago?”

The AP nodded. ‘We’re having a hard time getting the kids to hand in their papers. But not Ms. Counselor, here. She tracks them down and makes them give the work to her!”

The young guidance counselor smiled proudly and handed him the paper."

Read on http://avoicecriesout.com/?p=158

Goin’ Abroad, Goin’ Local

by Norman Scott

From The Wave
May 16, 2008

Tokyo Notes
The conga line snakes around the arena. 450 kids from 24 countries on five continents. We are in Tokyo. The children are between nine and 17 years old and we are at the end of three days of competition at the Asian Open FIRST LEGO League tournament.
The kids are from Peru and Brazil; a bunch from the US, Canada and Mexico; five from China; teams from Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea; many from Western Europe – France, Spain, Germany, Holland, all the Scandinavian countries; and Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. We were disappointed to hear the two teams from Israel had to cancel at the last minute - we could have solved the Middle East in those three days.
I was asked to be one of four referees – the other three were Japanese college students, only one of whom spoke English. Yikes! I’ve never been a referee and didn’t really know the game well enough, especially in such an intense competitive environment – sort of like being asked to umpire your first game in the World Series. But they needed an English speaker. I spent part of the 14 hour plane ride studying and then raced around on the practice day getting all the rules straight, relying a lot on
Tomo, the English speaking student, who ended up being my ref partner throughout the tournament – thank goodness – after I made sure to recruit some of the Europeans to join us. It turned out many of them were in my boat – helping organize and run tournaments but never having time to learn the intricacies of the game.
This year’s theme was energy – the Power Puzzle – and teams also have to do research on solving the energy crisis and do a presentation in front of a panel of judges. So, things were a bit chaotic and on the first day we didn’t get out until 8 PM. Later that night a group of us gathered in the lobby going over the rules until 11 PM. I marveled at the fact that here are adults spending hours working on this stuff and taking it so very seriously to make sure it goes ok for the kids. But that is what working with FIRST robotics is all about.
The refereeing went pretty well, though there were kids from two Chinese teams pretty mad at Tomo and me for some of our rulings. One of the kids spent a half hour arguing with me and I told him he should be a lawyer. The next day all the kids came over to take pictures. Having this kind of contact with kids after so long an absence was the great benefit of the trip. It is the major thing I miss about teaching.
We had two contrasting NYC middle schools - one public school (Herman Ritter) from the South Bronx and the other a private school (Little Red School House) from Manhattan where the kids raised $1200 in bake sales to assist the Ritter kids in getting to Japan. Ritter returned the favor by taking Little Red to dinner in Tokyo, the idea of Bronx FLL organizer Gary Israel (my roomie) who has been instrumental in promoting the Ritter kids.
This trip turned into a unique opportunity to interact with a great variety of adults and children from all over the world. I was fortunate in having Marcio Noguchi as a traveling companion. Marcio, of Japanese descent but born and raised in Brazil, lived in Japan for nine years. He now works for Credit Suisse in New York, so he brings a perspective of three continents to the table. We spent a lot of time together walking miles around Tokyo, so I got some great insights, illuminated after a sampling of sake at one restaurant. Afterwards, we went staggering – er - looking for ice cream and not finding a place, ended up at an all night McDonalds for shakes. It is a five story vertical place with stools at counters where some people spend many hours studying. Marcio left his motorcycle in my driveway and some of my neighbors were concerned that I was going through some kind of phase.

Back to Earth Day in Rockaway
The remarkable Jeanne Dupont, who heads the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance and organized the 2nd annual Earth Day on May 3 (two days after I returned) asked me to set up a display of the Power Puzzle for the event. (Native Rockawayite Bob Woods from LEGO Education also had a display on building solar cars.) Despite somewhat iffy weather conditions, we were visited by some of the local schools that expressed an interest in FLL robotics for next year and I hope to be able to assist them. Registration for Climate Connections, this year’s theme, is already open. FLL is not just for schools, but also for clubs and neighborhood teams. We even had a NYC Parks Dept. Team from Staten Island this year. Contact me if interested.

Goin’ more local
I retired six years ago because I wanted to have the time to do other things. I had been in a pretty cushy job for the previous four years in computer support and didn’t feel the need to go, other than time was a-wasting.
FIRST robotics was the first thing I did and have been handling registration and team recruitment ever since. I also have been deeply involved in educational and union issues and other activities, mostly Manhattan based.
In the past year or two I have been getting more involved in local activities in Rockaway. I’ve been doing a lot of video work along with my friend Mark Rosenhaft (NorMark Film.) Last night I attended my first local Planning Commission meeting videotaping with filmmaker Jennifer Callahan for the upcoming “Bungalows of Rockaway.” The major issue was the sometimes controversial re-zoning plan. In a very crowded meeting, there were lots of illuminating things going on, with some East/West Rockaway fault lines showing their cracks.
It would be beneficial for more people to find ways to work together. A group of Manhattanites have become part of the east end community as bungalow owners and that adds an interesting dynamic that bears watching.
Mark and I spent a year as co-producers, editors and cinematographers on “Dispatch,” a film that will be shown at the upcoming Rockaway Literary Arts and Film Festival. That experience made me more aware of local events that are worth getting involved in.
We recently interviewed The Wave’s Howard Schwach for a segment on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. When I showed it to the group I am working with, one of the people said, “I did the interview with him for Channel 4 when the plane crashed in Rockaway.” She is Rita Satz, who worked as a producer on the Today Show and is now retired. She has roots in Rockaway and is interested in producing the segment on Schwach.

RTC
Through the “Dispatch” film, I met Rockaway Theater Company’s John Gilleece who played a role in the film. John said RTC was looking for a videographer to tape the shows. I taped every show last year, sometimes twice. And I saw them gain when I worked on making the DVD’s. I could have watched them ten times. Seeing the shows from the booth and through a lens provides a unique perspective. Not a bad moment in any of them. Great acting, sets, spirit. There’s nothing not to like.
Having taught, my favorites are the shows with kids. Last year’s “Oliver” blew me away, not only for the quality of the show but for the way the kids were treated and how they responded. In addition to everything else, RTC does some remarkable teaching.
I’ve been around the “Annie” production from the first auditions back in January and never fail to be amazed at the kids and the adults working with them, especially co-directors Kathy Valentine and Frank Caiati. I need another column to describe the work Kathy and Frank do. (They also help paint the props.) They help create some of the remarkable spirit and energy that infuses the Rockaway Theater Company, where everyone – kids, parents, adult actors, etc. pitch in, from cleaning the theater to selling snacks during intermission. How such a small geographical area can nurture so much talent is astounding.
I can testify that Frank is a remarkable teacher, having recently completed an acting class with him. And he is also a great actor. The kids are lucky to have him around, at least until he makes it big on Broadway or in film.
I saw “Annie” with a large group of friends last Saturday, some first-time RTC-goers. They will be back. I went back on Sunday to tape it and am going back this weekend to tape it again. I won’t be bored for an instant.