Here are a few videos about Alfred E. Smith (AES) Career & Technical Education High School and the proposed phase-out

AES Shop Classes, put to music by Mark Noakes, click here

AES Student Interviews, click here

AES Science Club, click here

Also:

To learn more about our Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School and our situation, click here

To see the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) Notice & Agenda, click here

Choir Academy Closing Meeting Reports

Report from Choir Academy

You may wish to know that Choir had a large rally outside of the school made up of staff, students and parents opposing the closing.

At the public hearing last night a staff member interrupted John White to challenge the announcement that no one could yield their time to anyone else.

John White ignored him. The staff member continued to challenge him from the audience and the entire auditorium erupted in a loud chorus of "let him speak!"

This shut the entire hearing down for 15-20 minutes while the staff member and John White got into each other's faces.

Finally, John White had to agree to take the question from the member.

City Councilwoman Inez Dickens sent a representative who read a letter she had sent to Joel Klein opposing the closing of Choir, challenging the "statistics" that the DOE uses as being dubious at best and perhaps fraudulent.

Also, Choir has had 5 principals in the past 6 years.

A teacher from another school there to show support:

Went to the meeting to protest the closing of Harlem Choir Academy last night. Chris Petrillo was there- speaking to the student body to form an alliance with them as well as the schools he has gone to. He is truly an amazing young man!

Once again- JOHN WHITE was caught on his blackberry in the middle of the meeting and repeatedly went back to it even after the crowd pointed it out and demanded he put it away. He never once commented or apologized for his inappropriate and disrespectful actions! He should be ashamed of himself- it should be noted as part of public record that these meetings are a sham- the DOE has no intention of hearing anything these communities have to say- just going through the motions so they can claim they did it and then do what they want to do- shut these schools down and give the space to charter schools with the ultimate goal of destroying our public education system, destroying our unions- you see they are now going after the School safety officers and trying to get them out from under NYPD so they too can be privatized!!! Who is next???? Cafeteria workers, custodial workers, secretaries- everyone who works in the system will be out of jobs and the whole process will be privatized!!! Why can't the citizens of this great city see this???? When will we see the masses rise up and speak out??? Why not lay down in the middle of streets- students, parents, educators- EVERYONE- and shut down traffic- (Bloomberg might actually pay attention since he has a specific attachment to traffic flow problems). Call the FOREIGN PRESS- our press could care less- call the foreign press in - they would love to carry it and let's embarrass the current administration and shame them into stopping this onslaught- this attack on our children, our communities, our society as we know it! Now that would be a Rally!!!!!!!!

Jan. 21 Rally at Bloomberg Home Update

A recently activated teacher organizing for the Jan. 21 protest at Bloomberg home writes:

Hey Everyone,

I made it to three schools yesterday and put flyers out on several blocks in. But today, at a workshop, [ x] and I spoke to the teachers at the end. Some knew, some did not about what is going on. Everyone left with the web address. A couple said they are alarmed and their schools will be at the mayors' block rally. It felt good to know the message is growing.

Please if you can stop at a school on your way to work and give them the message and the flyer! Momentum is slowly catching on.

Wake up all the schools and teachers you cross.

Mayor’s Critics Sue to Protest Outside His Home

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/critics-of-mayors-school-policies-sue-for-right-to-protest-outside-his-house/

January 13, 2010, 2:03 pm  Updated: 4:24 pm --

By SHARON OTTERMAN
NYTimes CityRoom Blog

A group that opposes charter schools and school closings filed a lawsuit against the city on Tuesday for “unconstitutionally and without any legal basis” denying its request to protest on the sidewalk outside the Upper East Side town house of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The plaintiffs are two students from William H. Maxwell High School in Brooklyn, which is slated to close for poor performance, and a parent and teacher from Public School 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, an elementary school that shares space with the PAVE Academy Charter School. The city has proposed to allow PAVE to remain in the school for five more years, as it grows to include kindergarten through eighth grade, and teachers and parents at P.S. 15 have been furious.

“Our voices haven’t been heard, so we thought that the best way for the mayor to hear us would be for us to take our voices to his block,” said Julie Cavanagh, a special education teacher at P.S. 15. “There have been rallies at Tweed, and the individual schools, and its been a complete deaf ear.” (The former Tweed courthouse is where the Department of Education’s main offices are located.)

The protesters want to march back and forth along both sides of 79th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, in single file, on Jan. 21, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mr. Bloomberg lives on the north side of the street. While the New York City police have frequently turned down permits to protest on the north side, in 2003, they allowed a group protesting the closure of firehouses to march on both sides.

The plaintiffs decided to press the issue as a civil rights matter. The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District, argues that just as protesters are able to march outside Gracie Mansion, where mayors normally live, so too should they be able to protest outside Mr. Bloomberg’s house, where he conducts political activities like receptions and fund-raisers.

On Tuesday, the Police Department offered a compromise: the protest could proceed on the south side of 79th street, Ms. Cavanagh said. The plaintiffs turned down the offer, saying the city should not be able to pick who protests on the north side.

A lawyer for the city, Gabriel Taussig, said in an e-mailed statement, “The Police Department’s refusal to agree to a demonstration procession on the sidewalk in front of the mayor’s residence and its proposal that the event take place on the street and sidewalk across from the mayor’s residence was a lawful and appropriate accommodation to the protesters’ desire to exercise their First Amendment rights while at the same time assuring that safety and necessary access can be maintained at the mayor’s residence.”

Norman Siegel, the former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, is representing the protesters, along with Herbert Teitelbaum, the former executive director of the Commission on Public Integrity.

“The larger issue is clear: Can a public sidewalk be transformed into a private enclave because the mayor of New York lives there?” Mr. Siegel said. “The answer is no.”

Mr. Siegel said he expected a ruling from Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on Friday.

Brooklyn College Professor in Passionate Defense of Maxwell

Dr. Wayne Reed talks about the remarkable collaboration between Brooklyn College and Maxwell HS and how closing it will destroy many years of work.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x-YlbUV8UY

Parents, Students, and Teachers Fight for the Right to Protest on the Mayor’s Block

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
NYC

Parents, Students, and Teachers Fight for the Right to Protest on the Mayor’s Block

Today, attorneys Norman Siegel and Herbert Teiteleaum filed papers in United States District Court, Southern District, on behalf of a parent, two students and a teacher who are members of The Emergency Coalition to Stop School Closings, to hold a protest on the Mayor’s block on the Upper East Side on January 21st.

The Emergency Coalition intends to hold a city-wide protest on the Mayor’s block, on January 21, 2010 from 4:00-6:30. Parents, students, and teachers view this as their First Amendment right and vital to have their voices heard regarding the unfair and destructive educational policies being proposed by the NYC Department of Education.

“The Bloomberg Administration is undermining our schools, without any compassion or understanding of how these policies will affect our children. It’s time for parents to stand up and say no! We refuse to take it anymore. Our schools are the lifeblood of our communities, and we will take our voices and our struggle to the Mayor’s block in the hope that there, we will finally be heard,” Lydia Bellahcene, Parent, PS 15, The Patrick F. Daly School, Red Hook, Brooklyn.

“ My school, as well as many of the others that the city wants to close, are doing as well as we can given the continued budget cuts, overcrowding, and the other challenges we face. What we need is more support, smaller classes, and more programs to engage us, not to be closed down and replaced by small schools or charter schools which will make us travel many miles away or exclude us from attending,” Khalilah Dickerson, student, Maxwell High School.

"I feel it's important to rally on the mayor's block, because he needs to hear how students and the community really feels about school closures. Our school has been making progress, so it is wrong to close a school that is improving. The mayor seems to be making decisions without listening to us, the ones he claims to be helping. This is why we want to march on the Mayor’s block - so he can hear our voices loud and clear, " Richard McDonald, student, Maxwell High School.

“The Bloomberg Administration’s current policy of school closings and charter school invasions highlight a clear intent to dismantle public education. Stakeholders from the affected school communities, insist we have the right to protest on the Mayor’s block to prevent our communities from being divided and disenfranchised.” Julie Cavanagh, Teacher PS 15K, Representative from CAPE, Concerned Advocates for Public Education, a parent and teacher coalition at PS 15K.

“The average New Yorker believes that the Mayor has been enacting reforms that better the education of the 1.1 million students in our public school system. By protesting, we want to expose the fact that school closures and the threat of closure have done immense harm to these students' education. Closures have caused the flight of quality teachers from high needs areas, stripped curriculums of all but mindless drilling for high stakes testing, brought corruption in the form of credit recovery and social promotion, and set the way for a two tiered system under charter school disparity.” Seung Ok, Teacher Maxwell High School.

James Eterno, chapter leader at Jamaica HS says: "This administration is closing schools down like they are franchises whose revenue is declining. What they don't realize is that Jamaica HS, like many of these other schools, is an integral part of its community, has had a long tradition of success before Klein was made chancellor, and despite his negative policies, is improving rapidly -- with a 15% increase in graduation rate in recent years. We will advocate for its survival even if we have to take the message to the Mayor's front door."

The Emergency Coalition to Stop School Closings is comprised of dedicated parents, students, and teachers who seek to protect and support NYC public schools from the detrimental policies of the Bloomberg Administration and are demanding that the Department of Education halt school closures and the charter school invasions that are undermining the health of our public education system.

No matter what the court decides, the Coalition intends to go ahead with their plan to protest in Bloomberg’s neighborhood on January 21st, whether on the Mayor’s block or in a nearby location. Protesters will be meeting at 4:00 at 5th Avenue and 79th street on the park side.

Media Contacts:
Lydia Bellahcene: lillytigre@yahoo.com, 347-463-9809, PTA PS 15- 718-330-9280

Khalilah Dickerson- 347-264-4527/lilahmissco@hotmail.com
Richard McDonald- 347-445-3927/mcdonald_richie@yahoo.com
Julie Cavanagh: juliereed15@hotmail.com, 917-836-6465
Seung Ok: possitivelypessimist@gmail.com, 646-244-4468
James Eterno: jeterno@nyc.rr.com , 718-268-0788

Norman Siegel: 347-907-0867

Herberet Teiteleaum: 518-441-9412

###

Randi Races to the Bottom: Don't Expect the UFT to Rise Above

Here is another in our "UFT/AFT as Vichy collaborators" series:

I hope no one was surprised that Randi Weingarten today made it clearer than ever that she was an education deformer. Now some people have been fooled by her successor's phony militancy - there is a UFT election coming - and Mike Mulgrew has to look more militant than Weingarten. Well, it wouldn't take much.

What people must understand is that the AFT and UFT are one - the UFT totally controls the AFT and Unity Caucus controls both organizations. And both Weingarten and Mulgrew are creatures of the caucus. So do not expect Mulgrew to distance himself too far from Weingarten's statements today, though the dance he will make around it should be fun to watch.

Some reactions to the speech from teacher Marjorie Stamberg and parent Leonie Haimson:

Randi Weingarten is slated to give a speech in Washington today, accompanied by Obama's education secretary Arne Dunacan, where she will "unveil new approaches to teacher evaluation and labor-management relationships, and discuss a fresh approach to due process."

Meanwhile, a column by Bob Herbert in today's New York Times reports on an interview he had with the AFT president over the weekend in which she reportedly said "standardized test scores and other measures of student performance should be an integral part of the evaluation process." She also reportedly "is urging school administrators to observe teachers more closely and more frequently," and if teachers "did not measure up, they would be fired, whether tenured or not."

I don't usually comment on individuals, because the real problem with the labor movement is not this or that misleader but a union bureaucracy that is beholden to the Democratic Party and more generally to the interests of capital. But I'll say flat out, this is a crass betrayal of the teachers Weingarten claims to represent and an attack on the students we educate. Instead of fighting the teacher union bashers she is outrageously joining them.

Hooking teacher evals to student test scores is wrong -- for kids, for teachers, for everybody EXCEPT the privatizers, corporatizers and union-busters. This opens the door to massive victimization of teachers, as we are already seeing in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

We can't be surprised by this, since the union has had an experimental "voluntary" program on this for the past year, and since they tried to shove it down our throats with the so-called "bonus pay." I also expect this is one of Bloomberg's demands in the current contract bargaining that the union leadership is most likely to cave on. The UFT bureaucracy has been opening the sluice gates on this for some time, as with the introduction of school-based "merit pay.".

How is linking teacher evaluation to student scores on standardized tests wrong? Let me count the ways:

1) Teachers are already pressured into doing endless "test prep" which is a different animal than teaching. Can you fill in the bubble sheet or can you think? Endless test prep is bad for kids -- stressful, repetitive, and what does it teach?

2) Teachers are not responsible for how kids come into the classroom, their past learning experiences, their personalities, their diverse and amazing lives. We are dedicated, tireless and do our best to teach every student, using multiple methods, reaching every child. However, we must not be scapegoated for how this translates on bubble sheets!

3) For example, English language learners and special needs students may learn at a different rate, taking longer to process the information. That's a good thing; they are learning.

4) Hooking teacher evals to test scores necessarily means the low performing students will be pushed out of schools. Why? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. Even the most dedicated, tireless teachers will feel pressured to find positions in schools where kids get the highest scores --- it will be an economic reality if their jobs and raises depend on it.

5) Ergo --- the student dropout rate will increase, as it already is doing despite the attempts by the DOE to mask this by taking them off the roles as "transfers." Public education for all will continue to be whittled away; we will go to a system of higher education for the "elite" and McJobs for everybody else.

6) Am I making this up? The National Center for Education and the Economy, a Clinton-era think tank which Mayor Bloomberg says inspired his education program, published a 2006 report (financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) that said that in order to meet the manpower needs of businesses, public education for all should only go up to the 10th grade.

7) This is racist, it is segregationist, and along with the push for charter schools it is "educational colonialism." It is of a piece of the program to close 20 schools in our city to make room for the charters. Jonathan Kozol has written powerfully that our schools today (50 + years after Brown v. Board of Education) are "American Apartheid) are more segregated than ever.

8) Corporatization, privatization, turning the schools into test prep academies; treating education like a business, not a process of teaching and learning. This program is designed to meet the needs of capitalism, not kids.

9) This program is coming from the top; not just Bloomberg/Klein, but Arne Duncan and Barack Obama. Thus, just to stand up for the democratic program of public education for all, integration of schools and "equal opportunity" we need a break from the Democrats and Republicans and a struggle for an independent class struggle workers party. It can't be done "piecemeal."

10) More information on this viewpoint can be read in "Class Struggle Education Workers." I invite you to check it out

--Marjorie


Leonie writes to her listserve

Randi Weingarten announced that linking test scores to teacher evaluation is acceptable to the AFT.

I just learned that she will be on "To the PoInt" today, a nationally syndicated call-in radio show about these proposals. In fact, I was due to be on the show to give the parent perspective on this show, about the Race To the Top grant program coming out of the Obama administration, and just learned I was bumped off by her.

No surprise there. When are any parents listened to at the national level -- or even locally?

The program will be aired live from California, starting 3 PM our time; to hear this live and call in, go to http://www.kcrw.com/schedule and click on listen live.

The show will be aired later tonight on WNYC at 10 PM..

Articles about Randi's announcement are here; (USA Today, Washington Post) and here (Times) . The WaPost article is below.

FYI, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences have said in their comments on Race to the Top that the research on tying value-added test scores to teacher evaluation is too unreliable to be used at this point, and that:

At present, the best use of VAM techniques is in closely studied pilot projects. Even in pilot projects, VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness should not be used as the sole or primary basis for making operational decisions because the extent to which the measures reflectthe contribution of teachers themselves, rather than other factors, is not understood.

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12780

If you want to know what we think of the Race to the Top, you can check out my posting here or Patrick's (Sullivan) here.

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2009/08/comments-on-race-to-top-proposal.html and

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2009/08/susan-neumans-comments-on-race-to-top.html

Report of Paul Robson Closing Meeting, Jan. 7

Can barely keep my eyes open so this will be short-- but I did want to send a little synopsis on this evening. I was at Paul Robeson HS protest/meeting tonight. I stayed until the end I believe there were 56 people who spoke. All were for keeping the school open there was not one voice in agreement with closing of the school. It was encouraging to listen to all the people speak their hearts and minds--there were student graduates from years passed who spoke --there were recent grads and current students all gave compelling 2 minute comments about the caring nurturing and supportive environment of Paul Robeson. I was especially encouraged by all the faculty and teachers who spoke out-- this was telling-proving my friend right who has predicted that 2010 is destined to be the year of the Brave!

There was a decent showing from the UFT as well--they gave out buttons inscribed DOE: Persistently failing Management and the message they were intent on hammering home. I was moved by so many-- and Senator Eric Adams calling for a mass movement from the people to take to the streets. While there were some community people there were very few parents who spoke.

Several motivating reminders about Bloomberg's residence on Jan 21and the PEP on Jan 26
to the streets....

D

Ed Note: The UFT has been pressing the mismanagement theme, which misdirects people from seeing the DOE management are very good at managing the privatization of the public school system. And the UFT/AFT full well knows it as this has been happening in urban school systems all over the place.

Teacher Defends Small Schools and Others Respond

A teacher emailed GEM asking for a correction to a leaflet that he felt equated small schools with charters. Here is the original and some reactions:

I received an email from GEMnyc supporting a protest of school closures. I agree with everything in the email, except for the inclusion of small schools in the statement below:

"The little known secret behind charter schools and small schools is that they steal the highest achieving students from district schools, and turn away ELL, Special Education, and struggling students."

I work at a small school. Our incoming class of students were all level 1 and 2. We are just as frustrated as other schools regarding the siphoning away of higher level students by selective schools, whether they be charters or others. The issue is not with the size of the school, but the selectivity of the school. Why should some schools be able to select their students and others not?

Please correct this error. It is hard enough to defend the existence of our school without misinformation being propagated by the "good guys."

Responses:

I disagree w/ this.
I understand that there are dedicated teachers at small schools, who are doing a great job and are equally frustrated. However, the 'attack' or criticism is not on individual small schools, but the strategy of using small schools to dismantle and undermine public education. Small schools, in the larger context, are a piece in the privatization puzzle.
-----

I do think there is a context here for that statement in that the small schools movement has been as much a political one as educational if not more. If the charter school cap gets lifted many of them will be swept away too. I think we need to figure out ways to create small school environments within larger structures. That will not happen unless more power resides in the hands of teachers.
------

I tend to agree. The small schools are not the same as charters. More nuanced wording is needed by us. Since there are ways in which the small school movement is supporting privatization and union busting, but, like he says they are also suffering much the same fate as other schools at the hands of charters etc.
-----
I think an important point is that breaking up a big school into smaller schools doesn't fix it. I started at my school while it was a [large high school] during the time it was being phased out for being a "dangerous" and "failing" school. The folks in the [wehite upscale] neighborhood couldn't wait to get their hands on the school (there is a racist element to this which I won't get into now). Once it was restructured. Long story short - [the old school] hasn't been in the school for at least 4 or 5 years and if you ask the folks who have been there for 20-30 years, things were BETTER under [the old school]. More discipline, more classes being offered, tech classes (auto shop, for example), a bilingual program. And now my school, I fear, could be on Bloomberg's chopping-block. We suffer from the same "failings" as many of the other schools that are being closed - declining enrollment, F's on Student performance, C's and D's on our report card, etc. Making a big school small doesn't fix the problems. What breaking up a big school does is divide an conquer the teachers in a building, weaken the chapters, and if Bloomberg gets his way, gets rid of senior excessed teachers.

Weekend Comings and Goings

WBAI Monday 7:45AM:
Mark Torres of the CPE and I will be discussing Patterson call for lifting charter school cap

Lots of weekend wrap up stuff and I didn't get to half of it.

Charter Schools: The Privatization of Public Education?
I missed this video on charter schools last week on the NYCPublicSchoolParent blog. Brian Jones of GEM and Bill Perkins and others:
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-charter-school-critiques-separate.html


Smith rally last Friday and meeting Monday night
Smith H.S. rallied 100 people to fight against Bloomberg's attempt to close this invaluable gateway for many Bronx working class students. Students led the chants and pleaded passionately to save Smith and its many vocational programs that provide lifelong careers. Many graduates have earned jobs that service our communities and have even helped build the new Bronx Yankee stadium. In this video , Danny Escobar pours his heart out in the school's defense. Smith has nurtured him as a family and is giving him carpentry skills that are provided nowhere else.

Click to view video by Angel Gonzalez
Save Alfred E. Smith High School - A Gateway for Students


Barrett reveals Thompson as Dirty
The next time you read a New Action leaflet bragging about how they were the only caucus to endorse Bill Thompson, suggest people read this revealing Wayne Barrett piece in the Voice about Thompson's girlfriend/wife museum scam and how Bloomberg helped out.


On DOE playing politics with school grade structure
Teacher:
One of these schools...is very close to my school. It will be a 5-8 school and my principal is worried about losing more 5th grade students. We have already lost one of our 5th grade classes to charter schools. She said the charter schools should not be allowed to have the 5-8 span of grades. (It takes students from both elementary AND middle schools). Also, we have a student who was just readmitted to our school from a charter school. He gave us a hard time from K-4th grade. The mother said that they called her every day to come pick him up or come sit with him in school. The charter school suspended him to home. My principal said how can charter schools suspend kids to home and the public schools cannot? The boy is even more of a problem now. Evidently he was made to wear different colors and sit by himself in class and lunch. If other students talked to him, they received demerits.

On Governance
Parent:
Why would we allow independent and self-governing parent bodies to be regulated literally to death by an autocratic repressive administration that has no moral or operational credibility with parents, students or teachers after 7 years of abuse, neglect and harmful politically-motivated policies? I think the time for working with the powers that be to explain that this initiative won't work, that the consequences of that policy to schools, children families, will be dreadful, followed by ripple effects of harm and months of all of us crying " I told you so" are over. The whole point of mayoral control has been to stave off any democratic process and to be able to ram an agenda down the public's throat. If you had any doubts as to what that agenda may have been, in case you got caught up in the rhetoric and spin, I hope the January PEP agenda with 8 regulations and 22 school closings makes it clear now. Mission accomplished!


Reminder: Norman Thomas Demo and rally
If can remind your contacts of the Demonstration to prevent the phasing out of Norman Thomas it would greatly be appreciated. Demonstrate at Norman Thomas before the hearings on Monday, January 11 between 4 and 5 PM.
It is IMPERATIVE that we convey this message to all our contacts inside and outside of the school. What we say as a body will have a greater impact than what we say inside during the hearings on Monday. Show your support for Our School and Chapter Leader by getting to the picket line and demonstrating to prevent this tragedy from occurring. REMEMBER -THE JOB YOU SAVE MAY VERY WELL BE YOUR OWN! This is not a fear tactic IT IS QUICKLY BECOMING THE REALITY. BLOOMBERG AND KLEIN HAVE DECLARED WAR AGAINST US! EAST 33RD ST, AND PARK AVE. #6 TRAIN-IN SOLIDARITY, NICK LICARI


Bloomberg School Closings Draw Ire

"They dropped a bomb on the schools without any notice,” said William McDonald, a Queens parent and a leader of the Save Our Schools Coalition, a group that opposes the school closings. “The principals didn’t know. The teachers didn’t know. The parents didn’t know.” Full story:
http://www.indypendent.org/2010/01/07/school-closings-2


This is a story that might have legs as we attempt to link these students up with the closing schools activist students.

THE URBAN YOUTH COLLABORATIVE HAS INVITED OUR STUDENTS TO JOIN THEM IN THE FIGHT TO STOP THE MTA CUTS TO STUDENT METROCARDS.

From Caitlyn Ervin of the Urban Youth Collaborative-

This Monday, the Urban Youth Collaborative is hosting a meeting FOR students, led BY students, to come up with an action plan around cuts to student Metrocards. Attached is the flyer—please encourage your children to attend, and forward widely!

Every student deserves to get to school safely and for FREE! And the new proposed cutting of student metro cards by the MTA will hit low-income students of color the hardest. Students need to be at the front of the movement to STOP THE CUTS! This is why UYC is having a Student Union meeting where all students from New York City are invited to come learn about how this issue can potentially affect them and their families, and brainstorm together on how we’re going to fight to stop the cuts.

When: Monday, January 11th @ 5pm
Where: Trinity Parish Hall 74 Trinity Place

Emergency citywide PARENT CONFERENCE on School Closings set for Jan. 16th(

This is being organized by parent activists: The conference planning committee includes Lisa Donlan, Shino Tanikawa, Khem Irby, William McDonald and Monica Major; all active parent leaders from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Teachers and students will be involved. The UFT changed its MLK event with Bloomie buddy Calvin Butts from Monday to Jan. 16 but these guys were out there first.

The Busy Bees at the DOE

The Tweed gang has a busy schedule in the process of undermining the public school system they are supposed to manage and improve. I put up on Norm's Notes the DoE release of all the goodies they have planned for so many schools. Nothing to do with education, of course.

Proposals for Significant Changes in School Utilization

The ultimate goal of course is to be left with no schools to manage. All Tweed will do is close schools, open new ones, place charter schools in buildings, and move schools from building to building (I asked David B to come up with something for us to chuckle about.) Thanks to Patrick Sullivan for the info.

Today- Brooklyn FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Event

COME ON DOWN

I've been involved in FIRST LEGO Robotics in NYC and nationally - even internationally (as a referee in Tokyo two years ago), since I retired. The tournaments have grown each year as more schools get involved. It is one of the best things I've done. My role is to liaison with the teacher/coaches.

FIRST puts on tournaments all over the world. FLL is for ages 9-14. There are over 16,000 teams in every neck of the world. All competing in the same type of events. The season culminates with the World Festival in April. I went to one in Atlanta and it was quite an experience.

This year's theme is SMART Moves, relating to building and programming robots using LEGO that can navigate through various transportation issues. See more here.

Today is the first of 5 borough tournaments to chose teams that will qualify for the NYC championship at the Javits convention center in March. The Brooklyn tournament is taking place at Polytechnic/NYU in downtown Brooklyn on Jay St. It is free and open to the public and you get to see what all the excitement is about.

I'll be there most of the day so stop by and say hello.

Tomorrow is Staten Island at Wagner College. Next Saturday (Jan. 16) is the Bronx event at Lehman HS and the week after (Jan. 23) is Queens at Aviation HS followed the next day by Manhattan at CCNY.

Follow events at my robotics blog: http://normsrobotics.blogspot.com/

BCHS Closing Hearing: Why Can't They Fix Us?

Columbus HS Alum Reports on Jan. 7 Meeting

Richard Barr sent this to the nyceducation news listserve:

I went to Christopher Columbus H.S. in the Bronx (my alma mater) last night for the joint hearing that DOE arranged about closing the school and also one of the small schools that share the building, Global Enterprise H.S., (which was started during the Bloomberg-Klein regime.)

The auditorium was packed, and everyone who spoke during the first 2 hours, while I was there -- the local elected officials, the B.P.'s rep., the head of the community board, administrators, teachers, union reps (teachers and principals unions), students, alums -- everyone was passionate in their defense of the schools, their opposition to the closings, and their criticism of the DOE.

Heartfelt testimony included statistics refuting the DOE's charges that the schools were failing, charts showing graduation rates above the city-wide average, information about successful coping with over-crowding, high percentages of special needs students and new-arrival students who enter not speaking a word of English. The words of praise in the DOE's own recent progress reports were cited as direct contradiction of the words they now use in their closing rationales.

People spoke about how they have not received help and support from the district office or DOE central. It was pointed out that DOE claims of having consulted with the "stakeholders" about this were bogus, because when personnel at Global asked widely who had been consulted, they could find no one who had. Several people suggested that clearing space for charter schools was the likely explanation for this DOE plan. One student, choked up with tears, said that the closing would shut the door to his future.

The building looked to be in great shape, inside and out, with lots of informational and inspirational signs and college posters all over the walls. It was maybe in better shape than when I attended, and since it opened in 1938, it is now well more than twice as old as it was then.

If PEP votes to close these schools after a hearing like this, it will be a chilling example of how an irrational dictatorship rides roughshod over the near-unanimous opinions and desires of practically all aspects of the communities it supposedly serves. If all the B.P. reps on the PEP, if they each wish to keep their schools open, make common cause for the meeting on the 26th ("Don't vote to close my schools and I won't vote to close yours") and the vote comes out 8 Bloombergs for closing, 5 B.P.'s against, it will demonstrate how unfair the make-up of this group is, and ought to result in lawsuits against the closings.

Richard Barr

School Closing Hearings Turning into Perfect Storm

We predicted back in the fall that a 3rd term for Bloomberg would turn out to be his disaster. Hubris will take the Tweedy gang down the road to oblivion.

It didn't take them long to do that thing. Closing 22 schools in one felt swoop and thinking that scheduling all the hearings right on top of each other would be a classic coup of disaster capitalism of the shock doctrine type. Instead it may be turning into a perfect storm of their own making.

The press has been racing around to cover all these events. The poor gals of Gotham are being run ragged. Maura has to schlep to Beach Channel ("you come to all of those meetings in the city from HERE? she asked) and to Jamaica last night. Yoav from the Post and Lindsey from NY 1 was at both events too. And poor Tweed PR Anne Forte too, who had to endure the slings and arrows as timekeeper at BCHS but was given a break last night by boss David Can't(or) who came along to try to manage the press. Even Dennis Walcott came by to watch the show at Jamaica.

And what a show it was. How interesting that local politicians who have been silent as the dOE closed so many schools are now coming out of the woodwork to condemn them. At both meetings I attended every Queens councilman supported keeping the schools open. Erich Ulrich, a Republican from Howard Beach and a Bloomberg admirer (he practically held up a cross to fend me off when I suggested he come to our demo at Bloomberg's house on Jan, 21) has surprisingly led the effort, getting every Queens councilperson to sign off on supporting the schools. Last night 3 of them told us they were Jamaica High grads.



Even one of my favorite whipping boys, Queens PEP member Dmytro Fedkowskyj, made a decent statement (too late for today's Wave column which goes after him again as a rubber stamp. I told him we will be looking for him to stand up for the Queens schools with his vote on Jan. 26. "Why can't you be more like Patrick Sullivan," I said? His answer is embargoed.

Now the best thing happening was the connection Jamaica chapter leader James Eterno and I made last night between BCHS student leader (see his video in the previous post) and Jamaica HS student leader Rachel Ali (I think) who met for the first time last night and within an hour formed a student union of closing schools and will attend every school closing hearing from now on to try to meet other student leaders. They will try to get many of them to come to the Jan, 21 rally, which Rachel promoted last night.

In the perfect storm brewing, this may turn out to be the biggest wave of all. Though one never knows how these student things turn out since the politicians are already trying to deflect it. Chris just called to say he is going to Ulrich's office for a meeting. How long before he and the others get a meeting with either Bloomberg or Klein or both? And will they accept anything less than keeping their schools open. By the way, both Chris and Rachel are 18 and seniors, so their stake in keeping the school open is coming from a perspective of students for whom the schools has worked.

Don't you just love it when the Tweedies use their "only 46% graduated" data? What about these 46% for which something worked? Sure, go ahead and take away the school that they feel nurtured them in the name of the nameless 54% who did not? When the alumni and current students get up to speak, watch people like John White and Kathleen Grimm, who would run screaming from a classroom, try to keep their eyes off their Blackberries while pretending to listen. It is all about children, not adults, right?

I thought of something last night about how these closings are an attack on the students, and not only the most struggling. They are an attack on that 46% who do succeed. Imagine those kids who are sophomores and have to spend the rest of their school careers in a dying and downsized school? They may be the biggest victims.

And then there is the fact that an alternative to closing a school is leadership change. Yea, like change the principal. One teacher on a video I put up from the Dec. PEP said that they have their third principal in 4 years and this guy is the first one who had real experience and knows what he's doing, so give him a chance.


Hey Norm-cannot believe that over 30 people got up to speak and NOT ONE made mention that the slimy ass principal was not in the room to go "down with his ship". Shows you how stupid and or chicken ass we all are. If someone had guts, they would have challenged him to step in the room to say something. What some of the teachers should have realized is that he was leaving them up the creek w/o a paddle. Knowing this, and it was evident, they should have suggested a change of leadership!! How dedicated can the man be if he is unwilling to step into the room to defend his staff?

In some schools, like Columbus, principals are standing up. But for those who won't and play the Tweedie game, here's what I'll put my money on. The students will be sent to overcrowded schools with long subway and bus rides, teachers will become ATRs and sent who knows where, but the school leadership will land on its feet, maybe even to take down another school? Or is that part of the plan all along?

And then there's the UFT, which last night tried to lay their "Tweed mismanagement line" on. I pointed out that this is not mismanagement but superb management of their intentions to end up having no responsibility for any public schools, because there will be none left.

Student Chris Petrillo Defends Beach Channel HS

Student Chris Petrillo responds to DOE Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm after she gives one of the reasons for closing Beach Channel HS as the lack of students who want to go there. He ticks off program after program that the DOE cut, inluding the oceanography program which attracted him enough to come out to the geographically isolated Rockaway from his home in Ozone Park.

Beach Channel HS Meeting, Jan. 6 2010

There is so much to write about and show you from the two hours of video I took at last night's meeting but I can only give a short report as I've been working in the video and have to leave to go to Jamaica HS hearing tonight. Some GEMers will be covering the Columbus meeting in the Bronx and we should be getting reports. up by the weekend.

The most remarkable thing about the BCHS even last night was the students- current and former who spoke eloquently and passionately about their school. Student leader Chris Petrillo did a 20 minute presentation over the initial objections of Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm after City Councilman Erich Ulrich asked. (He is turning out to be an interesting guy even though a Bloomberg admirer. He showed up with a petition signed by every Queens Council member urging that the schools not be closed.)

I have so much good video of Chris and am editing it in various ways to make what he had to say as effective as possible. The segment I am working on now was his response to Grimm's statement that students don't want to go to BCHS. Chris went through program after program cut by the DOE that would drive students away.

James Eterno, CL of Jamaica HS was there and he and Chris spoke. Chris expressed interest in going to their meeting tonight to link up with the activist kids from Jamaica. I spoke to his mom last night and she said it would be fine. Chris just called to ask if he can get a ride home with me if he goes and it looks like he will be there. He is also anxious to link up with other student activists at closing schools and Seung Ok from Maxwell is putting him in touch with a student there. Oh, and I met with a sophomore on Tuesday at the Academy of Environmental Science who had asked me for help making a video to defend his school (I put out a call and 3 filmmakers responded) and he is also interested in linking up. There are some amazing kids out there and meeting them makes so much of this worth while no matter what happens.

Check back tomorrow morning for some video of BCHS and this weekend for Jamaica HS.

In the meantime read Maura's report at Gotham.

Beach Channel supporters lay out their case against closure

Save Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School

What: Public hearing regarding proposal by New York City Department of Education to phase-out AES HS

To see the proposal click here

To learn more about AES and the proposal click here

When: Public Hearing: Monday, January 11, 6:00pm

Public Hearing Rally: Friday, Jan 8th, 3:30 - 4:30pm

Where: Rally & Public Hearing will be at Alfred E. Smith CTE High School

333 East 151 Street, Bronx

For directions click here

Subject: Save Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School

Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education (CTE) High School is one of the public schools proposed to be phase out by the NYC Department of Education (DOE) due to poor graduation rates. The DOE's Panel for Education Policy (PEP) states that Alfred E. Smith CTE HS will be phased out without replacement. We welcome change, but phasing out our school is not the answer and unacceptable; not having a plan that involves the continued use of the building to educate the economically disadvantaged South Bronx students in pre-engineering, plumbing, carpentry, electrical, HVAC, and automotive mechanics is disgraceful. A phase out would mean no freshman will enter the shop classes in September 2010. The teachers will be released, shop classes will be increasingly underutilized and eventually nonexistent. As a result, plumbers, electricians, HVAC mechanics, carpenters, automotive mechanics and pre-engineers no longer be trained at AES. Phasing out Alfred E. Smith HS and eliminating its unparalleled Career & Technical Education component is unequivocally a mistake and not the solution to the problem, here are quantitative reasons why:

Read more at Norms Notes:

Save Alfred E. Smith Career & Technical Education High School

Whither Beach Channel: some politics is local, but not all

Tonight there will be a school closing meeting at Beach Channel HS. I just submitted this for my Wave column which includes yesterday's post (revised - "My guess is the UFT's strategy is to try to save 2 or 3 schools and pull a Bush by having Mulgrew land a jet, exit and declare, "Mission accomplished.")

With the Panel for Educational Policy, the Bloomberg rubber stamp poor excuse for a NYC board of education due to vote on each of the 22 closing schools at the January 26 meeting (6PM, sign up to speak at 5:30), which was moved from Staten Island to Brooklyn Tech, expect lots of action. The UFT is organizing an action and has gotten a permit for the park across the street from Tech for a rally at 4:30.

The new mayoral control law passed this summer forces Tweed to go through a process before closing schools, so there are meetings taking place at all 22 schools during the first two weeks of January. The one at Beach Channel was held on the evening of Jan. 6, after this column was submitted. I'm taping it for you tube but don't expect much more than some venting. Hopefully the Beach Channel staff/student/parent nexus will turn out for the Jan. 21 and Jan. 26 demos where there is some chance to make a dent en masse.

It is important to be aware of the big picture and the Education deform plan: use any means to move as much of the public education system into private hands. Beach Channel is a victim of that plan. The elimination of neighborhood, zoned schools under the so-called – "doesn't everyone have the right to have choice" propaganda – is a way to destroy attachment to local schools and community and open them up to charter franchises to run the schools. It is as close to their cherished voucher system as they can get. And bet that someone is making money on these schemes.

These fights have to go beyond Beach Channel and tie in with struggles of other schools. Without a citywide fight back for all schools, something the UFT refuses to take on – preferring to let each school fight it out on their own – one school at a time will be picked off until there are few schools left under public management. This is truly a citywide, indeed, a nationwide, fight to maintain what will become an endangered species –schools under the oversight of taxpaying citizens.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Politicians: Watch what they do, not what they say.

Given the above, there are still battles to fight on the local level. Audrey Pheffer, Eric Ulrich and Lew Simon all spoke up at the first Beach Channel meeting in December, but will they put themselves on the line to keep the school open? Lew in his Wave column spoke about "our wonderful superintendent Michelle Lloyd-Bey," who clearly drinks out of the Tweed Kool-aid trough and put on a shameless performance - and it was a performance - at the Dec. meeting. I know you're a politician Lew, but give me a break! The UFT did send out a local email urging teachers to go to the Jan. 6 meeting and asked them to call politicians to support the school. Pheffer is at (718) 945-9550 and Ulrich at (718) 318-6411.

There are a few politicians who have been missing in action. First and foremost is Queens Borough President Helen Marshall (718) 286-3000 who appointed Dmytro Fedkowskyj (pepofqueens@yahoo.com) as the Queens rep to the PEP. He has been as big a rubber stamp as any Bloomberg flunky. It is time he stand up at the Jan. 26 and vote NO on closing Beach Channel and Jamaica HS and he should support the schools struggling to stay open in other boroughs. There is talk about holding demos at the businesses and homes of the PEP members along with the borough presidents who control them who won't stand up for their communities. Marshall and Brooklyn's Marty Markowitz are particular targets (the Bronx and Manhattan Borough Presidents have appointed people who resist BloomKlein).

In case you forget, we have our own Geraldine D. Chapey, the elder, who has been silent as a member of the State Board of Regents. Her reappointment in 2008 after 20 mute years on the Regents left a lot of people scratching their heads. Let's hear her speak up to save the last neighborhood high school left in Rockaway. Send her a love note at RegentChapey@mail.nysed.gov

Finally, there's State Senator Malcolm A. Smith at (718) 528-4290 who has his own charter school just salivating for the Beach Channel building. There has been speculation that is one of the reasons for BCHS being closed. I know, I know, you've been hearing for years that Peninsula Prep is getting its own building. All charter schools have that line. If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on PPA occupying space in BCHS within two years. By the way, PPA is connected to the Victory Charter school national chain, which takes chunks of money out for "services." Victory's CEO is Peg Harrington, who was in charge of all the high schools in pre-BloomKlein days. You know, those schools she ran that are being dubbed as dismal failures. Go figure. Everyone manages to get on the gravy train.

Our schools are being McDonaldized, which is appropriate since McDonald's is one of the largest employers in the nation and all that test prep going on is not about getting kids to go to college, but to train them to work the cash registers and not overfill the milk shake containers.

Resistance is NOT Futile: Paying Bloomberg a Visit on Jan. 21, 4-6:30

Revised Jan. 6 for The Wave

People involved in education as parents, teachers and even students have been so outraged at the actions of BloomKlein and the Tweed Toadies, and their anger has barely been contained. In recent weeks an outlet for these passions has opened up with the idea that a rally at Bloomberg's residence on Thursday afternoon from 4-6:30 pm would be an excellent way to a) demonstrate to the city and the nation that there is a growing resistance to the education deform movement, with a focus on the school closings and the charter school invasion of public school spaces and b) give participants a sense of unity and purpose for future struggles by having one big party in the streets near Bloomberg's residence (17 East 79th St).

And future struggles there will be, with the next one coming just days later on Jan. 26 at the Panel for Educational Policy meeting where all 22 announced school closings will be voted on. The meeting will be held at Brooklyn Tech HS.

One major difference in the two rallies is that the UFT is organizing the PEP rally and ignoring and actively discouraging the Jan. 21 event, which has groups like the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), the Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) and Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) amongst a growing list backing the rally at Bloomies.

In addition, schools are signing on. Parents and teachers at PS 15 in Red Hook and Jamaica HS have endorsed the rally and some of the closing schools may form committees to support it - if they don't get scared off by the UFT, which has the ability to use less than subtle blackmail - "we won't help you fight if you support this." But people have seen the UFT do nothing, absolutely nothing to save schools from closing in the past, though this outrage of throwing 22 schools in their face by the DOE seems to have forced them to act. My guess is the UFT's strategy is to try to save 2 or 3 schools and pull a Bush by having Mulgrew land a jet, exit and declare, "Mission accomplished."

The Jan. 21 rally is significant in that people often waited for the UFT, the elephant in the room to act first. This time parents and teachers have been saying, "Screw the UFT. They hold their big, boring rallies with boring speakers and then go home without accomplishing anything other than use the event for narrow PR purposes" instead of building a strategy to fighter over the long run.

CAPE, GEM, ICE, and TJC are also organizing around the Jan. 26 PEP rally, but felt that something had to be done in advance of the PEP meeting when the rubber stamp panel will undoubtedly vote in favor of closing the schools. Bloomberg's residence as opposed to the same old City Hall/Tweed rallies seems to be capturing people's imagination. As Jamaica's chapter leader James Eterno told me, "The students want to go to Bloomberg's house."

That students are getting involved can turn out to be BloomKlein's biggest nightmare. You have to watch them react when students get up at meetings (see the video I put up of BCHS student leader Chris Petrillo) and criticize them (as opposed to the disdain they show to teachers). They sit up and pay rapt attention in an attempt to demonstrate that they are interested in "children first." A famous power house attorney is providing legal assistance since the police are violating First Amendment rights by trying to shift demos at Bloomies' to 5th Ave by Central Park where there might less people impacted. Some people worry about numbers. The organizers are not. They see this as a start, the first in a series of actions that may begin to make the case against the education deformers.

What can you do?

BE THERE. And not alone. Bring every teacher and parent and student you know who is plain fed up.

Download the pdf below and hand it out in your schools. Contact me directly at normsco@gmail.com if you have questions.

Note: Come to the GEM organizing meeting for both the Jan. 21 and Jan. 26 rallies today at CUNY at 4:30, rm 5414 or 5409.Bring id.

Jan 21 Rally

Michele Rhee to Close the Washington Redskins Due to Lack of Improvement

Since being declared a TINI - Team In Need of Improvement 3 years ago, the Washington Redskins have been steadily declining despite numerous leadership changes (Spurrier, Gibbs, and the recent scorn of Zorn). With Tweed in NYC proving that leadership change is not the preferred option to closing schools, DC school Supe Michelle Rhee, who has made closing schools an art, has invoked her extraordinary powers and decided to close down the Redskins completely and replace it with a charter football team. "Everyone should have choice when it comes to rooting for teams," said a spokesperson for Rhee, who will be playing quarterback for the new charter team. The team, to be called the Rhee-Jets, will only be drafting players who have never been injured and who score a 3 or 4 on an intelligence test. The Gates Foundation will pay the salaries and Eli Broad will become team president. He declared that the 50 percent of the cheer leaders would be able to apply for the new team, but only if they were qualified.