Peninsula Preparatory Academy moved to land owned by Malcolm Smith contributor, Benjamin Companies

I'm taking a brief break from posting on the UFT election to get this one from Leonie up - this is my own neck of the woods. The charter school outrages continue:

Meredith and an investigative team at Daily News untangle the tangled web that is the Peninsula Prep charter school story.

Still some unanswered questions. One: what political deal was behind the city’s promise to donate $31 million to build a facility for this charter school, considering its shaky history?

Two: if private developers realize that providing schools give them an advantage in selling properties, why doesn’t the city recognize the economic value of building more public schools to sustain and strengthen the city’s economic future?

Peninsula Preparatory Academy moved to land owned by Malcolm Smith contributor, Benjamin Companies

BY Meredith Kolodner, Barbara Ross and Greg B. Smith
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Sunday, March 21st 2010

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/03/21/2010-03-21_kids_lose_in_pols_money_games_qns_school_moved_to_land_owned_by_big_shots_buddy.html

Gabel for News

Peninsula Preparatory Academy Charter School in Averne By The Sea, Far Rockaway.

The phalanx of drab trailers ringed by a chain-link fence in a desolate corner of Queens looks more like a prison than a charter school.

The cramped Peninsula Preparatory Academy Charter School has no science lab, no gymnasium, no playground and no on-site kitchen. Hot meals are trucked in from 3 miles away, and the school's 300 students dodge cars just to reach the front door.

Only two years ago, the charter school founded by Senate President Malcolm Smith was housed inside a spacious public school 3 miles away in Far Rockaway.

The official reason for the relocation was "increased enrollment" - but the Daily News has learned Peninsula Preparatory Academy was moved to land owned and under development by one of Smith's top campaign donors.

Queens developer Benjamin Companies is in a partnership building homes near the school - and started using Peninsula as a selling point to hawk the seaside residences.

While the move may benefit the developer, it certainly didn't help students wedged inside the too-small trailers - with no end in sight.

"We should really have the building that was promised to us," Principal Ericka Wala said last week. "That's why they moved here."

Its "gym" is a room inside a trailer with bars on the windows; the space doubles as an auditorium and cafeteria.

Yet it's barely big enough to serve even a single purpose. At a recent schoolwide parent meeting, the 150 grownups who showed up couldn't fit inside.

One linoleum floor is split down the middle, and the sidewalk outside the entrance is so narrow, students must press against the fence to avoid cars on the busy road.

"It's not good for the children," said Modupe Lawal, the mother of 6-year-old first-grader Tolulope. "When you're in kindergarten, first grade, you need that experience. You need to go outside."

Officials at Peninsula - once housed comfortably inside Middle School 53 - say they moved "due to increased enrollment." Wala said there were "issues" about placing elementary school students inside a building with middle-schoolers.

In a statement, the Department of Education said the school "opted to move out of the building and asked for temporary space," which was donated by the Benjamin Companies partnership. The department said questions "regarding the rationale for the move are best directed to the school itself."

Peninsula officials did not answer a long list of written questions from the Daily News. But The News found there may be another reason for the move.

Benjamin Companies' employees and several affiliates have contributed $144,500 to Smith's campaign and political action committee, Build New York PAC, since 2002, records show.

The Benjamin Companies is a major builder of affordable housing projects operated by Smith's former boss and political mentor, the Rev. Floyd Flake.

And the relationship doesn't end there. A member of Peninsula's board in 2004 and 2005 is a real estate broker whose clients include the Benjamin Companies' partnership developing the Far Rockaway site.

The FBI has seized documents in an ongoing probe of nonprofits tied to Flake, Smith and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, who was also a Peninsula board member through 2008. Peninsula is a nonprofit, though it's not clear if the school is part of the probe.

Smith founded Peninsula in 2004 and served on its board through 2006, when he claims he cut ties with the school after becoming Senate president.

Yet the DOE recently noted "the school continues to publicize" its links to Smith and Meeks, and this year Smith sponsored a $100,000 legislative "member item" for Peninsula.

Smith said Friday he had no role in selecting the trailer site and that the contributions played no role in that selection.

"They're like any other contributions to the senator or his PAC from people who value his leadership and vision for the state," said Smith's spokesman, Austin Shafran.

In October 2004, Smith joined Flake, a Meek staffer, schools Chancellor Joel Klein and other officials to proudly tout the opening of Peninsula.

The charter school had just opened in MS 53 with plenty of space, a gym, a cafeteria, a playground and a new science lab officials said was built for Peninsula.

Cost to taxpayers: $500,000.

By September 2008, Peninsula and its 300 grammar-school students were transplanted into two trailers crammed into a tiny vacant lot and hemmed in by a chain-link fence.

The trailers sit amid a large construction site with mounds of dirt all around, across the street from where the new Peninsula Charter School is supposed to be built.

A January 2009 Department of Education report found "sufficient classroom and office space" but noted students studying at a large table that blocked the rear exit of one trailer.

While 90% of Peninsula's students showed "proficiency" in math and 65% in English last year, the school repeatedly received poor grades on its

DOE "report cards" - an "F" in 2007 and a "C" in 2008 and 2009, putting it in the bottom 1% of elementary schools in New York City.

Coralanne Hunte, whose 9-year-old son, Chandler, is in fourth grade, fondly recalled when the school was in MS 53.

"They had the opportunity to share the gym; they had an outside area that was really large. [Now] they're missing out on that," she said. "It wasn't clear to me why they left MS 53."

There is no target date for the new school to open.

The agreement with the city Department of Education stipulates that the city pay 74% of the expected cost of building the school - up to $31 million - and the developer pays 22%, with a grant from the nonprofit Charter School Institute for the difference.

The Benjamin partnership bought the land from the city for a reduced amount under an urban renewal program, according to Gerard Romski, project manager.

The city could not provide the purchase amount.

Though sources say the new school likely will not open before 2014, it appears Peninsula has already spent $559,211 in taxpayer money for "construction in progress."

Romski says the building is in the "design phase." Nevertheless, the "new school" is a top selling point in advertisements for housing at what the developer calls Arverne by the Sea.

So far, about 850 of an expected 2,300 units have been built and all have been sold, Romski said.

Victory Schools, a for-profit company, manages the school for a fee of 18% of what the school brings in per student from taxpayers.

Last year, that amounted to $866,485. Victory's founder, Steven Klinsky, donated $12,000 to Smith in 2006-2007.

An April 2008 DOE review found "a continued and growing negative net balance" that "poses a threat to school's stability."

Peninsula officials say in reports filed with the DOE that the school is solvent.

mkolodner@nydailynews.com

Public Education’ Defenders Win Detroit Teachers Union Election

Remember that Randi Weingarten called the Detroit teachers contract, branded as the worst in AFT history by many, a good one.

Maybe just a drop in the bucket of the UFT dominated AFT, but this message from Detroit's Steve Conn is an early warning sign for Randi Weingarten and the AFT that their collaborationist policies are causing a counter reaction. Now let's understand this: In the current UFT elections, Unity will win 750-800 delegates to the AFT convention in Seattle, July 2-4 this summer. Check your ballot to see if your chapter leader is on the list and you will get an idea of why you are seeing Mulgrew literature flooding your mailboxes. This is not something Unity people like to talk about in their schools. That you are paying for their little junket. But Steve Conn and a merry band of delegates will be there to greet them. Steve and I have spoken and he wants the dissident NYC crew to join them to make a statement. If we go it will be just like the DA - maybe we can bring back video of all your favorite Unity Caucus members eating, drinking and partying ala the famous wine and cheese party used to try and scuttle the ATR rally a year and a half ago.

For those who think Mulgrew is not Randi, watch his votes in Seattle this summer. I guarantee 100% agreement with Randi. As will all the other 800 Unity Caucus revelers.

Press Release!!

Public Education’ Defenders Win Detroit Teachers Union Election

A group of Detroit teachers who vigorously campaigned against the recent contract that their union negotiated with DPS Financial Manager Rob Bobb have swept all 20 positions in union elections held this week for delegates to their union’s national convention scheduled for this summer in Seattle.

“With this vote, teachers in the schools have spoken loudly and clearly that they want a sharp change in union policy at the national level and an aggressive defense of public education against the charter schools and privatization plans of US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan,” said Cass Tech teacher and long-time activist Steve Conn, whose 1507 votes placed him first in a field of 63 candidates.

The teachers group, known as Defend Public Education / Save Our Students, last week got the Detroit Federation of Teachers to begin mobilizing for the April 10th National March to Defend Public Education, in Washington DC. Buses will leave from the DFT headquarters on West Grand Blvd. Friday night, April 9th.

“As the rising new leaders of the DFT, we will take our message from the Department of Education building in DC to the convention center in Seattle – the future of American society depends on strengthening, not dismantling, efforts to provide every young person with an equal, quality, integrated public education experience,” said Conn. “We plan to get the Seattle convention to build a Million Teacher March on Washington this fall. “

The Defend Public Education group also plans to help lead DPS union in a march this Tuesday from the DFT Building to Rob Bobb’s headquarters at the Detroit New Center‘s Fisher Building in order to stop Bobb’s plans for massive school closings, layoffs, and union concessions. From the Fisher Building, they will march down Woodward Ave. to join cityworkers protesting Dave Bing’s Sate of the City Address at Orchestra Hall.

The group opposes a mayoral takeover of DPS,pointing out how much damage was done to the city’s schools by the 1999-2004 state / mayoral takeover.



contact 313.645.9340

sjconn@msn.com

Don’t Forget to Vote by Arthur Goldstein

Guest columnist

It’s UFT election time again, and we’re all pretty busy.

In schools, that means a whole lot of flyers telling us who to vote for. Basically there are three slates—Unity, New Action, and ICE-TJC, a coalition of the Independent Coalition of Educators and Teachers for a Just Contract. And election time is now, so I’ve read all of them. They’re not much different from the things you get in the mail when your friendly local politicians want jobs.

Who are these folks? No one denies Unity is the big dog in this race. Every UFT President has been a member of Unity, and the invitation-only Unity Caucus has dominated the UFT, well, forever. New chapter leaders are offered free trips to conventions and recruited. They then sign an application, which specifically states that members will “express criticism of caucus policies within the Caucus” and “support the decisions of Caucus / Union leadership in public or Union forums.” Critics call it a loyalty oath.

In his book The Teacher Rebellion, former AFT President David Selden writes, “Its decisions must be followed by the members in every detail. Several members have been expelled because the opposed the Vietnam War or were not supportive enough of the union’s opposition to community control.” Albert Shanker, the UFT’s first President, was one Tough Liberal indeed.

There are tangible benefits to joining Unity. On the lowest rung of the ladder, you could go to conventions. When I became a UFT delegate a few years back, a teacher told me, “You know, I’d like to become a delegate.”

“Really?” I asked. “I’m surprised. I didn’t think you were interested in union politics.”

“I’m not,” he said. “I just want to go to the conventions.”

That wasn’t the best way to earn my support, but at the time, he may have known union politics better than I did—he’s got Unity buddies.

The oldest opposition party is called New Action. When I started teaching I voted for them. Their pamphlets made it clear they were outsiders, and that appealed to me. Unity put out particularly nasty flyers, calling them “No Action,” which I found juvenile. From what I heard around the lunchroom, they had no chance of winning anyway, so I figured what the hell, and voted for them. They did have a few seats on the UFT’s policy-making Executive Board, mostly representing high schools, and for a while even junior high schools.

Soon after I started teaching (in 1984), they surprised everyone and took the High School Academic Vice Presidency. After Mike Shulman won, Unity forced a revote in which Shulman won by an even larger margin. After Shulman failed to be re-elected in the next election, they forced a rule change. High school teachers no longer select the High School Academic Vice-President. Now, not only all teachers, but also home day care workers, the administrative law judges and other non teachers, including retirees living it up in Boca Raton, vote for all vice-presidents. It’s kind of like having Oklahoma and Texas help New York choose representatives—the results became much more predictable.

In 2003, New Action made a deal with Unity. They would no longer oppose the Unity presidential candidate, and Unity would no longer oppose them for the six high school seats on the UFT Executive Board, seats New Action had won by narrow margins time and again. They couldn't resist this sure bet. Also, New Action leaders, for the first time, were given union jobs.

Some members of New Action, disenchanted with this move, left to join a group of non-affiliated activists to form the Independent Community of Educators, or ICE. In 2004, they teamed up with another caucus, Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC). They defeated New Action and took high school seats that Unity had not opposed. This resulted in the unspeakable—unapproved minority representation in the UFT Executive Board. Though this represented only 6 seats of 89, even that was unacceptable. The Unity Caucus didn’t want to be pestered by Executive Board members James Eterno and Jeff Kaufman—as they vigorously opposed things like the 2005 contract, merit pay, and mayoral control. It’s so much easier to run an organization without meddlesome dissenters—ask Mayor Bloomberg.

To make sure this wouldn’t happen again, Unity cross-endorsed New Action candidates in the 2007 election. Though ICE/ TJC outpolled New Action 3 to 1 in high schools, New Action won several Executive Board seats representing high schools while ICE/TJC got none. Clearly, the Unity cross-endorsement had paid off.

ICE/TJC is running a slate including presidential candidate James Eterno, Jamaica’s UFT chapter leader, and former UFT executive board member. (Full disclosure—I’m running for the UFT’s Executive Board representing high schools.) ICE/ TJC now seems to receive the all the love that used to be reserved for New Action, largely characterized as perpetual naysayers. It’s true we oppose the appeasement of anti-teacher, anti-union demagogues like Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein—but that’s because it’s been repeatedly proven not to help us.

Still ICE/ TJC supports a lot of things—a fair contract, placement for teachers whose schools close, democracy in NYC as well as the UFT, and a driven chapter leader named James Eterno for UFT President. We support transparency. We support teachers, guidance counselors, secretaries, and paraprofessionals. We support working people and the future of the teaching profession.

We support union, a strong union that stands up and fights those who baselessly attack us in the media. We support fighting fire with fire, speaking truth to power, and using the power of the UFT for something more productive than creating cute little cartoons that air during the Today show.

We are writers, thinkers, and doers. We are real live activists, who don’t need to organize an advisory committee or ask permission before demonstrating in front of Mayor Bloomberg’s house. When there’s a fire, we’re not on our Blackberries emailing Randi Weingarten for directions before we evacuate. We act in the interests of working teachers, and we don’t fret over whether or not it will get us invited to the next convention or gala luncheon. We are proactive, not reactive.

We don’t believe in buying dear and selling cheap. We don’t believe in giving up everything but the kitchen sink for an extra point. We don’t believe in selling out new teachers by promising three percent of their salaries to Mayor Bloomberg for an extra 17 years. We don’t believe in dumping every gain we made over twenty years for a few points above the pattern. Nor do we believe in negotiating a ten percent compensation increase for ten percent more work and calling it a raise.

We hope teachers vote, and we hope they think carefully before doing so. The machine is getting a little creaky.

It’s time for new blood.

Are Charter School Operators Klingons?

Norm Scott in The Wave, March 19, 2010

I mean the evil 1960's version of Klingons, not the benign 80's version. But then again you can spell it with a "C" but I won't go there (but if you have the stomach, check your wicki). If you go to any charter school hearing, the operators who show up pushing their pet schools into public school space seem to be reading from a script. They don't intend to infringe. It will be a wonderful for the two schools to work together. They know you have a wonderful school but shouldn't people have choice? Isn't it an American right? I mean, you get choice of corn flakes in the supermarket. The DOE told them how much space there is in the school - even if special ed has to be taught in a closet. They don't want to steal your best kids, despite the glossy brochures the top scoring kids' families are receiving over and over again. And best of all, they don't want to take your building – this is just temporary – ground is already being broken for their own building – in western China.

What they don't say is that they intend to grow at least to 8th grade, maybe 12th grade (and possibly cradle to grave) and can be assured of getting the building eventually because all requests by the public school to grow will be denied by the DOE. They may even take away a grade or two from the public school to make sure the often politically connected charter will have lebensraum.

And then there will be those charter school ads. Did you see the Harlem Children's Zone ad on the Academy Awards telecast? THE ACADEMY AWARDS. And Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success is bombarding kids with brochures and even is advertising on TV. Don't you wonder why all these schools with supposedly massive waiting lists of people dying to leave the public schools have to spend so much money advertising?

I missed the hearing at the Goldie Maple Academy where Challenge Preparatory Charter was making its case because I was taping a parallel hearing at PS 92 in Crown Heights, where the Lefferts Garden charter promised to take their kids to nearby Brooklyn Botanic Garden every day and fly them to the moon once a week. So I am relying on Miriam Rosenberg's excellent report in last week's Wave. As she quoted one charter school leader after another, I felt I was there because I had heard it all so often.

Well, maybe not the building part. It seems they were offered their own but turned it down. Here is a link to its application, which was approved by the Regents (which includes our own Geraldine Chapey:

http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/676176D9-06BC-42A9-9C45-C5D3C5110CD3/76856/Q198_ChallengeLeadership_EIS_Final1.pdf

The lead applicant, Rev. Dr. Leslie Mullings, is the executive director of the Rockaway Center for Community Development. Reverend Mullings is also employed as a substance abuse counselor and youth development specialist by the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE). He is the Senior Pastor of the Far Rockaway Community Church of the Nazarene.

The School has also received letters of support from the following community leaders and organizations: Michelle Titus, State Assembly Member representing the 31st Assembly District (Queens), James Sanders, City Council Member representing the 31st Council District (Queens); Helen Marshall, Borough President (Queens); Malcolm Smith, State Senator; Jonathan Gaska, District Manager Community Board #14; Kevin Alexander, Executive Director, Rockaway Development & Revitalization Corporation; and from Congressman Gregory Meeks, House of Representatives – 6th Congressional District.

Shame on each and every one of them. With Helen Marshall supporting the charter what can we expect from our Queens Rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj when he votes at the PEP on March 23 in Staten Island where the issue has already been pre-decided by Bloomberg's majority appointees?

UFT Election Ballots Due by April 6

I've been pretty busy with the UFT election process, currently going school to school stuffing fliers in teacher mail boxes for the ICE-TJC slate I an running with. I will probably stop by a bunch of Rockaway schools by next week, so look for me (and inform your security guards and principals we have the right to do this because it is an election period). We have the right to stuff boxes because the Unity caucus which has run this union for 50 years gets all the chapter leaders to put literature in the boxes - time and again. Exactly how many Mulgrew ads have you gotten? It's nice to have big bucks. ICE-TJC feels like Bill Thompson or Tony Avella vs. Bloomberg. The principal of one Rockaway school denied me when I tried to put leaflets in his school because he didn't know an election was going on. He didn't notice all those Unity ads flooding the mail boxes, I guess. I notified the UFT and he got a call from the DOE telling him the score. Next, I'm having Timothy Geithner call to tell him there was a financial crisis last year.

Schwach on Ravitch

I loved Howie's [Schwach, Wave editor] piece - Diane Ravitch – My Education Hero - last week, but have a few points of contention. But I'm off to stuff mailboxes, so I'll leave it for another time.

Elfrank-Dana Letter to Bergtraum Staff

It’s that time again- the UFT elections. You should get your ballot in the mail.

Only about one quarter of us will vote if trends continue. It’s a problem I brought up to the union leadership (including Mulgrew); this lack of participation. They were at a loss as to why or what could be done about it.

It’s one of the reasons why I joined the ICE/TJC opposition. We need strong democratic unionism to move us forward. The Unity Caucus (Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew’s political machine) may have gotten us more money from contracts, but have given so much away in terms of rights that sticking around long enough to enjoy the benefits seems impossible.

The days of accommodation, we want to be on your team, approach must end. We can’t rely on the strategy of the benevolent mayor (dictator) to save us; which has been Unity’s approach. We need to stand on the fundamentals of democratic unionism. We must organize for confrontation. However, we must be smart, patient and brave about it.

I think the ICE/TJC slate, with James Eterno for President, is our best hope. I know James personally. He’s been a valuable source of information for me. He’s an experienced chapter leader and man with principles. He gets it.

You can see James and what the ICE/TJC ticket stands for at: http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/james-eterno-ice-tjcs-candidate-for.html

Please feel free to pass this message along to any other UFT members you know.

In solidarity,

John

John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
www.Elfrank.com/UFT

The Dreaded "D" and the UFT

Yes. D for Discontinuance. Once you get it on your record you cannot be hired. Any principal it seems can doom you for life. If someone offers you a job and asks for your records, the DOE will not release them. Why? Because they require a letter that you have a job offer which no one will give you without seeing your records. Yossarian would be left scratching his head at this one.

Now on to the UFT. If you find you are blacklisted by the dreaded D and ask the UFT for help you will get 12 different answers. The most common is: Don't worry, that is only for your district. You can be hired by another district. NOT.

How shameful that the Unity Caucus/UFT just lets people hang out to dry like this. In purgatory forever. A fighting union would make a big deal out of this. But the people with D's are the nontenured and the few, so why bother?

One word of advice people get is to resign before they get the dreaded D and get re-certified in another license. Some choice.


Distribution update:
ICE-TJC leaflets are going like hot cakes. People have been making copies and putting them out in their schools without even letting us know. It would help to know so we don't duplicate but if people get the stuff twice we are still behind the Mulgrew murder of entire forests. The latest is a letter from your Unity chapter leader and the district rep telling you to vote for Unity.

I finally got into Fort Hamilton yesterday where the Unity CL had told the school aide at the desk not to let me in. The principal invited me into her office and we had a lovely chat.

I spoke to two lunch hours at an elementary school with a Unity CL, who was not the one to invite me. A few younger teachers and we had a good chat about numerous issues beyond the election. Very invigorating - for me at least.

Some Unity hacks are telling teachers who want to invite me it is not allowed. Pretty funny when the entire Unity machine waltzes into schools at will. "No electioneering" they tell ICE supporters, another Catch-22 for Yossarian.

Paperwork Monster

People are not against paperwork that helps the kids. But when it seems useless and ties you up so you do less teaching the frustration level rises.

Repeated questions to the UFT have gone on deaf ears.
"Oh, everybody has to do it in the district," is one standard response.

Teachers should have their own secretaries.

Here is what teachers at one elementary school have to do.

Conference log notes: Reading and Writing

Strategy Lesson Template

Guided Reading Template

Math Portfolio 5 specific samples

Writing Portfolio 3 specific samples

On Demand writing levels 4 times per year

Running Records 4 times per year

Interim Goals

EClas 2 times per year (Records marked in 3 places: Bubble grids, Notations on each page and front of booklet, large grid)

Individual Math assessment 4 times per year (Notated on both group sheet and individual sheet)

New webpage to include welcome, weekly homework, class activities, blog

holdover conferences

holdover letters

At Risk forms

After school planning template

Check parents phone numbers with parents during p-t conferences

Distribute ARIS pin numbers to parents during p-t conferences

Obtain parents cell phone and telephone number for k-12 alert during p-t conferences

Fort Hamilton HS - Unity Caucus Chapter Leader Tells Security to Keep Us Out

After yesterday's experience at Grady Voc, Mulgrew's old school, which I reported this morning on how the UFT Unity CL has told the security guard to keep us out, I had a 2nd day of being turned away from Fort Hamilton HS today. Yesterday I could live with because I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I called the chapter leader and left a message. And also called Michael Mendel from the UFT who is always very good about getting things straightened out. He called me in the evenign to say I could go back. So today I did. And got the same runaround. Both days were not with the regular security. This time she spilled the beans when she said she was told not to let me in. "Who told you," I asked? "Mr. Fried, the UFT chapter leader," she answered. BINGO! Another call into Mendel. Actually, about 4 calls. He had the DOE call the school but everyone had abandoned ship by then. So I will go back tomorrow.

We are tracking these refusals so if we are close on the high school vote we have grounds to protest. Keep it up boys. This can turn out to be fun.

Then there was this comment from a teacher on the previous post:

Fortunately, the UFT's actions or non actions make it easy to convince the members of a school being threatened by the take over by a charter school - Girl's Prep. Today Mike Mulgrew and Leo Casey came to visit Girl's Prep at about 10 am None of the staff at PS 188 knew they were coming. They left and never even attempted to meet with the staff even though it was a 1/2 day and we could have easily gotten everyone together. The number of staff checking the ICE/TJC box tripled today as a result. Thanks guys.

The Distributive Law

I spent part of yesterday going around schools putting ICE-TJC election lit in mailboxes. I wish I could tell all the stories but I don't want to give away too much to the Unity/New Action slugs/thugs that troll this blog.

But one story is worth sharing:

I went to Grady - Mulgrew's old school - where I expected some problems. Sure enough the security guard wouldn't let me in until she got the CL - said he went ballistic the last time someone came in. I challenged that he had to be called- I said he was the Republicans and I was the Democrats and he had no right to interfere - and some other guards backed me up. One of them escorted me to the mailboxes and the slug/ thug passed us - "that's him" she said. I called to him and said we were monitoring the boxes and if the election were close we would challenge on the basis of no equal access if the leaflets were pulled.

"You have no right to come in my building" he said. Sure. I went in and stuffed the boxes, expecting them to be pulled

After I stuffed the boxes I decided to call Michael Mendel from the UFT who is the contact person and does a good job making sure our rights are enforced to tell him that the CL had no right to tell the security guards not to let people in. Just then the Unity slug/thug walked into the mailbox room and took out a leaflet and tore it up - then another. I told Mendel he was doing it as we spoke and the slug said he was just tearing up the ones on his box. I told Mendel we would monitor the Grady boxes and protest the election if close in the high schools. I also told him this guy was not exactly the best face even Unity would want for the union. If I have to go back there every day I will.

On the way out I got smiles and thumbs up from some of the security guards. Unity slug/thug is not well loved it seems.


Once the UFT election ballots went out on Friday, ICE went into full distribution mode for a the next two weeks. Our partners, TJC, have been out there for a few weeks but our strategy was to wait for people to begin receiving their ballots before hitting the schools.

There has been some criticism directed our way for not going out much sooner to stuff mail boxes, which have been flooded with Unity and New Action material.

I have never been convinced that the mailbox stuffing has much of an impact. Unity doesn't have to send out hordes to stuff. All they do is send it to chapter leaders and they get 95% penetration. And where they know an ICE person is present they send in the district reps to stuff. New Action has a horde of 20 retirees out there stuffing. ICE has 3.

So with many of the ICE core being involved with GEM and fighting the charter and school closing battles, we decided to husband our resources.

Look at Unity in the last election. They stuffed and stuffed, as they are doing now.

Unity received 6200 votes out of a potential 40,000 elementary votes, 1500 votes out of potential 13,o00 votes in middle schools and less than 2200 out of 20,000 in high schools. That's pretty slim.

New Action also stuffed last time and their totals were: HS 521, MS 273 and ES 562.

ICE-TJC totals were: HS 1550, MS 444, ES 1337

You can see the comparison of the 2004 and 2007 elections here.

Considering Unity is Bloomberg and we're Tony Avella, the totals were pretty weak for Unity compared to us. They might do better now that the increasingly despised Randi is gone - even though Mulgrew was her personal choice. The behind the scenes Unity campaign is: He's NOT Randi.

So the idea of spending 6 weeks racing around schools for weeks before teachers who mostly couldn't care less about the elections or even have any knowledge about it didn't make sense. But the 2 weeks after they get their ballots did make sense. Remember that 77% of the teachers in the schools did not vote last time. So if they see a flier now it might connect a bit. Hopefully, they connect by checking the ICE-TJC box.

UFT Elections: The Young Uns are Coming - Teachers Unite/NYCORE Endosrse ICE-TJC

Maybe they're not coming quick enough to affect this election. But they are coming. The Teachers Unite/NYCORE candidates forum drew a nice crowd over a week ago. Check out the final 10 minutes in this video I posted:

ICE, TJC, Unity, New Action at TU/NYCORE Candidate Forum

Both groups then endorsed the ICE-TJC slate in the election.

On Thursday night they held a "Get out the vote" event which drew some teachers. Just drops in the bucket so far, but the first signs of movement on that end in a long time. Maybe I can really retire soon.

I received a request from one of the participants, a first year teacher, to send her ICE-TJC lit for her school. I have two invitations to speak at schools this week from two other participants, teachers in the system for 5 years or less.

As I said, this awakening may be too little too late - for this election. But as one participant said: This is a great training ground for me for the future. I knew almost nothing about the UFT before this. Our role is to provide whatever assistance the new generation of union activists need.

So many people have told us they just forgot to vote. It is not enough to put leaflet in mail boxes. Unity CL's are actually offering raffle tickets to anyone who brings them their ballot.

Here is a GOTV questionnaire TU/NYCORE made up to get people to vote.

1) Did you receive the ballot for the UFT election in the mail? Ballots are mailed March 12

2) Do you know who you’re going to vote for?

3) What are two things that would improve your working conditions?

4) What other issues are important to you?

5) What do you know about the different caucuses and slates?

Organizing union

We want to help build an organizing union that mobilizes all of us to fight against pay-for-performance policies and budget cuts, while fighting for a contract that guarantees us a cost of living wage increase and no give-backs.

Teachers have a voice

We need to show our union leadership that we teachers have a voice that must be heard.

Teachers Unite and NYCoRE endorses ICE-TJC

Teachers Unite and NYCoRE have endorsed the ICE-TJC slate because they have actively fought for a democratic, transparent union that mobilizes its members, makes their voices heard, and leads UFT decisions.

Unity

Unity has led our union since the 1960s and we feel their bureaucratic style is undemocratic and conciliatory. Unity is the current leadership of this union that comes up short in the fight against the injustices facing our schools and communities. In addition, Unity has agreed to givebacks on teacher time as well as coming out in support of merit pay for test scores and charter schools.

6) Can I count on you to vote for ICE-TJC?

7) [If “no” or “not sure” to the question above] Can I count on you to vote at all?

8) [For the very enthusiastic]: Do you know five other colleagues you can talk to about the UFT election? Who?

9) Did you know that over 2,000 ballots were invalidated in the last UFT election because people made a check mark by both the individual candidates AND a slate?

Ballot

[Show your ballot and how to vote for the ICE-TJC slate]

10) Would you bring your ballot in on [specific day/date: ] so we can vote together and show our co-workers the importance of our vote?

11) I’m going to check back with you on [specific day/date ] to follow up.

Ravitch on Goldstein and More on UFT Elections

"Arthur, Thank you for a brilliant review of my book! It means a lot to me that a teacher in the trenches likes it and thought I hit a bulls eye." -Diane Ravitch

The comment from Diane Ravitch posted last Sunday at Gotham Schools in a thread following Arthur Goldstein's review of her new book is worth highlighting for the multiple bases it touches.

Now I must point out once again that Arthur is running with ICE-TJC for High School Executive Board in the current UFT elections. These 6 positions look to be winnable since ICE-TJC took 36% of the vote against the Unity/New Action combo in 2007. If we win those seats it would put Lawhead, Fiorillo, Kit Wainer, Marian Swerdlow and Peter Lamphere in addition to Arthur on the board. Compare any Unity/New Action people you can think of to these 6 and you come up empty.

Only high school teachers will see their names on the ballot, so it is especially imperative to get out the vote in the high schools. Since only around 4,000 out of 20,000 high school teachers voted in the last election, it will take constant reminders to get people to return their ballots with the ICE-TJC box checked off. If you want these voices on the UFT Exec Bd start reminding people Monday and do so for the next two weeks.

The rough numbers in 2007 were Unity: 2250, New Action: 550, ICE-TJC: 1550. (New Action ended up with 3 HS EB seats with a thousand less votes than ICE-TJC.) Thus if ICE-TJC and double the vote they would win handily. So go get em.

In this comment, Diane covers a lot of ground that touch on UFT policies.

Unions in charters
"You have read my book so you know my overall conclusion is that they range from excellent to awful but on average, they do not produce better results than regular public schools. Second, the charter movement is dominated by anti-union ideologues; charter schools succeed by hiring young, single teachers and having them work 50-60 or more hours a week. Of the 5,000 or so charter schools in the nation currently, I would guess that 95% of them are non-union. That is no accident."

This blows up the AFT/UFT strategy of organizing charters as a "solution". Where have they been up to now? They will continue to blow up every little victory while 95 charters open for every 5 they organize. The charters have incredible turnover and teachers often jump from charter to charter, so organizing is a moving target.

Even if they do organize charters - let's say every one in NYC, you end up with individual contracts for each school and the power of the UFT as an organization capable of shutting down a school system is dissipated. But the top level of the UFT would continue to flourish as dues keeps flowing in. They know this and will try to keep the lid on the cap not to protect public schools but to keep the dues rolling in.

On Green Dot charters, which the UFT has made a big deal of
"Green Dot took over Locke High School in Los Angeles to much fanfare. They cleaned up the school, established order, provided good maintenance. But after a year of publicity about the Locke miracle, the scores came out and they had not changed by even 1 percent. Of course, scores are not all that matter, and they are not always a good indicator of school quality. But the fanfare got a little quieter when it became a matter of record that the students had not turned overnight into college-ready scholars simply because private managers took over."

Leo Casey claimed at last week's forum that the UFT/Green Dot contract was better than ours.

Unity/UFT less than subtle attempts to stifle discussion
"I am shocked that anyone would suggest you might be disciplined by the NYC Department of Education for your free expression of opinion, including criticism of your bosses."

This was a response to UFT/Unity Caucus ideologue Peter Goodman's comments, with lots of others jumping in. I suggest you read through the thread to get the full gist.

Here is Goldstein's message to the staff of Francis Lewis HS:

Dear colleagues,

I’m running with ICE/TJC for the UFT High School Executive Board, and I’m asking for your vote. Given events of the last few years, like the disastrous 2005 contract, the union’s support of mayoral control, the erosion of seniority rights, the advent of perpetual lunch duty and hall patrol, and the inability to grieve letters in a file simply for their being incorrect, I’ve determined there’s a need for a new voice in the UFT.

I’d like to be that voice.

Unity is an invitation-only caucus that’s controlled the UFT since its inception. When people join, they agree not to vary from Unity positions in public. Whatever Unity tells them to say, they say. Essentially, it’s a loyalty oath. In recent times, many of Unity’s decisions, like those listed above, have not benefitted working teachers.

There is another caucus called New Action. It supports the top of the Unity ticket, pretty much guaranteeing more of the same. It was once an opposition party, but in 2003 Randi Weingarten bought them off with patronage jobs and a few seats on the UFT Executive Board. With your help ICE/ TJC can claim those seats and bring real independent voices and thoughts to our union leadership.

If elected, I will be your voice not only here, but also on the UFT. I will not support measures that hurt working teachers, or any UFT members. I will vigorously oppose measures that appease Bloomberg and Klein with vague promises of benefits to come. Such measures have not served us well.

I will fight for a fair contract, for professional treatment, the retention of tenure, and the concept that a raise means more pay for doing the same job—not for extra time, extra duties, and fewer benefits and privileges.

Please check ICE/TJC on your ballot. Vote for a change in the UFT.

After 50 years, it’s time.

Best regards,

Arthur Goldstein, UFT Chapter Leader

Robotics
Well, it's off for a weekend of robotics at the Javits center, where Klein is supposed to make an appearance at 9AM this morning. I'll be doing my hair, but will get there later. I will be there all day Sunday handling registration for the 80 NYC teams taking part in the FIRST LEGO League tournament. Come on down. And you can also check out the over 60 high school teams from around the nation doing the big robots - they are there today too.

New ICE Leaflet: UFT ELection Ballots Go Out Today

For the next few weeks I will be focusing on the UFT elections. Today the ballots go out and must be returned by April 6. Naturally you should mark the box for ICE-TJC and return it as soon as you can. If you read this blog (other than the Unity slugs) you know full well the situation the UFT mis-leadership has put you in. Does ICE-TJC have all the answers at this time? Of course not. Is the platform perfect? I don't agree with everything. But when putting together an effort like this we all have to give a bit. One thing: we would run a democratic union no matter what. Now I pointed out the realities yesterday. But the outpouring of support and energy this time has surprised even me. Is it anywhere near the Unity machine? No way. But the key is it is building. Yesterday I was at a Get Out the Vote session by Teachers Unite and NYCORE. To see younger teachers ready to get involved is enlightening. They understand that this is a building process and are all excited about continuing to build over the next few years.

Here is the latest ICE leaflet which I finished at 3:30 AM. As usual, it went through what James Eterno terms the ICE meatgrinder. If you want copies for your school email me at normsco@gmail.com.

UFT/Unity Uses Paid Employees to Suppress Opposition in Union Election

UPDATED, 8:40 am, Mar. 11

It has long been known how the UFT/Unity machine uses paid personnel in union elections. As most schools have Unity chapter leaders, they have a ready means of keeping control of the schools. But when they are faced with an independent chapter leader they use the district reps to try to intimidate them into not putting material in the boxes. And of course, we have constant reports of Dist. Reps going into these schools on union time to stuff Unity material in the boxes. If they see ICE-TJC lit, they even pull them out themselves.

For people who are not committed ICE or TJC activists (who they don't dare bother), these actions by the Dist Reps can be intimidating because in the union hierarchy the DR is the single most important person the CL, especially newer ones who feel very insecure in their knowledge, must deal with for help.

Now the use of this personnel has been standard operating procedure for the Unity machine.

What people don't realize is that the elections every three years for union officers are not as important as the elections for chapter leaders which occur the year before (next elections are spring 2012, which is where serious battles will take place when it becomes clear that Mulgrew will be as big a sellout as Weingarten). This is not an accident. Unity pulls in all new chapter leaders into training and uses those sessions to recruit them into Unity just in time for the big election the year after, which in most cases shuts down the ability of the opposition to reach those schools without schlepping physically into those buildings. Since ICE-TJC are working teachers, the ability to impact the vast majority of schools is minimal.

But even if they could get a leaflet into all the schools, that is minimal compared to having a thousand Unity people in the buildings actively bombarding people with pro-Unity material and intimidating people who are sympathetic to the opposition. In fact, Unity chapter leaders often just pull out the leaflets from the boxes after the ICE-TJC rep leaves. One ICE chapter leader who stuffed boxes throughout her district sent me this email:

Three years ago, in my district, many school chapter leaders who are Unity pulled out ICE-TJC literature and thrown them away. I have had teachers that I know call to tell me and even a security guard. Who knows what will happen this year?

Well, we know what is already happening this year. Yesterday I received this email from a non-ICE chapter leader who is an independent critic of the UFT leadership. It got ugly.

My district rep gave me an argument about putting ICE flyers in mailboxes. She said that everything gets back to her. I said that I have the right to do this, just as the New Action person had the right to come to my school and distribute, and that she had the right to come to do this.

She said that she doesn't see how I can think that a chapter leader could run the union. I pointed out that Mulgrew was a chapter leader, and so was she.

She was disgusting. Told me I am a member of Ice (you and I know that I'm not). I pointed out that Weingarten laid the groundwork for many of the problems that we are dealing with now. She said Weingarten isn't there anymore. I said that RW handpicked Mulgrew.

I mentioned Diane Ravitch. She said that Ravitch is mentoring Mulgrew. !!!!!!

Are they very threatened?

Now this District Rep (I am protecting the CL from retaliation of giving no support) is notoriously incompetent. When we blitzed her district in 2004 we were stopped at every single school by the Unity chapter leader, who told the principals we didn't have the right. Or they created so many delays on purpose that it just wasn't worth the time. So they win that battle. For now.

As I said, the opposition must have a critical mass of chapter leaders who will stand up to the Unity goons to make a dent. To all those who talk about the need for more ICE literature and advertising they are missing this essential point. I hear some say, "look at how Obama won!" Again they miss the point. Obama had a massive machine to support him. Over the past few years ICE and TJC have understood that and have focused on building this machine, which they had to start building from scratch when New Action, which had 40 years to build a machine, abandoned the fight and joined Unity. Much of the New Action vote, which was less than ICE-TJC last time, comes from this machine. Now that many NA people are retired, they have about 40 people going around schools pushing their stuff. And some people are not aware that they have sold out and just check the NA box thinking they are still the opposition - just this weekend a retired friend asked me if he should vote NA to vote for me. I gagged.

I can't tell you how many independent or ICE-leaning people are frightened to come out of the closet. We get anonymous pleas to put out lit but they don't send us their names and schools so we can get it to them.

Since I am available during the day, some people have asked me to come to their schools during lunch or come to a union meeting to give our point of view. Their Unity CL throws up all sorts of road blocks - like that's not allowed - but every Unity slug can come into the building at any time.

With ballots going out tomorrow (March 12) and must be returned by April 6 (the count is on Apr 7 and open to any UFT member), the consciousness about the election should rise. Since only 22% of the working teachers voted in the last election (the drop in Unity votes (and New Action too) was palpable while there was a rise in ICE-TJC votes, but still fairly negligible.

This year, we have focused on getting out the vote in the buildings we have people. For the first time we have attracted some newer teachers, including even a former Teach for America, to run with us. Still just a small group but a beginning of building that machine into the newer teacher crowd.

Teachers Unite and NYCORE have gotten involved by reaching out to their younger teacher constituency. They held a fabulous candidate forum last Friday with all 4 caucuses represented by Michael Fiorillo, Megan Behrent, Leo Casey and Michael Shulman (see a 10 minute slice:
ICE, TJC, Unity, New Action at TU/NYCORE Candidate Forum).

Today they are holding a Get Out the Vote training session (see side bar but you must rsvp as there is little space). I will be there to explain the process and take some video.

Can a Cold-Hearted Principal Woo Parents Effectively?

Today's NY Times had an interesting article on how public schools have to market themselves to compete with charters.

Pressed by Charters, Harlem Public Schools Turn to Marketing ...

Given that the article focused on Harlem's PS 125 principal Rafaela Espinal, this may be the first time I was rooting for the charters. Espinal is the Leadership Academy principal from hell. For 5 years she was in charge of the school I spent 27 years teaching at in Williamsburg. My former colleagues, those in and those out of the rubber room, say she is as cold-hearted a person as there is.

She alienated teachers and parents equally. (Her now ex husband supposedly worked for Bloomberg.) When the teachers heard she was back in the system after a year in Jersey, they planned on sending condolence cards to the staff of PS 125. Sure enough, she wasn't at the school for more than a month than I heard she had sent her first teacher to the rubber room. It certainly won't be the last. (If I had time I would tell the worst of Espinal stories - they are legendary.)

Now my old school has another Leadership Academy principal - who everyone loves. A real human being with charm and humor. Can the LA actually graduate normal people?

I compared visits to the school during Espinal's tenure and post Espinal – everyone looked 10 years younger after she was gone. Just a sign of what a destructive principal can do to people. And what an enlightened one can do too. Now the school's grade, due to a more honest administration that wants more than test prep by offering enrichment, has dropped a bit. In the world of Tweed we know that Espinal is their ideal. That is the shame of the BloomKlein admin.

By the way, PS 125, the Ralph Bunche School, was the first school in the nation to have the internet due to one of the most advanced technology teachers ever - Paul Reese - who was eased out as the Dist. Tech coordinator - he was the only one in the city who insisted on doing some teaching and that didn't always sit well with the bureaucrats who wanted him always available - in case they couldn't find the socket to plug in their computers.

NY1 Ad for Harlem Success Academy this morning!

From Steve Koss to NYCEDNEWS:

Wow, I am simply stunned! At 9:20 am on Wednesday, March 10, I watched a 15-20 second, voiced-over TV ad on NY1 for Eva Moskowitz's Harlem Success Academy.

I have never seen a TV ad for ANY school in NYC, public or private or charter. These people not only have no shame, they seem to have so much money they don't even know what to do with it. It's not only wasteful and (in my opinion) immoral to be buying TV advertising for elementary schools, it's just plain weird.

Why would a school that proudly proclaims its admissions even-handedness by lottery, which they and their supporters persistently insist is hugely oversubscribed, need to spend money on TV advertising? To get even more applications, so they can be even more oversubscribed and turn even more parents and children away? Or is that part of their "we need more charter schools" strategy? If so, who's really paying for this TV time? Couldn't whoever is behind this find a more socially useful way to use their money to benefit needy schools and children around NYC?

I am just sad and disgusted to see things come to this. Surprised the ad didn't feature Joel Klein as a talking head, doing a Slap Chop gig for Ms. Eva.

Geez, is it just me?

Steve Koss

Related: See today's NY Times piece on how Harlem public schools have to compete. But there's a fly in the ointment which I'll write about later.

ICE, TJC, Unity, New Action at TU/NYCORE Candidate Forum

On March 5 candidates from each of the 4 caucuses in the UFT held a candidates forum sponsored by NYCORE and Teachers Unite. There's a lot I could say about this event but for now I'll leave the videos talk for themselves. There is about 2 hours worth and since you-tube has 10 minute limits I will put them up in sections, unedited if possible.
Here is the final summing up where each rep got 2 minutes each.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpkggISk4v0