On the Jan. 27 Rally and GEM

THE RALLY ON THURSDAY JAN. 27 AT 4:30 PM ON THE EAST SIDE OF CITY HALL PLAZA NEAR TWEED IS ON - REALLY A MUST ATTEND EVENT BECAUSE IT IS TRULY FROM THE GRASSROOTS. MOST ACTIVIST GROUPS IN EDUCATION ARE INVOLVED - AND EVEN THE UFT IS A CO-SPONSOR - WHICH MEANS THEY HAVE TO PAY 50 BUCKS - I HOPE THEY HAVE IT AFTER PAYING RANDI 200 GRAND IN SICK PAY.  THIS IS NOT A UFT CONTROLLED EVENT. THEY HAVE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ORGANIZING OR RUNNING IT - THEY DID MENTION IT IN THE CHAPTER LEADER UPDATE.


BEST OF ALL, WE EXPECT SOME OF THE KIDS FROM THE JAMAICA HS PLAY TO PERFORM. ALSO LOTS OF SINGING - AND MAYBE SOME DANCING TOO - I'M FOR A CONGA LINE AROUND TWEED - THIS WILL BE A FUN RALLY WITH SPEAKERS MINIMIZED SO BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

Follow events on these blogs

School Closing Coalition Blog 
http://stopschoolclosings.wordpress.com/

http://fightbackfridays.blogspot.com/

ATTEND THE D3 RALLY AND DOE CO-LOCATION HEARING 

TONIGHT

http://education.change.org/petitions/view/stop_the_co-location_of_success_academy_charter_school_in_the_brandeis_high_school_building

If you have specific additional comments you'd like to make, they can go to D03proposals@schools.nyc.gov.

Brandeis HS Campus (145 West 84^th St. between Columbus/Amsterdam)

5-5:30pm – Rally in front of Brandeis to support regular D3 schools

6pm – DOE Public Hearing on the Brandeis/Success co-location  proposal

Speaker sign up begins 5:30 and ends 15 minutes into the hearing; public comment will be taken until all speakers are heard, but you must sign up if you wish to speak. 

Jan. 25, 2011
Let me begin this joyous day with the wonderful news that Rahm Emanuel has been knocked off the ballot in Chicago - temporarily I imagine - how can all that Eli Broad/Donald Trump/Bloomberg money etc. money not be able to buy the state supreme court - see one Cathie Black waiver ruling.

Yesterday I attended the final prep meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers which is running the Jan. 26 rally. I counted at least 20 people. I'll post separately about the rally and why it is important. But I wanted to talk about how impressed I am with the people working on this - absolutely professional in every way - sound, martials, organized program, press, etc. So many groups involved - and I'm meeting new (and old) activists.

They held a phone bank at Teachers Unite on Sunday and called hundreds of people. These are full-time teachers and giving so much time and effort. I almost feel embarrassed for how comparatively little I am doing. On the home I was with a young second year teacher who just seems to be getting involved - first time I met her. She talked about how overwhelming teaching was and just how tired she always feels. I can see why we lose so many people - it is not just the teaching that is wiping people out - but all the other crap. My advice - keep being active politically with the growing Real Reform movement - even though it takes time it will provide the fuel you need to work in this system - and you will be working with some of the most amazing people I've ever met.


GEM has been the driving force in organizing the rally
GEM has become a force in the city. Last January it played a major role in the demo at Bloomberg's home. (Can't GEM do stuff in warmweather?)

The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) is about to hit its second anniversary since holding its first meeting at a diner with 4 people 2 years ago. Angel Gonzalez had come to ICE for support for the teachers union in Puerto Rico a year before and told me when he retired he would join me in political activity. "Sure" I thought. Everyone tells me that. But he did and joined ICE. But he felt ICE wasn't moving fast enough and did too much talking and not enough action (we are not youngsters, you know).

Angel suggested a committee of ICE designed to focus on ATRs, closing schools and testing and it quickly added people from NYCORE and other groups outside ICE and soon took on a life of its own. We held an all day conference on a Saturday in March 2009 which attracted a crowd. Up to that point I couldn't imagine organizing such an event but Angel pulled it all together - finally, someone with real organizing skills. And we followed up with a conference on charter schools at PACE in April and in May a march from Battery Park, past the UFT and on to Tweed. We attracted about 75 people. (Angel was wearing me out.)

It wasn't even called GEM until after that rally. In the first stage of evolution from an ICE committee into a broader based group we conceived of ourselves as a coalition of groups - a place where ICE, TJC, NYCORE, Teachers Unite and some parent activist groups could work together.

A big chunk of ICE people got involved, especially with the closing schools and charter invasions hitting us full in the face while also trying to deal with the upcoming 2010 UFT elections. The UFT seemed less important to many of us - and that might explain why we did so badly - we just didn't have the heart to waste our energies in a campaign to dent Unity.

In the summer of 2010 we went up to Harlem to support the teachers and parents at PS 123 which had been invaded by Moskowitz and met a bunch of activists, some with the Coalition for Public Education (which formed late that summer) and also State Senator Bill Perkins and some of his aides.

In July 2010 we were contacted by CAPE, a PS 15K based teacher/parent group fighting a charter invasion in their school. Kismet. GEMers came out to support them and the partnership has brought their activism and skills into the broader work and eventually some of CAPE's key people (Julie Cavanagh and Alev Dervish) began to work with GEM.

Brian Jones and Julie Cavanagh on the "set" in Williamsburg

This past summer, Julie and I decided to develop a film responding to Waiting for Superman and were joined by another key GEM person (a person at a school that was invaded by a Moskowitz charter but I'm keeping him nameless - he has become the key editor and partner on the film, allowing me to take a lesser role). And then by Brian Jones who was on the panel on national TV with Rhee, Weingarten and Canada. Brian and Julie are narrating the film. We're calling it "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman". GEM's Gloria Brandman is doing the outreach and publicity. We are doing a sneak preview of a rough cut in mid-February.

The idea of Real Reformers was hatched and we held a rally at the opening of Waiting for Superman. We also have attended PEP meetings in force - how many years did I go there all alone just waiting for the day we would stand up to them in force. The fact that there is a new face on the people opposed to ed deformers - younger, dynamic activist teachers who in many cases are critical of the UFT - is a force to be reckoned with. Note recently that the Real Reformers are actually starting to get some press.

Naturally, GEM has had some growing pains - trying to set up a democratically run organization in the midst of the chaos the ed deformers have brought to the schools. After the PEP hearings on Feb. 1st and 3rd I hope we take stock of where we stand as an organization and continue to develop a democratic structure that is flexible enough to handle growth.

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

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

January 25 Update - It's Only Personal

Let me catch up on some of the personals - I get requests (occasionally) for updates on what I do outside of the educational/activists sphere. Yes, I do other things.

This is the annual family birthday week extravaganza and we're planning a gathering of all the B-day people in the next few weeks.

Danny (right), brother Jared (left) and Rachel at Passover

My wife's cousin Danny hit 27 yesterday- and living the good life - I don't even want to tell you how good it is. And my cousin Rachel will be 24 or 25 next week. She is originally from Washington DC but living the good young life in Manhattan working selling ads for a cable company. She and her boyfriend came to see me in the Odd Couple and we went out to dinner afterwards. A great couple. He listens to WFAN all day like I do.

My dad hits 93 this Thursday - the day of the big rally at City Hall - I think I'll have him carry the sound equipment - and is also living the good life. Still lives alone and if not for being almost blind from macular would be out looking for women. He has recovered from having 11 upper teeth pulled (read my report of that horror story here) and at the last weigh-in at the doctor has gained 5 pounds using his new upper choppers. Now all we have to do is have 6 teeth removed from the lower jaw and he'll have a full set. Looking forward to that.

Pinky and Dad - he's on the right.

And then there is Pinky the cat, who is 19 and a half years old- older than my dad in cat years. Pinky survived being abandoned while we went on our 5 day trip to Florida 2 weeks ago. She went to the vet yesterday because we found a lump on her back when we got home - he said do nothing - he couldn't believe the health and feistiness of this old animal. But she has a urinary infection. Just gave her her meds - like the battle of the bulge.  Here are some samples of Pinky, the wrecking crew's art work (don't make me tell you about the mucho expensive reupholstering job that she destroyed a half hour after it was delivered.)

Pinky amidst the wreckage

Pinky original art work

Carol and niece Jordan at Passover

Of course, the major event this week today- my wife's &*^% birthday. I gave her a choice. Attend tonight's massive outpouring of protest against Eva Moskowitz' attempt to invade the upper west side at Brandeis HS or have dinner at the River Cafe. Amazing. She chose the latter. So I won't see all of you there. For the first time in 40 years I didn't get her jewelry. Just a massage and a Kindle - but I had a hook installed so she can hang it from her ear. We're going to a movie this afternoon at the Malverne - best little suburban art movie house and then a Broadway matinee tomorrow. What a life since she retired last year and discovered mahjong.

 On other fronts, I have recovered from my acting debut in the Odd Couple at the Rockaway Theatre Company and have started taking a class in theater lighting at the Theater in Fort Tilden so I can join the backstage crew. It is being taught by a laste 20-something public school high school teacher who has 12 years working on lighting in the theater - he does all the school shows - yes it is one of the few large high schools left - (I wonder what the state of high school theater is after the small schools movement.) In the small world department, one of my oldest friends came to see my play and her boyfriend is the Department chair of the lighting guy.

Last Friday was the gala annual Rockaway Theatre Company party at El Caribe in Brooklyn. I made a highlight reel for them of all the shows this season. It's a wonderful 22 minutes and up on Vimeo - link here.

And finally, there is - or was - the j-e-t-s. I won't even go there.

Eterno: A Jamaica Diploma is Real and It's Earned

James made a fantastic presentation along with the student (pointing out the loss of services to Jamaica including AP classes and the parent at the Jamaica HS closing hearing on Jan. 20.  The presentation points out how the DOE targets schools for closing. James compares the Jamaica data with other schools. Powerful stuff. James points out they could have used the "make all kids pass" like Tapsco to raise grad rates and  to make the school look better but "Jamaica doesn't subscribe to any phony scams. A Jamaica diploma is real and it's earned."

The entire video is just short of a half hour. I didn't have time to do any editing - I just grabbed a chunk of film - let me know if I said anything dirty off camera.

It begins with a piece from John White- note Queens HS Supt Juan Mendez and the smug look on his face.

(I was riled up enough to go after Mendez later on - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgLTpfJiAmg?)

I did this all hand held so there will be some sea sickness. The camera settles down (it must have a mind of its own) after James starts speaking - about 4 minutes in.

Jamaica HS Closing Hearing: James Eterno Presents the Real Data

"Eterno points to the lies and distortions perpetrated by the NYC Department of Education as represented by John White as Queens HS Supt Juan Mendez looks smugly on."

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/19125497

My Article on Teacher Evaluation Running in the Indypendent

A slightly longer version appeared in the Indy a few weeks ago and got a lot of hits for this blog. Here's the link: My Article on Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping in The Indypendent

If you get the hard copy, please share with your colleagues.

If you would like to donate to the Indy you can click here and make a one-time donation or spread the damage out by signing up for a recurring monthly donation.

CLICK TO ENLARGE:

In the print edition of The Indypendent

Norm,

 

Lots of good information in the article.  Three things I would like to add.  

 

While teachers will be forced to prepare for reading and math tests for survival, and they can argue that teaching to the test is teaching if the tests align with standards,  where will the time be to teach social studies, geography, science, family living and sex ed, art and music, health ed, safety, foreign language, and just being able to build community in the classroom with fun stuff and trips?  Imagine a generation growing up without the tools that these areas teach which are necessary for survival as adults.

 

In addition, with these attacks and phony measurements, who will really willing go into our profession?  Certainly not those who know what a real education is and  what our kids really need.

 

And lastly, who will send their kids to these schools?  I know that -  wouldn't - and neither would savvy parents with a few extra bucks for tuition. A local Catholic school here is advertising computer programs, art and music as selling points - reading and math to attract parents.   Our schools will condemn our kids from families of poverty, mostly kids of color, to a life without the realized joy of a meaningful education and  the skills of survival.

 

Loretta Prisco

Jim Callaghan Comments on Principal Iris Blige Outrage: Charges UFT Protected Blige

"Mulgrew should save his outrage about the Blige case for the UFT comic pages"- 
"Weingarten told me that most teachers in the rubber rooms were guilty and crazy"
-----Former NY Teacher reporter Jim Callaghan

We always knew the UFT leaders took the side of administrators but now we have it from the horse's mouth. A must read below is Callaghan's exposure of how the UFT leaders abandoned a teacher at Blige's school who had trumped up charges filed against her and was fired.

The UFT allows attack on chapter leaders to go unanswered - I could go into a bunch of stuff - but when the very lifeblood of the union is under assault it calls for drastic action. I even put up a reso at the DA calling for special protections and cover for chapter leaders over 10 years ago that was overwhelmingly turned down by Unity Caucus.

Blige is the poster girl for why we need tenure and LIFO. She went after teachers for no reason, was found guilty but instead of dumping her she was fined $7000. Chump change.

Here are some background stories:

Bronx principal keeps her job after imperiling the jobs of others ...
Ruining careers for $475/month (18 month term) « JD2718

And Ed Notes covered it a bunch of times:

Education Notes Online: Teachers Protest Principal Iris Blige at ..

Mar 13, 2009 ... The principal at this school, Iris Blige, is abusive, arrogant, and disrespectful of teachers. She has framed several teachers that for some ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../teachers-protest-principal-iris-blige.html - Cached - Similar

Education Notes Online: UPDATE: Highlights of the protest at ..

Mar 14, 2009 ... Winderbaum slammed into Iris Blige and her wayward approach to educators, kids, and schools and said the union is “fed up” with the DoE's ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../highlights-of-protest-at-fordham-hs-for.html - Cached

As long as they support principals who engage in vendettas against teachers, they will have to drag teachers kicking and screaming out of fighting for protections.Jim Callaghan was the NY Teacher reporter who did the most intensive work exposing the Bliges of this world - until he was fired in July 2010 for attempting to organize a union of reporters at the UFT. Here is a report on what went on behind the scenes in a comment he left at Gotham Schools story on Blige:

What the UFT Did and Didn't Do in the Blige Case
by Jim Callaghan, former reported for the NY Teacher

Klein knew all about Blige and the recantation of an Assistant Principal because I wrote about it in the Spring of 2009 for the New York Teacher. It didn’t take a special Condon “investigation” to uncover the Blige horror show, supported by Mulgrew and Weingarten.

I quoted members who said Blige specifically went after chapter leaders and sent them to the rubber rooms on trumped up charges-they were never charged with anything and were all sent back to the classroom.

That was the last article I was allowed to write about Blige.

When the union had a rally on March 13, 2009, Weingarten sent out a press advisory (I have a copy) knocking the total number of protesters down to 50 after she was told that 500 would attend. So even then the union was protecting Blige.

The worst case of the Weingarten- Mulgrew Vichy collaboration involves the teacher accused of leaving a letter in Blige’s mailbox threatening to murder her! The letter said there was a “gang” led by the teacher who would kill the principal and her son.

Fifteen cops came to the school, interviewed no one except the teacher, lied to her and said they had her on video leaving the letter in the principal’s mailbox and had her fingerprints on the letter.

Then they changed the story to say it was her handwriting on the letter, which was announced by an Assistant Principal- tape recorded by a member- one week later- that was in February, 2009.

Now: think Tucson and the attempted murder of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords: What happened to the teacher after one “expert” detective said it was the teacher’s handwriting?

NOTHING! It is a New York State felony to threaten the murder of a public official. Nothing happened to the teacher until eight weeks later, in April, 2009, after I called Blige for a comment on my story.
The next day, the teacher was arrested and charged with a misdeameanor. (Even if she is found guilty, she will serve 15 days of community service picking up garbage on the Grand Concourse).

The Bronx D.A.- elected with help from the UFT- did not ask for bail, didn’t ask for the teacher’s passport to be lifted and the principal never asked for extra police protection for Blige, parents, students and the staff.

Despite my urging, Weingarten refused to call the D.A. and ask that he personally look at the case. There was no police probe of the gang. The teacher -this horrible accused murderer beloved by her students and colleagues-- was sent back to the rubber room.

Nearly two years later, after the D.A. Robert Johnson asked for 15 postponements, there has been no trial and the case is still open.

What would have happened if a teacher wrote a letter like that to Bloomberg of Klein?

The teacher ultimately lost her job because neither Mulgrew nor Weingarten nor NYSUT lawyer Claude Hirsch lifted a finger to help her. She never had a 3020A hearing. Klein used a loophole in the law saying he could refuse to approve her application for a work visa if she was merely “accused” of misconduct.

Incredibly, Weingarten and Mulgrew allowed this shanda, like so many others they were complicit in, to stand unchallenged. So the only question still open is: what did they get out of it for themselves and
their UFT cronies?

My editor Deidre McFadyen and staff director LeRoy Barr denied me a vacation day-for the first time since I worked at the union- so I could attend the teacher’s court hearing on my own time--to give her moral support (I have the Barr email).

Weingarten pulled my story the day after the teacher got arrested; Weingarten, Barr, Mulgrew and others all said she was guilty- because she had been arrested. Weingarten told me the teacher was “guilty” because she had “heard” ---from another UFT Staff Director Garry Sprung- that the cops had the teacher’s fingerprints on the letter. I asked Weingarten when the grand jury met, when the teacher was indicted, when she was convicted and when she had exhausted all her appeals.

I had to shame Weingarten the Lawyer/ part-time “teacher” into finally running the story-two weeks after the arrest- after I reminded her about the 6th Amendment (Weingarten told me that most teachers in the rubber rooms were guilty and crazy, which is why I was allowed to run only one rubber room story-in October 2007).

When an Assistant Principal wanted to tell me the story about how she helped frame the teacher, Mulgrew, Barr and McFadyen refeused to let me run the story and Mulgrew wouldn’t even call the D.A. to say he was sending over an important witness to help clear the teacher.

So it is clear- I have lots more on this story and other Weingarten-Mulgrew cover ups of corruption outside and within the union- that the UFT leaders were protecting Klein and the members could
go to hell in a hand basket.


Weingarten $200,000 vacation days myth - or theft of service from the union
The Blige case is one of many that will stand out as the defining Weingarten-Mulgrew legacy of cowardice, double-dealing and abusing the rights of members whose dues they collect for their fat $400,000 salaries, unlimited expenses, a car and driver and “I never took a day off in 24 years” benefits but then refuse to represent them. (The Cal Ripken award for never missing a day’s work goes to Weingarten, except for this inconvenient truth: she took plenty of vacation days, some disguised as AFT “fact-finding” missions and others at her Amagansett country home where she instructed her press office and NY Teacher editors to send her faxes so she could claim she was “working from
home.” Uh- huh- just like every teacher working from home on the beach.

I blame Klein and Blige but Weingarten, Mulgrew, Barr and McFadyen could have exposed this horrible principal two years ago and chose instead to be part of the cover up, as they were at so many other schools which you will be reading about shortly.

When Mulgrew fired me in August 2010 for organizing a union-after 13 years of praise from him, Weingarten and hundreds of UFT officials and the members, he told the press I was unprofessional!
And what other word can we use to describe his perfidy and Weingarten’s abandonment of an accused teacher who came to America from Jamaica to fulfill the immigrant’s dream yet was crushed by the DOE-UFT steamroller?

If there was ever a PERB case for non-representation, this was it- although I lived through so many others when I had to argue with my editor McFadyen and the Weingarten-Mulgrew apparatchiks like Barr, Ellie Engler and McFadyen to get the stories in the union newspaper.

Mulgrew is so paranoid and vicious that he had McFadyen -at $150,000 a year---sit for days on end and go through the New York Teacher archives on line and take stories like Blige off the web site- she has disappeared into the dark hole of corruption that exists at the union. Mulgrew even ordered my name off the obit of Jack Newfield, who once wrote for the union!

How low can a such a self-styled tough guy get? Stay tuned- lots more to come.

Jan. 25, 5PM: Rally to Stop Moskowitz/HSA Invasion on Upper West Side

"Posters promoting the school line bus stops along Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, and some people say they have gotten more than 10 fliers in the mail, several proclaiming the charter school as “the public-school solution to private-school tuition.”

Seung Ok nailed the charter school movement for what it is in this post on the GEM blog. Some excerpts:

charter schools in NYC are not so much a solution for closing the achievement gap but a deceptive horse and pony show for another more ambitious agenda - and that is to convince us to privatize the whole public school system. Imagine a city where the law limiting the number of charter schools was removed. All those years of pent up frustration by privileged parents spending thousands for private schools can be released with one great sigh of relief. We will start to see mostly white charter schools arise in neighborhoods like the Upper West Side. Let's not forget how expensive real estate is in NYC. A public school building is a million dollar gift.

And a unique and surprising thing will happen. All that private money funneling into black and Latino charter schools will dry up. The money that once surprisingly made its way to Harlem and Brooklyn, will support the charter schools that the millionaires' and billionaires' children attend. There is a finite amount of private money - and it's just a matter of practicality to ration it out if charter schools litter the educational landscape; the donors must prioritize their wads of money, and human nature being what it is - they will fund their own neighborhood's charter schools than not. 

So the fight to defend public education against charter schools, is more than about space, teacher unions, or a lottery system; it is to stop the manipulation of Black and Latino communities as chess pieces in a game to benefit the elite classes in our society. While the struggling parents in impoverished areas are positioned to fight each other for the scraps of space and funding that has been allotted by our society, the privileged lay waiting in the sidelines until all the energy is sapped out - and the doorway to unregulated access to taxpayer money opens. 

So, where will Black and Latino communities find themselves - a place much worse than they were before. Their successful public schools having been decimated - closed and phased out, their struggling schools left overcrowded, and their abandoned charter schools left under funded - all destroying the gains made in the past several decades of hard earned work by so many stakeholders.

Nice work Seung - he wrote this back in Feb. 2010.

Saturday's NY Times also nailed Eva Moskowitz for what she is all about in the long run: using public money to set up schools for rich people so they don't have to spend on private schools. I wonder if she will run them as test prep factories like HSA schools in Harlem because if people think they will be getting a Dalton-like progressive education they will be wrong.

What's it all about, Eva? Setting up separate and unequal segregated schools like they did in the south when schools were ordered integrated - what we knew charter to be about all along.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/nyregion/22charter.html

On Upper West Side, Hurdles for Charter School

Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Eva S. Moskowitz, who runs a network of charter schools, at the Harlem Success Academy.

By FERNANDA SANTOS

Published: January 21, 2011

The guests sipped wine and nibbled sushi, guacamole and Gruyère — lawyers, bankers, preschool teachers, managers and consultants of various kinds, bound by the anxious decision they must confront in the months ahead: where their 4-year-olds will go to school in the fall.

Enlarge This Image

Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Eva S. Moskowitz with parents at the Harlem Success Academy. At right, people on the Upper West Side listening to her talk about a charter school for the area.

Downstairs, a flier by the doorman’s desk had greeted them with a provocative question: “Why should you have to spend college tuition on kindergarten?” Back upstairs, in the stylish apartment on West 99th Street, Eva S. Moskowitz, a former City Council member who runs a network of charter schools in Harlem and the Bronx, delivered a tantalizing sales talk.

I know we are keeping people hopping - and our rally on Thursday just off to the side of Tweed is an important one - I'll go into it in more detail in another post - but if you can make this rally against Moskowitz on Tuesday (5pm) followed by the public hearing at 6pm you may see a biggie - with many West Side activists jumping in - I can't make it due to wife B-Day - shhhhhh!

Download and circulate widely
http://www.scribd.com/full/47438042?access_key=key-2cku4dm6gl9p5wg1q6g2

Jan. 25, 5PM: Rally to Stop Moskowitz/HSA Invasion on Upper West Side



Subject: We need your support- ASAP!!!!

Hello All-

I am writing to you to ask for your support. As some of you may know, my school, and many others have faced serious repercussions from being sited in a location desired by the Success Charter Network. In my school alone, community students have been coerced and forced out- through multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, Department of Education pressure, truncating of the school community through forcible erasure of Pre-Kindergarten classes as well as all middle school grades, as well as gentrification. We have been wrongly accused of being a failing school- despite much evidence to the contrary- including recognition of successful progress (in the top 10%) during the 2008-2009 school year. We have lost valuable classroom space, forcing our students to be placed in basement rooms and loss of our Art Studio. We have limited access to the cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium, and school yard. Everything that we have known has been turned upside down. In the past year, Success Charter Network has gone after many other schools, claiming space as their own despite total lack of community support. In fact, to the contrary- all affected communities have unanimously fought against this co-location- only to have their voices ignored- the co-locations occurred regardless. We have had to add new skills to our repertoires and new hats to our job descriptions in order to hang on to what our students deserve and should have equal rights to. We have forged new coalitions and are determined to stop this from happening to any more school communities. While we still need help to maintain our own viability- we hope to be able to stop this from happening elsewhere. District 3 schools are still under fire as the Success Charter Network (servicing students from all five boroughs by lottery) is looking to expand into the Brandeis High School building- a building currently housing four small growing high schools and constantly threatening to forcibly come into others (PS 145, PS 165, Wadleigh, etc.).

Help us by signing our online petition and asking others to do the same. District 3 has good schools, and a strong community. We do not have enough space for the students who live in the community as evidenced by severe overcrowding and many school with Kindergarten wait-lists. We have a multimillion dollar federal grant that is supporting schools in the northern part of the district to make serious changes to become available to lesson the load of the southern portion. We need all the space we have in our current schools to accomodate our growing population and support our new, growing magnet schools.
Please sign on, and tell others....
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/stop_the_co-location_of_success_academy_charter_school_in_the_brandeis_high_school_building

Thank you!!!!

Good Riddance to Nadelstern

SEE VIDEO OF MY STATEMENT AT JAMAICA HS HEARING JAN. 20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgLTpfJiAmg

I hate Bloomberg. But he brought a smile to my little face as he butchered Nadelstern’s name, when he announced that Cathie Black would be promoted over him, and then when he announced that Nadelstern’s deputy would be also promoted over him......He knew what his subordinates did not – he knew that the progress reports were garbage, that quality review was disruptive, that shutting and reopening schools was destabilizing without benefit. He knew that he was doing harm, and he did it anyway."- blogger JD2718

These comments also brought a smile to my face - exposing the hypocrite professional educators who have sold out to ed deform for career advancement.

I know very little about Eric Nadelstern but as a rabid supporter of ed deform he was on the wrong side. When I heard he resigned while riding the subway yesterday heading to the Fight Back Friday press conf at Tweed, I said to myself, "Good." All these slime supporters of Klein who gave up their principles - Nadelstern was once considered a progressive educator who opposed standardized testing - deserve what they get. I hope Cathie Black replaces him with a figure skater.

Gotham has an exclusive interview with Nadelstern - but with no follow-up questions to deal with so many points raised in the comment section. Too bad he wasn't asked how he could in all conscience support an Iris Blige as principal or so many Principal Academy horror stories.

Unreal made the most comprehensive comment laying out all of Nadelstern's "crimes."

Eric solely destroyed the large high schools which served its communities. He single handily removed neighborhoods from their schools and forced children to select specific schools nowhere near their communities. Parents, students, and community leaders gave up fights for THEIR local schools because NO ONE was going here. Brilliant plan for destruction! Now you have high 342 high schools, some of which include 6 in one building. Imagine 1 auditorium and 1 gymnasium with 6 separate principals and schools. Auditorium events are being booked 2 years ahead of time at my CAMPUS MODEL SCHOOL.
Thanks Eric ….. For destroying the competitiveness between rivals and the historical battles between schools which was healthy and exciting for communities. We now have NONE! The only two systems nearby that De-zone schools are NYC and Yonkers. Everyone knows you don’t buy a house in Yonkers if you’re starting a family because of the school system. Eric is the mastermind of demolishing the foundation built in all 5 boroughs! He also is responsible for the ridiculous quality review which grades a school. You know it's BOGUS because last year the entire South Bronx school area received A’s and just one year later, they all dropped to C’s. How’s that possible? They realized it's improperly graded and false. He’s also responsible for NETWORKS. Why doesn’t Gotham do a piece on “What a Network is and does?” Nobody knows the answer to that because they don’t do anything except have retreats once a year where 23 year olds explain how to teach.
The truth will NEVER come out because people don’t want to hear it! People know what’s really happening! Schools are having hearings on closure while schools replacing them already know they’re coming in. You have the answers BEFORE the hearings! Where are the write-ups on this here on GOTHAM? People don’t want to talk about it because its EMBARRASSING!!

(I had similar words at the Jamaica HS hearing the other night that I directed at Queens HS Superintendent Juan Mendez, also a supposed respected educator. See the video I referenced at the top: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgLTpfJiAmg
I wish all these gutless educators would leave - they know what they have done.)

Michael Fiorillo said

The entire purpose of breaking up the comprehensive high schools - not that there weren’t many of them that were challenged and needed help, help they were systematically deprived  of - was to divert resources away from students and the classroom, and towards administration, to break up senior faculties that were often centers of opposition to those same administrative follies and UFT complicity with them, and to destroy the neighborhood school as an institution.
Nadelstern was a bona fide educator, who helped start and administer an excellent school (Queens International HS), but that legacy is overshadowed by the immense destruction that resulted from his service to the hostile takeover of the schools.. 

Here are JD2718's similar comments on Nadelstern

January 21, 2011

tags: Eric Nadelstern

by jd2718

Were he an idiot, his passing would not merit mention. But he was a real educator. Smart. Clever. Rumor made him a good principal, but that was ages ago. And he used his experience – not to help the system, but to tear it down.

His mass-produced mini-disaster schools (or rather, Nadelstern failure academies) captured Gates money for his cronies, while accelerating a downward spiral in the high schools in the Bronx. His role in structuring and restructuring and Empowering bureaucracy (while disempowering parents and educators and whole communities) allowed him to advance his own career by pushing around and punishing those who had the audacity to be poor or to teach those who were poor.

Full piece at: Nothing became Nadelstern in the DoE as his leaving it

Leonie Haimson also had some comments on Nadelstern on her listserve, where some people were praising him for what he once was:

Not having known the “good” Eric, pre-Klein, and not sure what the relevance that has to what his record over the last eight years, I can say this:

Nadelstern was indeed partly responsible for the fiasco that led to the new small schools being able to exclude our neediest students, taking disproportionate resources and space from the large schools, and helping to bring about their demise .

But a lot of other people were involved and implicated in that effort as well, including Michelle Cahill, Bob Hughes of New Visions, the Gates Foundation and others too numerous to mention .

On the other hand, as far as I know, Eric was primarily responsible for one of the worst ideas implemented at DOE under Klein: principal empowerment. This benign-sounding concept came to mean that principals were empowered to cheat, misuse funds, and abuse staff and students – as long as test scores went up.

I was at several CPAC meetings at which parents complained bitterly to Eric about the lawless and destructive behavior of their principals, who were let loose without any supervision as a result of the elimination of the district structure and the disempowering of superintendents.

This included parents relating how they had been barred from their children’s school, even though they were PTA or SLT members, because they had complained about the fact that the school’s “fair student funding” supplement had been used to redecorate the principal’s office (which use of those funds, by the way, was just fine with DOE.)

Nadelstern’s response was always “email me and I’ll look into it” which wore a little thin when parents said they had emailed him many times already, without any acknowledgement or reply.

For the predictable results of this destructive and wrong-headed policy, see the recent TAPco scandals, the school which has earned the top-ratings of any school in the city, based entirely on cheating and fraud.

An even worse example is how Iris Blige, a graduate of the Leadership Academy, has been left in charge of the Fordham High School of the Arts, despite a scathing report by the DOE’s own Office of Special Investigations, which found she had forced Assistant principals to give “U” ratings to teachers who dared disagree with her policies, and how she had sent teachers who resisted her unfair practices to the “rubber room”, leading to huge teacher and AP turnover at her school.

http://gothamschools.org/2011/01/21/bronx-principal-keeps-her-job-after-imperiling-the-jobs-of-others/#more-53158

There are countless other examples of these kind of abusive principals, many of them trained at the Leadership Academy, who have been empowered and even encouraged to target teachers who dare protest their tyrannical decisions by giving them “U”s . These are the same principals, by the way, that the DOE and Cathie Black argue should be able to fire any teacher they want, and deny tenure to those who have gotten “U”s, regardless of their experience level or actual teaching ability. .

As (retired Bronx HS District Rep) Lynne Winderbaum writes on the GS website,

Principals like Blige who ruin lives, ruin careers, rule by fear and intimidation. Signaling the robotic foolishness of Cathie Blacks talking points, Blige is an example of how the dedicated, vibrant, caring new teachers that Black wants to save from layoffs are the ones whose careers were cut short by the vindictiveness of this principal. Bishop, Hidalgo, Street, Troy, all popular and well-liked young teachers, were cut down early in their promising careers. On one occasion a student at the school asked me “why does Ms. Blige get rid of all our favorite teachers?”

So harsh were the conditions under her tyranny that from 2007-2008 she had a turnover rate of 70.5%. Dozens of teachers have left every year since 2004 because of this principal. Of the more than a dozen APs in her school in fewer than since 2004, at least ten have left many testifying against her in this investigation and others. Evaluations, which are designed to improve instruction in the classroom, were being instead subverted into a tool to intimidate teachers and stifle dissent.

The fact that the DOE doesn’t terminate Blige should serve as a dire warning for anyone who believes that the can evaluate leadership for our schools. Principals like Iris Blige are not instructional leaders but people who maintain their power by using their authority to rate staff to impose their will.

Iris Blige who, when she was not giving out unjust ratings and firing new teachers, was sending them to the rubber room for petty or no reason.

A former UFT chapter leader, Rick Coscia, spent two years on trumped up charges which were ultimately dropped. Fannie Davis, a twenty-seven year award- winning teacher, spent two years on an allegation coerced from AP Ahmed Edwards. There were never any charges, investigation, or decision. Her “crime” was that she exercised her right to file a Step 2 grievance for improper excessing. When she returned from the hearing, Blige had her promptly shipped to the rubber room by forcing Edwards to say Davis threatened her or she would deny him tenure.

Blige claimed that Raqnel James also threatened her. After an unblemished eight-year teaching career, this beloved teacher found herself facing deportation when Blige falsely charged her as well. The District Attorney has now asked for twelve postponements over two years as James is dragged through the court system.

After over 400 students, teachers, and even administrators demonstrated against her in March 2009, she threatened every student who participated. She sent a guidance counselor to tell them they would not get their diplomas. She told them they could not participate in student activities. She threw one girl off the School Leadership Team. Robert Small, the OSI investigator was given a list of 13 such students to interview.

The result? A fine. Good luck NYC.”

Coverage of Press Conference at Tweed by Fight Back Friday Coalition

Here is a section of video I edited where a young lady goes up the steps of Tweed to hand over the invitation to Cathie Black. Fight Back Friday participants and supporters held a press conference at Tweed with an invitation to Cathie Black, who is on a "listening tour", to come to the January 27 rally to listen to parents, teachers and students.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYCVEU9N4EE



Report on NY 1: Note Julie Cavanagh's quote:

Parents, students and teachers rallied in Downtown Manhattan on Friday to save public schools from what they called "destructive education policies."
They picketed, signed petitions and distributed flyers about the city's plan to close 26 schools because of poor performance.
Public hearings will be held on each school closure next month before an education panel vote is held.
The so-called "Fight Back Friday" events culminated with a news conference outside Department of Education headquarters in the Boss Tweed Courthouse.
"For the Department of Education, for Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg, for [Schools Chancellor] Cathie Black to say after eight years of mayoral control that these schools are failing and that our only choice is to turn schools over to private hands is an outrage," said teacher Julie Cavanagh. "They have been in charge of our schools for the last eight years. This is their failure."
Organizers say they have invited Black to participate in a citywide rally on Thursday.
Department of Education officials refused to comment on the request Friday."

NY1 video here: Rally Against School Closures Held By DOE Headquarters - NY1.com

Julie Cavanagh and Sam Coleman

Note the great work in emceeing the press conference by Sam Coleman (NYCORE and GEM), who along with Julie (CAPE and GEM) have emerged as leaders of the fight back movement. Both have had a decade or more as teachers but became ed activists only in the last few years.

And to think they only met a little over a year ago and have become an amazing team - just to show you how fast things are moving and changing as they and other younger gen teachers are emerging to take charge - and allowing these old bones to rest a bit.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Press Conference at Tweed Pics

Here are a few still. Video over the weekend. The little girl went up to deliver the invitation to Cathie Black to join us on her listening tour at the rally just around the corner from Tweed this Thursday, Jan. 27. She and her mom were escorted in and delivered to invite - not directly to Black.

Jeez, was it cold.  And snow flakes too.

See: An Invitation to Cathleen Black: Make the City-wide Rally on January 27th a Stop on Your “Listening Tour”

Afterburn
Now I'm off to the Rockaway Theatre Company annual gala dinner where the casts and production crews from all the shows will be at the El Caribe catering hall in Brooklyn. As videographer I was never deeply involved in a show but the Odd Couple made me feel part of the operation. I made them a 20 minute highlight real of the entire season. Great material from very talented people. I'll link to it if they let me so Ed Notes readers can see what this operation is all about  - and so many teachers involved.

At the PEP: Cavanagh Challenges Black on Choices She Made for Her Children/UFT's Mendel Promises Resistance/Black Incoherent on NY1

Here are two videos plus a link to Cathie Black's almost incoherent comments on NY 1. This has got to be a joke Bloomberg is playing on educators all over the nation- his message that a buffoon running the largest school in the nation is preferable to anyone with real education experience. (See my comments to Black at the PEP the other day on this issue.)

Try this one out from Too-Chattie Cathie: "We know, study after study shows the most effective people in front of our students, are the best teachers possible.” Huh? Does anyone in the press have the guts to call her on this gibberish? One comment: "As a nation we celebrate our corporate leadership. Makes you wonder! Has she uttered an original thought yet?"

Paul Moore wrote:

One of the most shocking things I have ever witnessed! The Chancellor of the nation's largest public school system cannot form a coherent sentence. This is the best you could do Bloomberg? I realize that Ms. Black can serve as a model for some of the children of New York City but what about those who go beyond 3rd grade?

I stand at the ready Mayor Bloomberg if you are now ready to consider an upgrade in communication skills at the Chancellor's post.

Professor Irwin Corey

Steve Koss said:

Ahem.

I believe Ms. Black was referring to several formal studies published over the years by successive third grade classes at P.S. 87. Those third graders did indeed discover from their research that the most effective teachers deserved to be called the best.

Ms. Black's statements on "Inside City Hall" demonstrate that she is quickly coming up to speed as regards the central issues of public school education and that she is quickly assimilating the findings of serious educational research up to at least Grade 3 level.

At least this latest assertion by Ms. Black is one that she won't have to "refudiate."

Julie Cavanagh wrote:

Ridiculous one might say. And how does Ms. Black propose we choose the best teachers and layoff the apparently less-bestest (as she might say)?  Are we to leave this decision to principals alone so that teachers who stand up for kids are fired?  Are we to base the decision on test scores, for the teachers who generate them?  Will we base these decisions on the level of one's degree?  A survey?  What will be the standard for choosing our best teachers that apparently some mysterious research shows has nothing to do with years of experience... even though any educator and most parents would tell you that experience is one of the most significant factors in student achievement.  I can't believe they let her loose to speak again.

In the video below, Julie, a NYC decade long special ed teacher, holds Cathie Black's feet to the fire on choices she made for her own children: low class size and experienced teachers. UFT Officer Michael Mendel challenges Black to restore credibility to the system and declares the UFT will fight back on school closings, etc.
The UFT endorsed our Jan. 27 rally and Michael will deliver a fiery speech.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglFL2HGBSo




Well, heading over to our Fight Back Friday Press conference at Tweed this afternoon where will attempt to deliver an invite to Cathie to come to our Jan. 27 rally just down the block from Tweed.


Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Wear Black and Take Our Schools Back

Just a reminder that today many schools are engaging in Fight Back Fridays to stand in solidarity with the 25 schools facing closure and the many who are facing charter invasions.  Please consider wearing black (clothing, ribbon, or armband) today and show your support for public education!  For those who would like to join, there will be a press conference on the steps of Tweed at 4:30 this afternoon. 

Hope everyone survives yet another snowy morning commute (for those of you who have to brave it)!
 

Jamaica HS Closing School Hearing - Lots of Passion - But Directed at Bloodless John White

Just got back from the hearing, loaded with hours of tape. That after hours of tape from last night's PEP. I just can't process it fast enough.

Really. I've never seen John White in the daytime. I would check the coffin. Maybe hold a mirror in front of his face. Or wave a cross. Then again, there's always the stake.


White, the DOE company slug, represented Tweed and Juan Mendez was there as the Queens HS Supt, the 5th I believe in the last 2 years. Good school support, Joel. Mendez is supposed to be a professional educator, unlike White whose profession when he lived in Transylvania is unknown.

White presented so-called facts which Chapter leader James Eterno ripped to shreds with a powerful Powerpoint presentation. The UFT Queens borough hierarchy came out in support along with UFT Secretary (2nd highest officer) Michael Mendel.

State Senator Tony Avella was there all night and I invited him to the Jan. 27 rally. David Weprin also made an appearance.

A key point made all was showing how Jamaica was starved of resources. I'll try to get James' presentation, along with some strong student comments up on you tube over the next few days.

The only press I recognized was Maura Walz from Gotham who was also covering for WNYC. She was still there interviewing some students when I left.

The Next Big Thing: School Scandals - Tapco and PS 114 Lead the Way - For Now

The scandals are coming. School by school. So that one day the entire fallacy that BloomKlein stopped social promotion or raised the grad rate or are closing schools for educational reasons and not for the real estate will come apart at the seams. PS 114 in Canarsie is one story - see Linsey Christ's great work on NY1 in reporting on this scandal.

Tapco Redux
On Nov. 30, 2010 I posted a piece titled Another DOE Scam - TAPCO - Theatre Arts Production...":
Therse's been whole lot of traffic with lots of comments, particularly in the last few weeks, about grade scams and teacher harassment.  I guess finishing as the top ranked school gets some scrutiny. Check them out. Leonie Haimson left a request that people contact her. I did no censoring of the comments unless there was something real stupid though someone thought this was Leonie's blog based on her request.

Today there were stories in the press.

When report card grades were released in the fall for the city’s 455 high schools, the highest score went to a small school in a down-and-out section of the Bronx called Theater Arts Production Company School.

A stunning 94 percent of its seniors graduated, more than 30 points above the citywide average. The school, which has about 500 students from grades 6 through 12, achieved a nearly perfect score in the category of “student progress,” based partly on course credits earned by students.

“When I interviewed for the school,” said Sam Buchbinder, a history teacher, “it was made very clear: this is a school that doesn’t believe in anyone failing.”

That statement was not just an exhortation to excellence. It was school policy.- NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/education/20grades.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

The city's highest-rated school is being investigated for its "nonfailing policy" that makes it so easy for students to pass a class that kids say even a caveman could do it, The Post has learned.
The Department of Education is probing to see if the Theatre Arts Production Company HS in The Bronx attained its starred-ranking by fudging student grades.
"This week, my average is a 30; in three days I can bring it up to a 95," boasted one senior who didn't want his name published.
"The teachers will give you sheets that are already filled out, and you can just copy them. It's for the school so it doesn't look bad with failing grades."NY Post

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/grade_fraud_sEpJqX8d5dg5l88B9S7RZJ#ixzz1BcYJiPYz

An Invitation to Cathleen Black: Make the City-wide Rally on January 27th a Stop on Your “Listening Tour”

Press Advisory                                   

Date:  Friday, January 21, 2011     

Contact:

Sam Coleman, Teacher PS 24, NYCORE/GEM:  646-354-9362

Lisa Donlan, President CEC1:  917-848-5873

Julie Cavanagh, Teacher PS 15, GEM/CAPE: 917-836-6465

An Invitation to Cathleen Black:  Make the City-wide Rally on January 27^th a Stop on Your “Listening Tour”

School Communities Across the City Launch Fight Backs to Defend Against Public Education Attacks

Who:  Parents, Educators and Students city-wide including members of various schools facing closure and co-locations.  Participating school Communities in January 21^st Fight Back Friday include:  PS 24K, PS 15K, Jamaica High School, Dewey High School, Lehman High School, PS 165, Murry Bergtraum, James Baldwin, Humanities Prep, Paul Robeson, The Academy for Environmental Leadership, among others. Endorsers include: Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), CEC1, Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Coalition for Public Education (CPE), Youth on the Move (a program of Mothers on the Move), Center for Immigrant Families, and New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCORE).

When:  Friday, January 21^st; culminating press conference on the steps of Tweed, 52 Chambers Street, at 4:30 P.M. to cap off the actions by individual school communities throughout the day including “Wearing Black to Take OUR Schools Back.”

What:  On Friday, January 21^st, parents, students, and teachers across the city will be taking different actions protesting Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies.  Individual schools will be picketing, signing petitions and letters, and disseminating flyers to spread awareness about school closures, charter takeovers, impending budget cuts, and the damaging effects of mayoral control. The day will culminate with a press conference on the steps of Tweed at 4:30, where Fight Back Friday participants and stakeholders from schools facing closure and co-location will share their concerns.  A public school student will deliver an invitation for the City-Wide Rally to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers scheduled for January 27^th to Cathleen Black. 

Additional Contacts:

James Eterno, Teacher Jamaica High School: jameseterno@hotmail.com

Stefanie Siegel, Teacher Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152

John Yanno, Teacher John Jay Campus:  646-546-6642

Michael Solo, Teacher Dewey High School: 917-750-7510

Jeronimo Maradiaga, Alumni JFK High School: 917-817-9547

Noah Gotbaum, Parent CEC3: 917-658-3213

Muba YaroFulan, Parent CPE: 347-785-3418/347-442-5134

Brenda Walker, Parent CPE:  347-583- 5925

Khem Irby, Parent CEC13: 347-475-7715

GEM and Real Reformers Rock the House at the PEP

Organized by the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), which is working as part of the Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings - see GEM blog for all groups involved - http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/- working with the Real Reformers.

NYC parent activists Lisa Donlan and Khem Irby lead Real Reformers in song at the monthly Panel for Educational Policy meeting, new Chancellor Cathie Black's first taste of what is to come.
Khem has such a great voice - I told her I want her to sing at my Bar Mitzvah.

The UFT sent a crew of staffers with their own song. All groups - GEM and the UFT - joined in with each other to sing along on both songs - though I can't resist one little snark - a UFT staffer said "Well, it sounded good at the staff meeting." But with a little more work they may nail it.

I attempted to capture the new Olympic sport, condom tossing.

See my Wave column for Friday: Condomnation

Maybe people were in a good mood since the UFT passed our resolution on closing schools and is supporting out Jan. 27 demo.

UFT Delegate Assembly Resolution: Support School Closing Demonstration on January 27, 2011

UFT Secretary Michael Mendel said he wants to speak. He made a rousing speech at the PEP and I will put it up with Julie Cavanagh's fabulous comments later tonight.

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

Black Boo-Boo at PEP: Counts One Million, One Hundred Thousand ATRs

So she confused  the number of kids in the school system with the number of ATRs. Picky, picky, picky. Did everyone in the press miss this? She was actually reading from a script and got this totally wrong.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd2dgr-6t5k



Radio Rahim taped my comments and posted them at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaFqKY3y31E
 
Heading over to Jamaica HS hearing. Check back later for vids of Real Reformers and GEM rocking the PEP house and more links.

Here is a report worth checking out from NY Mag Daily intel:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/01/new_schools_chancellor_cathie.html

New schools chancellor and former Hearst executive Cathie Black had to expect a tough crowd at her first Panel for Educational Policy meeting in Fort Greene last night. Brooklyn blogs have been roiling over plans to address funding issues at Park Slope's John Jay High School, which is attended mostly by minority students from outside the neighborhood, by cramming an "elite" school, modeled after Manhattan's prestigious, largely white Millennium High School, into the building. The proposal lead more than one resident to wonder if John Jay was about to go apartheid with funding going to a separate school that catered to white students rather than being invested in John Jay's existing mold-, asbestos-, and minority-filled classrooms. Despite pleas for civility (wait, are we still trying to do that?), the crowd jeered and booed Black as she tried to get through her four-minute prepared speech (Mayor Bloomberg's name elicited a few more). But it only got worse from there.

Before the panel even issued its vote — the measure to bring Millennium to John Jay passed with ten votes in favor and none opposed — parents waved condoms in the air to reference her ill-advised quip that birth control might be a handy overcrowding solution for Manhattan's schools. But the protests didn't just come from the parents.

In a rare example of a principal speaking out publicly against department policy, Jill Bloomberg, of Secondary School for Research, said that the placement of Millennium Brooklyn was an example of putting the interests of upper income white families above those of low-income families of color.

When she went a few seconds over her allotted time, the panel turned off the sound on Bloomberg's microphone. She finished her speech by shouting and led the crowd in a chant, "Integration, yes; segregation, no."

Even children were swept up in the furor. Addressing the notion that Millennium will help Park Slope parents whose kids are edged out of competitive Manhattan public schools at the expense of existing minority students, Kwaesi Laguer, an 11th grader on campus said, "You are saying that our school isn't good enough for Park Slope residents. Why don't you use the money to help make our schools better?"

Black began her speech with rare praise for the panel, which GothamSchools says "has been belittled as a rubber stamp to the mayor by some and as an opportunity for political theater by others." Impromptu theater, public chanting, comedy routines — no one can say she's not trying to keep things entertaining.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Black takes direct aim at LIFO, ATRs and Pensions

Yes she did in her very first public statement at the PEP she said there must be a compromise on the unassigned ATRs.

Lots of booing.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Condomnation

by Norm Scott
To be published in The Wave (www.rockawave. com), Jan. 21, 2011. Submitted Jan. 19.

There's an old story floating around that years before he became Mayor when a female employee of Bloomberg informed him of her need to go on maternity leave, he urged her to have an abortion and reputedly said, "Kill it." Apparently she wasn't the only one he told that to and there was some kind of lawsuit by a group of female employees. People were connecting some dots when his handpicked Chancellor Cathie Black just a few days after taking over for Joel Klein made her now famous "can't we have some birth control" comment to a mostly white parent group in Tribeca when they raised the issue of severe school overcrowding. I can imagine in the social circles Black and Bloom run in there must often be conversations going on about how the lower classes breed like bunnies and deserve class sizes over 30 while Black and Bloom sent their own kids to schools with no more than 15 (or less) in a class. Oh, the riff raff.


Would Black have dared made a "control your breeding" comment in certain communities outside Tribeca where she might have been outside her comfort zone? She is so arrogant and clueless in taking a job she is so eminently unsuited for I wouldn't be surprised.


Bloomberg, who is never sorry for anything, must be regretting his decision to choose Black. Is there no educator more competent than Black in an entire school system of people who manage all kinds of things way more complicated than anything Cathie Black has managed? Just think of what it takes for a principal to manage a high school with 300 teachers and 4000 students, while the most people Black has managed is about 2000. Even a teacher managing a classroom is a skilled manager.


Bloomberg actually had to apologize, pointing out that Black's booboo was due to the fact that she is used to the private sector (duh) where you can easily make racist tinged jokes and get away with it. Bloomberg didn't address Black's holocaust gaffe which she made at the very same meeting just a few seconds after the birth control comment when a parent asked about the policy of favoring charter schools over public schools. As reported by the Tribeca Tribune (which also has video up of Black's remarks):


Following the 35-minute listening session, Black’s one-minute response was tempered with warnings of “tough sledding ahead” in anticipation of an austere state budget due Feb. 1 and a reminder that she has had similar “conversations” with parents all around the city. But it also contained another line seized upon by the press and the chancellor's critics. “I don’t mean this in any flip way. It is many Sophie’s choices,” she said, in a reference to the book and film in which a mother in Auschwitz must decide which of her two children will die.


There was even greater outrage in some circles over even referencing the decisions she faces as in any way comparing to Sophie's choice. Wow! All this in only one minute. Boy do Bloomberg's PR people have their work cut out for them. The easiest thing would be to throw a blanket over Black.


With Black facing her first Panel for Educational Policy meeting on Jan. 19 some activists planned to toss condoms at her – condemnation by condom (condomnation) – but cancelled when a parent tested the physics and found "regrettably-- the little buggers don't have enough weight to propel far enough in order to span the distance between our audience seats and the stage." Oh, well. I'm glad things won't be thrown as I will be covering the meeting for The Wave. Besides, two PEP members, Manhattan's Patrick Sullivan and the Bronx' Monica Major are on our side. (Unfortunately, our own Queens rep is mostly missing in action.)


There have been lots of comments over what is now being termed "Cathie's choice," where she will favor charters over public schools, cut budgets to the bone and accelerate the attacks on teachers and the union with a particular focus on ending "last in first out" - LIFO - when layoffs come. If Black and Bloom get their way, with the help by the way of Governor Cuomo, that will effectively end tenure protections. Layoffs will hit the highest paid teachers even though the end of LIFO is being advertised as keeping better younger teachers, who may cheer this policy but if they stay in the system will one day find themselves in the same position, as one public school after another is closed down and replaced by non-union charters.


I missed last week's closing school hearing at Beach Channel HS because I was in Florida but reports came in that it was pretty depressing as people have pretty much given up. The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), the group I helped found, sent a rep to the meeting. That she is a 3rd year teacher under 25 and was willing to schlep out to Rockaway is quite impressive and a sign that something is brewing amongst some younger teachers who I've been meeting. GEM is part of the "Ad Hoc Committee to Stop Closing Schools" and she was there to promote two activities: The January 21 Fight Back Friday where schools around the city were urged to "Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back!" to be followed by a press conference at Tweed where an invitation will be delivered to Cathie Black to attend a rally outside City Hall on January 27 to hear the concerns of parents, teachers and students (there will be no condoms attached).


The sham of the school closing mania has been revealed time and again - that this is about real estate, market based ideology, and the hounding out of the system of the highest paid teachers who are left scrambling for jobs after their schools close. Unfortunately, most of these teachers instead of joining with others to fight back for their dignity and for public education, all too often develop a hangdog victim mentality. With the UFT unable (and at times unwilling) to stop the assault, people are left defenseless. Thus the rationale for the Grassroots Education Movement (gemnyc@gmail.com.)


When Norm is not pitching foil-wrapped objects at chancellors he blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com. His email is normsco@gmail.com.

Video of Black's comments:

http://tribecatrib.com/news/2011/january/864_cathie-black-hears-pleas-for-downtown-classrooms-to-stem-school-crowding.html

AFTERBURN BELOW THE FOLD: waylaid plans for greeting Black at the PEP

UFT Delegate Assembly Resolution: Support School Closing Demonstration on January 27, 2011

I'm heading off to hand this out at the Delegate Assembly and then off to the PEP meeting to greet Cathie Black, who when told there was a PEP tonight and never having attended one in all these years and probably being totally unaware of what the PEP was, must be all excited at what she thinks will be a pep rally. "Will there be cheerleaders," she probably asked? Look for the entire press corps to be out in force tonight.

Look for updates through the evening sent from my Blackberry.

In this reso we throw the UFT's own words from their own reso back at them.

WHEREAS the NYC DOE policy of mass school closings has had a massively negative impact on the entire educational community that goes far beyond a particular closing school, affecting entire boroughs and beyond; and

WHEREAS  only by building a grassroots movement “together with local communities, students, parents, educational advocates and others" to oppose school closings can we gain a reversal in this disastrous policy; and

WHEREAS fighting school closings will require organizing the threatened schools into a unified and potent force through mass demonstrations and other measures;

WHEREAS the UFT Resolution on the Proposed school closings passed at the December 15 Delegate Assembly condemned the NYC DOE policy of mass school closings "as a policy that is not educational in design or implementation, but a reckless and destructive means of pursuing a political and ideological agenda for remaking NYC public education. Rather than providing the needed supports and resources it had promised the 19 schools slated for closure last year, the NYC DOE has systematically undermined these schools, deliberately under-enrolling them, slashing their budgets, excessing large numbers of their best staff and flooding them with over-the-counter students"; and

WHEREAS the Dec.15 UFT resolution RESOLVED "that together with local communities, students, parents, educational advocates and others, the UFT will build a grass roots movement of opposition to mass school closures, giving voice to the outrage that all of these civic organizations and citizens feel over this reckless and destructive policy of the NYC DOE;" and

WHEREAS in the said resolution the UFT vowed to fight school closings with demonstrations and other measures; and

WHEREAS The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM-NYC), the Green Party, New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCORE), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Class Size Matters, Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), and the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) are calling for a citywide rally on January 27, 2010 at the Tweed Courthouse; be it therefore

RESOLVED that the UFT endorse the January 27th citywide rally against school closings and encourage and mobilize its members to participate.

Contact gemnyc@gmail.com

Labor donated