Norm in The Wave: Trying to Get Sandy Out of My Shoes (and not succeeding)

By Norm Scott
(published in print and at www.rockawave.com)

Since Howie Schwach turned this column over to me when he became editor of The Wave a long, long, time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I’ve attempted to stick to the subject. This column is called “School Scope.” I guess that means I should be writing about schools. Or education. Or mouthwash.

I started off the school year in September after a summer off as I usually do, catching up on the summer ed news you all were hungering for. I wrote about the Chicago teachers strike followed by a slam against Chicago Mayor Rahmbo. Then a piece of satire on Teach for America and the NFL replacement refs (if you don’t get this it’s a teacher thing). Then we took a river cruise in Portugal during the first 2 weeks of October where we discovered the wonders of Port wine before resuming the column with a piece on the upcoming Presidential elections (remember those?) where I announced I was voting green. That was October 26, or what is now known as -3 BS (Before Sandy), Rockaway’s new dating system. The column didn’t resume until +53 PS (Post Sandy) with three columns covering an hour by hour account of weathering Sandy on October 29.

Well, two weeks ago I figured it was time to go back to the school stuff or change the name of the column. So I wrote about the big brouhaha about the teacher evaluation system. But when I opened up The Wave on January 25 (my wife’s birthday) my pathetic little column about education was lost in a sea of Sandy. Yes, we all can’t get Sandy off our minds. It comes up in almost every conversation amongst friends and strangers.

Two weeks ago we were at the Howard Beach Animal clinic which had just reopened that morning, recovering from the Sandy devastation. We had dropped off Penny the Runt, the feral kitten our good “friend” had convinced us to rescue from her backyard, who seemed to have reached spaying age. It was early in the day and the place was packed, with people coming from as far away as Staten Island. It was so good to see Dr. Weinstein who had gotten ill during the post-Sandy interregnum. I’m sure the stress of almost losing a business he loved so much played no little role – as it did with our alarm guy who also became ill from being so run-down due to the enormous work load. The doc, still recovering, was beaming with pleasure at being back. “I’m so glad everyone showed up,” he said. It dawned on me that he really didn’t know if he still had a viable business until that morning. The serious long-term impact on isolated Rockaway, which was in the midst of a revival, will be told by the businesses that can come back.

The impact of Sandy seems to go way beyond the loss of material goods. Naturally, the topic of conversation with Dr. Weinstein was mostly storm-related while Penny was very understanding and waited her turn. Hey, she has stories too. Her mom and brothers, still outside, survived the storm, most likely by climbing trees, and she was very happy. We left her for the day and went across the street to Dunkin’ Donuts and there were a bunch of guys there telling stories, naturally, about Sandy. We joined in. Entire neighborhoods of strangers are still sharing stories today, +102 PS.

Everyone in the world has heard of Rockaway. I am taking a course in storytelling in Manhattan. Other than me, the other 6 people plus the instructor are not native New Yorkers but all knew where Belle Harbor was when I told my Sandy story. Most of the stories we tell in class have humor in them as we prepare for a performance. I tried, I really tried. No dice. While we tell our Sandy stories to each other with animation, it just didn’t feel right to try to “craft” a story and I let it all hang out. We’re just not ready to stop talking about Sandy.

Norm still blogs about educrap (and Sandy) on his blog: ednotesonline.com

Analysis of the CTU strike/how CORE changed the union Plus MORE

Kristine Mayle, one of the officers of the CTU, sent this link to Ethan Young's piece. This piece relates to the work MORE is trying to do.

I am most interested on the CORE organizing efforts within the union so I reprinted a section below. One of the key things they did was educate themselves. They first got together to read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" to understand exactly what was going on and then transmitting that knowledge to other Chicago teachers. You don't get well over 90% of the members to support a strike in these times without this crucial understanding of the threat of neo-liberalism. Ask any Chicago activist teacher and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Ask any Unity Caucus member what neo-liberalism is and they will say "Only one year to get rid of Bloomberg." Duh! The UFT not only misinforms the rank and file but their own core Unity activists. (By the way, I hear Mulgrew is now using my "ed deform" expression all the time. I should have copyrighted.)

But I will point out a couple if inaccuracies. To say "decades-old" UPC (Unity style caucus) is missing the point that in 2001 an insurgent caucus led by Debbie Lynch defeated the UPC but Debbie then lost to them in a runoff in 2004 where she missed winning on the first round by a percentage point --- meaning that the UPC was a severely weakened caucus even though they won overwhelmingly in 2007. There were enough internal tensions inside the UPC to cause them to split and that opened the way for CORE which formed not long after this UPC 2007 win where they trounced Debbie's Caucus. It was clear there was a need for a new voice.

ASIDE:

Same with MORE in a sense. It was clear after the 2010 elections that ICE and TJC were just not going to be viable. There was pressure from a newer CORE-like generation of activists from groups like GEM (which some people take to be an ICE retread but in fact it was not, attracting people like Julie Cavanagh and others who would never have been involved with ICE. Also the NYCORE union wing wanted to get more involved, as did Teachers Unite. There was resistance from many in ICE and though I can't speak for TJC, there was clearly resistance to the idea of MORE too.

So even though I jumped on board the MORE idea given that I pretty much knew ICE was not going anywhere as far back as 2007, which was why I jumped on GEM in 2009 which was not a union oriented group but more active in opposing charters and defending public ed but clearly saw that without a union component --- and don't think the UFT hacks weren't sniping at GEM too -- and then played a role in bringing all the groups together to explore common actions and that morphed into MORE.

Back to CORE.
Ethan Young states: Within two years of rapid growth, CORE defeat- ed the old guard UPC with 60 percent of the vote....

That has to be put in context. In the first round in 2010 they came in 2nd to the UPC by a hair -- each getting around 33% -- a remarkable achievement for a new 2-year old caucus -- and something that if MORE accomplished would be a game-changer in the UFT. There were 5 caucuses running, including Debbie Lynch's which got about 15% and the UPC splitoffs. They all tossed their support to CORE for round 2 and that is where the 60% came from. Do not take lightly the fact that UPC still got 40%. With CORE being up for election this May they still need 50% to win without a runoff. Hopefully, CORE has built on its 33% but have they built enough to capture over 50%? That should be a fascinating election to watch.

Here in NYC we have the 23 year old New Action which has seen its support drop to a quarter of the support they used to have over the decade since making the dirty deal with Unity in 2003. I still believe if they had continued to be a real opposition they would be in a position to have kept winning the high schools where they used to get over 3000 votes. In 2010 they got 750 HS votes while ICE/TJC received 1350 (and Unity 2600). And in fact if they had actually organized instead of being happy to have their 6 Exec Bd seats they could have turned into MORE. But they made the wrong bet. Yet the leaders seem very happy and cozy with their little jobs and their gift 8 Exec bd seats. They would rather have a quarter of the support they had than actually put up a fight against Unity. In fact if MORE and New Action had pooled candidates for the high schools Unity couldn't win. But that wouldn't happen as long as NA supports Mulgrew.

Instead, MORE needs to get the same 3000+ votes New Action used to get. If MORE can educate teachers, especially in high schools, that a vote for New Action is a vote for Unity they could win these 7 EB seat away from the NA/Unity combo. If it were up to me I would put out a fact sheet on NA but it is not up to me. There are people in MORE who think that one day NA will turn on Unity once again and join the fray. I have no such hopes. But would love it if I was wrong.

Kristine Mayle

Read this! A really nice analysis of the CTU strike and how CORE changed the union.

TEACHERS ON STRIKE 

http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/teachers-on-strike/

When newly elected President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981, he was also firing the first shots in a new offensive against workers in the United States. The new logic of neoliberalism, with its insatiable appetite for low wages and powerless workers, ha…

DOWNLOAD PDF

Here's a section of the intro to the piece:

....All is not doom and gloom. In the midst of this onslaught, the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) has struck back with one of labor’s biggest victories in recent decades. The CTU strike of September 2012 brought together 26,000 workers to successfully fight a proposal by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lengthen the school day by two hours with no pay raise, plus other measures intended to weaken the job secu-rity and voice of the city’s teachers. In the context of the so-called educational “reform” movement—a subterfuge by conservative and neoliberal forces intended to weaken the institution of public education—the CTU’s victory could prove crucial. In the larger war against public unions—the last major bastion of U.S. labor and only political player capable of challenging corporate dominance in the game of campaign finance—the labor movement has finally struck back.

In the following study, writer and activist Ethan Young dissects the CTU’s victory and draws lessons for the labor movement, and indeed the U.S. Left, on how to fight back and how to look forward.

Here is the section I am interested in sharing:

CTU elections in 2010 turned out the decades-old leadership group, United Progressive Caucus (UPC). The winners came from the relatively new Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE), with backing from an older dissident caucus, ProActive Chicago Teachers (PACT).

A handful of teachers formed CORE in 2008, at a moment of crisis for the CTU and of ongoing emergency in the school system. The leader- ship of UPC was split over a $2 million budget deficit. The union had lost more than 18% of its membership to firings resulting from then-mayor Richard M. Daley’s sweeping privatization plan. Daley put low-rated schools in “turnaround,” firing all staff and replacing them with selected newcomers.

The CORE founders first acquainted themselves with the neoliberal campaign as a whole, study- ing critical studies and analyses like Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. They then targeted the demand for job security and the impact of standardized testing. As they took on new members, they set up committees with an eye toward expansion and public debate on Daley and Duncan’s plans for public education:

⇒ The Communication committee presented research findings on the system’s failures on its website and newsletter and prepared special material for CTU delegates’ meeting.
⇒ Outreach organized meetings with teachers around the city to discuss the issue of class size. CPS critics have long argued that aver- age classrooms are overstuffed and nearly useless for teaching purposes.
⇒ A committee focusing on the union’s House of Delegates planned interventions in the meetings of CTU school reps.
⇒ Advocacy planned special educational and agitational events.

CORE worked hard to share skills and informa- tion with new members, to help them get to the roots of the system’s failure in Daley’s policies. At the same time, they outlined key workforce issues: paid and pensionable family leave; use of scripted “learning” and high stakes testing; contractual rights to file grievances over class size; school closings; charter proliferation; and so-called merit pay, aimed at tossing out teachers in “problem” schools. They also included quality of education issues, such as lack of school libraries and air conditioning.

Chicago’s tradition of community organizing was a boon to the caucus. From the start, CORE sought allies at the community level. In August 2008, their first public panel discussion on edu- cation issues included speakers from the well-established community groups Blocks Together, Parents United for Responsible Education, The Pilsen Alliance, South West Youth Collaborative, Access Living, Clergy Committed to Community, and Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization. This was the start of an ongoing interaction, helping ground CTU members in broader community concerns, while putting education higher among those concerns for organizers in various “working class-based” social movements.

This is far from standard procedure for a big union. Without fanfare, CORE set a course that would move CTU from traditional “business unionism” to the (still mostly speculative) model proposed by some progressives, “social move- ment unionism.” It’s a big leap from strict collec- tive bargaining to incorporating the concerns of other social movements. For many unions, it’s a leap just to acknowledge that labor is a move- ment among other movements.

Within two years of rapid growth, CORE defeat- ed the old guard UPC with 60 percent of the vote....

For more download the pdf.

Why Won't Unity Tell the Truth About Ed Deform and Chicago Union-Busting Charter Machine

Note how aggressively the CTU has been battling the charter chains while the UFT.... well, you know the drill -- they are hiding behind their astroturf groups who are out there. Why are they ashamed to openly take on the crooks like Eva et al.?

First, read this message from George Schmidt on Facebook re the fightback -- see what can happen when a union stands up and pushes back? Note George's points about the real intentions of every one of the ed deform gang, a message that has been hammered home to Chicago teachers, who won't be telling them the falsehoods that all they need to do is wait out Rahmbo.

Here, Unity acts like John King and Merryl Tisch are fair minded mediators and not allies of Bloomberg and Eva and all the other ed deform slugs. Which given that so many rank and file teachers are fully aware of the game being played, the UFT's misdirection and misleadership to me puts them on their side once you start asking WHY?

Need I say that MORE is trying to model itself on the CTU's CORE, which by the way is running for re-election this May with Karen Lewis again heading the ticket.

Considering the problems with violence in Chicago's communities (not all; we live in a police district that is safer than the suburbs of Oak Park and Evanston, according to crime data), it should be national news that Rahm Emanuel's administration has hired a "tough ex-Marine" to do a pacification program aimed at...

The Chicago Teachers Union and the critics of this year's two big RAHMLIES -- the "underutilization crisis" and the "billion dollar deficit."

When RAHMGANGS running even more rampant across the city partly -- because of the RAHMERCS who were hired from out of town (clueless about Chicago realities) to run the schools, police, and libraries -- it's not surprising that RAHMBO is now hiring a former NATO pacification guy to fly the drones in against Chicago teachers and parents who are fighting against this year's Hit List.  

One of the cool things about this year is how almost every one of their hypocrisies and Hollywood stunts (Rahm's people try to script everything with the help of about three million dollars in propaganda hacks at the "Mayor's Press Office" and the CPS "Office of Communications") is falling flat because from one end of Chicago to the other everyone knows the game plan is to destroy the city's real public schools, close dozens of schools, then privatize them (at those infamous dollar a year leases) via the charter schools.

The want to New Oreleans-ize Chicago, but their plan is running up against democracy. So naturually, a school system that is facing a BILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT has been able to afford to hire this military guy to pacify the communities and add dozens of FACE bureaucrats to the "Network" offices.

Back when Chicago had a free press (instead of today, when the facts only come out in the Indy press, Substance, and the unions), these stories would have been Page One, and the mayor's plans and cronies would have been laughed out of town. Nowadays, instead, the Chicago Sun-Times, now owned by Rahm's cronies, seems to believe it can get some kind of New Age Pulitzer Prize for putting the mayor's picture on Page One the most in any one year. (Maybe they thing that RAHMIFICATION of the FRONT PAGE will somehow charm people into forgetting about the murder rate?...)...  -- George Schmidt

UNO – The Face of the New Chicago Machine

Chicago has a reputation as a town run by a political machine. Today, the power of the machine no longer lies in ward organizations; it lies in the business community and business-friendly politicians and organizations. http://ow.ly/hrGAq

The United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) successfully navigated the waters to stay a force through both the traditional machine and the new machine. UNO was one of the community groups that backed the legislation that started Local School Councils (LSCs) and immediately used its power to push its own agenda through them.  http://ow.ly/hrH4R

When Mayor Daley’s son Richard M. Daley was given reign over the public schools in 1995, taking much of the power away from LSCs, UNO changed course to open its own charter schools, which allowed it to receive public money and distribute it largely without fetters. This required a change in ideology.  Instead of empowering the Latino community by amplifying its voice, it worked to change the sound of that voice. Ultra-right wing reactionary think tank the American Enterprise Institute praises the organization in its report American Citizenship:

“UNO fundamentally understands citizenship education as a project of assimilation and Americanization.” http://ow.ly/hrI5V :

UNO’s current CEO, Juan Rangel benefits from following the corporate line as he makes $266,000 a year, more than the CEO of all 600+ Chicago Public Schools. http://ow.ly/hrQ8z

This new approach led to clashes with local movements to open new schools. http://ow.ly/hrILD

Always forward thinking; UNO founded the Metropolitan Leadership Institute, which prepares hopeful leaders with its brand of pinstripe patronage. http://ow.ly/hrKcm

Graduates of MLI have been appointed to top-level government jobs. http://ow.ly/hrKjm

Although MLI operates under a shroud of secrecy, its graduates follow a largely anti-union line. During the Chicago Teachers Union strike, one of the union’s most vocal opponents was MLI graduate Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno. http://ow.ly/hrKHd

Moreno’s remarks largely resembled those of UNO CEO Juan Rangel: http://ow.ly/hrKWV

[CEO Rangel] praised the work of wealthy charter school supporters -- and mayoral allies -- like Bruce Rauner and the Pritzker family. "Do we have the resolve to embrace Chicago's wealthy community... and support them as a focal source of energy that fuels the school reform movement with their money? Or will we shy away from them and allow the silly talk that currently passes for debate about the so-called one-percenters privatizing our schools?"

UNO pushes an anti-union agenda because it is a key player in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s privatization plan. Rangel was co-chair of Emanuel’s mayoral bid.

UNO is really a political organization; one that is larger and more powerful than the traditional ward organizations in that is has no set boundaries. There is no need for to hide their money because it is awarded to them above the table, but doled out below.

Companies with UNO contracts have made large political contributions to UNO-backed candidates for state and local office and UNO workers have volunteered on these campaigns.

UNO’s was able to proliferate its charter schools with a $98 million dollar state grant awarded to them by the Illinois legislature. http://ow.ly/hrLKN

It’s important to note that this $98 million was in addition to the local and state funding UNO receives for operating schools.  So UNO receives funding like public schools, millions of state aid on top of that, and contributions from corporations like Wal-Mart. http://ow.ly/hrQwz

Parent groups filed a complaint with the Inspector General’s office to find out how that grant is being used since UNO refuses to be transparent. http://ow.ly/hrNzC

UNO thwarts Freedom of Information Act requests through MLI graduate Homero Tristan who is one of UNO’s lawyers. http://ow.ly/hrNUT

Tristan left his post as the City’s Human Resources Commissioner amid a hiring scandal. http://ow.ly/hrO54

This state grant allowed for the immediate proliferation of UNO charter schools, which meant more contracts to go around. http://ow.ly/hrM6X

If that was not enough, The Walton Family Foundation (Wal-Mart) added additional start up money for a new UNO campus. http://ow.ly/hrQwz

Of course the Walton’s understand how to hedge market share. They funded CPS’ campaign to promote public school closings. http://ow.ly/hrRcN

The Chicago-Sun Times released a list of contractors who benefited from UNO’s immense war chest. http://ow.ly/hrLW8

UNO has expanded its operations into janitorial services and is winning contracts from the City that traditionally went to union businesses. http://ow.ly/hrSlO

UNO fashions itself as an alternative to the old school machine but it is merely a new version of it. After Chicago’s Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO) broke up amidst scandals, it created a vacuum that UNO filled. http://ow.ly/hrSR6

UFT Election Starts Today - MORE Election Leaflet - Download and Print

MORE will send them to your school if you want. Or pick some up at the Delegate Assembly today or the MORE meeting on Saturday.

Don't let any Unity hack tell you you do not have the right to distribute lit. (Contact Kit Wainer if there is a problem.)

See below for a note from Kit Wainer on procedures for distribution of lit during the elections when you can go to other schools to stuff mailboxes. (You can put MORE lit in boxes of your own school all the time.) We will post copies of the memorandum allowing you to do so.

[Excuse the jumbled type on the names -- it will print fine -- just an anomaly of this blog.]

VOTE MORE by morecaucusnyc

To: MORE leafleters
From: Kit Wainer
Re: Leafleting in the school mailboxes

Thank you for helping MORE get the word out about our 2013 election campaign!
As you place our election leaflets in the mailboxes within schools there are a few things you should know.
1. You have the right to place union literature in the mailboxes within your school or within any other school, as long as you don’t do it while you are on duty. You can do it before or after school, or during your lunch period.
2. When going to other schools make sure to sign in with security (bring photo ID), go to the office where the mailboxes are, and introduce yourself to the secretary. Show the secretary, or any administrator who asks, the Department of Education memorandum which allows you to place election literature in the mailboxes.
3. Do not agree to leave the stack with the secretary, the UFT chapter leader, or anyone else. You have a right to put them directly in the mailboxes.
4. Do not get into fights or arguments! Speak confidently but not aggressively. Getting into a battle will do you no good. If after you have shown everyone the Department of Education memorandum they still won’t let you leaflet, contact Kit Wainer (KitWainer@yahoo.com). Kit will contact the UFT and the UFT will get the Department of Education to tell the principal to let you in. You will then be allowed to return on another day.

Thanks,

Kit

How UFT District Reps Undermine Democracy. VOTE MORE

The District Rep was pushing the Unity ballet too telling people how can they just vote for the entire unity party by checking the box. -- report from a teacher

Yes, the Unity/UFT hacks are out pushing their drugs on union time and on our dues. Here was a District Rep while on the UFT dole (at well over a 100 grand a year) pushing Unity Caucus during an ostensible meeting on the wonders of the evaluation system. My feeling is they must be getting a bit nervous when they are willing to so openly violate labor law, which can lead to a charge in front of PERB for misuse of union dues for open politicking.


As I've been saying, unless there is someone in the school actively pushing back, they can get away with this crap. But the teacher/reporter, while possibly not confronting the DR, was not buying any of it, a sign they will be having some problems selling whatever they agree to.

The UFT person from my district came to my school and wanted to talk to us about the new evaluation system... saying how great it was because Mulgrew fought so hard for it... and it really pissed me off because doesn't the union care what the members think? Why is the district rep personally visiting buildings to hype up a crappy eval system when we dont even have a contract? She was saying oh and the test scores are only 20% and Mulgrew worked so hard to do this... and then she is doing backflips over Danielson and how great it is, when it is being misused.

This report is representative of why there are no elections for District Reps, the main agents --- the middle men and women between the top-level union and the chapter leaders.

Want to do something about this? Hand out the first MORE election leaflet in your school which will be available for downloading later in the day from the MORE web site. Or you can email me for a copy. Or you can have us send or deliver a batch if you don't print them yourselves.

Ballots go our early April so there will be a school by school battle with a focus on the eval system and MORE is outgunned and outspent and also has to battle on a 2 front war with every New Action vote going to Mulgrew. What do you think Mulgrew will do with a big "mandate?"

 

MORE Candidate Francesco Portelos on NYC Firefighter Evaluations

Just a little analogy I thought of as I sat in exile for blowing the whistle on corruption. Ridiculous? Exactly!

I have nothing but the utmost respect for NY’s Bravest.
-Francesco Portelos
Parent, Educator UFT Chapter Leader
Candidate for UFT Middle School Executive Board Seat

New NYC Firefighter Evaluations

As the mayor of NYC and governor of NYS try to come up with a better way to support teachers, by evaluating them, the public asks….”Why only evaluate and support teachers?”

“The public is absolutely right. Don’t other civil servants need support as well? Let’s change the evaluation system for everyone!” replied the  mayor, during a press conference yesterday.

Starting next month, every FDNY employee will undergo a strict new evaluation. 20% of the evaluation will be  based on something called Value Retained Model or VRM. The way VRM works is that an accountability expert will make sure to arrive to the scene of a fire first. They will take pictures and videos of the building from the point they arrive to the time the firefighters have finished.
 Full story at:

http://protectportelos.org/new-nyc-firefighter-evaluations/

Parents, Advocates to Protest Michelle Rhee’s Right-Wing Agenda At Book Signing Event TONIGHT

Did you see the disappointing Jon Steward interview with Rhee last night where he had the chance to make her sweat? Here is some retribution. Actually, would have been fun to picket at the Stewart show -- might have spurred him on a bit.

Media Contacts:

Julian Vinocur. 203-313-2479. julianvinocur@gmail.com

Dan Morris. 917.952.8920.dlmcommunications@gmail.com

***Media Advisory for February 5, 2013***

Parents, Advocates to Protest Michelle Rhee’s Right-Wing Agenda At Book Signing Event

TONIGHT, 6:30pm, February 5th, 2013, Cornell Club

6 East 44th St. between 5^th & Madison Ave.

WHO: Outraged parents and education advocates affiliated with New Yorkers for Great Public Schools.

WHAT: Parents and education advocates will speak out against Michelle Rhee, CEO of StudentsFirst, in front of an event for her new book, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First. They will highlight her support for a dangerous right-wing agenda that has harmed public schools in New York City and across the country.

WHERE: Cornell Club, 6 East 44th st. between 5^th & Madison ave.

WHEN: 6:30pm, February 5th, 2013

Feb. 4, 2013 Blogging Team Goes Head to Head With Unity Caucus

UFT Elections: MORE vs Unity/New Action

The UFT election goes into full swing starting this Weds. Tonight's Ex Bd meeting (where I may get a bite to eat) will ratify the procedures. Petitions will be available on Weds. Feb. 6 before the Delegate Assembly, after which Unity Caucus is holding a 6:30 meeting at Fashion Industries HS so they all can get their petitions signed. MORE is working on its own plans -- and you are invited to help.

Well, with the election season, comes the Unity defense.

Have you checked out the MORE blog recently (Morecaucusnyc)?

Some of our city's top bloggers have volunteered their time to work with MORE and the writing has been fantabulous. I am supposed to be part of this crew but I have a very tough time trying to write in the voice of an organization instead of my own voice.

I know that MORE positions don't perfectly align with Ed Notes so changing tone is a chore I have not mastered. Yes, I am an attack dog and Unity slugs and hacks try to paint MORE as a subsidiary of Ed Notes. Unity people can't conceive that everyone in a group does not speak with one voice.

When our crew write official MORE pieces they go through a process where the Steering Committee (totally open to anyone in MORE) gets 24 hours to edit and approve before publishing. I bet my stuff will never pass muster since after 42 years of seeing Unity inaction it is hard to modify my venom. Really, I have a hard time giving them credit for anything. But I am on the extreme end, along with some of my colleagues in ICE who are also on the older end of the spectrum and know how Unity operates. I haven't yet convinced many of my colleagues in MORE that Unity is Vichy. Many in ICE are also with MORE but maintains an independent voice on the ICE blog. The more MORE younger gen of activists see Unity in operation close up and personal the MORE they will see the frustration of trusting them in any way. The reaction by some young uns to the early Unity attempts to suppress our lit is a sign.

Anyway, I now have the attention span of a flea. Given that all these bloggers are actually working while I laze away the days makes them even MORE awesome.

Check out the MORE blog you will see Unity flacks appearing to argue their case. Some of it is really funny in their convoluted arguments.

Bloggers have been out there analyzing the Unity position.

Assailed Teacher takes their arguments apart:

SEVEN WAYS TO DEFEND UFT LEADERSHIP

NYCDOENuts hits Unity from another angle:

Wow, Is It UFT Election Season or What? Unity Attacks

And NYC Educator uses his deft scalpel:
It's Election Season

Then there is Leo Casey who can't stay away despite supposedly moving to Washington to work for Randi at the AFT. There is no point in my going into all the details of the back and forth -- just follow the links.

Reality-Based Educator takes on the task:

Leo Casey Explains Collective Bargaining To Us

As I said, the bloggers at MORE have done some great work. Here is an awesome piece of work from one of the 4 Horsemen (3 if you subtract me) who took on the task of writing this in a MORE media/blogging committee conference call at noon on Saturday and sent back this piece in almost polished form a few hours later. We were all blown away by the work put into this.

Morecaucusnyc

DOES MICHAEL MULGREW BELIEVE THAT OUR TEACHERS’ WORKING CONDITIONS ARE OUR STUDENTS’ LEARNING CONDITIONS?

Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions. This has been MORE’s stance since our inception. We understand that there is a relationship between the erosion of our rights as workers and the erosion of quality education in our city over the past 10 years.

A few days ago, on the UFT website, Michael Mulgrew used our slogan in a piece defending his actions in the ongoing battle over teacher evaluations in New York State. Unfortunately, using our slogan is not the same as believing it. His actions surrounding the evaluation controversy cast serious doubt on whether he considers the learning conditions of our students at all, let alone the working conditions of the teachers he is paid to represent.
By examining the origins of this evaluation fiasco we can see just how much Mulgrew, along with the rest of our union’s leadership, take into consideration our students’ learning conditions. What we consider a fundamental belief is clearly nothing more than an empty slogan to the ruling Unity caucus.

 Read MORE...

And one more from NYC Educator

UFT--Champion of Junk Science

Arne Duncan Gets Push-Back on Closing Schools

JAISAL NOOR: PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS AND STUDENTS FROM 18 CITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY GATHERED IN WASHINGTON, DC THIS WEEK TO DEMAND A NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS.

FEDERAL PROGRAMS LIKE RACE TO THE TOP OFFERED FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO CITIES AND STATES FOR RADICALLY CHANGING THEIR SCHOOLS, INCLUDING FIRING STAFF AND SHUTTING SCHOOLS DOWN. WHILE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TOUTED THE COMPETITIVE MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR PROGRAM AS A WAY TO IMPROVE EDUCATION AND BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE AND THE WORKFORCE, MANY PARENTS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SAY THE CHANGES ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTING LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.

The counter revolution is getting up steam. MORE is also gearing up to push the UFT into more action at the closing schools hearings coming up this month. We ought to have a leaflet unveiled in the next day or two.

Here are some reports, video and print.

Jaisal Noor video report (See below the break for text of his report).

Parents and Students Demand Nationwide Moratorium on Schools Closings

//"Journey for Justice" activists rally in DC to DOE investigate alleged Civil Rights violations in school closings

 link: http://youtu.be/pCGrkb1qc7o

Chicago Parent and Activist Jitu Brown at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 

//Part 2 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings

link: http://youtu.be/1PX7y9-GWzI

 

New Orleans Parent and Activist Karran Harper Royal at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 

//Part 3 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings

link: http://youtu.be/c00PWQl8wLk

James Ceronsky in The American Prospect:

Pushing Arne Duncan to Fast-Forward

At a March 15, 2011, sit-down at the Children’s Defense Fund, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent an unequivocal message to black community and faith leaders. “What we’re desperately missing in this country is parents who will demand better for their children,” he said. “I wish to God I had parents knocking on my door every single day saying, go faster, you’re not moving fast enough.”

On Tuesday, community activists from across the country did exactly that. Some 400 students and parents from as far as California descended on Department of Education headquarters to testify on the racialized impact of school closings, turnarounds, and other measures stipulated by federal education funding mandates. Statistically, actions like these tend to affect students of color more than their white counterparts in the same districts. Students displaced by school turnover are forced to cross myriad social boundaries, including gang lines, with little to no precedent of greater academic success in their new environments.

All told, 18 cities—from the East Coast to the West—were represented at the hearing. Activists from roughly 15 of these cities have filed, or are in the process of filing, Title VI civil-rights complaints with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights. These groups are part of the Journey for Justice, a national movement to retake community control of schools.

“This is our Occupy, this is our DREAMers, our LGBT equality, this is all of this wrapped into one,” says Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director for New York’s Alliance for Quality Education. “We want this conversation about closures and communities of color to be raised up.”

MORE:
http://prospect.org/article/pushing-arne-duncan-fast-forward

 Bruce Dixon reports on school closings at the Black Agenda Report:

A nationwide epidemic of school closings and teacher firings has been underway for some time. It's concentrated chiefly in poor and minority communities, and the teachers let go are often experienced and committed classroom instructors, and likely to live in and near the communities they serve, and disproportionately black.

It's not an accident, or a reflection of changing demographics, or more educational choices suddenly becoming available to families in those areas. It's not due to greedy unionized teachers or the invisible hand of the marketplace or well-intentioned educational policies somehow gone awry.

The current wave of school closings is latest result of bipartisan educational policies which began with No Child Left Behind in 2001, and have kicked into overdrive under the Obama administration's Race To The Top. In Chicago, the home town of the president and his Secretary of Education, the percentage of black teachers has dropped from 45% in 1995 to 19% today. After winning a couple skirmishes in federal court over discriminatory firings in a few schools, teachers have now filed a citywide class action lawsuit alleging that the city's policy of school “turnarounds” and “transformations” is racially discriminatory because it's carried out mainly in black neighborhoods and the fired teachers are disproportionately black.

How did this happen? Where did those policies come from, and exactly what are they?

More at
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obamas-race-top-drives-nationwide-wave-school-closings-teacher-firings

Note: Compare Bruce's piece with MSNBC"s coverage on Sunday, where they looked at school closings but  didn't mention "Democratic party" or
Barack Obama or Arne Duncan. Besides Zakiyah, none of the guests
demonstrated any knowledgeable of the topic
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46979745/#50606348. And they call that
"mainstream". ---- Jaisal Noor

Hearing at the U.S. Dept of Education for the Journey for Justice civil rights complaint about school closings.  Apparently the testimony from the parents was very powerful.  Eventually the entire hearing will be posted on the internet.  A lot of it is available at the Save Our Schools you tube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarchToSaveSchools. --- Rosalie Friend


Jaisal Noor text below

MORE Educator Book Club! Starts With Ravitch Book Feb 12th, Join us!

MOREs are certainly busy bees and not just interested in union politics. Diane Ravitch's book is first up in the MORE book club and rumors are she will be (unconfirmed) at Julie's place for the discussion. Her place is not that big so RSVP if interested. I have a course that night so can't make it and besides don't want to take up someone else's spot.

MORE is proud to sponsor this opportunity to read and learn with other
educators. Please see the flier above and let us know if you are
interested. Diane Ravitch's amazing book will be first, so if you are
joining us, please come with at least the first chapter read. Space is
limited so please RSVP ASAP.

Sign the Petition: UFT and NYC DOE: Share the Details of the Teacher Evaluation Agreement

A new teacher evaluation needs to be fair and be a source of support to the classroom. Share the MOU.

Share the details of the Teacher Evaluation Agreement being proposed


On January 17, 2013 United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew stated "last night our negotiators had reached an agreement — but Mayor Bloomberg blew the deal up in the early hours today." What were the details of that agreement that was supposedly reached?

Mayor Bloomberg responded there “were unreasonable demands being made by the United Federation of Teachers. Among the contentious issues was the union’s demands that the evaluation deal sunset in June of 2015."   

What were the other demands and issues?

Leo Casey, negotiating for the UFT, wrote on edwize.org “During the last week, as the UFT and the DOE met long into the night in an effort to reach agreement on the terms of the MOU, we asked, again and again, more insistently at each turn, to see the DOE’s draft of their application. It was not until late into Wednesday evening, barely 24 hours before the deadline, that the DOE finally gave us their draft of the application. When we read the draft, it quickly became apparent why they had resisted sharing it with us. Included in the draft were  numerous scoring tables and conversion charts which the UFT was now seeing for the very first time. These tables and charts were very important: embedded in them were fundamental decisions about the shape of the evaluation system.“

What are the details of the scoring tables and conversion charts?

Why won't the DOE and UFT share the details of what each side is proposing? The teachers, students and parents deserve better than to be kept in the dark.

Show us what's on the table. Show us the MOU. Share the details.

Sign the petition:

https://www.change.org/petitions/uft-doe-share-the-details-of-the-teacher-evaluation-agreement-proposed 

Unity Hacks Deny Rights, Leading to Questions for MORE on Distribution

I was just told by my Unity chapter leader I cannot put "political propaganda" in teachers mailboxes because it violates chancellors regs. Said the District rep told her.  Can you please clarify when and where we can distribute flyers? ---MORE member

This is at least the 3rd case so far where a MORE member was told they cannot put materials in the mail boxes by a Unity person and the elections haven't even begun. Now, many of our MORE people are not experienced in these matters and we are either dealing with ignorance or an underhanded behind the scenes campaign by Unity. UFT leaders will publicly say that we have the right but maybe they are winking at their hacks to do their thing.

One thing we know absolutely: UFT District Reps will put Unity election materials in every box of schools where there are MORE chapter leaders, a misuse of union employees and union dues.

An experienced MORE person replied

Your DR is wrong or lying. All members have equal access to the mailboxes during non-election times. A Principal cannot have one policy toward one caucus and another policy toward another. That was the essence of the Baizerman arbitration ruling. During election periods -- the 2013 period begins next Wednesday -- ChancellorsRegs explicitly permit all UFT members to give out election lit in ANY school. Neither your CL nor your DR have any say over what can go into the mailboxes. They do not set or enforce DoE policies. You don't need to ask their permission.

We've been getting questions about the right to hand out MORE literature in teacher mail boxes both during election periods (Feb. 6- April 24) and non-election times. So let's try and clarify.

During election periods, the Baizerman decision allows any UFT member to go into ANY school -- even not  their own -- and place materials in the mail boxes. Now this is not always a slam dunk as most principals, secretaries, etc. are not made aware. So if there is a problem a phone call has to be made to someone at the UFT (I hear Amy Arundel is in charge of getting these calls) who then calls the DOE and the school gets a message. Since that can take time it is best to do leave and go on to another place and come back another time. Sometimes I call the school first to let them know I am coming.

During election and non-election periods a teacher has the right to put union-related materials in the boxes at all times. Not to say that if you have a Unity slug of a chapter leader they won't try to interfere by claiming only chapter leaders have the right. Sometimes even non-Unity CLs are resentful of someone infringing on their "turf" so that is something to watch out for.

You also may meet resistance from certain types of principals. Sometimes they demand the right to approve materials. They don't have that right. I don't recommend getting into a big fight with a principal on this issue without thinking it through and going back channels or even just saying you are willing to show it to them in advance as a "courtesy." A lot depends on relationships here, especially with secretaries.

Here was an email with some specific questions which I tried to answer.

Been following you as well as other bloggers for a long time. I teach at ---- High School where I would say the overwhelming majority of teachers have very little knowledge to what is happening with the new evaluation or any other aspect of ed deform. I would be interested in distributing any literature about MORE personally to as many teachers as possible in my school.

1. How can I obtain the literature to hand out?  Will it be sent to my school and placed in my mailbox or can it be sent to my home address?

We will send by mail or drop off a package for you. Or send to home address. Whatever you prefer.

2.  Will this cause a conflict with my CL or do I even need to inform him that I am doing this?

If your chapter leader is heavy duty Unity it may cause conflict. But that depends on what kind of person he is and your relationship. You don't have to inform him but it makes sense to do so.

3.  Can MORE literature be placed in teacher mailboxes?

So any teacher in a school can place materials in mailboxes -- we take the position that it can be done all the time -- but during the election period definitely not only in your own school but  MORE people are allowed to go into any school before and after. Only do it before or after school, not during working hours.

4.  I have not signed on to MORE - can I still distribute literature on their behalf?

No need to sign on to MORE. Even if you decided not to vote for MORE you would at the very least be giving people both sides. Unity will bombard the mailboxes with slick materials.
What we would also love you to do is advocated for MORE to people --and you can even invite some of us into speak -- Brian Jones and I are available during the day.

And when the ballots are sent out at the beginning of April and are send to their homes to remind them to look for them and to make sure people in your school mail them in -- preferably by checking the MORE box on the top sheet of the ballot.

Gary Rubinstein, in NY Times Blog Today, Joins MORE Campaign

Another MORE candidate in the news. Gary Rubinstein is running on the MORE slate for AFT/NYSUT delegate. The work he has been doing has been outstanding and we are proud to have him join the MORE campaign.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/teachers-and-policy-makers-troubling-disconnect/?hp

Schooling January 31, 2013, 9:08 pm22 Comments

Teachers and Policy Makers: Troubling Disconnect

By SARA MOSLE

Can the school reform movement accept constructive criticism? Gary Rubinstein hopes so. Mr. Rubinstein joined Teach for America in 1991, the program’s second year, and has now been teaching math for 15 years, five of them in some of the nation’s neediest public schools and 10 more at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. He has a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s in computer science, has written two books on classroom practice and at one point helped train new corps members for Teach for America. For years, he was a proponent of the program, albeit one with the occasional quibble.

Then, in 2010, Mr. Rubinstein underwent a sea change. As he grew suspicious of some of the data used to promote charter schools, be became critical of Teach for America and the broader reform movement. (The education scholar Diane Ravitch famously made a similar shift around this time.)

Mr. Rubinstein, who knows how to crunch numbers, noticed that, at many charter schools student test scores and graduation rates didn’t always add up to what the schools claimed. He was also alarmed by what he viewed as misguided reforms like an overreliance on crude standardized tests that measure students’ yearly academic “growth” and teacher performance. Mr. Rubinstein, who favors improving schools and evaluating teachers, says using standardized test scores might seem “like a good idea in theory.” But he also thinks the teacher ratings based on the scores are too imprecise and subject to random variation to be a reliable basis for high-stakes hiring and firing decisions.

Given his long alliance with Teach for America, Mr. Rubinstein knows many of the program’s alumni who have become marquee players in school reform. In Houston, he became friends with his fellow T.F.A. teachers Dave Levin and Michael Feinberg, who went on to start KIPP, the nationwide chain of charter schools. Mr. Rubinstein worked briefly under Michelle A. Rhee before she became the chancellor of the District of Columbia’s public schools. At another point, he met Michael Johnston, the former charter-school principal who is now the Colorado state senator who helped push through one of the nation’s most aggressive testing schemes for teacher evaluations. Along the way, Mr. Rubinstein got to know Wendy Kopp, Teach for America’s founder.

He’s now written a series of “Open Letters to Reformers I Know” on his blog, hosted by teachforus.org, in which he shares his unease about the direction of current school reforms. The letters are unusual, partly for their personal tone and evident admiration of some of the recipients, and partly because attempts at dialogue like this are increasingly rare as bitter debate rages among educators who support charters and testing and those who don’t.

Michael Petrilli, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a pro-charter education analyst with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, worries about this lack of exchange. He recently conducted an analysis of Twitter and the tens of thousands of followers of Ms. Rhee, who is pro-charter, and Ms. Ravitch, who is anti-charter, and discovered that only 10 percent overlapped. Just as conservatives gravitate to Fox News and liberals to MSNBC to hear their preconceived notions and biases confirmed, Mr. Petrilli speculates that those in education are now preaching solely to the converted, a phenomenon known in the media world as “narrowcasting.”

Worse, in Mr. Petrilli’s view, those who follow Ms. Rhee tend to describe themselves in their Twitter profiles as policy makers or otherwise removed from the immediate realities of the classroom, while Ms. Ravitch’s devotees are typically self-identified practitioners: principals and teachers on education’s front lines. Surely these folks should be talking to one another, but in Mr. Petrilli’s experience, they often aren’t.

“A lot of people in the reform community say, ‘We know what we need to do; we just need the political will to do it,’ and I think that’s wrong,” he says. “We need to be much more humble. We’re now in a position where a lot of reforms are being enacted; they’re playing out in the real world, and it’s crazy not to listen to teachers, to the problems that might need to be addressed.”

Mr. Petrilli’s wisdom derives from hard experience: “I went through this with No Child Left Behind,” he says. “We put so much effort into cheerleading and making the case for it, we didn’t address the inevitable problems.” Mr. Petrilli now recognizes that the law might have been stronger and worked better had its supporters been more open to input and constructive criticism from the start.

Perhaps proving Mr. Petrilli’s point, only two of the eight recipients of Mr. Rubinstein’s “Open Letters” — Mr. Johnston and Ms. Kopp — have replied so far (although a third, Jon Schnur, a former presidential education policy adviser and the executive chairman of America Achieves, had already promised to do so before being contacted for this article and says he still will). However, Mr. Johnston chose not to publicly answer some of Mr. Rubinstein’s more pointed criticisms. For example, Mr. Johnston has stated that the alternative school he helped establish and where he was a principal “made Colorado history by becoming the first public high school in which 100 percent of seniors were admitted to four-year colleges.”

As Mr. Rubinstein notes, the claim is technically accurate but misleading because the school also had very high attrition rates before its students graduated. This is the kind of data distortion Mr. Rubinstein disparages: “There were actually 73 10th graders,” Mr. Rubinstein writes, “who had dwindled to 44 seniors — a pretty relevant detail.” The school apparently couldn’t meet the needs of a good proportion of its original students. Many of those who left presumably ended up back in traditional public schools, which often become the dumping grounds for students whom charters can’t, or won’t, teach and then are solely blamed for these students’ failure.

Still, Mr. Rubinstein concedes that even 44 graduates out of 73, in many low-income communities, amounts to “a story about kids beating the odds.” But why the need to exaggerate the sales pitch instead of acknowledging the more complex, challenging picture?

At the heart of all Mr. Rubinstein’s “Open Letters” is a plea to his old friends and colleagues, many of whom long ago left the classroom, to remember just how hard teaching is and to remain honest and transparent about what they have and haven’t accomplished, not only to keep faith with those teachers and principals entrusted with the tough job of implementing reforms but also so we can know what truly works and doesn’t and why, in order to build on real, not imagined, gains.

For those who wish to be part of the solution, Mr. Petrilli advises more genuine dialogue: listening to those whose views one opposes and “staying open to the possibility,” he writes, “that they might, nevertheless, have a few smart things to say.”

 One interesting point Gary concedes below that I disagree with is that 44 out of 73 is not spectacular. Even in the school I taught at we had a decent percentage of graduates --- most of my top classes graduated from high school and many went on to college. It was the ones that are similar to the group pushed out or left  - the 29 out of 73 that are similar to our struggling students -- and in fact this school probably had a higher level of motivated students to start with.

Aaron Pallas at the Earth School Feb. 7: What's in a Grade?

Jia Lee, MORE candidate for Exec. Bd, elementary school, is one of the organizers of this event at the school where she is chapter leader. Having the decade long teacher, parent and activist working with MORE is a real feather in our cap and Jia is one of the new generation of union activists. I am constantly impressed with the people running with MORE (including the great Gary Rubinstein who will be working on VAM stuff for MORE) and Jia, who is also fierce critic of high stakes testing and brought an entire crew from the Earth School to the MORE rally at the Jan. DA, will increasingly be heard from.

In case you are not familiar with the always fascinating Aaron Pallas, he used to be the notorious Schoolboy who at times blogged with the famed Eduwonkette - Jennifer Jennings. Aaron was Jennifer's prof and mentor. Aaron who comes across like a professor on the surface, happens to be one of the funniest people if you subscribe to his facebook page. I'm hoping I can get to this event to tape it.

(How much do we miss the work of Eduwonkette, one of the first academics (along with Aaron) out of the box tearing down the fabric of ed deform? That was in pre-Diane Ravitch days so Jennifer was a major voice. I don't even think we can find the remnants of her blog anymore, a real shame.)

Jia informs us they will be showing this film posted on you tube where she documented "the work we do as educators (descriptive reviews of practice and of children, curriculum development, the real role of administrators, work with students with special needs, etc.) to present to parents, general public,  that is being denied in the name of high stakes testing and compliance based reform."

What’s in a grade? 

How is our school’s grade determined? What do they measure?

What is the impact on our children? 

Guest Speaker: Aaron Pallas Professor of Sociology and Education at Teacher’s College

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, discuss and ask questions regarding school progress reports. 

When: Thursday, February 7, 2013 @ 6:00 p.m.

Where: Neighborhood School Auditorium (lower level)

121 East 3rd Street, NYC 10009 **Childcare and Refreshments Provided 

Aaron Pallas is Professor of Sociology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has also taught at Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University, and Northwestern University, and served as a statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education. Professor Pallas has devoted the bulk of his career to the study of how schools sort students, especially the relationship between school organization and sorting processes and the linkages among schooling, learning and the human life course. He is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and an elected member of the Sociological Research Association. His most recent projects are explicitly designed to inform policymakers and other stakeholders about conditions in New York City public schools. 

Inquiries: @The Earth School: Jia- jlee7603@gmail.com;
@TNS: Carol-- 1carolaxel@gmail.com, Rachel rachelb@me.com 

David Bellel Book Signing

David was out photoshop king for many years. Here's wishing him luck on the book.

Lower East Side Then & Now: Book Signing Thursday Night

The LES History Project’s Eric Ferrara and David Bellel are out with a new book.  They’ll be signing copies of “Lower East Side Then & Now” and making a presentation tomorrow night at the Italian American Museum, 155 Mulberry Street, at 6:30 p.m.  The book uses side by side images to compare the dramatic changes that have taken place in the neighborhood in the past century.

The new project also includes a forward by Joyce Mendelsohn, author of “The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited.”   There are dozens of rare photographs that have not been published before.  Here’s a YouTube preview.  Yes you can buy the book online, but better yet, patronize local businesses! The LES The & Now is available in the Tenement Museum Bookstore, 103 Orchard Street, and E. Rossi, 193 Grand Street.

Get a Life: Norm's Social Notes

Ahhh, just back from hot yoga: an hour and a half of hot hell followed by 48 hours of cool, relaxed bliss.

Every so often I feel I have to counter the impression some people seem to have that I don't have a life other than being involved in the ed wars. Like tonight I'm giving up a MORE conference call with chapter leaders and delegates to go see Downton Abbey's Matthew (who cares what his real name is) in The Heiress on Broadway. Now all the ladies, including my own Lady Mary, are crazy for Matthew, who I think of as sort of a whimp. I'm way more interested in seeing his co-star tonight, Jessica Chastain who is one of the hottest (I mean popular - I be no sexist) actresses around.

Now just to show you how things change as you get older, my MORE pal Mike Schirtzer is also missing the conference call to go to a Ranger game where not long ago I would have been. But wife [many add: long-suffering] wants to go to a Broadway show, here I go. (I am a bigger whimp that Matthew). Yesterday she even got me to agree to go see Cinderella the day before Valentines Day. Do I still have to get her flowers that the cats will eat?

Bernie gets friendly. Penny still under bed

Speaking of cats, Penny got spayed on Monday. A formerly feral cat, she is too wild to coral in the Pet Taxi so we spent a week feeding her in there. Since she was a runt and is always hungry, she would walk through fire for food. Pretty shrewd animal, but not that shrewd. Bernie however is not all that swift. Penny was away for about 7 hours but Bernie has been acting like we got a new cat -- growling and hissing like she did when we first got Penny, who is needless to say more than a bit confused. Bernie was so upset he actually sat on my wife's lap for the first time in the 15 months since we found her. (Though if you followed the foundling story you know that for 8 months we thought she was a he --- let's blame identity confusion for her behavior.)
Howard Beach Vet with the great Dr. Weinstein reopened fort the first time Monday morning and it was packed already. The doc was in that day luckily and he was so happy to see everyone coming back. He thought he had lost his entire business and seemed so affected he ended up in a weakened state and with pneumonia. That seems to be going around as Barry, my alarm guy also has it.

Yesterday was a big day. I finally managed to finish wiring 2 new basement lights to add to the 2 the electricians had left me. I spent a month planning the op, replacing lost tools one at a time until I got the final piece -- a tool to cut BX cable -- the biggest pain in the ass -- in the old days I used to use a hack saw -- which a nice Home Depot guy found for me on the top shelf of the storage area. I had been going from Loews to HD to another HD to look for this tool, which had been flying off every shelf due to all the Sandy  work being done. Of course I couldn't figure out exactly how it worked unitl I found a you tube video.

Let there be light

Well this project took over a week to put all the pieces in place. I ran this like a military op worthy of the Bin Laden assault -- Katherine Bigelow has been in touch for the film rights  -- figuring out a strategy that wouldn't get me fried. So I ran the cables from light to light and then to the box with the switch. I had to turn off lots of circuit breakers -- all brand spanking new. But I had to drill through all kinds of beams, including a triple one, which delayed me a week while I had to buy different drill bits until finally buying one of those foot long ones. What a thrill to see the wood fly away. (I also spent 2 months deciding on what Makita drill/driver set to buy).

Tuesday night I went to the 2nd session of a new venture -- a storytelling group where we all, well, tell stories. Not all that simple in that you have to think about it and structure it like something you would write, but instead perform. This is a 3 hour class over 5 weeks followed by a performance at a club in front of a (gulp) audience on Feb. 21. I did stories on my First Kiss and Sandy -- both disaster movies. The other people in my class are fascinating -- 7 of us all together -- and I have already learned so much. One of them is a Chinese immigrant/artist who is riveting and another young lady is an improv performer. I really have to do more of this "get a life" stuff.

Last night I attended the regular meeting of the 6 year old writing group (mostly fiction) I helped found. Only 2 of the originals are left and with a few others leaving we are down to 4 people so we are going to recruit some more -- 7 or 8 is optimal. There have been a few novels written and a collection of short stories published by a former teaching colleague who I recruited to the group. Though another schlep into the city, it is worth it. My problem is that I haven't touched the novel I started a few years ago. It is/was Rockaway based with The Wave playing an important role. I was always planning to use their 125 years of archives but all are gone in the storm (though I recently met someone who has a friend who lives near The Wave and found some in the street.)

And of course, there was last Friday's massive celebration of my wife's birthday where we were supposed to go to one of the most expensive restaurants in New York just days after taking our great friends who were so kind to us during Sandy to another expensive restaurant. Luckily, my wife changed her mind and we did a movie (quartet) followed by tea at the Palm Room at the Plaza Hotel -- yeah, 50 bucks for tea and some snacks but way cheaper than Del Posto.

My biggest regret that day? We never got over to the MTA office where my wife could get her half-price transit card --- paying that extra dollar 20 on the way home when we didn't have to is so irksome.

Today we make up for it when we head into the city before the play this afternoon to get the most important thing you can get at a certain age --- the pleasure of a half fare card. Plus of course my wife now being eligible for medicare --- eat shit Paul Ryan. Of course it took mucho phone calls to GHI and an endless and fruitless wait for the UFT people to get it done.

My new fave tool - I love to cut BX in the morning

Where I could have gotten electrocuted- bzzzzz

Success Academy Charter Schools Parent/Guardian Contract

Cultural infractions at Success Academy

We will be instituting a new way of following up on culture infractions for 2013 using water boarding.

Coming Soon: I will attend all bogus political events Eva maneuvers me into.

Not adhering to these rules will get their ass tossed right back to the local loser public school you trash came from.

Hello Success Academy Families,

Happy 2013!  Attached please find a copy of the Parent Contract that you signed at the beginning of the year for your reference. You do NOT need to submit the contract again; this is simply for your reference.

SCHOOL CULTURE REMINDER
As we enter the new year we would like to reiterate the expectations around school culture.  Attached you will find a copy of the Success Academy School Contract that you signed at the beginning of this school year. Please review your contract.  We will be instituting a new way of following up on culture infractions for 2013.

Success Academy Charter Schools Parent/Guardian Contract
As a Success Academy Parent, I pledge to take ACTION to succeed in the following ways:

• I will teach, model, and live by the Success Academy values every day. I will inspire my child to love learning and strive to be exemplary.

• I understand that every minute of instructional time counts. I will ensure that my child attends school every day.

• I will notify the school of an excused absence no later than 8:15am on the day of the absence and send my child with a note when he/she returns to school.

• I will ensure that my child arrives at Success Academy every day by 7:45am.

• I will pick up my child on time.

• I will read and check carefully all papers and flyers that my child brings home.

• I will ensure that my child completes and turns in all homework assignments on time.

• I will read to my kindergarten, first, and second grade children every night and complete all reading logs by the due date.

• I will ensure that my third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children read every night and complete all reading logs by the due date.

• I will be an active member of my school community. I will interact with Success Academy staff frequently and call my child’s teacher before problems arise.

• I will respond to school communications within 24 hours.

• I will treat all members of the Success Academy team with respect.

• I will ensure that my child observes the guidelines for expected behavior at Success Academy.

• I will make sure my child comes to school in his/her complete uniform ready to learn every day.

• I will attend all family meetings and academic events

• I pledge to follow these steps to ensure success. I understand that these school policies are essential to the success of my child. I will succeed.
  Child’s Name: _____________________________________________________ Date:__________________ Parent/Guardian Signature: ________________________________________
  Parent/Guardian Name Printed _____________________________________