Video: State Senator Tony Avella Calls for Removal of Jennifer Jones Rogers as PS 29Q Principal

Despite the oncoming rain, a spirited crowd of parents, teachers and supporters turned out to join Tony Avella in calling for the removal of PS 29Q Principal Jennifer Jones Rogers, a Leadership Academy principal who fits the mold of feral grads from that institution.

Here is the video of the press conference. I have some interviews on tape that are not included.




https://vimeo.com/71555440

Daily News

Angry teachers and parents are demanding the city fire a College Point principal they claim harasses and humiliates staffers. About two dozen people — including teachers and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) — rallied outside Public School 29 Thursday to complain that Principal Jennifer Jones-Rogers is so abusive that 25 of 45 teachers have left or been forced out since she took the helm in 2010.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/parents-principal-fired-queens-article-1.1414885#ixzz2amnHW8Qu

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/parents-principal-fired-queens-article-1.1414885

Several parents and teachers in College Point want the city to end what they claim is an elementary school principal’s terror-driven reign. They said Jennifer Jones-Rogers of P.S. 29 has wrongfully placed a handful of students in special education classes without notifying parents. Critics also say the administrator’s “hostile environment” has driven away droves of teachers and has caused parents to pull their kids from the school. “It is a shame that one person can do so much harm,” said parent Linda Briones, who has since transferred her child out of the school....Educators say she has not provided a copy of the school’s budget to the United Federation of Teachers chapter president for the past two years as required.
Queens Courier -- MORE

South Bx School posted. Check out those comments.

Rally and Presser On August 1 For Removal of Jennifer Rogers, Principal at PS 29 in Queens

Jennifer Rogers, probably one of the least qualified people ever to hold the job of principal, is totally

in over her head and unqualified. Her job, which in all probability got do to her connections of her mother, Carolyn Jones (and the Leadership Academy) former principal at PS 23 in District 10 in the Bronx.

But as with being a principal in NYC, one can do anything short of murder and still retain their position. Or just read the comments here.

The students are afraid of her, the parents are afraid of her, the community is afraid of her, and so are the teachers (except the sycophants).

More

Network for Public Education Update: Tony Bennett Left His Heart in Tallahassee

Lots of good stuff in this update on Tony Bennett, the Chicago Teachers Union protest against ALEC on Aug. 8 (darn, we're not getting into town until the 9th), and Diane Ravitch's new book.

Volume 1, Issue: #17 August 1, 2013 Inside NPE News Bennett Announces Resignation in Florida ALEC Wants to Privatize Our Schools InBloom Threatens Students' Privacy Rights Welcome to Our New Board Members! News About Diane's Upcoming Book Tour Tell NPE Your Story It's summer, the perfect time to reflect on your school year experiences. Send your story to us at networkforpubliceducation @gmail.com and you could appear in our next newsletter! Greetings! Welcome to August, and welcome to the seventeenth edition of our newsletter. This week we offer you multiple opportunities to fight for our schools in your own hometown. You can protest privatization of Chicago schools on August 8th and fight for students' right to privacy around the country. Additionally, we are excited to announce some of the upcoming dates and locations of Diane's book tour! Read it all here! And like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and JOIN US at our website. Bennett Announces Resignation in Florida Tony Bennett to Resign Amid Accusations of Grade-Changing Tony Bennett, head of Florida's schools, joins a long line of "corporate reformers" facing allegations of unethical and politically-motivated conduct regarding school leadership. This morning, Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett announced his resignation. The announcement comes just four days after the Associated Press published e-mails found from Bennett's time as Indiana School Superintendent which revealed that Bennett had secretly altered the way in which schools were graded in order to reward his political supporters. Bennett's changes specifically affected the ratings of charter schools such as Christel House, which Bennett claimed was being unfairly rated under the previous grading system. Despite Bennett's denials of allegations against him, many of his own staff contradicted his denials. Bennett's resignation comes at a time when many supporters of data-driven corporate reform are finding themselves involved in similar scandals. A piece written this week by Bruce Baker of School Finance 101 claims that rather than referring to corporate reform, we should look at corporate reform for what it truly is: "FAILED corporate management strategy - often hastily adopted in a moment of leadership desperation - and rarely if ever achieving the desire turn around."  On the flip side, this week we have also seen the punishments facing those in the education community who refuse to perpetuate this "corporate management strategy." In the case of John Barge, Georgia's Education Commissioner, the U.S. Department of Education is withholding funds from the state because Barge will not impose the sort of scandalous strategies that many others are instituting. According to Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, the DOE is harming Georgia's schools because Barge refuses to create "a statistically invalid and wasteful teacher evaluation system." To read more about these and other stories, we invite you to visit some of this week's News Briefs on our website.  ALEC Wants to Privatize Our Schools   Join the Chicago Teachers' Union in protesting ALEC August 8th Help expose ALEC through protest on August 8th. On August 8th, the Chicago Teachers Union will be leading a protest against the American Legislative Exchange Council. The CTU estimates that ALEC has helped create hundreds of policies that aim to protect corporations and ultimately harm middle class families. In 2013 alone, ALEC supported 139 bills for privatizing public education and 104 bills that diminish public sector unions and collective bargaining. Hundreds of ALEC's proposed bills have been turned into legislation through the wealth and influence of Charles and David Koch. Through ALEC, the Kochs have been able to turn their free-market fundamentalism into legislation in every state in the country.  The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 40th Anniversary Conference will be taking place in Chicago August 7-9. The conference is being held at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, 17 East Monroe, Chicago, IL 60603. The CTU will protest outside the conference on August 8th at noon, and invites all friends of public education to join them. To sign up for the protest, please click here. For more information on the corporations and legislation supported by ALEC, please visit ALECexposed.org. We also invite you to read Diane's blog posts about ALEC. InBloom Threatens Students' Privacy Rights   Are corporately-backed organizations stealing kids' privacy? For more information concerning how your student's privacy might be in danger, please visit classsizematters.org. Over the past few months, tensions have been building concerning InBloom, an organization that collects information about students around the country in order to create methods of personalized education. InBloom claims on its website that        "[s]tudent data privacy is a top priority" of theirs. However, parents strongly disagree. After protests led by parents across the nation, four of the nine original states sharing information with inBloom are no longer doing so, while another two are reconsidering the choice.  One state, New York, has played a large role in the fight over students' privacy rights. New York is currently the only state that allows inBloom complete access to student data in all public and charter school systems statewide. Enraged New York parents have been protesting this practice for months, particularly the fact that the schools do not require any parental consent in order for student data to be offered to invasive corporations such as inBloom.  For more on this issue, we encourage you to read: "NYC Parent Sounds Alarm on Student Privacy" published on Schoolbook  "FAQ on inBloom Inc" written by Leonie Haimson "Is InBloom Enthusiasm Inspired by Gates Grants?" by Anthony Cody Join Us in Welcoming New Board Members  The Network for Public Education receives four new board members New Board members (from upper-left, clockwise): Colleen Doherty Wood, Bertis Downs, Sonya Douglass Horsford, and Mark B. Miller. We are pleased to welcome four new members to the NPE Board of Directors! These new members have dedicated their lives to public education. They share the values and vision of NPE, and will bring great experience to our ever-growing Network.     Diane announced the additions to the Board earlier this week, saying that the new members "will be a great resource for the important work of the Network for Public Education. Each of them has unique talents. We go forward with them on our team, determined to strengthen public education." The four new members are: Colleen Doherty Wood; Sonya Douglass Horsford; Bertis Downs; and Mark B. Miller. We invite you to learn more about our new members in this week's press release.  News About Diane's Upcoming Book Tour You can now look on our website to see if Diane will be visiting your town Today is officially August, which means that Diane will be on her book tour next month! She will be traveling around the country speaking about public education in relation to her new book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. The book examines the actions taken by the Bush and Obama administrations to privatize public education and discusses how these policies can be altered to promote public schools.  Now, you can visit our website to keep track of the cities that Diane will visit along the way! Diane's first visit will be in Illinois on September 10th, followed by stops in Colorado, Washington, and closing September with visits to various parts of California. We invite you to take a look at our website, where we will be posting new locations and information about the book tour as they develop.  Watch for Diane's new book, coming out this autumn! Tell NPE  Your Story NPE wants to hear from you! We would like to publish real stories about the effects of misguided school reforms on our Friends & Allies. Please share this and send responses to networkforpubliceducation@gmail.com. Please forward this newsletter far and wide!  In solidarity, The Network For Public Education

NYC Supervisor: Barbara Morgan is getting what she deserves

I said "Ms. Morgan you work for the DOE what the hell are you doing here defending [Moskwitz]?! She steals money from our public schools by opening non-unionized charter schools which profit off our kids." ... NYC Principal

Oops! Did it again. Don't open your twitter.

This just in from a school principal in response to our Weiner press chief Barbara Morgan post (Unflappable Weiner Press Spokesperson Barbara Morgan Flaps)

 I was happy to see her get her comeuppance. She is an arrogant, mouthpiece for the neo-liberal deformers (and perverts) she represents.

She got upset that they say she had a thin resume? She never did anything of substance but talk the party line whatever the marching orders – Klein, Cerf, Weiner...

I met her at a rally against Moskowitz. 

I asked Moskowitz:

"How do you justify paying yourself half a million dollars a year to run 3 schools when I am a principal and don't make that and when my sup't has dozens of schools and only makes 170,000?" 

Eva just made a bored annoyed face and then Barbara Morgan who was observing everything runs over, jumps in and says "I will answer that!! She does not take a pension like you and the sup't so it is just another way of looking at compensation." 

I asked her "Why are you answering for her? Who are you?"

She says "I am Barbara Morgan. I work for the DOE Press Office." 

That really pissed me off as I was there as part of a Community Rally AGAINST the unwanted $ucce$$ Charter vultures.

I said "Ms. Morgan you work for the DOE what the hell are you doing here defending her?! She steals money from our public schools by opening non unionized charter schools which profit off our kids."

Look at this crowd-

FROM THIS COMMUNITY, not the twenty folks bussed in from harlem by Eva Moskowitz - 

THEY DONT WANT THE SCHOOL.HERE IN THIS DISTRICT. 

The parents are against it, the unions are against it and most importantly the CEC is against it. 

I asked Ms Moskowitz a question and you jump to her defense. 

Why would you do that as a n employee of the DOE? Are you here as an apologist for $UCCE$$ ? If so it shows a serious bias in favor of Charter schools over Public Schools which we have been alleging all along. You should be speaking up for me as a NYC PUBLIC SCHOOL principal not this corporate raider/privateer.

Ms Moskowitz walked off during this exchange as she knew full well the City was merely holding the Mandated Community hearing and that the City's decision was predetermined... 

When she was gone Ms Morgan changed faces and says "well I understand that you are a union Rep and I respect that. I am from New Jersey and have a brother who is in a union"...

Two-faced foul-mouthed hypocrite. I don't wish ill on people. Life is too short. But when her brother can't get work or medical benefits he can thank soul-less empty-vessel spokespeople like his sister.

SFA, Scabs for America: How Much Heat Will Chicago Newbie TFAs Be Facing?

...when faux Democrat/ Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fires thousands of teachers and hires TFA grads to teach kids, that's something else altogether. In fact, TFA is now enabling the unemployment of working people. They are making their likely idealistic young college grads into scab labor. Their insane defense, that the jobs were eliminated and they are taking newly created jobs, is nothing more than a semantic game, unworthy of anyone capable of serious discourse. ...NYC Educator:  TFA Becomes Scab for America

SFA. I like it. Has a beat and oh so true. I'm so happy there are people like NYC Educator writing about issues I thought of writing about but was just too lazy. So, as usual, NYC says things in a few words that would take me 10 times as long. Glad this is not paper.

I think Walton Foundation gave another 20 million to SFA in LA and Newark (Walton foundation donates $2 million to Newark Teach For America), in addition to the $3 mil Randi Weingarten pal Bill Gates gave  to our pals at E4E, a branch of Scabs for America.

I am wondering how the laid off teachers of Chicago who will not have new jobs, will react. I know these SFAs will be new members of the Chicago Teachers Union so the CTU itself is in an awkward position, but will wildcat groups of laid-off teachers and the parents and communities that support them target these 5-week trained teachers in the communities where they teach with an information campaign asking if their kids are better off with teachers with scant training while their former veteran teachers are on the unemployment line.

---------
On another TFA front, Leonie Haimson takes them to task for putting their barely-trained teachers in so many special ed classrooms, where the most difficult kids to teach are located.

NYC Public School Parents

The biggest scandal of Teach for America?

There has been much discussion and debate about how Teach for America undermines our public schools by encouraging the deprofessionalization of the teaching force, and “perpetuates systemic inequalities” especially in urban schools. In many districts, TFA has used its political clout to get its recruits hired, as in Chicago, while thousands of experienced teachers are being laid off.  Gary Rubinstein, a former TFA corps member, has been a fierce critic of the inadequate training that the organization provides.  Edushyster recently wrote that the TFA has become a primarily a “placement agency” to staff charter schools rather than public schools – and in the process is fueling the privatization movement.  

All the above is true; but in my mind, the most shocking aspect of the organization is how in many districts, including NYC, raw TFA recruits are assigned to special education classrooms almost exclusively --because this is the biggest shortage area.  See the recent Independent Budget Office report  on p. 24 – showing that 80 percent of TFA recruits in NYC public schools in 2010-11 were working as special education teachers; and 68 percent of Teaching Fellows (a similar program for mid-career recruits, run by TNTP).

That to me is the biggest scandal.  Instead of doing something to stanch the outflow of special education teachers assigned to those children who clearly need teachers with the MOST training and experience,  TFA and TNTP fill in the gap, year after year, with the least-trained recruits, who only stay one or two years and perpetuate the problem.

Read more: The biggest scandal of Teach for America?

------
Chicago teacher Katie Osgood has been hammering TFA and her letter to new recruits got a lot of play. Here is her follow-up at Schools Matter/The Chalkface

Why My Students Do Not Need Teach for America

July 24, 2013 By Katie Osgood 

Wow, there has been such a flurry of stories and discussions in regards to Teach for America and its destructive role in education today.  I suppose my letter to new recruits played an important part in calling into question this organization, striking a chord of truth.  TFA has gone into full-time PR mode with a blur of speeches and blogs from the co-CEOs, puff pieces from TFA alums, and even a Q&A from TFA Chicago’s Executive Director.  I am glad this dangerous organization is finally getting real scrutiny, and I have much more to add to the discussion at a later date, but today I want to speak from the heart.

More at: http://atthechalkface.com/2013/07/24/why-my-students-do-not-need-teach-for-america/

Well, that's it for TFA bashing today. On the positive front, a 4 year TFAer who has begun to attend MORE events said at our meeting yesterday, "I've been looking for a group like MORE for 4 years." Hey, TFA, keep recruiting sharp people like her who, even though a minority of teachers who will stay in the classroom, will find their way to MORE and help us build.

E4E Gets Another $3 million from Gates Foundation

They just got $3M more from Gates

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2013/07/OPP1089892

Great news for NYC teachers. Now you can invite E4E to buy your school lunch and order caviar.

Date: July 2013
Purpose: to support teachers to be leaders in policy development and implementation.
Amount: $3,000,695
Term: 36
Topic: College-Ready
Regions Served: GLOBAL|NORTH AMERICA
Program: United States
Grantee Location: New York, New York
Grantee Website: http://www.educators4excellence.org

Unflappable Weiner Press Spokesperson Barbara Morgan Flaps

Back in the summer of 2009 I first met Barbara Morgan at a rally at PS 123 in Harlem protesting the Eva invasion. She introduced herself claiming she was an ed notes reader. She was working at the NYCDOE for Joel Klein chief flack David Cantor. At one point I offered her (and David) jobs representing Ed Notes so they could get the sleaze of repping for Klein off (or most of it.)

After repping Klein, Chris Cerf, and Corrie Booker, Barbara just might have been better off at Ed Notes. (I pay in cookies.)

She was my favorite Tweedie, always friendly and calm no matter how heated things became. She was at so many meetings that I videotaped you'd think she was really on my staff. I loved how the numerous Klein flacks twitted around at meetings massaging the ed press (except me) -- and how massage-able they seemed to be. Barbara was one of the best masseuses.

Now she is all over the local and national news. Oy!

Read her rant.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/top-weiner-aide-trashes-intern.php

She went ballistic -- not it seems over the internal stuff the intern leaked – but over the attack on her for having a thin resume. Klein, Booker, Cerf, Weiner  -- maybe not thin but certainly slimy.

Of course, Barbara is a PR person and her own PR is the most important thing, so the attack on her by the intern cut deepest. But some commented that she was doing a great job in a very difficult situation. Now she may be toast, not just as Weiner's press chief but her career will take a serious hit. But not to worry. Barbara has backers in high places. My suggestion: she use them to get her a job teaching 3rd grade in the South Bronx.

I'm thinking of tweeting her a pic of my junk.

I'm pretty sure she won't be upset.

Principal From Hell Jennifer Rogers: Parents Call for Her Ouster at Press Conf Aug. 1, 11AM

 
Press Conference
Aug 1st
11 am
PS 29
125-10  23rd Ave
College Point

Principal : Jennifer Rogers

What Next From FOX? Challenging a Jew for Daring to Write About Jesus?

“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms. Green asked..... FOX News

readers of a fundamentalist/Evangelical persuasion are furious that a Muslim published a book about Christianity’s origins.”... NY Times

Today's NY Times business section has an interesting article, which in the context of my spending the past month reading Jeremy Scahill's "Dirty Wars" makes some interesting connections run through my brain.

I heard a fascinating hour long interview with Reza Aslan on NPR last week about Jesus the man. Aslan pointed out that Jesus the man was never a God and in fact, coming from a poor working class family, was probably fairly lowbrow and in fact a Jewish fundamentalist radical, which is the way he died. Not a Christian, but one of a long line of Jewish radicals like Marx. Trotsky, et al. Not that he actually said that, but it is great to see fundamentalists -- be they Christian, Jew or Muslim, sweat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/business/media/odd-fox-news-interview-lifts-reza-aslans-biography-on-jesus.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Odd Fox News Interview Lifts Reza Aslan’s Biography on Jesus

By JULIE BOSMAN

Reza Aslan, the author of “Zealot,” a provocative new biography of Jesus, has found an inadvertent ally in generating book publicity: Fox News.

In an interview on Friday that was by turns bizarre and uncomfortable, Lauren Green, a host from “Spirited Debate,” a weekly Fox News webcast, pressed Mr. Aslan on the question of why, as a Muslim, he would choose Jesus as his subject.

“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms. Green asked.

“Well, to be clear,” Mr. Aslan said, his eyebrows lifting up in surprise, “I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.”

The nearly 10-minute video clip quickly entered the Internet bloodstream on Saturday after it was posted on Buzzfeed with the irresistibly clickable headline, “Is This The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done?”

Since then, the Buzzfeed page featuring the video has been viewed nearly four million times. Mr. Aslan quickly amassed an additional 5,000 Twitter followers. On Monday, Random House, Mr. Aslan’s publisher, said the interview had clearly helped the book: in two days, sales increased 35 percent.

On Friday, “Zealot” was in the No. 8 spot on Amazon.com, the nation’s biggest seller of books; by Sunday, it had hit No. 1.

Random House is rushing to meet the surge in demand for the book. On Monday, the publisher ordered 50,000 copies, bringing the total to 150,000 copies in print by the end of the week.

An investigation of the historical Jesus, “Zealot” has been praised by many reviewers since its publication on July 16. In a review in Tablet magazine, Adam Kirsch called “Zealot” a “coherent and often convincing portrait of who Jesus was and what he wanted.”

But some conservative critics have suggested that the book is not a work of scholarship, but merely “an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East,” as John S. Dickerson, an opinion columnist, wrote on FoxNews.com last week.

The reaction to the book has spread to Mr. Aslan’s Amazon page: on The Atlantic Wire, Alexander Nazaryan pointed out that browsing through dozens of one-star reviews on Amazon revealed that “plenty of readers of what seems to be a fundamentalist/Evangelical persuasion are furious that a Muslim published a book about Christianity’s origins.”

The book was already selling steadily before the FoxNews.com interview on Friday. Since the release of “Zealot,” Mr. Aslan has hit the publicity circuit, discussing the book on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “Weekend Edition” on NPR. “Zealot” had its debut at No. 4 on the New York Times print hardcover best-seller list that will appear in print on Aug. 4.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Aslan said that in three weeks of his book tour, he had received an “overwhelmingly positive” response to his work, and that it was anything but an attack on Christianity.

“I hope that people recognize that your faith, as Jesus said, is supposed to be built on a rock, not on sand,” he said. “I guess my message is: Relax.”

Mr. Aslan was born in Iran, moved to the United States with his family as a child and later earned degrees from Santa Clara University, Harvard and the University of Iowa. He is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Book Passage, a bookstore with two outlets in the Bay Area, hosted Mr. Aslan for a signing last week. Karen West, the director of events, said more than 250 people attended it. But the Fox News interview, she said, has exposed the book to consumers who aren’t regular book buyers.

“It’s moved now out of the NPR realm and it’s gotten into the broader culture,” she said.

A spokeswoman for Fox News did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Mr. Aslan said that after reading Mr. Dickerson’s essay on FoxNews.com, he was prepared for a similar line of attack from Ms. Green.

He was so eager to promote the book on Fox News that his publisher tried — in vain — to secure an interview spot on “Fox & Friends,” a morning show.

“I’ll be perfectly honest — I’m thrilled at the response that people have had to the interview,” Mr. Aslan said. “You can’t buy this kind of publicity.”

Perdido Street on Thompson: Political Hack And Walking Conflict Of Interest

After a closer look at Thompson's political record and associations, he is no less a crook and a hack than Quinn herself. And to be honest, I'm not so sure he isn't worse than Quinn. .... RBE

Councilman Jumaane Williams explained mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson‘s race relations speech by musing about his poll numbers among black voters. “I think he originally felt that certain segments of the population were going to go with him automatically. He started looking at polls and seeing that wasn’t happening,” he said. “Thompson’s trying to have it both ways without putting any skin in the game.”

Reality-Based Educator nails it. Remember how the UFT first endorsement in 2001 was one Alan Hevesi?

This is so good I am printing it and adding it to my sandwich for lunch.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Bill Thompson - Political Hack And Walking Conflict Of Interest

With the Anthony Weiner poll plummet made official by yesterday's Quinnipiac poll release (Weiner dropped to fourth in the race; 53% of New Yorkers say he should drop out), I am starting to turn my attention back to the candidate whose policies I can live with who will be most effective at taking on Christine Quinn in a runoff.
The Marist poll from last week and yesterday's Quinnipiac poll release show us that the two candidates with a good chance to make the runoff against Quinn are Bill Thompson, the former NYC comptroller, and Bill de Blasio, the current Public Advocate.

Read it all:  http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/07/bill-thompson-political-hack-and.html

Though many teachers I know favor Liu or even Sal Albanese, the default position will be Thompson or de Blasio, who I don't particularly love either. But if I were voting today that is where my vote would go. Just don't ask me what I think tomorrow.
 

The Little Theater That Could: Rockaway Cafe: The Comeback - Final perfomances this weekend

UPDATED with links:

The press will race to New Jersey to cover anything related to Sandy recovery, but other than the local paper, The Wave, no one outside of Rockaway seems to have noticed the awesome talent demonstrating one of the clearest signs of Rockaway's comeback.

Here are a few numbers from the brilliant choice of music focused on the storm and the recovery using Credence Clearwater Revival, Billy Joel and The Beatles, amongst others. https://vimeo.com/71311581

I was rocking right along at both performances I taped as one of the videographers at the Rockaway Theatre Company - (I even acted on their production of "The Odd Couple" -- no I was not capable of playing Oscar or Felix and luckily had the role with the least amount of lines. ) I'm going back Friday night to tape it again. I never get tired of the work of the RTC and even worked with chief carpenter and set designer Tony Homsey in helping rebuild the stage -- he even let me use the nail gun -- and I didn't kill myself.

Last October they put on a fabulous Simon play, "Brighton Beach Memoirs" which closed the day before Sandy hit the theater so hard it couldn't reopen until last week in a spectacular and moving way. Here is another clip that if you have time this weekend (Fri, Sat at 8 and Sunday at 1) come on down. tickets at: www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org. Or email  me and I'll hold them for you. The best $20 ($15 if a senior) you will spend this weekend. By the way, NYC teachers play a major role at the theater from basically running it to acting and the band consists mostly of NYC teachers. Another clip to whet your appetite.  https://vimeo.com/71167899

And finally, my article for this week's Wave where I hope to do a regular column on the RTC.

Rockaway Theatre Company Update

By Norm Scott

For The Wave, to be published Friday, August 2, 2013

The little theater company that could came roaring back to life over the past two weeks, bringing a good chunk of Rockaway comeback spirit with it with its opening production “Rockaway Café – The Comeback” at its refurbished theater which sustained serious Sandy damage. Susan Hartenstein in last week’s Wave (Hallelujah Rockaway Theatre Company! http://www.rockawave.com/news/2013-07-26/Columnists/From_The_Artists_Studio.html ) captured the spirit of the RTC and its unique Fort Tilden WWII vintage theater. “Rockaway Café is our story,” Hartenstein wrote. “A story told with great humor and poignancy. Cleverly weaving contemporary rock and pop songs and standards with original choreography, and based on an original concept by Susan Jasper and John Gilleece, we are taken from disaster to aftermath to daunting struggles to hard-fought triumphs and exuberant hope for the future. Opening night the waves of emotion and pleasure flowing back and forth between the talented cast and the highly receptive audience and the bonds within those groups were palpable.”

For an all-volunteer operation - from carpentry, set design, costumes, music, acting, dancing, singing, management, creativity – just think of an applicable word and apply to RTC – to not only come back so soon, but to do it with such verve and vigor while also rebuilding the theater is beyond remarkable. And the great band lead by Jeff Arsberger does not get mentioned often enough. They can play at my Bar Mitzvah in my next life anytime. Never forget the amazing local talent we have here in Rockaway and our extension in South Brooklyn where between the areas most performers seem to come from. 

Nancy Re Cregan in a letter last week said, “The show features great "storm" songs like "Umbrella," "Bad Moon Rising," and "Let the River Run" just to name a few. There is also an original version of "I Will Survive" that recaps the strong character of Rockaway, Breezy, and Broad Channel.” The words were written by RTC stalwart Susan Jasper.

Here are links to some video I shot at the Friday and Saturday performances last weekend featuring some of the dynamic talent (young, teen, young adult, adult, and my generation – old.) 

https://vimeo.com/71167899,    https://vimeo.com/71167899.

I dare you to watch them and not come to one of the 3 performances left this weekend: Fri., Sat at 8PM, Sunday at 3PM.

Reserve tickets at: www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org.

Soon after Sunday’s performance, new sets will be built and rehearsals will begin for the next show, Boeing, Boeing, opening September 20.

Andy Borowitz: Weiner Names New Campaign Manager

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—One day after his campaign manager quit, the mayoral candidate Anthony D. Weiner named his penis to the post, telling reporters, “He was already making most of the major decisions, anyway.”

In announcing the new appointment, Mr. Weiner lavished praise upon his penis, calling him “a tough hombre” who “cares about the struggles of ordinary, middle-class New Yorkers.”

More:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/07/weiner-names-new-campaign-manager.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20%28155%29

George Schmidt: Why every Substance reporter should be proud of the work we've done

[We] knew that at the May 22 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, we were going to witness one of the greatest anti-democratic and racist attacks on public schools since Alabama Governor George Wallace declared "segregation now and segregation forever" while trying to block the integration of the public schools of Alabama more than a decade after the Brown decision. Wallace was there along with several other Southern governors -- from Virginia to Texas -- who  were following the same course, but less flamboyantly. Remember: The attacks on desegregation in the Southern schools were also an attack on public education.  ... George Schmidt

I'm inspired just reading this.

There was a time -- 2001-2004 when I hoped Ed Notes could be like Substance but got sidetracked with the formation of ICE. I wonder if I hadn't gone in that direction and just kept developing Ed Notes as an independent ed news source for NYC teachers if that wouldn't have been more valuable an organizing tool. But I do know myself -- I don't have the patience, the organizational ability, the organizing ability, the reportorial skills, and lots more missing --- including the ability to recruit a staff --- that George has had for the past 40 years. So it was done.

A group of 10 MOREs are heading to Chicago in two weeks for a conference. Very much looking forward to seeing and hanging out with George.

July 27, 2013

Colleagues, comrades, friends, and others...

1. REASONS FOR SUBSTANCE PRIDE... As your proud editor, I spent half the night working editing the two great reporting jobs by Marybeth Foley and Susan Zupan that are now on the top of the Home Page at substancenews.net -- and I'm still not finished because I want to add a dozen more photographs to help our readers understand each in context. 

As the summer of 2013 began, just about everyone who had experienced the 2012 - 2013 school year in Chicago was either tired, exhausted or more than "all of the above." We had all achieved a great deal, from the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 through the fights against the school closings. But after CORE won the great victories in the May 17 Chicago Teachers Union election, it was soon clear that the ruling class was not going to lighten up in their struggle to privatize as many of Chicago's real public schools as possible as soon as possible. Virtually all of us knew that at the May 22 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, we were going to witness one of the greatest anti-democratic and racist attacks on public schools since Alabama Governor George Wallace declared "segregation now and segregation forever" while trying to block the integration of the public schools of Alabama more than a decade after the Brown decision. Wallace was there along with several other Southern governors -- from Virginia to Texas -- who  were following the same course, but less flamboyantly. Remember: The attacks on desegregation in the Southern schools were also an attack on public education. So the hypocritical votes of the six members of the Chicago Board of Education at the May 22 meeting to close 49 schools and "co-locate," "turnaround," and screw more than a dozen others (while simultaneously adding more to the charter schools) was no surprise. 

At the same time, we began hearing from people in Connecticut after a court there ruled that Paul Vallas didn't have the credentials to be a school superintendent in that state. And that's what I want to remind us of today...

2. SUBSART AS A 'FIRST ROUGH DRAFT OF HISTORY.' One of the reasons why it has become so important for those of us who report for Substance to do our jobs quickly, thoroughly, and with lots of graphics within a day or two of the event we are reporting (or analyzing) is that we are forced to move on quickly. Tomorrow we have new stories to report. We are covering the most important "beat" in the struggle for democracy and public education in the USA today: Chicago. The integrity of our reporting enables people to go "back" and find information they can't get anywhere else. The Vallas situation is one case in point I'd like to share (again). We began out presence on the Web (at the "old" site, substancenews.com) in early 2002 with our special issue, "The Paul Vallas Hoax" at the time Vallas was trying to get the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Illinois. We were just learning to use the Web, and had to make major revisions in our web site to fully utilize the capacity of the Web to do graphics. We didn't get that capacity until 2007. Since then, we have all learned almost as fast as we need to keep up with the technology. Over time, most of us have mastered digital photography (remember when we used to share those one-use Fuji cameras, and when Kodak was King?) as well as honed our reporting skills. At the same time, I've learned how to edit better, especially how to maximize the "search" tagging for all of our stories. As a result, over time we are contacted more and more as people across the USA (and some from elsewhere on Earth) look for the alternative history of "school reform" in Chicago. The latest is Bridgeport, where the Vallas Hoax is in a new iteration. 

But the key is that every day our reporting, tedious as it may be, brings in the latest chapters. We miss more stories nowadays than we can cover, but that's a tribute to the organizing in Chicago (and elsewhere in some cases). We might have covered more of the dozens of school closing hearings, and recent protests, but we are still covering as much as anyone.

Which brings us to...

3. THE FEDERAL COURT CASE AGAINST SOME OF THE CLOSINGS. The current federal court case against some of the school closings (because they are a violation of the ADA and IDEA) is just the latest in the court cases we have had to cover (or miss) going all the way back to our landmark 1980 case (S.U.B.S. v. Rohter) which established our right to sell Substance in Chicago's public schools. Susan Zupan's coverage of that case was doubtless stressful, but the fact is we are now the only news organization that has complete coverage (to date) of that very very important case. Reading the reporting (and virtually having a front row seat to the testimony, which the reporting "brings alive"), I knew that over time, despite its length, our reports would be central to people's understanding of the case. I had heard from others in addition to Susan that the Board's witnesses were weak and duplicitous, but only after reading the report on Markay Winston's doubletalk did I fully realize what that means. And as you can see from the way I've shared graphics to highlight the history of Winston's ascension to the "cabinet" in Chicago from her Cincinnati roots, we are the only news organization that can tell a story in context as well as with the facts.

4. THE BOARD MEETINGS UNDER RAHM'S REGIME. 
Never underestimate the willingness of tyrants to expand their tyranny. As Marybeth Foley is reporting this month, for the first time I know of, fewer than half the total number of speakers signed up to speak at a monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education actually got to speak. As we've reported, almost exclusively, under David Vitale the Board has worked overtime, and sneakily, to undermine every aspect of public participation. At the same time, they rehearse their talking points and smiles proclaiming over and over and over that they want more "transparency." Etc. BlahBlahBlah... 

Thanks for making this a wonderful summer, despite the nastiness we are organizing against and reporting about...

George Schmidt, Editor   

DON'T GET DISCOURAGED.