Portelos Update: A Para for the Defense, DOE Pulls Race Card, Theresa Europe Sits in to Intimidate Hearing Officer

There was only fear of the administration. YES everyone is in fear of them, not Portelos. .. former Para, IS 49SI.

According to Shenkman, a para - with a high school education - and a parent with 5 kids of her own - is not qualified to make a judgement as to whether someone is a good teacher. What arrogance and elitism. ... Report from Portelos hearing, Dec. 18

I finally was able to attend the 14th day of the Portelos 3020a hearing after missing the last few. Today there will be another and more after the holidays. For DOE lawyers and subsidiaries: ka-ching - At the afternoon session there were 4 DOE lawyers taking part, including Slug in Chief, Theresa Europe, who was there to make sure DOE Legal Slugette, Jordana Shenkman, pulled the race card with vigor (she did). But that was in the afternoon.

I'll do a follow-up about the afternoon testimony where we watched in amusement (and horror) as DOE legal beagle Shenkman pulled the race card on a Portello witness, as they had previously tried to do on Portelos himself - (also pulling the anti-semitic card on him). Shenkman should never be allowed into a China shop.

One thing is clear from these hearings: The absolute incompetence of IS 49 SI principal Linda Hill who everyone at the DOE seems to know is incompetent but is being protected by assaulting Portelos, who once he came under attack struck back with a vengeance. It is that vengeance he is being charged with while they try to bury the attack on him. I'll get more into the weeds in future posts.

A Para for the Defense

First to the morning testimony of a very strong witness for Portelos, a District 75 para (initials CS) at IS 49 who has since transferred to another school, who stood up to every attempt by Shenkman to break her, including an attempt so clumsy we had to hold our sides to keep from laughing out loud.

CS was a management para who followed the children she worked with from class to class through the day (except gym).

On Portelos as a teacher

Worked with him every year. Judgement of him as a teacher – very impressed – always put nice spin on teaching – kids very attentive. He gave Dist. 75 kids extra attention – especially one child with extreme difficulties. The kids were always orderly and listened to him.
Colleague to colleague he was very easy to work with – he once did rocket ships in school yard and included me, making me feel very much part of the lesson.
CC: Was it remarkable to be included by a teacher? CS: Yes [P was different from other teachers in the way he treated paras as equals.]

Shenkman OBJECTIONS and Cross Examination on this point alone:
 - anything you saw a first yr probat tchr do is not relevant (referring to how he treated one special ed child years ago when P was a new teacher). Then this from Shenkman:

JS: Not part of your resp to observe or eval tchrs.

CS: No.

JS: What is your ed degree?

CS: None. HS diploma.
JS: Was it your job to pay attention to special needs students – your job to stay focused on them – get them started with work – [meaning she couldn't know what kind of teacher P was if she was focusing on her job]

CS: I always instructed to help all public school children not just mine.
JS: You saw P one per a day – 8 periods – for 7 per follow assigned student – you didn’t see P teach other 7 periods.

According to Shenkman, a para - with a high school education - and a CS is also a parent with 5 kids of her own - is not qualified to make a judgement as to whether someone is a good teacher. What arrogance and elitism.

Note to Jordana Shenkman: Paraprofessionals are education professionals with the ability to make a judgement as to what good teaching is.

Jordana Shenkman with less qualifications to judge a teacher's competency than CS feels perfectly free to judge Portelos as not competent to teach (as she tried to prove by calling a network curriculum support person who was sent in to do a hit job).


How principal Linda Hill treated the staff
This testimony was so strong on how Linda Hill has run IS 49. (When the hearing is over we will print the transcripts). If a teacher said good morning Hill would not respond. "It was that way from the day I set foot in the school. At first I though it was personal but I was told she treats everyone that way so get over it."

We needed help – kids hitting teachers, wallet stolen –and we can’t report it - teachers crying – fear – always the principal against us – I worked in other schools – administration and teachers always worked together.

When there was a problem did you speak to Hill?

"She was unapproachable – she locked herself in her office all day."

On Portelos as a colleague

Shenkman: Are you aware of people having nervous breakdowns over fear of P or crying in hall? People filing police reports for fear of P? 

CS: NO.

JS: You weren’t aware in fear of P stalking or following them? 

CS: There was only fear of the administration. YES everyone is in fear of them not Portelos.

On the April 2011 meeting where Portelos first spoke up about the safety issue:

CS: I wasn't at the meeting but the school was buzzing.
Did u hear what P did? He stood up and said things about security and safety of building? I said to him you are so young and naive – I knew there would be retaliation.
P told me – what do u mean? I spoke the truth.
But you opened can of worms – everyone should be backing you. I was very concerned he was going to be a target. He led everyone to be able to say something.

This was April 2011, 6 months before things began to blow up. And when they did in January 2012,

CS: I spoke to R(another para) – this is all because P spoke up at that (April 2011) meeting.

There's more to this testimony where Shenkman made an outrageous attempt to discredit CS, an attempt crude and truly disgusting. And how her D. 75 admins backed her all the way. Best to do that in a separate post.

And then there is the afternoon disgusting stuff where the hearing officer, maybe hoping to impress Theresa Europe, made an outrageous decision to allow a racist neo-Nazi publication that intentionally misquoted a Portelos witness into official evidence. Portelos lawyer Chris Callegy is usually a cool customer but in this case he was livid.

READ Portelos' latest post on his blog (he is gagged from commenting on the hearings until they end):

DOE’s Digital Duct Tape

Teacher Protest Over Naming College Office for Walcott

It's hugely disappointing that administration has unilaterally decided to pay tribute to a man who has worked tirelessly to make our jobs less professional, who has vilified us at every turn, who has refused to offer us the compensation he saw fit to give other city employees, and who has supported every baseless corporate reform that has come down the pike while he occupied this office.....Arthur Goldstein, UFT Chapter Leader, Francis Lewis High School

Suck-up deal done without consultation. Two well-known bloggers involved in the school object. Frankly, after watching the 3 Bloomberg Chancellors in action, I would rather see something named for the Cathie Black who did the least harm.

NYC Educator has the scoop (Read some great comments there too.)

As does former FLHS teacher Pissed Off who suggests a better name for the office: Jeff Spielvogel College Office

I think I went to high school (and maybe grade school) with Jeff Spielvogel who had a very distinctive voice that comes back to me even 50 years later. Sadly, I believe he is no longer alive (but if you know differently let me know).

Klein Klone Kami Gets Pushback Over Attack on Public Education in Newark

Cami Anderson, the new Michelle Rhee, is trying to pull off massive destruction of Newark public school system. Is Anderson real or just a marionette whose strings are being pulled by ed deformers behind a curtain?

From NEW Caucus:

ESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY AT WEEQUAHIC HIGH SCHOOL!

-  Fight School Closings/Renews/Charters

-  11am, Weequahic High School, 279 Chancellor Ave., Newark, 07112.

We know most of you will be in school working hard, but if not, please join the education workers and community to defend historic Weequahic High.

In Solidarity,

Newark Education Workers Caucus

(NEW Caucus)

And the Star Ledger:

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2013/12/baraka_community_leaders_to_rally_in_protest_of_newark_school_closings.html

Baraka, community leaders to rally in protest of Newark school closings

By David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger

on December 19, 2013 at 2:20 PM, updated December 19, 2013 at 4:19 PM

Newark Mayoral Candidate Ras Baraka is organizing a rally to protest changes to Newark schools announced this week.Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger 

NEWRK — Newark mayoral candidate and South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka is heading up a rally Friday morning to protest a major overhaul of Newark public schools announced this week by Superintendent Cami Anderson.

The plan, which met with a raucous reception at a school board meeting this week, would increase the presence of charter schools by expanding them into district-owned buildings.

Anderson plans to convert three elementary schools into early childhood centers, relocate five schools to under-utilized facilities and transform three comprehensive high schools into smaller academies. The goal, Anderson said, is to improve local options for all residents.

"You should have options for great schools in your neighborhood or ward," Anderson said this week. "How do we get to that day faster and in every ward? We're jump-starting change."
But community members in the state-run district routinely accuse Anderson of shuttering neighborhood schools in order to expand charters.
"Baraka will discuss how the plan will further damage Newark’s public and charter schools with an onslaught of unproven “reforms” that violate charter school guidelines and practices, close traditional public schools, and virtually eliminate parental involvement," read a statement from the Baraka campaign.

The rally will be held in front of Weequahic High School — one of the schools set to be eliminated and remade as two single-sex academies — Friday at 11 a.m.

RELATED COVERAGE

• Newark school restructuring includes plans to put charters in district buildings

Howard Schwach on John King Visit to Long Island and Parents' Objection to inBloom

Good to see my old editor at The Wave still battling the forces of evil.

By Howard Schwach

12/17/13

http://liherald.com/valleystream/stories/State-school-boards-say-no-to-InBloom,51762

A survey of more than 600 school board members across New York state found that 75 percent overwhelmingly oppose the education department’s plan to provide student data to a third-party vendor, according to the New York State School Board Association.

The poll also found that 78 percent of the school board members believe that parents should be able to opt out of having the educational and developmental records of their children shared with InBloom, a data storage company that has a contract with the State Education Department to collect student information such as names, addresses, disability, grades, standardized test scores, attendance, disabilities, psychological testing results and suspensions. Thirteen percent say they approve of sharing the information while 11 percent indicated that they were not sure.
“The majority of school board members who responded to our poll do not want the education department to share student data with InBloom,” said Timothy Kramer, the organization’s executive director. “Obviously, we have serious concerns about the security of the student data, how it will be used, and whether the collection of data will be useful to school districts around the state.”
New York State Education Commissioner John King got a loud laugh from the mostly-hostile crowd at Mineola High School on Nov. 13 when he admitted that the new data site being rolled out by the state and several non-profits —called InBloom — was as secure as they could make it, but there was never a guarantee that online data couldn’t be hacked.
“Tell that to the national security agency,” one man yelled out, referring to the breach in the super-secret agencies data last year.
One participant took up the question head on, asking King if she could opt-out of the program for her elementary school student.
“I am concerned about protecting the privacy of my student,” she said. “As he is a minor, I should be the one to decide which information about him goes into the cloud and which does not.”
King told her that the state needed the information to make decisions and that federal law required that the state collect that information.
"There can be no opt-out because we are required to aggregate that information,” he told the parent, assuring her that it would be kept safe, and never given or sold to a for-profit corporation or other entity.
Our goal is to protect our students, but to provide the same information available now in richer districts to poorer districts as well,” he said, drawing boos from the audience. “Some districts now have teacher portals and parent portals. Some districts can’t afford that, but now the state will be providing that for everyone in a cost-effective, yet secure way.”
“Whatever you put in there about my son will be there forever,” the parent said. “Will it be used someday for college entrance, or by prospective employees? You’re turning over my child’s private information to a corporation, albeit a non-profit. Nobody can tell me that any data that’s online or in a cloud can’t be mined by somebody with good computer skills.”
Another parent who had apparently gone to InBloom’s website, read the site’s disclaimer to the commissioner, pointing out that the company said in that disclaimer that it could not be held responsible for any information that leaks from the site
“I don’t want platitudes from you about security,” she yelled at King. “I want my child’s information withheld from the cloud, or I and others will file a lawsuit to keep you from putting it there.”
“We’ll do everything possible to keep it secure,” King answered to loud boos and catcalls.
Digitizing student data, which ranges from test scores to statistics on absenteeism from special education placements (and their attendant psychological evaluations) to disciplinary information, which the Education Department wants to eventually make available to parents through local school system online “dashboards” is funded, at least in the beginning, largely through federal funding as part of the Race to the Top Program.
But along the way, lots of questions cropped up about the protection of the data and on Wednesday the curiosity turned to outright ire against the Atlanta-based grant-funded non-profit firm that is organizing and maintaining the data. “Our ability to protect our privacy has not caught up with the mechanisms we use to collect and store data,” added Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, who earlier told a state hearing that it was “outrageous” for state education officials to suggest school districts couldn’t operate without the data program. O’Donnell has proposed an opt-in bill.
State Sen. John Flanagan, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said that he was going to propose legislation early next year to create a “Parent’s Bill of Rights” in regard to student’s privacy and their school data. There would be an opt-out provision, penalties for privacy violations and a new “chief privacy officer” within the state education department who would be tasked with keeping student data secure from unauthorized third parties.
Flanagan called last week for a year’s delay in implementing the state plan.
“I think we need to take a step back,” he said. “The public I would say, at this point, is beyond frustrated.”
Education department spokesman Jonathan Burman defended the plan, saying that the state agency already supports measures that insure security of the information in the database. ices to parents or school staff.

More on de Blasio Chicago-based Consulting

A follow-up to our piece yesterday: DeBlasio Shadow Transition Includes Advice from Rahm Emanuel

RBE at Perdido:

De Blasio Uses Ed Deformer-Tied Consulting Group For Transition Team

That story that Dana Rubenstein broke at Capital NY about Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio using a Bloomberg-funded consultant group suggested by Rahm Emanuel to run his transition team in secret just gets worse and worse:

Read the comments.
And also Julie Fain from Chicago:

I'm sure it's redundant for me to chime in that these folks are bad news. But given the hell we went through in Chicago with the 50-school-closing binge this year taken word-for-word out of a Broad handbook, these are hired guns who have plenty of experience being on the wrong side of ed reform. 

Julie Fain (from Chicago)

Consultant Avani Patel, left, talks with mayoral adviser Desiree Tate after a school utilization meeting. (Armando L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune)

The panel appointed to give the public a voice on Chicago school closings is being advised by experts with political and financial ties to City Hall, fueling questions about its independence from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration.

The head of the school commission, former ComEd CEO Frank Clark, has promised his panel will make its own decisions without regard to the wishes of the mayor. At the same time, Clark has sought help from a platoon of public relations and education consultants with a stake in the school debate.

The commission's hearings are being organized by public relations executive Desiree Tate, a member of Emanuel's "kitchen Cabinet" of African-American advisers who received more than half a million dollars in contracts from Chicago Public Schools before he became mayor. Tate said she is working for free for the commission.

The commission also is being advised by the Civic Consulting Alliance, which has provided free advice to Emanuel since the start of his administration and has links to an organization pushing to replace the traditional neighborhood schools with privately run charters.

Their involvement follows a pattern in which business professionals with ties to the mayor have often worked behind the scenes to shape the public conversation on controversial plans he is pushing, from schools to his speed-camera program.

The Chicago Teachers Union has criticized the involvement of the consulting alliance, arguing that it is supporting Emanuel's charter school agenda that will close more schools where union teachers work. Union members walked the picket lines in September in part because of fear that Emanuel would radically increase the number of charter schools here.

Last week, CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett faced renewed skepticism after the Tribune reported that a Sept. 10 internal CPS document showed the administration already had discussed how many schools to shutter and in what areas of the city — including a scenario for closing 95 schools and installing charter schools in some CPS buildings.

"Until the engagement process is completed, until the commission finalizes its work by gathering information and recommendations from the community, there will be no list" of schools targeted for closing, Byrd-Bennett said in response to the report.

Clark has likewise declared that there is no predetermined number of schools to be closed, but he refused to answer the Tribune's questions about the role of the consultants vis-a-vis his panel, the Commission on School Utilization.

The consulting alliance is a pro bono government consulting arm of the Commercial Club of Chicago that has worked with the mayor's office and school officials since the days of Emanuel predecessor Richard M. Daley. But the Commercial Club also founded an organization called New Schools for Chicago, which has the expansion of charter schools as its goal.

New Schools President Phyllis Lockett is a former leader of the consulting alliance who still sits on its board; she is credited by New Schools with helping triple the number of charters in Chicago in recent years. The consulting alliance shares a downtown office suite with New Schools.

"New Schools for Chicago and the Civic Consulting Alliance are two distinct and separate organizations, each with their own priorities and governed by their own boards," Lockett said. "New Schools for Chicago is not involved in any way with the Utilization Commission or school actions."

The CEO of the consulting alliance, Brian Fabes, dismissed any suggestion that his group favors charter schools and said New Schools is not a client. "CTU can make whatever connections they decide they want to make," he said.

Fabes characterized his group's assistance as largely logistical — including making photocopies for meetings — although a Tribune reporter recently observed him going over notes from one meeting with Clark before the chairman addressed the media. Fabes said he did not recall that conversation.

"We don't take positions, we don't advocate, we support them in what they want to do," Fabes said of the commission.

Fabes said he has not spoken with the mayor about school closings, despite his group's regular access to the mayor's office.

The alliance was a key player in Emanuel's 2011 transition to office. As part of its role, the group brought in Accenture, one of the world's largest financial consulting firms, to provide free advice to the new administration. The company subsequently received a no-bid contract from the Emanuel administration that pays it a percentage of every dollar saved on other City Hall contracts.

The alliance also has previously helped CPS leaders analyze the teachers union contract and helped recruit another outside consultant to become the CPS chief transformation officer, a position that now oversees the school-closings strategy.

Tate, who has often been at Clark's shoulder during the commission's public hearings, also has a long history with the school district. She has brought in more than $600,000 in school contracts since 2005, much of it through her previous firm, Tate & Associates, according to city records.
She said Clark, a fellow participant in "kitchen Cabinet" meetings with Emanuel, asked her to help out and she agreed to do so for free.

"We're overseeing the messaging," Tate said of her current firm, D&T Communications.
She said she has not spoken with Emanuel about her role and believes her work for the district to hold training sessions for parents on school involvement is what led Clark to bring her into the process. She said that has gone on for 15 years and she expects it to continue.
"He knows I have an independent nature," she said of Clark. "All that work I have done has been to advocate for the parents."
It is not the first time that Emanuel allies have taken an important role in steering the public debate over school controversy.
As tension between the mayor and teachers was building earlier this year, radio ads criticizing the union were produced by John Kupper of AKPD Message and Media, a firm that has been on retainer for Emanuel's campaign committee. Kupper, a key political strategist for Emanuel, declined to discuss his talks with the mayor, and Emanuel said he had no knowledge of the ads before they aired.
In February, when his administration was first pushing for a longer school day and closing some schools, the Tribune identified another Emanuel political ally working quietly in the background. Greg Goldner, who ran Emanuel's successful 2002 bid for Congress, dedicated the skills of his Resolute Consulting firm to write news releases for pastors, produce a video presentation and help plan community events supporting the mayor's agenda.
The Tribune later revealed that Goldner had taken up another controversial cause Emanuel was pushing — automated speed cameras near schools and parks. Goldner was the brains behind a grass-roots coalition that supported cameras, a group that was funded by Chicago's red light camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.
Redflex eventually was disqualified from the speed camera bidding after the Tribune disclosed that the company had failed to report internal corruption allegations stemming from the city's red light program.

DeBlasio Shadow Transition Includes Advice from Rahm Emanuel

I never drank the BDB Kool-Aid and fear that the people of New York, in their determination to kick Bloomberg's ass right out of town, bought themselves a blanker slate than Barack Obama, which I thought physically and politically impossible. .... Comment on MORE listserve on Capital NY article on under the covers DeB consultants

The same consulting group that helped Rahm Emanuel screw the teachers in Chicago is in NYC advising de Blasio.

Civic Consulting USA was suggested to de Blasio's aides during a November meeting between de Blasio and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel's staff suggested that de Blasio's transition team enlist the help of the group, whose mission is to pair government clients with partners in the private and nonprofit sector.

Everyone assumes it will be better under de Blasio than under Bloomberg -- how can it be worse? And when it inevitably goes bad as the Capital NY article below points to, watch the UFT leadership turn tail and say, "We told you so, Thompson would have been better."

The consultant arrangement may come as a surprise to some supporters of de Blasio, who regularly, proudly champions the virtues of public-sector experience. ("I think people who understand government run government best," he told the Times recently.) But the apparent embrace of private-sector expertise is nothing new in New York City. Outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg has routinely talked of the benefits that non-bureaucrats can bring to city governance, and in fact Civic Consulting USA lists Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of its funders.

In the meantime we got some indications (vague, I admit) that the UFT and its fellow-travelers in the astro-turf community tried to drum up a last-ditch Kathy Cashin lobby campaign to forestall what a week ago was a sure-bet Farina appointment as chancellor. From what I can tell, the UFT has a long-term relationship with Cashin from her days as a District 22 (Midwood, Sheepshead Bay) principal, and her days as Dist. 23 (Brownsville) and Region 5 (Dist, 23, 19, 27 - Rockaway, Howard Beach, Woodhaven, etc). Not so much with Farina - Dist. 15 and Region 8.

I'm also betting that the charter school lobby would prefer Cashin over Farina for reasons I am not going to go into now. But given my reservations over both of them -- for very different reasons - which I hope to go into after a choice is made -- don't count on a lot of big changes on issues of big concern to teachers.

De Blasio’s shadow transition

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2013/12/8537450/de-blasios-shadow-transition

Bill de Blasio has two transition teams.

There's the public one, announced in late November. It's a diverse, 60-person assortment of nonprofit leaders, political types, educators, rabbis, Cynthia Nixon. More than half of its members are de Blasio donors.

Back to the Bataan Death March

Well, it's time to get back to the fray. I take a week off and head to Delray Florida for some serious tanning and eating and fraternizing and shit happened while I was gone. Well, I hope you've all been reading the fabulous bloggers on my blog roll to keep up. I am way behind. (I find it real hard to do much blogging while at the beach.) And it was only decent beach weather for the first few days even though it hit in the 80s almost every day. Walking off the plane into 26 degrees? Not fair. The main benefit of the trip was missing the Tisch/King dog and pony show for which Assholes First and Ech4Ech brought out some of their crews.

There were some excellent discussions on many of the listserves about the race card being pulled but also about how many parents of color have legitimate gripes with the public school system.

I would collate some of them and include them here but hell, I'm going to sleep. Gotta get up early tomorrow morning for a dental appointment. And there's nothing like a lazy blogger who leaves all the heavy lifting to the gang on the ednotes blog roll.

Ed Notes Reprint, Nov. 2007: Welch, Tweed, Farina, and Creative Destruction

Thanks to Tim-Parent's comment at Gotham for digging up this ednotes piece from November 14, 2007, with discussion over a 2003 Carmen Farina quote in Businessweek that seemed to support the Jack Welch philosophy. But in 2007 Farina clarifies what she said with this:

Farina's comment posted on the listserve Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007:

"Complacency is not the same as complicity in how to evaluate schools. The problem with the report cards is that they leave out the human touch from evaluation and evaluating the caliber of teaching. I am not for any report that focuses only on grades since most of us know a complete education for our children includes critical thinking, problem solving, humane education and writing skills. None of these are possible with this evaluation. Hopefully parents can see beyond the reports and evaluate for themselves how their own schools are serving their children. The people who are giving greatest credence to these reports are those who do not have children in our schools. My favorite choice for Charlie [grandchild] right now is not an A school but one that strikes the balance of all important issues and respect the development stage of his growth. It is also does not stress test prep. Don't know who is quoting me out of context but feel free to put this quote on blog."

My comment at the time: Now she tells us. Farina was part of the enabling structure that gave Klein cover. In the words of Ricky Ricardo, Farina has a lot of splaining to do.

The entire thread was started by my old pal Julie Woodward (Woodlass) who did the heavy lifting along with the work of Leonie Haimson who makes some great points. Again, a reminder that this is 6 years ago and I'm including the comments.

Welch, Tweed, Farina, and Creative Destruction

A great discussion (started by Woodlass) broke out on the NYC Public School Parent listserve that led to the ideology of "creative destruction" behind much of what Tweed is doing today. A lot of it is laid to former GE chairman, Neutron Jack Welch, who was instrumental in setting the ideoligcal framework of the Principal Academy.

Carmen Farina's name came up because she was quoted in a Business Week article from June 2003. Farina replaced Diana Lam as chief ed mucky muck at Tweed and gave Klein educational cover for creative destruction of the system, but was declared obsolute after her usefullness was over, supposedly being told she didn't have the skill set for the job – which means she spent some time in the classroom. Note how she spoke out [below] about 10 minutes after hearing her name was being bandied about.

Farina's original BW quote from June, 2003:

John Elfrank-Dana Teaches a Lesson About the Life and Death of His School

John does a great job here. I'm looking forward to a Part 2 where he tells us exactly what the UFT did over this time. I'm cross-posting here but if you want to leave a comment go directly to the link at Labors Lessons.

http://laborslessons.blogspot.com/2013/12/murry-bergtraum-high-school-case-study.html

Murry Bergtraum High School - A Case Study for the Mayor Elect

Foreword: What started off as a reply to a member regarding the missing teacher comments from the report cards and their distribution in the middle of the school day- creating much tension and animosity, as expected towards the faculty by several students grew into a blog post. In other words, just another administrative debacle in what is amounting to the most chaotic year in Bergtraum's 30+ year history, and right after its first "F" on the school report card. Or, is it deliberate? 

...I wonder if Principal Almonte did this deliberately (report card debacle)? I can't believe it. I find her actions more and more inexplicable. We were warned in the blogosphere the summer of 2012 that she was coming in as a closer. Notice how she is silent regarding the collocation of a Moskowitz kindergarten coming in Bergtraum, while several other principals speak out against collocations. Were the warnings true? Is she here to put us down?

The solution to collocate the old Bergtraum out of existence, ironically, acknowledges what I have been saying all along - that no school that was sent high academic and social needs kids in large number from half way across town will be successful. So, a breakup/shrink out of Bergtraum can be ONE response to that. Except, in the DoE's plan the teachers play the roll of the fall guy, not its own misguided policies and, perhaps, incompetent/sabotaging school administration (expect a lot of Ineffective ratings this year). 

51 from the faculty and administration, out of about 150, left last year. Most fled by getting jobs elsewhere, hastened retirements... The large number of teachers excessed by the principal in June was never approved by the network, and therefore, never official. No attempt was made by the administration to update these teachers- hence many were surprised when they learned in August they were never in excess. Is the principal's goal another 50 to leave this year?  

Look at the action steps from the Manhattan Superintendent's Early Engagement meetings with some staff last month- Inquiry Teams! I could have told her- "Been there done that- the last 7 years." Perhaps it was deduced from the advise of teachers new to the school this year- several attended these sessions. Or, is it that she knows the plan is to phase the school out? My reference to the issue of trust in principal's competence and veracity (painfully revealed in the LE Survey of last year and our own in-house survey this year ) and how no reforms are going to work unless that issue is resolved apparently fell on deaf ears with the superintendent. We got an "F" for security as well. There too, the Department of Education sees no need for change... Stay the course! Sorry to sound so conspiratorial. However, when information is not shared with us, when there's no other explanation than this is deliberate mismanagement that connects all the dots- where does that leave you? Remember, the backdrop is the mayor's statement that he'd fire half of the teaching force if he had his druthers. Add to that the great union busting effect of shrinking large schools - many new small schools have no UFT chapter, and it makes sense for the agenda of the Moskowitz' and other privatizers.

Meanwhile a program that was working - Freshman Academy, and a highly functional department, social studies, were decimated this year. The leaders of the academy and department fled the school- chased out by the principal. Why would what works (at least works better than anything comparable in the school) be deliberately undermined by the school administration? 

The high need students should have good community high schools close enough to home so that social workers and attendance teachers could make visits to several students' homes a day (see details in SchoolBook article). Also, that parents can easily come to parent association meetings and  to the parent/teacher conferences. The school has been a ghost town on these occasions. If a student is strong enough socially and academically, let them commute to school. Bergtraum could be a good neighborhood school serving Smith and Rutgers houses as well as the Lower East Side and Tribeca area.  You'd have a diverse student population with plenty of 3s and 4s (higher level students) to balance out the others, as well as no one racial group dominating the population. 

Where were the Bergtraums during the 10 year dismantling/sabotaging of their school? Silent and even rubber stamping the closure of schools and collocation of Moskowitz here on the Panel for Educational Policy. Murry Bergtraum was a union man from what we were always told. Now, Judy Bergtraum, a Bloomberg appointee to the PEP has voted for the collocation of the union-busting Eva Moskowitz in the school that bears her father's name. 

The onslaught on the UFT members of the school continues unabated. If Principal Almonte believes that an F school cannot have Effective teachers, you will see an inordinate number of Ineffective ratings of teachers under a tunnel vision application of the Danielson rubric. Combine it with the programming chaos this year and its discontinuity for student and teacher programs. The result is guaranteeing failing grades on tests used as part of the teacher evaluation when compared to more functional peer schools. Furthermore, it assumes the faulty premise that teachers have the lion's share of responsibility for student success ignore much research that the home accounts for four times or more impact on student success than teacher quality. But, studies be damned- we are told time and again "instruction is the problem here". Of course, it can and always should be improved. But, we will not be scapegoated for failed DoE policies that account for the systemic setup for failure at the school.

The lessons for a mayor elect intent of changing the course of educational reform are the following: 

Community Schools: The needier the student population, the closer physically families need to be to the school.  

Genuine Collaboration: Trust is a prerequisite for collaboration between the school's leadership and staff and is essential for the implementation of reform. Give School Leadership Teams real power over school budgets. C-30 hiring committees made up of school stakeholders that select administrators the final word instead of just a recommendation. 

School Democracy: Only transparency and shared decision making can produce such trust. The finger of accountability runs up the chain of command, not down. Dictator principals, a hallmark of Bloomberg/Klein ed policy, need to be sent packing. 

Leadership Responsibility: School leaders need to adopt the Harry Truman model- "The buck stops here." Our principal confuses passing the buck for "empowerment" of her staff. She took no responsibility for the school's programming debacle.

Leadership that Walks the Walk: We call repeatedly for our principal and assistant principals to teach a class of their own so they can lead by example; show us what Effective teaching looks like. No dice in the new technocratic Danielson rubric interpretation system. The principal explained all the administrators' time is now spent becoming experts as evaluators. I call them Compliance Clerks, not educators. 

If Bergtraum High School is to die Mr. Mayor Elect, don't let it die in vain. Instead, understand what really happened here. If Bergtraum will be resurrected in a new way while embodying the spirit of excellence it once had, come talk to us, the students, parents and teachers about how that can happen. All we ask is that you give us a real chance at success. 

Change the Stakes end of year meeting - Tuesday 12/17, 5:30

Join what promises to be a lively discussion about the issues and how we – as parents, teachers and students – can respond individually and collectively.....Change the Stakes

Press Conference re: City Council Resolution on High-Stakes Testing - On December 9th, Change the Stakes participated in a press conference held on the steps of City Hall in support of Resolution 1394, which calls for high-st...

And people are going out to eat Korean food after the meeting. A chat 'n chew evening. This is my favorite group because it is real grassroots organizing - parents who came out to get involved due to the impact of high stakes testing on their kids and their kids' schools.

Please join us this coming Tuesday as we discuss the abundance of recent events and plan for the remainder of this school year and beyond. All are welcome. Please consider sharing with those who would benefit from this event and posting the attached flier.

Tuesday, December 17th @ 5:30 PM
CUNY Graduate Center, 5th Ave between 34th and 35th streets, Room 5414

*Please bring photo ID to enter building


What is happening here?

Chancellor Tisch and Commissioner King are not listening to parents and teachers who see through the smoke and mirrors of their state education policies. During their visits to NYC and elsewhere, they have made it abundantly clear that despite widespread criticism, they have no plans of reducing the stakes their agenda imposes on students, teachers and schools. In Chancellor Tisch’s words, they are considering only “tweaks” to their agenda, despite the fact that it subjects public school children to unprecedented experimentation. They clearly plan to continue to bulldoze ahead with high-stakes testing and privacy-violating data collection, despite a very loud outcry from public school parents across NYS.

What can we do?

Change the Stakes will host a discussion about how these policies are playing out in your particular school with your children and teachers. Following this discussion, we will develop a wide-ranging action plan with the goal of empowering all stakeholders who have been affected by current education “reforms,” as we continue to build the movement to end high-stakes testing and support ALL public education students. Because every school is different and every child is unique, we encourage you to come and share your stories!

Join what promises to be a lively discussion about the issues and how we – as parents, teachers and students – can respond individually and collectively.

Susan's Saturday Morning Special

The weekly weekend reading list from Susan Ohanian.

We have a few new cartoons:

Classic New Yorker Cover Using Apple Maps app
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=861

http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=860
Buy! Buy! Buy! Reading Comprehension Activity for ESL Students

One of the Great Openings in Literature
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=859

Future Worker in the Global Economy
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=858

Listen to Children
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=857

Preparing tomorrow's critical thinkers for corporate America
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=856

Greedy
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=988

Note to Control Freaks
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=986

 I've tried to choose news items and commentaries that matter today and will still matter a year from now.

Susan

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Little learners need better curriculum
Michael Petrilli with Ohanian Comment
New York Daily News
2013-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=639

Petrilli delivers the joke of the week: the state of New York, under Commissioner John King, has developed a wonderful content-rich curriculum, aligned with the new Common Core standards

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Data Flood Outpaces Ethics
Paul Basken
Chronicle of Higher Education
2013-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=530

It's good to see comment and concern about the ethics associated with the flood of medical-research data. Schools need to start connecting these two words: ethics and data.

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A critique of Common Core math standards
Valerie Strauss and Michael Goldenberg
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2013-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=638

Michael Goldenberg speaks to the importance of mathematics education that is not geared to those who will take advanced math in college.

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The Exaggeration of Exceptional Children
Nathan Heller with Ohanian comments

2013-12-09
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=637

This book is about having exceptional children. As the author points out, having exceptional children exaggerates parental tendencies; those who would be bad parents become awful parents, but those who would be good parents often become extraordinary. I suspect that what's true for parents is also true for teachers.

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Children Giving Clues
Susan Ohanian

2013-12-07
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1142

The issue is not how to parse out fiction and
nonfiction. The issue is in a democracy is Who
decides?


'Refuse all cooperation with the heart's death.'

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Give Teachers Some Time
 Susan McWethy

2013-12-04
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1141

A Georgia librarian speaks out.

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Holiday by the Numbers--Reading Comprehension Quiz
Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1748

I'm just steamed by a wretched reading comprehension activity based on holiday spending.

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Educational Publisher’s Charity, Accused of Seeking Profits, Will Pay Millions
Javier C. Hernandez
New York Times
2013-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1747

The Pearson Foundation, so-called charitable arm  of the corporation, gets fined for 'assisting in for-profit ventures.'

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More parents want their children to skip CT standardized tests
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
CT Mirror: Political Mirror
2013-12-11
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1746

I don't believe Connecticut parents will allow themselves to be bullied by the State.

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‘Revolving Door’ Between SD Unified, Contractors Still Open Despite Warnings
Will Carless
Voice of San Diego
2013-12-11
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1745

The Common Core requires truckloads of expenditures to get schools online with technological capability. Truckloads of money involved

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Invisible Child: Girl in the Shadows: Disani's Homeless Life
Andrea Elliott with Ohanian Comment
New York Times
2013-12-08
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1744

One in five American children is now living in poverty, giving the United States the highest child poverty rate of any developed nation except for Romania, and here is close-up portrait of one, a remarkable child named Disani.

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Paul Krugman column 'Obama Gets Real,' misses boat by ignoring failed ed deform factor
Paul Krugman with Norm Scott commentary
 Ed Notes Online & New York Times
2013-12-06
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1743

A longtime New York teacher explains why President Obama--and Paul Krugman--are wrong.

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'PISA Day'--An Ideological and Hyperventilated Exercise
Richard Rothstein and Martin Carnoy
Economic Policy Institute blog
2013-12-01
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=540

The US Department of Education gives an advance look at the PISA scores to outfits like the Business Roundtable--but not to EPI.  Our tax dollars at work.


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Streets For America
Dave Eggers
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.php?id=904

Here's a program. based on a senior thesis at Harvard,  designed to reinvigorate America's police force.
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Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

Norm in The Wave: On Poverty, Education, Labor: Is Obama Really a Liberal?

A total (much-needed) rewrite of a blog post I did on a Paul Krugman column with some expanded political points.

Published Friday, December 13, 2013 in The Wave and at www.rockawave.com

On Poverty, Education, Labor: Is Obama Really a Liberal?
By Norm Scott

As a lefty/progressive (don’t dare call me a liberal), family events like Thanksgiving with a mostly conservative/tea party family can be either enervating or energizing, depending on who ends up with a bowl of cranberry sauce on his head. Obama is a major bone of contention with most of the family viewing him as a wild-eyed radical looking to take away their hard-earned money and hand it out on street corners in the poorest neighborhoods. Being an Obama critic from the left, I see him as a promoter of crony capitalism (socialism for the 1%) looking to give away our hard-earned income to his corporate and wealthy supporters.

One of my favorite NY Times columnists, Paul Krugman, touched on this issue in his December 6th column, "Obama Gets Real."

Krugman has criticized Obama from the left for going along with the Republican “deficit scolds” by agreeing that the major problem facing this nation was the deficit, not the high unemployment rate, with Obama mainly differing from Republicans over how much to cut, not how much we needed to spend to create jobs.

Krugman now claims Obama’s recent speech on inequality is a sign he is back to his progressive roots.

“Now… we have the president of the United States breaking ranks, finally sounding like the progressive many of his supporters thought they were backing in 2008. This is going to change the discourse — and, eventually… actual policy.”

Krugman ignores the gap between Obama’s rhetoric and action. Take education and labor policy. Obama and his Education Czar, Arne Duncan, and the rest of the pack of education deformers, have spent five years pushing the idea that the key too reducing poverty is education – keyed on getting higher quality teachers and removing weaker teachers, with judgments based on standardized tests – a ludicrous idea that somehow has been accepted by both political parties, most journalists, and most of the public.

“Mr. Obama laid out a disturbing — and, unfortunately, all too accurate — vision of an America losing touch with its own ideals, an erstwhile land of opportunity becoming a class-ridden society. Not only do we have an ever-growing gap between a wealthy minority and the rest of the nation; we also, he declared, have declining mobility, as it becomes harder and harder for the poor and even the middle class to move up the economic ladder…

One of my relatives said on Thanksgiving, “if you take away the safety net they (the lazy, shiftless 47% of the nation who are moochers) will find jobs.”

I must send him this video from Real News: “1 out of 3 Bank Tellers in NY on Public Assistance” (tinyurl.com/muy2wbz). You see, actual working people can’t make it without help.

“[T]he president was willing to assign much of the blame for rising inequality to bad policy....,” Krugman writes.

Whose bad policy? Did Race To The Top came from Republicans? Billions of dollars down the tubes for testing, merit pay, evaluation of teachers, consultants, etc. instead of real education reforms and fighting to reduce poverty so kids will have the kind of home environment that will support them in school.

The “new and exciting” idea? Raise the minimum wage and restore labor’s bargaining power. I’m all for it. The shock is that Obama actually mentioned labor after 5 years of turning his back on unions and engaging in drone attacks on teachers and blaming union rules for the problems in education.

Krugman doesn’t address the gap between Obama rhetoric and action, especially when it comes to educational policy. Obama/Duncan and the rest of the pack of ed deformers have pushed the neo-liberal market-based model. Sure, you can solve the poverty/inequality issue merely by getting better teachers.

Let's see Obama offer to bail out Detroit where public employee pension theft is taking place which will result in growing poverty and the inequality gap. Has Obama condemned the assault on the Chicago school system by his pal, Rahm Emanuel? When he does, Krugman can start talking about Obama returning to his progressive roots.

The Clinton/Obama rightward wing of the Democratic Party, “Third Way Democrats,” are facing an energized left led by Elizabeth Warren and given hope by the De Blasio victory (don’t count the chickens just yet).

The NYT reported, “In a sign of the left’s new aggressiveness, a coalition of liberals is trying to marginalize a centrist Democratic policy group that was responsible for a Wall Street Journal op-ed article this week that said economic populism was ‘disastrous’ for the party.” 

Is a tea party brewing on the left?

Was Obama’s ‘inequality” speech a rhetorical response to protect Hillary Clinton’s flank?

Oh, what fun when politics becomes more of a contact sport than the NFL. Just watch out for those head injuries.

Norm blogs way too often at ednotesonline.org

NYC Principal Brian De Vale: I am Daniel-San

I would like to thank John King for forcing this system upon me. My job has never been easier. In fact a high functioning ape could now probably do my job.... Brian De Vale, NYC Principal

It doesn't get any better.

From: De Vale Brian
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 7:24 PM
To: Logan Ernest (SCA); mmulgrew@uft.org; Suransky Shael

Subject: I am Daniel -San

I think the entire New Teacher Evaluation System is a disgrace. It strips principals of our ability to write proper, professional observations and I believe it was more about the money paid to the people who made the software and system than it ever was about education.

Nobody involved in the development of this system commands an iota of respect from veteran classroom and school based educators.

That said, as the positive upbeat and God fearing Christian man that I am, I would like to thank John King for forcing this system upon me.

My job has never been easier. In fact a high functioning ape could now probably do my job. I perform several daily observations performed via the "short frequent cycles of observation" technique.... I take "low inference notes" and then align what is there with the rubric in the Danielson book.

No high order thinking required.  This system is a disgrace and has nothing to do with anything I learned in my studies nor decades of superior service. (Please note that this is not MY ego run amok but rather the 7 Straight A's that We received on Their soon to be done away with report cads that none of us believe in).  

I have  done my observations so efficiently that I can quote certain Danielson realms and domains by heart, without believing a word...so I am now " reflecting" to let you know I have played the game. 

I have become Daniel-San (wax on wax off).

MY OBSERVATION ARE COMPLETE!!!!! 

I looked upon my Advance reports and old Johnny Cash would have been proud as all I saw was Forty Shades of Green.  Yes that is right, every teacher has been observed 3 informal  and one formal, Pre and post evaluation conferences completed, IPC and artifacts submitted. Screen turns green with  each completed observation and now we are done....And everyone was rated the equivalent of SATISFACTORY under the old system.. I'm done!!! 

Mambo  anyone?????

And guess where the beauty lies?  None of this  was ever necessary. However, now that my official ratings are in, I can focus on the fun stuff that makes a school special. 

Earlier today I watched our fifth grade ballroom Dance Celebration. Tomorrow I will talk about Mandela again with another class. Next week I will attend our Christmas Show, an annual tradition before our Classroom Christmas parties and then visit classrooms playing carols as part of our parrandas!!!  

"It's a Wonderful Life"!!!!

These political hacks fail to realize that while they seek to lower the taxes  of billionaires that is is school leaders like me who  have fired veteran teachers who were no good or just burned out, have counseled out newcomers who just didn't have what it  takes because TEACHING is simply the hardest profession in the world and THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS WHOLE SYSTEM. 

We have unfortunately seen a decade of folks who ran from the classroom after a year in many cases, take charge and make ridiculous  demands of school based educators, and the results have  been a disaster.

Anyway, I have played their game, and my staff and students have won. Now we can all focus on real teaching ad learning.

As Sam Wainright said:

Merry Christmas and Hee Haw!!!!!!

22,091 homeless children, how many are at a Moskowitz Success Academy Charter School?

Their numbers have risen above anything in the city’s modern history, to a staggering 22,091 this month. If all of the city’s homeless children were to file into Madison Square Garden for a hockey game, more than 4,800 would not have a seat... Andrea Elliot, NY Times

And how many would find a seat at an Eva Moskowitz Success Academy Charter School? Or in fact, how many of these 22,000 children are in any charter school?
I taught many children like the wonderful Dasani and remember what the end results were for all too many of them. I hope so much there is something better for her. But think of where most of these children go to school and get a deeper understanding of what the charter movement is all about -- allowing the higher end of the poorer communities a choice -- a choice to get their kids away from the Dasanis. A form of educational apartheid. The alternate option for policy makers -- those ed deformers -- would have been to provide a level of support for the neighborhood public school that would really help Dasani and leave enough resources in the public school to support the parents who are deserting them for charters.
Today's 4th installment by the wondrous Andrea (just hand me my Pultizer and every other journalism award) Elliot.

Finding Safety and Strength in the Bonds of Her Siblings

Rosalie Friend Reports on Ravitch and Farina at PS 15

Excellent report from Rosalie as a follow-up to the report I received yesterday (Carmen Farina Introduces Diane Ravitch at PS 15K Community Library Opening).
And by the way, for those who don't get what school-based organizing is all about, check out an expert like Julie Cavanagh.
From Rosalie Friend to Change the Stakes Listserve:

At the presentation at PS 15, Carmen Farina seemed to back Diane's assertion that we need to return to a district system in which district supervisors are responsible for neighborhood schools. Carmen spoke of the importance of providing a GOOD school for every child in every neighborhood.
Diane spoke about the influence of private money in politics and school decisions. She cited an upcoming conference on how to make money in public education. She mentioned the methods the corporate "reformers" are using to minimize the cost of teachers' salaries. She also said that as she travels to schools around the country she finds a lot of fraudulent financial dealings among the charters.
I asked about whether we should be tackling Common Core when we have such a big challenge in getting rid of high stakes tests and getting small classes, support services like social workers, psychologists, and nurses, and effective programs like reading recovery. She responded that common core was going to drain resources from everything else, because of the need to buy huge amounts of computer equipment and services. The tests for the Common Core are going to be administered on computers. She also criticized the idea of having computers grade essay questions (one of my pet peeves).
Diane said she is hoping that Bill de Blasio will be the leader who will challenge the free market approach and the corporate "reformers." Jim Devor, who knows de Blasio from the District 15 school board, was much much less hopeful, though he did not give any specifics.
The audience was a mix of teachers, parents, and community members. Many were local, but there were several from Manhattan and one lady from the Bronx who had traveled to see Diane Ravitch. We heard from one distressed parent whose daughter is struggling with deadening lessons and poor test scores despite good classwork. There was a full range of age among attendees. I gave out 80-90 Change the Stakes fliers, so maybe we will get some new members.
Three cheers for Julie, her PS 15 colleagues, and the student "ambassadors" who guided us through the school to the library.

Carmen Farina Introduces Diane Ravitch at PS 15K Community Library Opening

Yesterday was a big day for the PS 15K community in Redhook with two red hot ed superstars, Diane Ravitch and rumored next chancellor Carmen Farina, in attendance. Actually in my book, 3 superstars if you count Julie Cavanagh, PS 15 chapter leader and one of the event organizers.

Carmen Farina has been the chair of the "Friends of PS 15 Committee" for 3 years and helped get the school a new library out of the ashes of co-loco battle with PAVE charter.

Today being the first book talk to introduce the new library as a community space, the Committee thought it fitting to  invite Diane Ravitch, who graciously accepted.

Farina in introducing Ravitch, talked a lot about PS 15 and connected the struggles there to Diane's book. Carmen complimented Diane's work, pointing to her travels around the nation as she visits schools and programs and listens to what people have to say.

She made the point that there is plenty of room for agreement and disagreement but informed discussion should be at the center and Diane's work is an important part of that.

Diane said during her talk "Every community needs a great neighborhood public school like PS 15.... We need to be citizens, not consumers, when it comes to public education."

Carmen closed by saying we need to stop focusing on what "they" – the corporate reformers – are doing and focus on what we are doing, echoing Diane. We need great public schools in every neighborhood.

Afterburn
I'm not sure exactly what Farina was trying to say here but I agree with this point: That we are beyond focusing on the outrages and should work on organizing. How to do that effectively is another story.

Substance: Chitown CEO Nixed in NYC!... Byrd Bennett strikes out in New York City as her slavish adherence to Rahm's school closing quota catches up with her

Chicago schools Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd Bennett completed her main assignment from Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the Board of Education's May 22, 2013 meeting when she recommended the gutting of the city's real public school system with the unprecedented closing of 49 of Chicago's real public schools. The recommendation, which was passed unanimously by the seven member school board of the nation's third largest school system, followed six months of maneuvering and lies which saw "hearings" during which 30,000 people virtually unanimously opposed Byrd Bennett's proposal to close those schools.... Substance

Photo by George Schmidt

These ed deformer hired hands jump around like bed bugs. George Schmidt has the goods on this former NYC slug who was hoping to make another jump (remember, she pushed out another former NYC deformer, Jean-Claude Brizard who jumped from NYC to Rochester to Chicago to oblivion).

George N. Schmidt - December 10, 2013

Despite her attempt to escape Chicago, schools chief Barbara Byrd Bennett will not find a new home running the nation's largest school system after a little more than a year running the nation's third largest school system. In a confirmation that Chicago Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett was shopping around to get back to New York City, this time as chancellor of the largest school system in the USA, the New York Daily News reports on December 10, 2013 that she is being nixed in New York.

Why? Because she had been such a slave to the whims of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Specifically, according to the New York sources, her closing of 50 of Chicago's real public schools in May 2013 was the deal breaker. Despite Rahm Emanuel's posings as a major force in politics across the USA, it may be that there is a Curse of Rahm and Byrd Bennett's failure to reach the finalists for the NYC job is just the beginning.

Newly elected New York City Mayor Bill diBlasio was elected on a promise to change things from the dictatorial regime of billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and one of the most important changes will come if deBlasio decided to take on corporate school reform and begin to roll back the expansion of charter schools and the closing of the city's real public schools. Clearly, as The Daily News notes, the person who did the dirty work of corporate reform in Chicago is unlikely to be the choice to undo such corporate dirty work in New York.

But the deal isn't done until New York selects a schools chancellor, so Byrd Bennett is still officially in the running. And one question for Chicago is how long she has to remain here, now that she has made it clear that she wants out. She won't be the first to leave abruptly after proclaiming her love for Chicago, its schools, and the children -- repeating regularly the talking points of those who script corporate school reform locally and across the USA.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4667&section=Article