The Wave's Howard Schwach on Beach Channel High School Closing: What Isn't The DOE Telling Us?

Howie gave me permission to publish these 2 pieces he wrote on Beach Channel HS due to its immediacy (WAVE articles on the web are embargoed for 2 weeks). First is his commentary followed by his report on the informational meeting held at Beach Channel on Dec. 15. There were stories out yesterday that local Republican recently elected Erich Ulrich is outraged at not being notified by the Tweed death squads that a major high school was being closed in his district. Sources are talking about putting pressure on the Queens PEP member Dmytro Fedkowskyj but he is just a tool of horrendous Queens borough president Helen Marshall. One day we can only hope thousands of students from Beach Channel and Jamaica HS show up at her door.

Here are links to my reports on the meeting with video attached. (I have more video which got sidetracked by my working on the PEP meeting vids.)

Tweed's Shameful Performance at Beach Channel High...

Note the video of the senior at Beach Channel named Chris confronting Michelle Lloyd-Bey, the DOE flunky assigned to put a public face on the death squad. Rumor has it that Chris and Joel Klein somehow made contact and Chris supposedly has a meeting with Klein lined up where Chris will argue the case to save his school. And Chris is a senior who will not be affected by the closing.

Beach Channel Meeting Video #2
In this video Schwach and I confront Lloyd-Bey, who denies she played any role in the influx of kids from Far Rockaway HS but in fact played a major role in the closing of Far Rock which was the exact cause of the influx of kids to Beach Channel. Have these people no shame? Guess not.

The Rockaway Beat

Beach Channel High School Closing: What Isn't The DOE Telling Us?

Commentary By Howard Schwach

Beach Channel Drive High School So, the Department of Education has announced the phase-out and closing of Beach Channel High School, something that I have been predicting for months.

The DOE went a long way in destroy ing Beach Channel High School by placing two competing programs in Rockaway, one that drew all of the high level students and the other that took the rest of those who could read and write.

If you do not believe that the Scholars' Academy, with its own high school, right across Beach Channel Drive from BCHS drew some of the top students that might have attended BCHS and that the high school unit of the Channel View School for Research drew the rest of the motivated students, just talk to some parents.

What BCHS was left with were all the students who could not get into those two schools.

I spoke with Deputy Chancellor John White last week, shortly after the announcement was made, and he told me that there will be a new school in the BCHS building next year to share the facility with the Channel View School for Research.

That school, he says, will be designated as 27Q324, housing 432 students in grades 9 to 12.

He also said that the school would not have an "admission screen," meaning that it will take any student who wants to attend.

That begs the question: If the students are going to be the same, what sense does it make to close the school in the first place?

If the Far Rockaway High School closing is any example of the way it will play out, then many of the students who would have been slated for Beach Channel High School will wind up instead at mainland schools such as John Adams. There is no place else to go because, for the first time in more than 120 years, there will not be a comprehensive high school on the peninsula.

White was right when he said that the change will be good for the security of the neighborhood and for the community in general.

The questions that need to be asked are, will it be good for Rockaway's students, those who can't earn their way in to the new schools; and, will it be good for the mainland schools where the Rockaway kids finally wind up?

First of all, I believe that White was being disingenuous in his answer to my question about whether or not the new school would be for all Rockaway students.

Perhaps I'm being too tough on him. Perhaps he is being lied to by his bosses just as we are.

In any case, I believe that the new school at BCHS will turn out to be a charter school hosted by State Senator Malcolm Smith, and will quickly become the high school equivalent of his Peninsula Preparatory Academy that now runs in some trailers in Arverne By The Sea.

Call me skeptical, but I see it coming. It's almost as if the DOE set out to destabilize the school so that Smith could eventually have it as his own.

After the announcement of the phase-out of Far Rockaway High School in 2007, many of the thugs who could not find places in the new, small schools at the Far Rockaway Edu ca - tional Campus were sent in stead to Beach Channel High School, completely destabilizing that school.

We've written about this previously.

From The Wave edition of November 30, 2007.

The opening months at Beach Channel High School were marred this year by a spate of disruptive incidents, including drug possession, weapons possession, fighting, insubordination to school security agents and staff, and even an attack on the school's dean. Most of these incidents were perpetrated by students who were transferred to the Rockaway Park school from Far Rockaway High School, officials and school staff say.

In all, sources say, more than 50 students who are zoned to attend Far Rockaway High School because they live nearby showed up at Beach Channel High School in September with transfers in hand.

A Beach Channel High School staff member, who asked not to be identified because he had no permission to speak with the press, said that many of the transfers were problem students.

"Some of them had criminal records, some had been suspended for fighting and for theft," the source said. "Others were gang members in their home neighborhoods and were at war with the gang members at Beach Channel [High School] even before they got here."

The source told The Wave that two administrators at the school outlined the problems caused by the newcomers in a memo that was sent to Department of Education officials.

While this newspaper was denied access to the memo by DOE officials, a source at the school said that the memo detailed the problems caused by the transfers, including the 50 who came from Far Rockaway High School. In addition, 16 other transfers came to BCHS from alternative programs, including some who had been incarcerated. Eleven came from full-day special education programs, including the hospital day school program.

"[The transferred students] caused lots of mayhem in the building for the first few months," the source said. "From the beginning of September

until mid-October, more than 25 of those students were involved in disciplinary actions, some of them very severe. They were a real problem."

Last month, the DOE placed BCHS on its list of "Impact Schools," those that require special attention and more school security resources.

That designation came after an incident where a Far Rockaway High School student got into the building and joined transfers from that school in beating another student in the cafeteria. And, while the DOE admits that there were many problematic transfers to Beach Channel High School, a spokesperson said that the school was not being singled out in any way.

"Beach Channel has not been singled out as a dumping ground for troubled students," deputy press secretary Andrew Jacob told New York Times columnist Samuel Freedman. "I don't see how anyone can make the argument that one school is being favored or disfavored over any other."

He said that many of the Far Rockaway students were sent to Beach Channel simply because that school had open seats and is close to Far Rockaway.

"There is nothing out of the ordinary about the process of getting their transfers," he added. Any large high school in the city is going to be dealing with students from a wide variety of backgrounds."

Will this progression of closing schools and reopening them for a small percentage of the original student body, sending the "unwanted" elsewhere and proclaiming victory continue with the Beach Channel closing?

Will the "other school" at BCHS turn out to be a charter run by a politicallyconnected local such as Mal Smith or Floyd Flake, as we have perdicted?

Only time will tell.

Lots Of Angry Questions; Few Answers At BCHS Meeting

By Howard Schwach

City Councilman Eric Ulrich speaks at the BCHS meeting on Tuesday night while Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer and UFT Chapter Chairperson David Pecoraro await their turns. District 27 Superintendent Michelle Lloyd-Bay looked like a hockey goalie unable to stop the slap shots coming at her hot and heavy in the Beach Channel High School auditorium on Tuesday night.

A question about where the majority of students would go after the school was phased out and closed.

"I can't answer that question," Lloyd- Bay said.

A question about where teachers would find new jobs and whether or not they would be fired should they not find a new position in a year.

"I don't have that information," Lloyd-Bay said.

A question about why the school did not receive the support it needed to stay afloat, support that has already been promised for the new school that will take the place of BCHS.

"I wasn't involved, and I really can't answer that question," she said.

About 125 parents, students, school alumni and staff gathered in the auditorium on Tuesday night to find answers as to why their school was being closed and what would happen next.

Department of Education representative Ewel Napier speaks as District 27 Superintendent Michelle Lloyd-Bay backs him up. Because the district's high school superintendent was "attending another meeting just like this one elsewhere," Lloyd-Bay, who is the superintendent for elementary and middle schools, was thrown into the breach. As the questions got angrier and her answers more evasive, the meeting turned into a shouting match.

Ewel Napier, the DOE's deputy borough director for the Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy, began to read a list of a dozen bullet points about what students and parents should do under the phase-out and closing plan.

Although the plan still has to be voted on in a January 26 meeting in Staten Island, both he and Lloyd-Bay acted and spoke as if it were a done deal.

The school's UFT chairman, Dave Pecoraro, however, says that the city agency is in for a fight.

"More than 2,000 years ago, the Maccabees revolted with a much smaller army and against a greater foe than we face," Pecoraro said. "As long as we are above ground, we have a fighting chance."

Parents and alumni wait to speak. "The new school slated for this building will seat only 125 kids. We have double that coming in each year. Where will the other kids go?" he asked.

Denise Sheridan, a mother of a special needs student at the school, said that her daughter was getting a good education at the school and that she feared that would change during the phase-out period.

"The city is setting our kids up for failure," she told The Wave outside the auditorium. "I have no idea where my kid will get her services, because I am sure the new school will not take special needs students."

Dr. Davis Morris, the school's principal, was also standing outside the auditorium, as if he were not invited to the meeting.

He declined to comment on the meeting or on the closing of his school.

"We are all soldiers here," Morris said. "We all follow orders."

Parent Denise Sheridan speaks to officials as Democratic District Leader Lew Simon waits. Lloyd-Bay added to that when she told the meeting, "We are only messengers here. This is done, and the question is, how do we move forward?"

"The statistics show that this school is no longer equipped to help students move ahead," she added. "The parents have expressed their dissatisfaction and it is time to phase out and close the school."

Maria Camacho, the personnel liaison for the citywide operations center, angered many in the crowd when she said that teachers at the school would have to reapply for their jobs and that only 50 percent of them could be hired for the new school, the others being forced to move into the "open market system."

"Those teachers who are qualified for the new school can be rehired," she said.

When an ex-teacher said that he was confused, because all of the teachers presently in the school had to be qualified to hold their jobs, she answered that the new principal and a panel of others would have to decide whether the teachers were qualified for that school, which brought catcalls and angry shouts.

Special needs teacher Patti Holloran asks where her students will go as other students wait to speak. Where would those teachers who were deemed not qualified find jobs?

Camacho shrugged and said, "They would have to go elsewhere or become district teacher reserves [teachers without jobs who fill in as subs.]"

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announc - ed last week that he is moving to fire all DTRs who have not found a permanent job in one year.

In many cases, however, the excessed teachers are more costly than new teachers, and principals are quicker to hire the cheaper teachers, experts say.

A number of angry parents stood in line to take the microphone to charge that DOE officials set up the school for failure by sending students from the closed Far Rockaway High School who destabilized the school and then by diverting much-needed resources to both the Scholars' Academy and the Channel View School for Research, a school that shares the building with BCHS.

City Councilman Eric Ulrich was angered because no advance notice of the closing was sent to his office and because no plans were apparent for those students who would not be admitted to the new school, which will open next September.

"If they can't get into the new program, there is no place in Rockaway for them to go," Ulrich said. "If they can't get a free bus pass and can't afford public transportation off the peninsula each day, where are they going to go?"

Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer was also angered.

"You had a responsibility to have somebody here tonight who can answer these questions," she said. "People came here to find the answers to their concerns and all they get is 'I can't answer that, and the person who can is not here.' "

Democratic District Leader Lew Simon also challenged Lloyd-Bay.

"You force our kids to go off the peninsula for school, then you take away their bus passes and add a toll on the bridge. You have laid-off parents and single parents who can't afford that. Somebody has lost their mind," he said.

There will be another meeting at the school on January 6 at 6 p.m., Napier said. Three members of the city's educational panel will be present and locals can make statements, but no questions will be allowed.

The Educational Priorities Panel will meet on January 26 in Staten Island for a final vote on the closing.

Locals are petitioning the board to move that meeting to a more central location for Rockaway residents.

"It's another example of the way the DOE treats us," a parent said. "There are no schools being closed in Staten Island, and that's where they chose to hold their meeting."

Pecoraro was more sanguine.

"I didn't know that there was a blizzard coming, but this meeting was a real snow job," he said. "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

NY Mag says The Wave is the 'Tenth Best Reason To Love NYC'

I'm proud to write for The Wave:

The honors for Rockaway's weekly, The Wave (http://www.rockawave.com), keep piling up. Recently the Village Voice named the paper the best community paper in NYC. And now NY Magazine follows up. Funny how they never mention the education columnist. Here is editor Howard Schwach's piece from last week's edition:

The prestigious New York magazine has named The Wave as the tenth best reason to love New York City in its latest issue, which hit the newsstands on Tuesday.

The weekly glossy magazine touts Rockaway as a "reporters dream," writing, "While The Wave covers every eighth-grade graduation and Little League parade, the paper also boasts a genuinely first-class investigative re - porting division. Some of the stories The Wave has reported this year: the booming population of registered sex offenders residing in Rockaway; the proposed closing of many of Rockaway's adult homes; the saga of Kareem Bellamy, a convicted murderer whose 25-to-life sentence was overturned based on evidence now suspected to be fraudulent; the financial controversy surrounding Demo cratic district leader Gerald ine Chap ey. These are not the type of stories one finds in a community paper."

Wave managing editor Howard Schwach told New York Magazine writer Alex French, "This is a real newspaper. The stories we follow are often blotter items in the Times or the Post, but they're important stories to Rockaway, and the people who live here aren't going to get that news anywhere else."

For the story, French interviewed Schwach, Wave publisher Susan Locke, Wave general manager Sanford Bernstein and reporter Nicholas Briano.

French says that he first came to Rockaway to cover the story of Bobby Vaughn, a gangster surfer who opened a surf shop on Beach 116 Street. He came to The Wave to get some local color and to find out how the community felt about the new business in town.

"I was very impressed with The Wave and the way it covered all of Rockaway," French says. "I wanted to find out more and I pitched the idea of including the paper in our year-ending 'Reasons to Love NYC' edition."

French also interviewed Congress - man Anthony Weiner, who is often excoriated by the local paper.

Weiner recently went on the Congressional Record praising The Wave for being named "The Best Community Newspaper in NYC" by the Village Voice.

"Make no mistake, when I get bitten by The Wave, I feel it," Weiner told French.

But, the congressman said, every Friday he sends a staffer to buy the paper for him and if he's in DC, he gets parts of the paper faxed to him.

"I cancel my subscription to the Times two or three times a year," he told French. "But, I can't do without The Wave."

Angel Gonzalez Stars in The Taking of PEP, One, Two, Three

In this third posting of video I took at the Dec. 17 PEP meeting, Angel Gonzalez of GEM and ICE stars as he takes over the meeting and pulls a real deaf ear and a rubber stamp out of his pocket while ICE/TJC presidential candidate James Eterno and another ICEer hold up the ICE/NYCORE banner we made last year calling for the end of schools closing, the defense of ATRs and an end to high stakes testing.

Later I'll put up more video with Leo Casey's statement - compare it with Angel's on the militancy meter from zero to ten. Casey, by the way spent the meeting with his head down texting as much as Klein did - probably to each other. (A New Action blogger had a cryptic hint of similar criticism without mentioning Casey by name - of course. Don't want to jeopardize those Exec Bd seats, you know).

By the way, note how Mulgrew is now saying "Fix schools, don't close them." How creative Mike. I guess you has been [sic] reading Ed Notes and ICE and GEM material. If we thought the UFT would take a militant position beyond just words, we would be glad to see them adopt our positions. Do not hold your breath.

There is some commentary from me on my trek to the Bronx and a few words at the end. WARNING: holding the camera in front of your face up close and personal can make you look even more grotesque than usual.

More PEP videos on Ed Notes
PEP Rally for Patrick Sullivan

PEP Boys (and Girls) December Meeting: Cracks Show in the Bloomberg/Klein Monolith

PEP Rally for Patrick Sullivan

The NYC so-called rubber stamp Board of Education is known as the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP). Most are appointed by Mayor Bloomberg. Five are appointed by the borough presidents. Patrick Sullivan is the Manhattan borough rep and until recently has been the lone voice truly representing parents. At the Dec. PEP meeting held in the north Bronx, Patrick again led the charge, but this time he had some support. A bus company that has been convicted of bribes and a contract for software for prof. development are challenged by Patrick. The crowd responds and Klein, Michael Best, David Chang and the other rubber stamps look nervous. If they want to be rubber stamps let's not let them be comfortable about it. Will future PEP meetings ever be the same?

You know that Der-ick Je-ter chant at Yankee Stadium? When you're done watching this video, chant Pat-rick Sull-i-van, Pat-rick Sull-i-van.

Norman Thomas Rally Video

PAVE's Spencer Robertson: Billionaire Slimebag...and Liar Too

There is such an important post at the CAPE blog, that I am cross-posting it here below. The parents at PS 15 held a demo yesterday. Spencer (daddy, give me a school) Robertson didn't take it too well.

CAPEers think old Spencer is showing cracks. Head on over to CAPE and add your comments.

Oh the outrage that the NYCDOE gives Robertson $26 million to build his play school because daddy is a billionaire, just a sliver of the massive corruption under BloomKlein. And they talk about the awful old decentralization days when a local school board member took home a dilapidated piano.

As a companion piece, read another brilliant post by Leonie Haimson on the NYC Public School Parent blog titled:

Charter schools: the new polo ponies of the wealthy

Leonie points out that daddy Robertson is the 147th richest man in America. Why should he have to give Spencer a job when he can get we tax payers to foot the bill?

Follow this trail:

....Julian Robertson himself is careful not to pay NYC taxes , by making certain to spend under 183 days in the city. The state recently brought a lawsuit against Mr. Robertson senior for failure to pay taxes, but Robertson won this case, by proving that he had carefully worked out the minimum number of days he would reside in the city and having his scheduler keep records of this:

"...Mr. Robertson designated an assistant, his scheduler Julie Depperschmidt, to keep a careful count of where the Robertsons were from day to day in 2000 and to make sure they did not spend 183 days or more in New York City."

Spencer Robertson's wife Sarah is Director of Talent Recruitment at PAVE , and head of the board of Girls Prep Charter School, which has caused considerable controversy of its own by seeking to expand within a District 1 public school building.

Another member of the Girls Prep board is Eric Grannis, husband of Eva Moskowitz, who makes more than $300,000 a year, operating another string of charter schools and who herself has been eager to expand her schools even further into the buildings of existing public schools in Harlem.

Leonie points to "this article about a "secret" meeting that took place last May, between Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Julian Robertson and other members of the Billionaire Boy's club, about how to coordinate their charity "efforts".

UFT: Silence of the lambs
Before you read the CAPE piece, let me point to the silence of the lambs at the UFT on these type of issues no matter how much Leo Casey whines about real estate grabs. Note the same Bill Gates the UFT is partnering with in a plan that will lead to evaluating teachers.

And note the name Eli Broad as part of the crew above. He gave the UFT charter schools $1 million. And he was a major factor in the publication and publicity campaign for Richard Kahlenberg's "Shanker was right about everything" bio, which was designed to soften teacher unionists up for "the program." (Read Vera Pavone and my review of the book if you want to know more.) So who is in bed with who(m)?

Dammit, I wanted to write a piece that the real mismanagers have been the UFT, not the DOE, where BloomKlein have managed the dismantlement of teacher rights and the take over of swaths of public schools for private interests. Now, Under Assault's assault on the UFT has beaten me to it:

I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THE UFT IS THIS STUPID

"MISMANAGEMENT CENTRAL is Unity Caucus, which is taking us whitewater rafting down a very long and angry river without paddles, lifesavers, or strategic thinkers at the helm."

Finally, one more point made about the UFT leadership by South Bronx Teacher in this post:

....the top 1,400 sycophants working for Joel Klein will be getting raises totaling $12 million dollars, including 475 that already make over $100K. That is bugging me, but not as much as something else I read in the Daily News article.

What is bugging me, perplexing me, annoying me the most is Mike Mulgrew's response. Mulgrew, and I must think of a pet name for him, blabbered, "The chancellor has the right to make his own judgments about what his managers deserve." No outrage Mike? No stern consternation? Not even a tsk tsk?

CAPE: Will the Real Spencer Robertson Please Stand Up
12/19/09

Today a group of parents picketed PAVE. They used their voices to demand accountability and honesty from the DOE and PAVE's founder Spencer Robertson. Teachers stood by on the sidelines, as not to participate in political action on the school block, but wanted to support the parents who braved below 20 degree weather to exercise their civil rights. Spencer Robertson chose to exercise his mouth and showed who he really is.

We should start by noting that Mr. Robertson's cracks began to show earlier this week when he told the school's building council that PAVE had all the money they needed to build their own building and that they would sign a contract for their space in 45 days (interestingly right in line w/ the timing of the PEP vote- maybe we can expect another grand announcement like the one we experienced this fall at the CEC meeting when they fake announced their space plans for the umpteenth time). What is even more interesting is one of PAVE's board of directors announced yesterday, they need an additional six million dollars to build (in addition to the 26 million in taxpayer dollars they have already been awarded by the DOE and the six million they have already fundraised). The board member also noted they already own a property in Red Hook on Henry and Mill Street. So, now we know for sure the real Spencer Robertson in a liar.

It is important to note that all of this discussion about a space or no space, building or no building, money or no money is irrelevant considering the agreement was made to the community for a two year co-location, which expires this June. Instead of acknowledging the fact that they, Spencer and his board, have misled the community and had no intentions of leaving in two years, they act like they are doing PS 15 a favor in assuring everyone they have every intention of leaving... some day, but they can't say when and the details of where and how change daily. Robertson ignores the negative impact his school and his actions have had on the educational programs at PS 15 and further the division it has created in the community. So, we know the real Spencer Robertson believes he is not accountable to the people of Red Hook or the children of Red Hook. We know his only interest is his charter empire.

This morning, as parents picketed outside, Spencer called the police and PAVE parents wrote on blogs demonizing PS 15 parents for standing up for what is best for their children, both denigrated PS 15 parents and teachers calling their actions political and tried to shame them for supposedly involving and scaring children (it is important to note this picket was purposefully set to begin after PAVE students arrived at school so no children would be forced to walk through the picket). What was happening inside? PAVE students were led in chanting, in PS 15's auditorium while our children arrived and our teachers and families set up our holiday fair in the gym next door, ...we are a charter, a mighty, mighty charter, this is our school, you can't move us... So now we know Spencer is not only Orwellian, but he, unlike the teachers and parents at PS 15, actually does indoctrinate his students with propaganda.

During the parent picket, Spencer stood next to the only two white men on the line and presented his case, women and tan people need not be spoken to. He thought he was reaching his good 'ole boy network, instead he got an earful. Apparently this shook him so much, his only recourse was to attack the dedicated teachers, who said and did nothing, who merely stood in silence, separate from the picket, to support parents who were standing in freezing weather, to highlight their true commitment and dedication to this community they proudly serve. As the teachers filed in the building to pick up their students, Spencer turned to them and said, "So this is what it takes for you to get to school on time." Oh no he didn't! Now we know that the real Spencer is a desperate man, a cynical man, and too low for words.

The teachers at PS 15 are one of the most dedicated and hardworking groups of educators in the city. Despite tremendous obstacles, and by every measure, they succeed with their students. You value test scores, take a look. Some of the highest reading and math scores in the city. You want programs; take a look, many teachers volunteer their preps, lunches, and Saturdays organizing and running programs for students, parents and the community. While Spencer Robertson pockets 26 million dollars from the DOE, teachers at PS 15 scrounge for paper and write grants at nights and on weekends to make up for the more than 10% cuts the DOE has placed on our budget in the last year. This man has the nerve to defile our teachers in this way?! We should note this isn't the first time he has done this; in an email earlier this year he called our teachers lazy.

Late and Lazy. Hmmm. How many of his teachers work with parents in the community? How many of his teachers volunteer their time? How many of his teachers have been serving Red Hook for ten years or more? How many of his teachers buy their own supplies? How many of his teachers procure their own funding for the school? Do we see his teachers or for that matter him on Saturdays or Sundays or in the evenings in Red Hook? It is the typical neo-liberal/neo-con strategy: say it is so and so it is. You have to wonder if these people believe their own lies, or if they are so cynical the lies easily slide off the tongue without a second thought.

Spencer Robertson has painted himself as the son of a philanthropist who cares so much about children and inequality he gave up a privileged life to help minority children have access to a better education. The real Spencer Robertson needs to stand up. The truth is, Spencer Robertson is the son of a billionaire who is used to getting what he wants and will protect his own interests and will propagate his own agenda at the cost of anyone or anything that gets in his way. His strategy, along with BloomKlein and the entire charter/privatization movement, is to divide communities, demean and demonize teachers, disenfranchise parents, and dismantle existing successful public schools, particularly in minority communities that have a history of limited organization and mobilization.

Spencer and his cronies picked the wrong school and the wrong community to manipulate and mislead. Regardless of what happens over the next month, as long as this man is in PS 15, and most likely as long as he drives into and out of Red Hook each workday, he will face an outspoken group of people who know who he really is. We will be his mirror, maybe he can hide from himself, maybe he can even hide from the PAVE families who entrust their children to him, but all darkness comes to the light. Eventually the cracks will accumulate to a fracture and the facade will come crumbling down; the real Spencer Robertson will be left standing, most likely alone, on display for all to see. Hopefully the parents and teachers of PS 15 will still be around to pick up the pieces.

Historical Perspective of Education Notes

A short history of Education Notes, its relationship to the UFT leadership, the formation of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) and the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) was distributed in the hard copy Dec. '09 edition of Ed Notes at the Delegate Assembly, where I have been handing it out almost every month since 1996. That's pretty much the entire Brazilian rain forest. There is a pdf available for downloading if you wish to share it with someone who has no life. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/24276475/Ed-Notes-Dec-09)

I began publishing Education Notes in 1996 at Delegate Assemblies because I was frustrated at the process that allowed the chair, usually the UFT president, almost total domination of the procedures. If you wanted to get the floor to make a resolution they had total control over who got to speak and if you were too outspoken on issues not liked by the leadership, you could easily get shut out. By distributing Ed Notes before meetings, I got to say my piece, whether I was called on or not. Ed Notes grew in size from one sheet to a 10-14-page booklet and then in 2002 when I retired, it became a full-sized 16-page tabloid published 4 times a year.

Having come out of the opposition movement to Unity Caucus in the 70’s (I was mostly inactive in the union from the mid-80’s through the early 90’s) I became active again when I replaced a Unity Caucus chapter leader in 1994 at my elementary school, which had a “my way or the high way” principal for over 15 years and we had butted heads all the time. My becoming chapter leader freaked her out and I began publishing a school newsletter, often once a week. That freaked her out even more and I began to understand the power of the press, even at the most local level.

I took a look at the opposition groups and didn’t find much that appealed to me. New Action was the major opposition caucus and was fairly ineffective though it did win support in the high schools by winning the 6 high school Exec Bd seats on a regular basis. Six out of 89 gave them little leverage and after leading the successful battle against the first 1995 contract to be rejected by the membership, they started fading. PAC, a smaller opposition group was totally focused on the teachers who were losing their licenses when they didn’t pass the teacher exams. Teachers for a Just Contract took positions I agreed with, but I thought they focused too much on a narrow range of issues.

I would attend UFT Exec Board meetings and was so frustrated at the way New Action would deal with Unity, so often cowed into submission. There didn’t seem to be enough fight in them, though a few like Marvin Markman and James Eterno were at times effective. But New Action leader Michael Shulman was the dominant player and so often seemed to throw a blanket over the Caucus.

Thus I figured the only way to create some change in the union was to appeal to what I felt had to be a progressive wing of Unity. At that time, Randi Weingarten was about to take over the union and presented herself as leading that progressive force. She reached out to me, claiming she agreed with me on so many issues, sometimes through late night email exchanges. Her people whispered that she was going to make changes in the union to democratize it and even make changed to liberalize Unity. But absolute power --- you know the drill.

By 2001, it was becoming clear that Randi was not only not liberalizing the union, but also making it more undemocratic than ever. As a small example, the new motion period ever since I became a delegate in 1971, took place immediately after the question period. Suddenly, if Randi didn’t like a resolution I was proposing, she either eliminated the time altogether or pushed it to the end of the meeting. She became more and more of a demagogue. In 2001, I became increasingly restive as she started supporting merit pay schemes and mayoral control, and I became increasingly critical of her and Unity Caucus, seeing that whatever progressive wing there might be (and I had plenty of conversations with people who came off that way) was cowed by Unity Caucus discipline. It became clear that the caucus was like a black hole. Once you went in you never came out.

Many of the positions Ed Notes took in the late 90’s - opposition to high stakes testing and the ridiculous accountability it engendered, unbridled principal power, drastic reductions in class size, support for chapter leaders under attack, a stronger grievance procedure, total opposition to merit pay, a broader curriculum not based on standardized tests began to attract some of the few independent delegates not affiliated with the other opposition groups. People like Michael Fiorillo.

The New Action Sellout
For activists in the union, the dirty deals made between Randi and New Action Caucus in 2003 whereby they wouldn’t run a presidential candidate against her in the 2004 elections and she wouldn’t run Unity Caucus candidates against their 6 high school Ex Bd candidates was a seminal event. Dissidents in New Action who opposed the deal contacted me. James and Camille Eterno, Ellen Fox and Lisa North. They were outraged at the sell-out, especially over the fact that all of a sudden, New Action members were on the union payroll.

Eterno, who had been serving as a New Action Ex Bd member for years, turned down that guaranteed opportunity. We called a meeting of the New Action dissidents and the independents I had been meeting through Ed Notes. Incredibly impressive people like John Lawhead (now chapter leader of Tilden HS), Sean Ahern, Jeff Kaufman and Julie Woodward. Added to that were some of the people who I had been active with in the 70’s: Ira Goldfine, Loretta and Gene Prisco, Paul Baizerman and Vera Pavone.

Formation of the Independent Community of Educators
Out of that meeting on Halloween 2003 came the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), which decided to run a slate in the 2004 elections and challenge New Action for those 6 high school seats, which given the fact that Unity was not running for those seats, we had a chance.

In the meantime, TJC was emerging as another group willing to challenge the Unity/New Action alliance. There were some differences and some ruffled feelings at the time but TJC and ICE united to run one group for those 6 seats, and surprise, surprise, we knocked New Action out of the box by getting more high school votes than they did. This put Jeff Kaufman and James Eterno, along with some strong people from TJC on the Board. For the first time, I saw some fight at these meetings, as Eterno now out from under the New Action blanket, teamed with Kaufman to run Randi ragged. The schlep into the meetings every 2 weeks now became worth it.

By the 2007 elections Randi was desperate to get Kaufman and Eterno out of her hair at these meetings and took her alliance with New Action one step further. She ran a joint Unity/New Action slate for 8 seats, including the 6 high school seats. Thus, every Unity vote would also be a vote for these New Action candidates. Shulman, like a porno salesman with dirty pictures approached one of the former New Action members who was with ICE and offered one of these positions. He was turned down.

Thus, New Action, which actually tells people they have these 8 seats on the Ex Bd without telling them how they got them, tries to claim they are independent. But dare them to declare their independence by running directly against ICE/TJC and without Unity support and see what they will tell you. Shulman actually has the nerve to brag that he refuses to take the double pension from the UFT he could get for his job.

In the upcoming UFT elections, ICE/TJC are running a full slate for the officers and Exec Bd, with an outside chance to win back those 6 high school seats as a beachhead on the Ex Bd to force the leadership to examine its disastrous policies on mayoral control, testing, closing schools, charter schools - you name it, they have been wrong. In response to New Action’s contention its qualified support for Unity has helped the union, I ask them to show us where. By abandoning its historic role opposing Unity, no matter how weak that was, it left a vast vacuum that ICE and TJC have struggled to fill.

ICE/TJC Candidates for HS Ex Bd
There is a superb slate running for all positions, but for now I’ll focus on the six high school candidates, who if elected will have an impact:

Michael Fiorillo is an ICE founder, when Michael speaks or writes on the educational issues of the day, people sit up and listen. He was the chapter chairman at Newcomers HS and is now the delegate.

Arthur Goldstein was recently elected as Chapter Leader of Francis Lewis HS, one of the most overcrowded in the city. Widely published in numerous newspapers and a regular at the Gotham Schools blog, Arthur has established a national reputation as a witty and incisive commenter. In his short time as Chapter leader, he has led the battle to address the overcrowding issues. His commentary on the conditions in the trailer he teaches in has embarrassed Tweed on numerous occasions.

John Lawhead, now chapter leader at Tilden high school, was an ICE founder. He contacted me when he found a copy of Ed Notes in his mailbox at Bushwick HS and wrote some articles. His depth of knowledge on educational issues, particularly on the high stakes testing, is astounding. I went with him to a conference of activists opposing NCLB (remember the UFT/AFT was supporting it) in Birmingham Al, back in early 2003 and hobnobbed with the national resistance to NCLB and high stakes testing. There is not one ICE meeting that goes by that John doesn’t say something that puts things together in a way that makes me say “Aha!”

I’ve known the TJC candidates for years, but I’ll leave it to them to provide more details in their campaign literature.

Kit Wainer, chapter leader of Leon Goldstein HS in Brooklyn for many years, was the ICE/TJC presidential candidate in 2007. Every time I hear him talk at a meeting, he makes complete sense and says it in an amazingly impressive manner.

Marian Swerdlow, who was a long-time delegate from FDR, has been a stalwart of the opposition for almost 20 years. She is as good as anyone I’ve met in breaking down an issue and analyzing it. For years Ed Notes published her awesome DA minutes, which she is still producing. They are not to be missed. If for nothing else, it is worth seeing her on the Ex Bd for those delicious minutes. Imagine the impact Swerdlow, with her ability to think on her feet, would have when Unity tries to pull its shenanigans.

Peter Lamphere, chapter leader at Bronx High School of Science, has been engaged in an epic struggle with a horror story of a principal. Peter was one of the leaders of the 20 math teachers who filed a complaint over harassment. He is as impressive in a public forum as anyone I’ve seen.

Formation of GEM
I must conclude with an account of the origins of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), which has been leading the battle against charter, schools and school closings. GEM emerged out of an ICE committee addressing the ATR issue in Jan. 2009. Spearheaded by John Lawhead and Angel Gonzalez, a recent retiree who had been part of the FMPR group supporting the teachers in Puerto Rico and had come to ICE for help and joined, the committee began to address the issue of the roots of the ATR issue by bringing together NYCORE people who were fighting high stakes testing and people from closing schools (it was Lawhead who put these concepts into a neat package for us). GEM held a conference and a march from Battery Park to Tweed last spring and during the summer worked up in Harlem to support the teachers and parents being invaded by Eva Moskowitz’ Harlem Success schools. In a short time, GEM has become recognized throughout the city as the group to go to for support, since the UFT has left such a vacuum.

....to be continued

PEP Boys (and Girls) December Meeting: Cracks Show in the Bloomberg/Klein Monolith

That was some meeting last night and as usual, there is so much to say and so little time. At least three reporters were there: Gotham's Anna Philips, the Times' Jennifer Medina, and the Daily News' Rachel Monahan so we will be getting reports from them I assume. Thanks to all three for helping guide and escort this old man partway home after the meeting on the #2 train from so far north in the Bronx I thought I was in Canada. They really need to hold a PEP meeting in Alaska where Klein can declare, "I can see data from here!"

One interesting thing was the number of young teachers, some from TFA and the TF programs who stood up for their schools. It wasn't just the older teachers who are outraged. These are the very people the ed deformers were counting on to be their shock troops. I was with some of the reporters on the way home and we ran into one of the teachers, a 3rd year TFA who remained after her commitment to stay at her school. Her school in the first year also closed. She said she wanted to stay in the NYC system and now that is doubtful. BloomKlein first went after the older teachers and now are eating their own young.

There is a lot more to report. The crooked bus company contract. The contract for professional development. And the space allocation bull. Patrick Sullivan was even more magnificent than usual, joined at times by Bronx rep Anna Santos. For the first time we saw the Bloomberg/Klein rubber stamps crack a bit as they tabled some of the issues. The Jan. 26 PEP will be a doozie as the passions and anger are running rampant. No more easy street for this gang.

The number of people defending their schools was awesome. Even Leo Casey wasn't bad, though he always sounds like one big whine. I do find it disingenuous for Casey to complain that closing schools is just a real estate grab (Ed Notes, ICE and GEM should have copyrighted the idea) when the UFT is engaging in its own real estate grab with two charter schools occupying space in public schools.

There was one candidate for UFT president present and it wasn't Mulgrew. James Eterno was there. He didn't bring his 6 month old last night as he did to the Jamaica HS rally the night before. Kara is becoming one serious activist. (See the link on the sidebar to the pics posted on the GEM blog.)

The piece resistance goes to GEM's Angel Gonzalez who took over the meeting as James Eterno and another ICE member held up the ICE/NYCORE banner we used in a demo last year. That video will be coming soon.

GEM and CAPE and others are discussing holding a rally at chez Bloomberg or City Hall on Jan. 21 as a warm-up to the rubber stamps on the PEP. Imagine staff and students from all the closing schools paying Bloomie a personal visit! Let's hope it happens.

Here is the first video I made of a student, teacher and the principal giving a magnificent defense of Columbus HS. Go get em gang!




Leonie put up this video made by the staff of Columbus on the NYC Education News blog.

A wonderful piece of work and I urge other schools on the closing list to do the same.

Save Columbus High School!

Leonie writes:
I hope everyone reads Christine Rowland's excellent piece on the unfair and destructive proposal to close Columbus HS at GothamSchools and then joins the Facebook group to Save Columbus.

Read DOE's totally inadequate "education impact statement" calling for the school's closure, and send in your comments to the DOE. Be sure to email them as well to all the PEP members (their addresses are to the right).

Then come to the PEP meeting where the school's closure will be voted on, along with more than thirty other closings and changes in school utilization, at Brooklyn Tech on Jan. 26, and make your voices heard!

Delegate Assembly Reaction 2: Seung Ok

Seung called a Point of Order, asking to be allowed to speak as someone from a closing school. Not one person called on was from a closing school. The Unity pre-DA rehearsals must have gone quite well. Nina Tribble was assigned to call the question to close debate, a job shared by people like Washington Irving's Greg Lindahl and our own Beach Channel's Dave Peccoraro. Some Unity idiot keeps commenting how rude Seung is. Wish we had a video (and maybe we do) of Mulgrew's condescening attitude towards Seung. He might as well have called him "boy!" Mulgrew was also pretty obnoxious with Kit Wainer, one of the true gentlemen. And TJC's Nick Licari, who you would want in the foxhole on any day of the week, was also denied the chance to address the DA because even though he led Norman Thomas for 20 years, is no longer a delegate. Sure, they let deputy mayors and politicians speak, but not Nick. I never saw Mulgrew in action much before now, but he may make us wish for Randi. Hmmm. Is that why she picked him?


Here Sueng is issuing a call to arms to pay a visit to Bloomberg at City Hall or at his home on Jan. 21. Get out the tea and crumpets Mike.

Seung Ok, Maxwell HS

I just came out of the UFT Meeting, and it looks like teacher's union leadership are selling out those schools in danger of closure. In fact. they didn't even allow me, a teacher from Maxwell HS and another teacher from Norman Thomas, to even get a chance to talk to the assembly. They talk the talk, but they absolutely do not want a citywide rally.

How is it possible, that they pass a resolution on school closings without asking for the opinions of the schools that are being closed? The resolution they passed tonight is so weak, the best they can come up with is a rally at the PEP meeting in Jan. 26 at Brooklyn Tech. How many New Yorker's even know what the PEP is? It will be too late by then! They voted down the idea of a citywide rally before that date.

Before people get the wrong idea, and start fuming about how the teacher delegates could allow this - let me explain a little about UFT politics. The same way Michael Bloomberg acts with intimidation and undemocratic rule, Michael Mulgrew (the president of the UFT) acts towards the Delegate Assembly. He learned his trade working under Randi Weingarten.

There are 3000 delagates in NYC, yet they meet in a room at the UFT that can only fit 800, and they want it that way. They stack the room with employees of the UFT union, many of whom don't even teach anymore. So they win every single vote that Mulgrew wants. In tonight's debate about an amendment for citywide rally, Michael Mulgrew called on 8 of his cronies to argue against this admentment in a row (which breaks the rules of the UFT union constiution). The UFT leadership does NOT represent the views of the majority of the rank and file teachers!

So it is up to us. They may have a few powerful people, we have the truth and thousands of people on our side. Imagine, if you will, the communities of all 22 closing schools entering Manhattan and rallying in front of the Mayor's apartment residence. He wants to mess with our community? We will go into his neighborhood...and shout our lungs out, until people realize, that he is not the civil rights leader he portrays himself to be.

Now the DATE is set. Some have decided that Thursday, Jan 21st is a great day. It's a 5 days before the PEP will make their decision!

So set the calendar, and tell everybody.....parents, students, teachers, cousins of teachers, cousins of cousins - to keep THURSDAY, JANUARY 21st open. We are going to rally, either at Bloomberg's residence or City Hall. Please visit our blog at ........to see more information as the date gets near.

http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

= Lay off our schools!!

UPDATE: Seung appeared on WBAI Thursday eve and here are some reviews:

Great job on WBAI this evening, Seung! Informative, persuasive and powerful. The students you had with you were extremely well spoken and exemplified why Maxwell should not be closed! Gloria

Seung, you were great! You really told it like it is and certainly painted a terrific picture of Maxwell. I am truly in awe of you. Peter

Beach Channel Meeting Video #2

Wave editor and former teacher Howard Schwach and Ed Notes' editor and Wave education columnist Norm Scott raise questions about what happens to teachers and students when the school is closed and why the responsibility only falls on the shoulders of the school.

I won't comment much as the video speaks for itself. Note who the UFT contract states - a contract agreed to and forced down our throats by the UFT leadership – that 50% of the teachers have the RIGHT TO APPLY and IF QUALIFIED will be considered. Shameful. Who are the mismanagers? the DOE or the UFT? Howie, who taught for over 30 years and is a great ally for teachers to have in running an influential newspaper, raises points about where kids and teachers will go asks, "If they are not qualified how could they be teaching?"

By the way, the Lloyd-Bey who responds to me played a major role in the closing of Far Rockaway HS, so her claim she had no part in what kids ended up at Beach Channel is false. In addition, she talks about responsibility to the kids who don't graduate, but what about responsibility to the 50% who do graduate?

(I have an hour of tape but you tube only allows 10 minute segments.)



Note: Video quality has been reduced to shorten loading time.

UFT Delegate Assembly Reaction 1: Michael Fiorillo

....writes an open letter to UFT President Mulgrew:


Hello Michael,

I attempted to get the floor on a point of personal privilege today, not to make the DA chaotic, but, as someone who always signs his blog posts and comments, claimed that a contract was already in place. You stated that I and others like me who've made the same claim should be "ashamed" of ourselves. You also lumped my opinion pieces with "leaks" of union strategies to an unfriendly press. Since I couldn't speak there, I'll respond here:

- It's true: I have said in numerous forums that I believed there was a tacit or explicit understanding. In fact, I still believe that was so, but that objective conditions created a temptation for Bloomberg to renege that was too strong for him to resist. And after all, why shouldn't he renege? Your predecessor gave him pretty much everything he wanted: silence on term limits that equalled assent, continued mayoral control - which would not exist at all if she had not initially supported it - and "neutrality" in the mayoral election that guaranteed the mayor's re-election. Was it so unreasonable for someone, living in the Age of Impunity that we do, to think that the Union might not have insisted on something in return? Are you saying that the UFT leadership gave those things to the mayor without extracting the promise of something, perhaps even a contract? Would that be so far-fetched?

In fact, things are even worse than I surmised. Think about it: either the Union gave Bloomberg everything he needed to continue his attacks against teachers and the public schools, while not even asking/demanding something in return - which is what you seem to be saying - or it had what "somebody" thought was a deal and got stabbed in the back, on the assumption that it was too weak to retaliate? Which sounds worse?

So, I'm far from ashamed of myself. Randi Weingarten should be ashamed for making these catastrophic decisions over the years, in a vain attempt to ingratiate herself with our enemies. And while I don't think that you, as a comparative newcomer, bear the same degree of responsibility as her, you've supported and spoken for those policies in public, and as President they now belong to you. And what's far worse, the membership must live and work under them.

- Your comparison of me and others to those who leak information to the Post, News or other publications is borderline slanderous and McCarthyite. There is no comparison whatsoever to be made. I sign every piece I write, and it's clear to all that I am voicing my opinion, which people are free to accept, reject or ignore. This is totally different from surreptitiously feeding information to the press, which I have never done. For you to suggest they are the same is a smear.

- And by the way, as for the "security" of information given out at the DA: isn't it axiomatic that nothing is said at an open union meeting that is not expected to make its way back to the Boss? Come, now.

So, we will see how things progress, or regress. As long as the Union accepts the premises of the people who are clearly trying to destroy us and privatize the system, here and nationally, we'll continue to lose ground. There's no changing that, and I will continue to write and speak up about it.

Sincerely,

Michael Fiorillo
Delegate, Newcomers High School


Ed Note:
I'm going to post a series of reactions to the UFT Delegate Assembly yesterday, including mine. I'll keep them separate for easier reading but number them. Feel free to jump in. (At the same time as the DA, ICE/TJC Presidential candidate James Eterno was leading the fight to save Jamaica HS. Francis Lewis HS CL Arthur Goldstein (ICE/TJC candidate for HS Exec Bd) was there to support James and had this comment:

James was great.  Passionate, compelling, excellent.

Michael Fiorillo, is another ICE/TJC candidate for the HS EB and wouldn't you want he and Goldstein along with the ICE's John Lawhead and TJC's Kit Wainer, Marian Swerdlow and Peter Lamphere on the EB after the upcoming election? So if you are in a high school, start alerting your colleagues to check the ICE/TJC box on the ballot when it is received in March - don't also vote for any individual candidates if you check this box or your vote will be invalid. In the last election well over a thousand votes were invalidated.

Jan. 26 PEP Meeting Moved from Staten Island to Brooklyn Tech

Reported by PEP member Patrick Sullivan who thanks everyone for asking for the move.

Seung Ok: What Drives Us

Seung Ok, delegate from the soon to be vanished Maxwell High School, wrote this brilliant piece at the NYC Education News listserve. He will be appearing on WBAI's Education at the Crossroads on Thursday night at 7pm. Seung has been one of the leaders of the fight back at Maxwell and has also stood up to Michael Mulgrew at the UFT Delegate Assembly. If Unity had a couple of hundred fighters like Seung, we wouldn't be in this position. I'm just glad ICE and GEM has him. Seung will be running for a Vice Presidential position in the upcoming UFT elections.


For all my anger, I will straight out say, that it's not malicious intent on Bloomberg's part nor those of the billionaire boys' club to propose the closure of community schools for replacement with charter schools.

Charter schools and "small schools"are nothing more than a theft of all the talented students of district schools and putting them in one place. So these billionaires walk into these charter schools - and they say to themselves, "Oh my god, black and brown kids can learn? ". We at district schools have always known that there is a core group of students in every grade level of every neighborhood that excels - those that become surgeons and engineers and lawyers.

It is not the new paint of charter schools, nor the potpourri they put in bathrooms - nor the first year teachers whose energy and fortitude is burnt out within a few years working in a charter school. The secret of it all is the top level students that they privately entice from our neighborhood schools. Charter schools get a list of all the level 3 and 4 students from the data banks of the DOE. But these billionaire hedge fund managers who fund these charter schools are clueless of that fact. To them, they see black faces - and based upon all the negative stereotypes in movies that they viewed in their lives - the fact that minority students can excel at all seems a miracle. But, how much time did they ever spend in a neighborhood like East New York or Harlem - it could be counted in a matter of hours. They leave a charter school feeling exuberant as if they discovered some fountain of youth - that the rest of society somehow overlooked.

The following is the reason why small schools and charter schools devastate regular district schools. Let's use common sense...... people are followers; there is positive peer pressure and negative peer pressure. The more years I spend as a teacher dealing with kids, the more I'm convinced, that kids and adults are very much the same....people are followers. Kids buy the latest sneakers, even though it's way overpriced. Adults buy BMW's even though it's the most expensive to repair, and their reliability is worse than other cars. When you take the top students from district schools, you are in essence, removing the positive role models of students who need that extra push to say - hey, this is what I should strive for. You are removing the student leaders, the positive middle class and professionals from a neighborhood that offer a growing child an alternative to the gloom and doom of negativity: gangs, drugs, teenage pregnancy, and drop out rates.

Because Michael Bloomberg and his billionaire's club have a perspective that if you are not the elite 1% of society, graduated from a four year college, and able to cash checks with a multitude of zeros following it......you are a failure - that the majority of inner city students- who face hurdles unimaginable to Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein....and yes - President Obama too (who has grown up in Hawaii and attended top private schools) are failures as well.

The reality is that education benefits those at many levels of what society deems "successful". If we only considered those successful, as reaching a certain data driven endpoint - this would mean that Donald Trump has reached nirvana That Mr. Trump is the ultimate goal of what every human society has deemed worthy of representing human kind as it's zenith. If that's true, then the majority of us folks living happy and product lives are losers.

The main argument for closing a school, is that less than 50 percent of the students graduate in 4 years. USA Today has documented that only 53 % of all 4 year universities graduate their students in 6 years. Should we phase out these universities as well? The era of the data driven religion is among us.

What happened to the carpenters and barbers, to the plumbers and fireman, to the janitors and to the sanitation workers - to whom each day of our lives, we depend on to make up this grand society? And what about the artists and musicians that we ask to remind us that humanity has a unifying and loftier goal than increasing our stock portfolio. How many of us turn to a Mozart, a Bob Marley , a Dylan, a Marvin Gaye - every day we ride the trains or crawl through traffic to remind ourselves that there is something other than data driven bottom lines. Well, under Bloomberg's world, where arts and music programs are cut for a schools to stay intact and meet its math and English data criterion - the reality is only .......numbers, numbers, numbers!

Can we remember that Woody Allen dropped out of film school, and that Einstein dropped out of college? Can we remember that Mr. Obama had moments of doubt as a young high school student - doing drugs and cutting class and that a strong mother had to be there for this insecure youth - to guide him to his potential? In the cold business world of Mayor Bloomberg: NO - either you make the mark now in the prescribed path, or risk phasing out.

Well, Mr. Bloomberg represents that cold and unfeeling bottom line. The same logic that made decent folk sell mortgages to people they knew could not afford it. It is that same logic that made people lie about revenues in Enron, in the biggest accounting fraud known in our history. It is the same logic health insurance companies use to deny coverage to millions of Americans.

The truth is, that Michael Bloomberg is only one man. And the fact that one man has so much sway in public policy has nothing to do with his ideas nor his morality than the massiveness of his money. The reality is that the percentage of Americans with college degrees in the 2005 census is 27 %. You know what that means? The majority of us live fulfilling lives even though we don't meet Mayor Bloomberg's Orwellian version of society. The majority have wonderful families, own homes, and live our lives - without a college degree - and yes, maybe - can you believe it, without graduating high school in 4 years.

We have to stop accepting mind numbing data as if they were infallible. After all, a 100 percent of humans who drank milk eventually died. Why do we all assume that a high school degree in 4 years, is exponentially greater than one attained in 5 years. Do corporate interviewers ask whether a college grad took 5, or 6 years to get their degree? If students in our public school system live in shelters and foster homes, living below the poverty line, and struggle to attain a high school diploma in five years - doesn't that deserve even more credit than a Bloomberg or Klein that was all but expected to go to college in four? Doesn't that child show even more character, drive, and unhoned potential than a Bloomberg? Or, are we going to end up as that society that vacuously praises the dollar amount of a Paris Hilton, a George Bush, a Bernie Madoff, and yes.....a mayor.

Seung Ok

Ed Note: I only have known Seung since last April, but have rarely met someone with a more impressive fighting spirit. And he brings so many skills to the table as an organizer, writer and speaker. That he was in the system for 11 years before emerging gives me hope there are lots more Seung Ok's out there.

Tweed's Shameful Performance at Beach Channel High School Closing Meeting

There is so much to say about the meeting last night where Tweed sent people who had few answers to parents, teachers and students. I was there with Howie Schwach, editor of The Wave (#10 in NY Magazine's Reasons to Love Living in NYC) to cover and have about an hour of tape. Here are 3 students. Chris wants answers and asks "why didn't you fix us?" Ingrid says there will be more dropouts if they close the school, especially with the loss of free transit for students. Another student wants to know why the PEP meeting to decide the fate of the school will be held in Staten Island. Oh, the hypocrisy. Michelle Lloyd-Bey who played a big role in closing down Far Rockaway is all about data and stats. Clearly, human issues don't count, but she talks about the "concern" for the students.

I have some good stuff from politicians and teachers and Howie and I. More over the next few days.

UFT Resolution on Closing Schools: Is it all talk?

UPDATED 1pm:

When the announcement to close Lafayette HS in Brooklyn was made a few years ago, Randi Weingarten said it was right for the school to be closed. That was despite the fact that a known incompetent principal who was often laughed at in the Leadership Academy was appointed as principal. Sources say that even within the Academy, people were incredulous and knew that she was purposely appointed to kill the school.

But this happens so often as to make almost seem a policy. Some of the schools being closed have such awful leadership appointed by Klein that the teachers don't even want to fight to keep them open.

You're on your own kids

Thus in the context of UFT policy in the past of putting up weak objections and little real fight against closing schools (the national credibility as partners in the ed deform movement must be upheld) we have the recent announcement of over 20 school closings as an in your face move by BloomKlein towards the UFT. "We dare you to do something," they are saying.

The UFT has never used any real political capital to fight for keeping schools open, saying the fight has to come from within the schools. But philosphically, the union has been willing to agree to join in the judgement that some schools are bad without holding the managers of the school system truly accountable. Nice work. Help BloomKlein dig the hole (2005 contract) and stand by while they shovel in the dirt.

We must also factor in the numerous ATRs that are being created as a factor, all of whom have to be paid even when their schools are closed. The school closings are part of the assault as a way to create so many ATRs that public pressure will build for the UFT to give them up. Maybe declare a fiscal emergency as a way to get the dysfunctional legislature to take some action to force the issue. Who knows what they have up their sleeve, but they seem to have left the UFT like a whirling dervish spinning itself into the ground. What you get from always playing defense.

Someone at the ICE meeting Friday night said Mulgrew almost looks like Neville Chamberlain wanly holding up a "Peace in our time" sign. I thought more of Stalin who was shell shocked with the Germans invaded Russia in June 1941, thinking he had made peace with Hitler and could trust him to keep to his word. "Thompson for mayor," anyone? Remember how Mulgrew and Paul Egan at the DA said they couldn't endorse Thompson because they had to do what's best for the members. How's that working out guys?

Last night's UFT Exec Bd meeting passed a resolution on closing schools that will be discussed and voted on at the Delegate Assembly tomorrow. It has a lot to say and we can agree with many points. But lots of resos on closing schools have been passed and nothing has changed. No line in the sand is ever drawn. The UFT promotes and supports the actions of individual schools but does not tie them all together, which is were the critics of Unity Caucus stand. The TJC/ICE/GEM reso calls for a citywide rally, either at City Hall or Tweed before the Jan. 26 PEP meeting, no matter where it will be held. We even held a discussion about going to Bloomberg's home for a rally and a smaller ad hoc contingent may actually try and do that.

Whether the UFT supports a central rally or not, one will be held even if it is small as a way to give all the schools a chance to gather together and express their outrage. A proposed date has been chosen, though I am embargoed from releasing it until after the DA. The UFT leadership will be given an opportunity to get on board or be left behind.


UPDATE from Marjorie Stamberg:

A brief note about the discussion at the E-board last night.

They will present a resolution on closing schools. Many whereas-es, long, with detailed information on the DOE's phony statistics. Several "Be It Resolved" clauses, the last of which is a liquid formulation calling to mobilize the UFT membership in support of the schools which are fighting the closings.

What does this mean? The maximum they will go, as one of the ad com people said in the floor discussion, is a loose call for a "Day of Solidarity" which will be 5 separate boro rallies, i.e, diffuse, no citywide mobilization that would pose a real showdown with the DOE. .

Mulgrew's report centered on UFT "mobilizing" its members to call every elected official in the universe, because they will respond to the community's wishes, if they wish to be re-elected. He did stress strongly it must be with the parents, students, "the community"; that the UFT cannot act alone. True enough , but little said about the UFT mobilizing its enormous infrastructure in joint ACTION with parents, unless by action they mean keying up cell-phone numbers.

A remark by Leo Casey struck me as key to understanding their thinking. He said (this is a paraphrase) that we want to make the cost so high to them in closing the schools, that they will think twice before doing it again. I.E. -- they're going to let it happen, after making some noise.

As I've mentioned, I think the UFT bureaucracy has finally realized that mayor and the DOE is coming after them like a two-ton truck, and they have to do something. But they are clueless, and fearful, as to what any real mobilization would look like. Because they are beholden to their "partners" in Albany, and Washington.


You can read the full UFT reso at Norms Notes.
UFT Proposed Resolution on School Closings for Dec. 16 DA

The Save Jamaica HS Facebook page is up to 2293 members.

Move Jan. 26 PEP Out of Staten Island to Central Location

UPDATE from PEP member Patrick Sullivan:

The Bronx rep, Anna Santos, and I asked for the meeting to be moved to a Manhattan location near mass transit. We are waiting for a response from the PEP Chairman David Chang.

But keep those sigs coming in.

There are no closing schools in Staten Island, yet the Jan. 26 PEP meeting that will decide the fate of over 20 schools from other boroughs is being held there. We need your help to try to move the meeting. Copy and paste the petition below, sign it and electronically send it back to me at norscot@aol.com. Or print it out and circulate it and then send it to 518 Beach 134 St. Belle Harbor, NY 11694. You don't have to include any more info than your name if you do not wish to.


Dear Chancellor Klein:

cc: Michael Best


We urge you to move to a more central location the Panel for Educational Policy meeting that will decide the fate of 36 schools, many of which are slated for closure, as well as a host of critical regulations that relate to parent involvement and the role of parents and teachers in decision-making at the school and district level.


We object because this time and location — January 26 at 6 PM on Staten Island — does not afford stakeholders and members of the community who will be most affected by these momentous decisions a reasonable opportunity to be heard.


The site would take more than an hour and a half to get to for most NYC parents, students, and teachers, making it impossible for those with daytime responsibilities to get to the meeting in time to comment.


To hold such a meeting in a location and time inaccessible to overwhelming majority of NYC students, teachers and parents is wrong and legally suspect.


We ask that you respond to this request as soon as possible.



SIGN HERE: Name, (parent or teacher?), school, district, office or organizational affiliation if any:

Norm Scott, Retired teacher, Education Notes, ICE, GEM



Thank you.

From James Eterno: ACTIVATE YOURSELF THIS WEEK TO SAVE JAMAICA!

James Eterno is running for President of the UFT on the ICE/TJC slate. But if you don't see him around doing much campaigning, he has other fish to fry. Like trying to save his school. His fighting spirit is one of the reasons so many people support him.

GO GET 'EM JAMES.

UFT
Jamaica Chapter News
December 14, 2009

ACTIVATE YOURSELF THIS WEEK TO SAVE JAMAICA!

PHONE BANK LATER TODAY TO BUILD FOR WED RALLY

Everyone must do their part this week if we are to have any chance of saving Jamaica High School. Today (Monday) we will be going to the UFT offices at 97-77 Queens Blvd at around 5:00 p.m. to use their phone banks to call every parent, UFT member who lives in this area and anyone else who might be able to help with our rally on Wednesday.

Please see me or a member of the Save Jamaica Committee as soon as possible today (Monday) so we know who is coming. The Committee is Maria Giamundo, Tanya McKetney, Debbie Saal, Julia Schlakman and a few others. We need as many people as possible tonight so that this job is something we can finish within a reasonable amount of time. Please help.

On Tuesday, four of us will be meeting with Assemblyman Rory Lancman and Council Member Jim Gennaro. We will make the case to save Jamaica to these politicians.

ALL HANDS ON DECK FOR WEDNESDAY’S RALLY & MEETING

`Wednesday, we need everyone to be here at 5:30 p.m. for a rally preceding the so called information meeting that will take place in the auditorium at 6:00 p.m. The rally and meeting are not optional in my opinion. While the UFT is not your employer and as such we cannot compel attendance at the rally and meeting, I would term it a moral obligation. This is our biggest challenge yet as a UFT Chapter and we need our biggest turnout. We have to show the DOE we really care about our school by rallying outside the school at 5:30 p.m. and then by filling as many seats in the auditorium as possible. Our power is collective and not individual. We can kiss Jamaica goodbye if all of us aren’t there: staff, also parents and students.


LOG ON & EMAIL THE PEP & STATE REGENTS

The Public comment period on the proposal to close Jamaica is now open. Every, UFT member, DC 37 colleague, parent, student or friend of Jamaica High School needs to go onto the site and email the Panel for Educational Policy with your opposition to the closing of Jamaica. Please students, no text message language; use proper language in the emails. The state regents are also meeting today and they should also be notified.


TELL THE CHANCELLOR HOW YOU FEEL ON THURSDAY

You can email Chancellor Joel Klein at any point but you can talk to him personally on Wednesday after our meeting here. He will be at PS/IS 266 on Wednesday. The location is 74-10 Commonwealth Blvd. in Bellerose (Glen Oaks/Frank Padavan Campus), Thursday, the Panel for Educational Policy will be meeting in the Bronx at 6:00 p.m. at New World High 921 East 228th Street.


I will be there and as many of you as possible should join me. The next big date will be January 7, 2010 when the public comment period will be held at Jamaica. Finally, the PEP will vote on our fate at a meeting on January 26, 2010 on Staten Island. We are attempting to have the meeting moved to a more central location. Go to sign the online petition.

Also on Thursday - rally at Norman Thomas HS in Manhattan there is a rally to save Norman Thomas HS. That’s at Park Avenue and 34th Street. We should support them.

[ED. NOTE: See more on protest in our post: Defend Your School]

James Eterno
UFT Chapter Leader,
Jamaica High School


Move Jan. 26 PEP Out of Staten Island to Central Location
Tell Joel Klein to move the Jan. 26 PEP meeting out of Staten Island.
Click the link above and copy and paste the letter and circulate or sign and send back to me.

Defend Your School

I just got a call from a former teacher at my school who I haven't heard from for a long time. She and her husband, also a former teacher at my school turned fireman, were at dinner with an old friend who teaches at Gompers HS in the Bronx. He told them that the DOE Death Squad came to his school to tell them the news they were about to die as a school. He was beyond outrage. "I'm not going down without a fight," he said. "We have no one to talk to about this." I have just the people for you," she said. I'm about to call him.


Join the fightback with other schools

Come to the GEM meeting tomorrow - Monday, Dec. 14 at 4:30PM at CUNY, 34th st and 5th ave. rm 5414

Also - attend the Norman Thomas rally on Thursday, Dec. 17, starting at 4pm. 33rd st and Park Ave. If you are in a closing school or one to be closed in the future (many more of you than you think). Click on pic to read email for a pdf.

Support the joint TJC/ICE/GEM resolution on school closings at the DA this Wed.


The UFT and School Closings

This just came in from a chapter leader at one of the few large high schools left:

Will we see Michael Mulgrew and other big UFT Brass there at the Norman Thomas demos, or any other demos at other closing schools? The CL Update in mentioning closing schools but fails to say what UFT central will do. It said Mulgrew offers the UFT's “full support”. Can anyone tell us what that means? Why not setup the fax blitz like they did for school budget cuts? We could hit the City Council and state legislators for a start. In our contract with the DoE in PAGE ONE it states: "…the Union and the Board mutually agree to join together with other partners in the redesign and improvement of our schools, INCLUDING CLOSING those that have failed and supporting their restructuring." How long has that been in there? Why have it in there? I know NCLB and SURR have their requirements, but why should we have that in there knowing full well the DoE closes schools not on the SURR list or required under NCLB. Maybe the new contract should stipulate that such schools cannot be closed/reorganized without the consent of the UFT. Fat chance.


The UFT policy of school defense is to treat each school individually and not to bring schools together city wide and fight en masse. While the individual struggles to organize staff, students, parents, alumni and community forces is crucial, without taking things to the next step by bringing it all together, this is a losing strategy that might lead to win a few battles, but lose the war.

Note how UFT shills like Peter Goodman tosses out the same UFT line in a piece called How to Fight Your School Closing: A Carefully Constructed, Interactive Grassroots Campaign Can/May Save Your School where he doesn't mention one thing the UFT could do to save your school. In other words, it's all on your backs. How typical. Goodman in another recent piece talked about failed leadership in this piece Piscis Feteo ex Caput: Failing Schools Are Caused By Failed Leadership at the Highest Levels, Deflecting Responsibility to Principals and Teachers is Cowardly. but naturally leaves out the failed leadership of which he is part of in the UFT that enabled the ed deformers to deflect responsibility to teachers.


Read Randi in NY Times and gag
The Detroit teachers contract is devastating - I don't have the details handy but it is a catastrophe for teachers and the union. But here is what Randi has to say about it:

Randi Weingarten in a New York Times ad appearing in the Sunday December 13 edition of the Week In Review on p. 5

What Matters Most: Detroit Teaches America a Valuable Lesson

“…This tentative agreement includes several reforms that will drive the enhancement of school achievement, including school based bonuses, peer assistance, and review and a new, comprehensive teacher evaluation system. At the same time, both parties recognize the severe financial conditions of the district and sought innovative approaches to saving money. Teachers, who are also struggling in these tough times, are being asked to sacrifice - by agreeing to a reduction in pay received now and deferring pay increases until the third year of the contract. Teachers will receive a bonus when leaving the district. The players also recognized the need to address skyrocketing health care costs and agreed to measures that will save the district millions…

I've been saying it for years. That the UFT/AFT are enemies of teachers.


But there is hope: Schools Fight Back
Schools are organizing and we'll chronicle as much as we can while working with GEM, ICE, TJC and others to bring people together for joint actions.

Jamaica High School
I can't say enough about the work Chapter Leader James Eterno has been doing, along with the rest of a supportive staff and student body. As you know, James is the ICE/TJC candidate for president of the UFT against Mike Mulgrew and may be too busy to do much campaigning. But the UFT election is secondary to trying to save Jamaica HS. What I want to point out is that James, like so many other ICE/TJC candidates are amazing fighters (remember, James was part of the most militant crew that left the moribund New Action when they sold out and helped found ICE). They have spine, something so much of Unity Caucus and New Action is missing.

I will do more on Jamaica - over 800 students and alumni have signed onto their Facebook page and there is a meeting at Jamaica this Weds, Dec. 16 at 6pm (the UFT DA is at 4pm). Today there is a great column by Jamaica NY Times sports columnist George Vecsey, an alum, who interviews , Nyles Bynum an all-American student athlete now playing at Temple, titled

In Defense of His Old School

He [Bynum] played football and basketball at Jamaica, was on the honor roll all four years, and was an academic all-American as a senior. He described how one teacher monitored the academic progress of athletes, how coaches encouraged him to study, how guidance counselors helped him apply to college. He ticks off their names, lovingly, starting with Sue Sutera, the tennis coach and mentor to the past generation. “Twenty-five years — and I ain’t going away,” Sutera said last Thursday at a meeting of Jamaica supporters.

Vecsey says:

Whenever I have returned over the past decade, the school has consistently seemed clean and orderly and remains so under Principal Walter G. Acham, a strong presence who carries out board policy and praises the tradition of Jamaica, volunteering, “This is a special place.”

Under a new law, the city must observe a 45-day review period, including a hearing at Jamaica on Jan. 7. The decision will be made by the Panel for Educational Policy at a public hearing Jan. 26 on Staten Island, a location that does not amuse some people in Jamaica. “High school is the best time of your life,” Bynum said. “I’ve always wanted to come back, but it would be hard to come back to some satellite school.”

Over 2000 members of Friends of Jamaica HS on Facebook. Join.


Columbus HS ask people to send letters to the NY State Ed Dept

The way the accountability is structured presumes that a school receives a fairly constant population guided basically by urban geographic and socioeconomic factors that change extremely slowly over time. This is not the case for Columbus - we have received a major influx of the highest needs students that has left AYP and absolute 4 year graduation rates a virtual impossibility. We are not a failing school - although we can and do always strive for improvement - we have many students who graduate over 5, 6, and 7 years. Our most recent 7 year statistics are a graduation rate of 81.5% (NYC average being 72.2%) and our drop out rate was 18.2% (city average 27.8%). Many of our students, and notably our English Language learners who arrive in their junior or senior years with no English take far longer to pass Regents Exams - particularly English.

Our population is mobile and vulnerable and needs to be supported rather than crushed. The DoE plans to replace Columbus with an existing school (KAPPA) from district 10. The students from this school are much lower need than those at Columbus, in fact they are lower need than the prestige programs already housed on the campus. This is one more step in the segregation of students that has been going on for that last 10 or so years - bringing in a large number of high ability students from this existing school in September and having no place for our special needs students and recent immigrants who will then be sent to a more distant large high school.

I posted the entire letter on Norms Notes. Click below.
Columbus HS Letter to NY State Regents


Maxwell HS rally, Dec. 10:
Angel Gonzalez has put up his video of last week's rally, attended by UFT honchos, including Mulgrew, whom Angel caught applauding when Charles Barron said we should close down Tweed.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1fbzg4EUHU]

Click title to view video.
Dec. 9, 2009 Brooklyn, NY.

Mayor Bloomberg announced the closing of over 20 public schools. Maxwell High denounces this unfair callous attempt to privatize with charter schools. Over 250 people protested outside and then inside against the Dept of Education and the complicity of the District Superintendent. Teachers, parents, students and community are organizing locally and citywide to stop this wholesale ruthless assault on public education and school-workers.

CAPE at PS 15 Welcomes you to the Hornet's Nest

I said in yesterday's ed notes post that the DOE has created a hornet's nest at PS 15. The CAPEers have taken that ball and run with it.

"The DOE and its corporate allies isolate and identify communities they think they can overrun and outsmart. They target communities whose populations have historically had a difficult time organizing and accessing resources. We are sure they thought targeting PS 15 in Red Hook was easy pikins'... instead they did in fact unleash a hornet's nest. We are a group of parents and educators who will continue to demand to be heard, not just for the protection and preservation of our community public schools, but in solidarity to fight for the protection and preservation of public education for ALL of our children. Groups are forming across the city, advocates are joining forces.... Let's join together and stop the Bloomberg Administration's assault on public education.



Let's make the Thursday demo at Norman Thomas a pre-cursor of bigger things.

Closing the Roethlisberger Gap

Steve Koss sent along a link to this article (click headline below for full article.)

Pittsburgh School District Leads Nation In Ability To Spell 'Roethlisberger'

from the onion with some commentary:

I absolutely ADORE "The Onion" weekly newspaper, and this story from last week is one of the funniest and spot-on stories about education I have ever seen. I was practically rolling on the floor reading this, except that it's also tragically so sad in the reality of what it satirizes. The text is below.

Replace "Roethlisberger" in this story with NYS Math and ELA exams and you have a perfect and hilarious description of NYC schools under Joel Klein. The supportive comments from educational administrators sound just like the typical DOE P.R. stuff.

Gary Babad, do these Onion guys work for you? If not, maybe you should work for them!

Steve Koss

Here's a short excerpt:

"If you look at the data, our students were correctly spelling Roethlisberger only 43 percent of the time during the quarterback's rookie season," said Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who called the 2004 statistic an embarrassment. "In just five years, we have increased that number to 92 percent. That's 54 percent better than students in California, 35 percent better than those in Oklahoma, and 96 percent better than those in the Cleveland area, who tend to spell Roethlisberger by adding the letters 'u,' 'c,' and 'k' after the letter 's.'"

"The bottom line is the Pittsburgh school system is giving its students a leg up on the competition, not only in America, but throughout the world," Ravenstahl added. "Our kids correctly spelled Roethlisberger 12 times more often than all the students in Europe and Asia combined."