Sunday, October 6, 2013

The Daily News Deserves a Good Whopping for Witchhunts 101

The city will spend a whopping $29 million in 2013 on the salaries and benefits of outcast educators who are deemed too dangerous or incompetent to work in public school classrooms but cannot be immediately fired, the Daily News has learned...
Chapman and Monahan get quotes from both a DOE spokesman and a union official to press their respective sides of the issue, but the language in the article leaves little doubt that these 326 teachers languishing in the 2013 version of the rubber room are pervs, incompetents, malcontents and freaks and they should be fired... Perdido St. School
A WHOPPING $29 million. Did they check into the WHOPPING amount of money the DOE is spending to try to fire Francesco Portelos? Let's see, I counted up to 3 DOE lawyers, heard testimony there are at least 9 investigators on the case, Portelos spending over 500 days in the rubber room and getting paid while waiting for his hearing, the hiring of a sub to cover his class, etc. etc. And all along Portelos has been asking why he isn't teaching? 

But all they have to say is:
"We still have rubber rooms," said Francesco Portelos, an engineering teacher from Intermediate school 49 on Staten Island who has been reassigned away from the classroom for more than 17 months. "The only difference is we're not being corralled anymore." Portelos has spent his time sitting on his hands while continuing to draw his salary of $75,000 as he's investigated on a variety of charges, including misuse of school property. He even ran a live video stream of himself reading the newspaper in an empty conference room at a Queens district office until the city found out and gave him menial filing jobs. He says he's innocentand his exile is retaliatory.
Some of the most serious charges? He showed a teacher a some real estate on a DOE computer --- How many teachers use DOE computers -- and if not the computers but their own using DOE wifi to check web sites for personal use? 
Note how Chapman presents "misuse of school property," when he knows full well how bogus these charges are.

Wow. Is Portelos a perv? Was there a naked person in the window of the real estate property? or is he a teacher brutalizing children? Or a teacher not doing his job?

The DN could have attended some of the hearings and heard cross examination of DOE witnesses that shreds their case.
Yet if Portelos manages to get off he would be counted amongst the numbers the DOE are feeding to Chapman -- you know, the "Daily News has learned" -- yeah, learned from the Tweed attempt to bully the public into shredding the contract.

Sue Edelman at the NY Post did her weekend hit job (Abusive, violent teachers let off the hook) too without mentioning the Portelos case, which she has written about. I love this one:
But the DOE has a lackluster 38 percent batting average in firing teachers and administrators it does get to trial, records reviewed by The Post show. In 72 decisions issued so far this year, hearing officers found misconduct or incompetence in 68 cases, but agreed to fire just 28, the department said.
Does Sue call for the enormously expensive DOE Legal to be held accountable for this "failure" rate?  Maybe the investigators are inept and should be fired? Or just maybe they don't have good enough cases.

Remember: Chaz has also come under attack for not being fired and everyone who knows him says they would be proud to have him teach their kids.

One correspondent writes about some of the teachers named in the articles:
An english teacher who built the football program at auto. He would  do whatever he could to pull those kids into the fold of football because he felt that organized sports could turn an at-risk kid around.
A young teacher who has taken anti psycotics for most of his adult life. I've seen him on and off his meds and his story is probably 100% true. He's a pretty good guy and I'd feel just fine, tyvm, if he were my kid's gym teacher.
(Its just dumb luck that I knew these names)
Look, we could probably explain 80% of the named teachers and find one to back. But that would make little difference as they would just find more names. The real assult here is on tenure. Our colleagues are collateral damage on that assault.
Yes, DOE Legal is on a witch hunt to justify their continuing existence.

This piece displays some numbers that are very troubling to me. The amount of teachers who have been removed is known only by the office of labor relations..No one else. They're in Brooklyn. The number of completed cases is only known by Legal. They're in Manhattan. If any of your readers hold any doubt that this (whatever it is) is coordinated, then they are willfully ignorant (which the Greeks used to call "idiot"). 
And of course idiot Campbell Brown resurfaces with idiot no responses to important questions.
Brown:  The chancellor should have the power to fire these people ... with due process, so the teacher can appeal. For every other public employee, that's the case. Teachers are the only ones where the arbitrator has the final say.
Q: That is in their contract?
Brown: The union negotiated it in their contract.
Gee, I guess the DOE was not in the room when this was negotiated.

Q: The arbitrator is chosen by both the city and the union. Most of them are retired judges. How is it the union's fault when the arbitrators make the decisions?
These retired judges start getting paid $1,400 a day for an arbitration case. They go on a long time, and they're making a lot of money. 
 Hands off Tweed's responsibilities.

Q: Shouldn't teachers be allowed to defend themselves against false accusations?

Brown: The special investigator comes in and does a pretty thorough investigation. Only when [the investigator] has substantiated those charges will it go in for arbitration.

Again, Brown doesn't know or want to know that the teacher gets no defense UNTIL the arbitration hearing. And the investigators are on one sided witch hunts with no corresponding investigation on the part of the teacher.

I remember one case where the principal incited a parent to claim the teacher had pulled her kids shirt and left a scratch and call the police who came an took the teacher out in handcuffs -- and then the cops, once they got the teacher to the station (where she was till 1 AM) believed her and the chief officer went back to check that afternoon -- and they spent half the night trying to get the parent to drop the charges. I spoke to the lead PD detective and he told me these were clearly trumped up charges by the principal.

I asked the UFT to investigate and get a statement from the cop. Nada. So the so-called "thorough investigation" led to 3020a charges and the teacher was suspended for a year without pay. But the NYPD guy knew within minutes it was all bogus.

By the way -- Jeff Kaufman and James Eterno in their last days on the UFT Ex Bd in 2007 -- you know those guys that New Action said were "embarrassing" and that they never made wonderful resos like NA did, brought up a resolution calling for the hiring of paralegals to do independent investigations on the part of the teacher. Randi said "nada."

Afterburn
I am a WFAN's Mike Francese fan -- since practically the day he went on the air 25 years ago - even before Mike and the Maddog. He has been trashing DN sports over their AROD witch hunt with constant leaks and falsehoods. I guess witch hunting is modus operendi at the DN. I won't even grace the Post with branding it since it is below even the standards of the DN.



Video: MORE Brunch, Please

MOREistas and supporters gather for a great day of brunching - great food ala chef/teacher Sean Ahern, great music from Patrick Walsh and Fred Arcoleo, great conversation with everyone, and inspiring words of wisdom from Julie Cavanagh, Jia Lee and Megan Moskop.

https://vimeo.com/76258078




Amongst many interesting conversations with people I had never met before was this one. I see a young lady sitting at a table all by herself. She looked young but could have been a teacher. She tells me she is a senior in one of our elite high schools. "How did you end up here," I asked? "One of my favorite teachers - a young energetic teacher she tells me -- is so inspiring and urges us to get involved -- told us about this event - so I am here." I never heard of her teacher but did know one of our contacts had put our newsletters in the mail boxes. She said she wants to study film. Boy we need socially conscious film makers.

Here are some pics:


Jack Channels Daddy the musician
Happy B-Day Diana

Jia and son

Megan and Peter: MULTI-GEN MOREistas

Megan: New MORE leaders emerge

Patrick and Fred



Master chef Sean




Today at noon: Protest at NBC Ed Deform Education Nation at NYC Public Library

Many people have decided to just ignore this yearly bullshit coming from NBC but NYBATS are holding a protest. So if you can make it down there to swell the crowd come on down. We do know the E4Es are going be good boys and girls so they can get on TV and then write press releases about how they got on TV.

After spending yesterday at the great MORE brunch (video coming soon) and being in the midst of this crazy garden construction project I am working on and fearing another day out would lead to divorce, I wasn't going to go. Now my wife reminds me she is taking her best friend out for a birthday celebration --- her friend will now be on medicare -- one of those awful government programs the Republicans won't dare call for ending given that even tea party love it.

So I may head in to film if it doesn't rain.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Rockaway’s Tale of Two Cities Under Bloomberg: Health Care vs. Bike Lanes

Norm in The Wave - School Scope, published Oct. 4, 2013

I wrote this Tuesday morning, Oct. 1 right before I went out to vote for Tish James. I had submitted the column to the writers group I belong to for comment later that evening and while they thought this was some of my better work, they made some suggestions, which I am incorporating for the Ed Notes version.

Rockaway’s Tale of Two Cities Under Bloomberg: Health Care vs. Bike Lanes
By Norm Scott

When it comes to health care, is Rockaway Mogadishu? WNYC reported, “The relief group Doctors of the World, which operates in war torn nations like Syria, Mali and Somalia is opening its first U.S. clinic, in the Rockaways. The organization provided aid immediately following Sandy and decided to set up a brick and mortar medical clinic in Rockaway Beach, Queens….The Rockaways stretches for 11-and-a-half miles, but there are few medical facilities. There's St. John’s Episcopal Hospital at Beach 19th Street and Joesph Addabbo Family Health Center on 62nd that serve a large elderly and vulnerable population.”

More hospitals have closed under 12 years of Bloomberg than under any other administration. Locally, if you compare the state of Rockaway healthcare with the number of bike lanes, you get a good idea about priorities. Bloomberg should have put Transportation Commissioner Janet Sadik-Khan in charge of health. We could have bike lanes in the corridors of every hospital.

It’s not all bad news when it comes to Rockaway health care: Got a hangnail emergency? Or a smudge on your nail polish? Find a nail salon on almost every corner. Ahhh, the benefits of free market capitalism.

I know my free market pals out there may think it is not the responsibility of government to provide basic health care services – or much of anything else. If every hospital and health service in Rockaway were to close down, we would get a “not my problem, let the market decide” shrug from the powers that be.

I know boardwalks and flood insurance issues are on everyone’s minds. But think of the entire sordid story around the closing of Peninsula Hospital and all the other health care scams being pulled by so many forces. The WNYC story reported, “Noah Barth… the program coordinator for the charity said while Doctors of the World usually operates in distressed parts of the world, it was clear that residents of the Rockaways had severe medical needs.” Barth said, "We saw a lot of people with upper respiratory tract infections, a lot of people that went months without seeing a doctor that just needed routine stuff. Now you're starting to see the setting in of post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety, depression.” I know one person facing post-traumatic stress disorder: a billionaire egomaniac mayor about to lose his bully pulpit.

“You’re advocating for the wrong things,” a good friend said to me recently, pointing to my work in the education wars and in defense of teachers. “You should advocate for your community.” What exactly is my community? My house? My block? Belle Harbor? The West End of Rockaway? All of Rockaway? There are many levels of parochialism. If you own a home (as I do) do homeowners’ interests get priority? Or do renters count? Do poor people gain entry into our concept of “community?” An estimated 21% of Rockaway residents do not have health insurance. Has anyone besides a doctors’ charity based in France noticed? I don’t have to tell anyone in Rockaway we have been living a tale of two cities here for a very long time.

Doctors of the World is hoping to get the free clinic on 102nd St. opened before the first anniversary of Sandy in a few weeks. In the absence of a city government plan to support adequate health care in every part of the city, having a French-based charity come to our rescue is very welcome.

I am writing this just before going out to vote for Leticia James in the runoff for Public Advocate. So by the time you read this the election will be decided. I was disappointed that Phil Goldfeder is/was supporting her opponent, Daniel Squadron. In his first campaign for office I ran into Phil outside Waldbaums and told him I expected to be disappointed in him on education issues like closing schools, charters, testing etc.

I do support him on general issues though I still haven’t made a judgment about where he really stands on ed deform. By endorsing the charter lobby-funded Squadron over James, who has stood up to big-chain charter invasions while Squadron has played politics, Goldfeder is making a statement on education deform – a disappointing statement. He is also making a statement on unions, which are mostly supporting James. I know, I know – he must show some fealty to Chuck Schumer and all the other special interests backing Squadron if he wants to get ahead. But still… James as a black woman lawyer from Brooklyn who has a proven record in the City Council, will be/would have been (depending on the results) a boon for all of the Rockaways, west and east ends – and the very growing and increasingly active middle. Once again, Rockaway – A Tale of Two Cities. Or maybe three.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.org

The WNYC story is here.

Here's more on the clinic from DOTW:

Friday, October 4, 2013

The Tale of Two Students, Or how can you possibly blame the teacher?

by Loretta Prisco
Published in Staten Island Democratic Association, Nov. 2012,
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
In one of the richest cities in the world, live two children, though a few miles apart, they might as well live in two different worlds.

Miranda lives with her college graduated Mom and Dad and two siblings in a home flush with magazines, newspapers and a library full of books. Her mother is a free-lance writer which gives her time to attend school functions and her dad is in finance.

Not quite a white picket fence, but they live in a full service condo with a concierge for package deliveries, pick up and drop off dry cleaning, and a pool and gym on the 12th floor. They employ baby sitters when needed and cleaning help. Fresh-Direct groceries and take out food are delivered regularly.

Miranda was in a play group until age 1½ and then went to a private competitive nursery school. A family illness is a trip to a private doctor with costs paid for by medical insurance. Miranda’s grandmother is not well and lives in a nearby private nursing home.

Sometimes on long school vacations, Miranda’s homework is not done as the family dashes off to some Caribbean island.

Joelle lives with her working parents and two siblings. Her mother has a GED and works as a nurse’s aide, and her father dropped out of school when his dad died, is a custodial worker in a public school.

The family lives in a 4th floor walkup. The water that puddles on the floor from the leaky roof cannot to be compared with Miranda’s 12th floor swimming pool. And who needs a gym when there are four flights to carry up groceries? All the daily chores are done after work or on the weekend leaving little time for recreation.

Joelle’s family is tight knit and supportive. Their grandmother cared for the children until they began kindergarten. Without medical insurance, an illness is a trip to the emergency room. All three children are taken out of school when one is ill because there is no guarantee that they will be home by 3 to pick up the well children.

Joelle’s grandfather is not well and lives with the family. Aunts, uncles, and cousins take care of him during the day when Joelle’s family is at work. When one doesn’t show up, one of Joelle’s parents must stay home and lose pay. Her mom’s boss is threatening to fire her because of her attendance.

They enter school and we use the same measuring stick to evaluate their teacher’s effectiveness.

Let’s go to the research.

With knowledge that vocabulary experience is the building block of reading, it is no surprise that children with low vocabulary struggle with reading.

On their first day of kindergarten, average achievement scores for young children in the most impoverished families are 60% lower than scores for children in the highest income families. Inequality at the Starting Gate, News Conference. September 2002

After a 2 ½ year longitudinal study, researchers Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley found that “the average child in the professional families with 215,000 words of language experience, the average child in a working-class family provided with 125,000 words, and the average child in a welfare family with 62,000 words of language experience. In a 5,200-hour year, the amount would be 11.2 million words for a child in a professional family, 6.5 million words for a child in a working-class family, and 3.2 million words for a child in a welfare family. In four years of such experience, an average child in a professional family would have accumulated experience with almost 45 million words, an average child in a working-class family would have accumulated experience with 26 million words, and an average child in a welfare family would have accumulated experience with 13 million words.”

Is poverty an excuse for non-achievement? – absolutely not. But don’t ask teachers or students to perform without the necessary resources and support services to make achievement even a possibility.
Loretta Prisco is a retired NYC elementary school teacher who also served in the District 31 (Staten Island) local office and at the Central Board.




Join Me and Other MOREistas This Saturday at MORE Brunch

REMINDER FOR SAT. at 11:30AM to join us for brunch and meet the MOREistas growing corps of members.

Here's a good sign with this message just in: MORE is looking for a space for our general meetings as we have outgrown the space we have been using.
 
But we will have to pay for this space. So for $20 you get a good meal, (and I think MORE may be a tax free deal now) and good company.

Do I have to tell you if you are a NYC teacher that the only way to have a chance to turn the tide of ed deform is to capture leadership of the UFT/AFT. Now that may be a long march I may not live to see but the first step is building a viable democratically run alternative with a MORE rep in as many schools as possible. Let me emphasize "democratic." If we could win power by being like Unity I would say "no thank you."

Been reluctant to attend a MORE meeting because you are all meeting out? Here is you chance to rub elbows - and noses if you prefer - with an entire gaggle of MOREistas in this fund raiser. As you know, we are not e4e getting money from Bill Gates. Or the UFT with its $200 million budget.

And we have a great new project -- MORE Stuff in Your Mailbox -- a new newspaper being distributed to schools all over the city (you can sign up as a distributor for your school at the MORE website -- and I'll hand deliver them to you -- if you treat me to a school lunch). Yes, Virginia, we have to pay to print those suckers and you can help by attending this lunch -- and if you can't come support it anyway.

Sean Ahern, a master chef and cooking teacher, has been heading the project. Sean was one of the first people who contacted me in 2002/3 when I went citywide with Ed Notes and we quickly became good friends. He was one of the key people in helping form ICE and has jumped into the work of MORE with enthusiasm.

When I met Sean, he was in the early stages of his 3rd career - teaching. He began as a transit worker, inspecting tracks. Walking over an icy bridge he decided it was time to switch careers and he became a chef, working with Eli Zabar and others. Then he went on to offer his services and skills to the kids of the New York City school system, as needed a service in vocational training as can be found.

Not only will you be helping MORE but you will get a great meal as Sean is joined by another cooking teacher, Michael Lynch. And you also will get a chance to meet the great new generation of activists working with MORE like Julie Cavanagh, Rosie Frascella, Mike Schirtzer, and a slew of others -- yes I will be playing the part of grandpa.

The closest subway stop is Washington/Clinton on the C line. Or go to the Barclay Center on Atlantic Ave and walk about 10 minutes.

ImageTwo experienced NYC chef/educators, Michael Lynch and Sean Ahern will be preparing a delicious and affordable Brunch (vegetarian and vegan options included) all homemade and from  the highest quality ingredients and professionally prepared.  We have trained many of NYC most talented students who are now working in some of the top restaurants in the city.  
The proceeds will go to help the Movement of Rank and File Educators with its organizing efforts in the coming year.  Teacher singer songwriters of note, Fred Arcoleo and Patrick Walsh will entertain you. MORE’s Presidential Candidate Julie Cavanagh and other leaders will be in attendance.  A great morning awaits you.  Invite co workers, friends and family for a relaxing and enjoyable saturday brunch.  Its a fun crowd. 
Make your reservation today:

Alex Caputo-Pearl Running for President of LA Teachers Union

Alex - 2nd from rght
Social justice-oriented caucuses like MORE and CORE are springing up all over the place. Whatever the result of the LA election in Feb. 2014 next summer's AFT convention in LA ought to be an event worth attending --- I'm hoping a strong MOREista crew goes.

The one in LA has been around for a while and even won a share of power in the last decade. Don't get scared now -- that a Teach for America alum is running for the president of the union in LA. He is an original corps member and has remained in the classroom. And unlike other TFAs has fought the long battle for social justice. He made news recently with his being forced out of his school (Dana Goldstein on LA Teacher Alex Caputo-Pearl ... - Ed Notes Online).

I first met Alex in the summer of 2009 at the conference we (Sally Lee and Megan Behrent) attended in LA with union members from 5 cities. That is where we met CORE people too and Alex invited them over to his house for breakfast on our last day -- I clung to the car so I could go. So there I am, a fly on the wall in Alex's kitchen with CORE's Jackson Potter, Kristine Mayle and Kenzo Shabata --- all major players now in the Chicago Teachers Union, soaking it all in and relishing the brilliant conversation about everything education. And the pancakes Alex made were damn good.

Alex was also at the big Chicago conf we attended this past summer with well over a hundred union members from many cities -- maybe one day a nascent alternative to the Weingarten/Unity AFT machine -- but that is a long way to go.

It will take money to get Alex elected and there are a whole lot of interests out there to try to stop him -- from all ends. (One interesting point is that he and others have found some of the LA E4E folks not quite as obnoxious and there is some dialogue going on with rank and file E4Eers.



Dear Friends,

I hope this letter finds you well. Please take a few minutes to read this, and I hope you'll be inspired to contribute.  In collaboration with a broad, diverse group of leaders, I've decided to run for president of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), with the goal of helping to build the kind of movement for social justice we need.  I need your financial support and, in addition, I hope you will reach out to your networks for additional financial contributions.

As we know, public education is under attack.  Schools are more segregated by race and class than at any time since the late 1960s. Schools across the United States are chronically under-funded, with vital student programs, services, and personnel cut dramatically in the last 5 years.  The "run schools like businesses" approach is ascendant, even in the White House, with test scores being viewed as the bottom line.  Corporate-turnaround-style school restructurings proliferate even though they, and the dramatic over-reliance on testing, are not supported by research.    

With test scores treated like the bottom line, the arts, music, physical education, civic training, and cultural, ethnic, gender, and environmental studies are driven out of the curriculum, particularly in schools that serve students of color and low-income students.  As public schools are ravaged, many problematic charter schools exist as radically de-regulated schools - serving only some students while keeping higher-needs children out, operating under private management using public money, and destabilizing the educational climate with a revolving door of educators.  Despite the remarkable efforts of many people at school sites and in communities, far too many of our students are not getting what they need and deserve.

Amidst these attacks, most teacher unions have been, at best, ineffective in building a fight-back, and at worst, silent and complicit - despite courageous efforts on the parts of some leaders.  This failure has created fertile ground for a second, correlated attack to accelerate - the attack on unions.  Political forces that advocate market-driven approaches attack unions so that "things can run more efficiently," while they simultaneously call for broader cuts.  These forces know that teacher unions - as potentially progressive and influential entities - must be weakened in order for the market-driven agenda to move forward. 

As teacher unions have been weakened, quality of education for our students has suffered.  We are losing experienced career teachers, the folks who bring classrooms to life and mentor newer teachers. We see many educators fearful to advocate for their students, communities, and colleagues. We see fewer educators expecting to set down roots at schools, to build the kind of relationships with families and communities that are essential for real education to occur.

In Los Angeles, we are drawing a line in the sand.  We've been inspired by colleagues from Chicago, Milwaukee, Newark, and other places who have run for union office as parts of movements, and won - around a vision for quality public education and a strategy to build with parents and community to fight for that vision.

I am honored to be a part of a slate for office in United Teachers Los Angeles called Union Power.  I am running for UTLA president with a fantastic team of candidates for officer positions - a team that brings tremendous experience in sustainable school improvement, innovative curriculum and instruction, deep parent involvement, powerful community organizing, strategic labor contract campaigns, and more.  It is a team with representatives from across Los Angeles and across caucuses.  I am running with Cecily Myart-Cruz (candidate for NEA Vice President), Betty Forrester (current, and candidate for, AFT Vice President), Colleen Schwab (candidate for Secondary Vice President), Juan Ramirez (current, and candidate for, Elementary Vice President), Arlene Inouye (current, and candidate for, Treasurer), and Daniel Barnhart (candidate for Secretary).

Some key experiences have brought me to this place.  I started teaching through Teach for America - and am now in my 22nd year in the classroom.  I have been lucky enough to have been mentored by remarkable, experienced teachers - and I have many classroom teaching awards that recognize my commitment to social justice, and to teaching that is culturally-relevant, literacy-immersed, inter-disciplinary, and community-connected.  I have been lucky enough to have been mentored by powerful civil rights, labor, and community organizers - and have years of building organizations and being part of winning policy victories, with the Bus Riders Union, Coalition for Educational Justice, the Crenshaw Cougar Coalition, UTLA West Area, and more.  I have also been lucky enough to have worked with a broad group of parents, students, educators, union leaders, researchers, community organizers, and progressive foundations to build a nationally-recognized curriculum and instruction model at Crenshaw High School - the Extended Learning Cultural Model, which connects students' cultures and in-classroom learning to internships and leadership experiences in social justice, community business development, and environmental justice.

I've learned from these experiences that a teacher union, especially the second largest teacher union local in the country (UTLA), embedded within the second largest school district in the country (LAUSD), can be - and must be - an essential component of a social movement for educational justice, and can have significant ripple effects across the country.

Our Union Power slate is committed to:

·         Collectively developing, with educators, parents, youth, and community, a vision for the schools our students deserve;
·         Basing that vision on values that promote educational excellence, equity, access, civil rights, and public management - the values that market-based "reformers" contradict;
·         Transforming UTLA into an organizing union that works with parents and community to fight for this vision at the grassroots and in board rooms;
·         Reclaiming educators' role as curriculum and instruction experts, and leaders in sustainable school improvement;  
·         Winning more funding for schools to reduce class size, improve working and learning conditions, expand student programs and class offerings, and provide wrap-around counseling, emotional, and health support for students so that their needs are met in school, rather than students being suspended or expelled;
·         Fighting for pay and benefits that respect educators and encourage them to remain in the profession;
·         Developing a real, research-based teacher support and development program;
·         Becoming integrally involved in community-, parent-, and youth-led struggles that are inextricably linked to children's education, those around housing, environmental justice, access to healthy food, access to gardens and parks, living wage jobs, transportation, civil rights, humane urban development, immigrant rights, police accountability, etc.

The Union Power slate has the kind of broad-based support that gives us a real opportunity to win this election.  It is, however, going to take major funding to do it.  We need to raise close to $100,000 by January, well before the election in February.  Contributions will go toward city-wide mailings to 35,000 members, toward materials and food for regular city-wide campaign activist and leadership development meetings, toward publication and distribution of policy papers, towards visiting as many as possible of our over 650 schools in LAUSD, and toward logistical support for grassroots actions that we are building around a variety of issues that reflect our values, and more.

While many of you are not UTLA members, some of you don't live in LA, and some of you are enjoying retirement after years of teaching, we know that you are aware of how positive it would be - for public education, for the labor movement, for LA, and for the country beyond LA - to have UTLA under a progressive leadership.  We will be honored to receive any contribution from you, and we encourage you to think as generously as you possibly can.  Some individual donors, inside and outside UTLA and LA, give us $25.  Other individual donors, inside and outside UTLA and LA, have given us over $1,000. 

Still others have given us a few hundred dollars individually, with the promise to organize concretely to have several other individuals within their networks match those donations.  In this regard, please think about your networks carefully, and forward this letter as far as you would like - to teacher networks, union networks, community organizing networks, college networks, friend networks, TFA networks, family networks, whatever it is.  We would love for you to actively organize in that way. 

We will have a Pay Pal account up soon for this to be done over the internet, and we will be having local LA fundraising parties.  But, please don't wait for those.  Please give as soon as you can through the mail in response to this letter - the sooner we have a sense of what we're able to raise, which we think will be substantial, the better our strategy can roll out.  For the moment, you can send checks made out to "Union Power" to the following address -- Union Power, c/o David Rapkin, 837 W. 11th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731.

Of course, feel free to call or email with ideas and suggestions you have for this campaign.

A Union Power slate victory would represent a major step forward for the work that many of us have devoted our lives to, and that we all support deeply. Please support us as generously as you can, so together we can accomplish this goal.

Warmest regards, and thank you very much,

Alex Caputo-Pearl
Teacher, Frida Kahlo High School
Teacher Supporter of Student Organizations, Crenshaw High School
Board of Directors Member, UTLA West Area
Core Leader, Coalition for Educational Justice
Cell - 310-871-7348

For your reference, as you consider contributing to our union transformation work, here is the Union Power team's facebook page -- www.facebook.com/unionpowerforutla
  

Another Whine From Peter Goodman, Who Supported Unity and Much of Ed deform

After the Department announced the closing of Thomas Jefferson a request for proposal (RFP) resulted, about two dozen organizations attended a series of workshops assisting the applicants... Peter Goodman. Ed in the Apple
What Goodman leaves out is that he was a member of the state commission and voted to close Jefferson (my alma mata) -- the replacement schools have also been a disaster in most cases.
Every closing public engagement meeting is crowded with angry parents objecting to the latest school closing or co-location. Rejecting neighborhoods and establishing a system that abjures neighborhood schools is arrogant. I would hope the new guys/gals will be sensitive to communities, will establish policies to build communities, to coordinate services.
This made MORE's Lisa North practically gag:

Peter Goodman, retired Unity spokesperson writes a letter to Walcott below. He infuriates me. WHERE was the UFT when all this was happening? ...Paying for a few buses for teachers and parents to attend the PEP meetings so that they could let off some steam that their school was being closed? a PEP that the UFT agreed should be the mayoral control body to make those decisions? Oh yeah.....the UFT filed a few law suits.....that of course mostly just delayed the closings. At the September chapter leader meeting Mulgrew had the nerve to say that it was the union and members sitting at the meeting who had helped make the DOE polices so unpopular (I can't remember his exact words). It was GEM and then Occupy DOE that attended just about every school closing hearing (as well as charter colocations) at the school level and organized the fight back at the PEPs....the UFT was missing in action. NOW that Bloomberg is on the way out, the UFT wants to speak up???....Lisa
 Here is a link to Goodman's post:
DUHHHH Peter. Nothing has been working -- all the stuff you guys supported. How is that 2005 contract working out for public education? UFT support for closing schools until 2010? Merit pay? Charters? I've been telling you Unity guys that the stuff wouldn't work from the day Bloomberg took over -- and even before.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Fred Smith Discovers Test Question About Bloomberg for Kindergarten Exam

This item was in consideration until the final edit of the pre-test that will be given in Kindergarten this month:
Cartoonists often make a statement through caricature, which is defined as a representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.

Please study these two depictions and write a short essay (approximately 500 words) identifying the subjects. Compare and contrast them in terms of their empathy for children and willingness to listen to other people's viewpoints.  Indicate which one you would rather have for a friend and give reasons for your choice.  You will have 30 minutes to give critical thought to your response.  Write clearly, concisely and correctly.
If you have any time left after completing this task, you may finger paint quietly or start to read your book on Newtonian physics.
  Fred Smith, Change the Stakes

Portelos Hearing Update: DOE Lawyers Pass DOE Employees from OEO As "Public" While SCI Harass Portelos' Wife in Her School

...while SCI investigators harrass Portelos family members.
SCI investigators have visited my father-in-law at his job during the summer and more recently visited my mother-in-law the day before my termination hearing started. Well, apparently SCI  Investigators Mr. Romano and Mr. Martucci are still going around visiting my family, including my wife today at her school.... Francesco Portelos @ Protect Portelos
The DOE is DESPERATE to fire Portelos and will stop at nothing. 


 I won't go into details of the testimony by District 31 Superintendent Erminia Claudio and a teacher from IS 49, though there is a lot to say. But it will all come out at some point.  I can say that she testified there were 8 or 9 investigators on the case. Add 2-3 DOE legal, the court stenographer, the hearing officer and the cost must be astounding. And yet barely a word about anything he did as a teacher. In fact much of this is about Portelos AFTER he was removed -- and how he fought back. They much prefer teachers to calmly put their heads in the guillotine in a calm and orderly manner.

Monday's (Sept. 30, '13) Portelos hearing was overflowing with public observers (with 4 of us from MORE), Betsy Combier and a retired teacher interested in the case and 2 other gentlemen who we didn't know (but have discovered who they were since then - they were there for benign reasons.)

But not 2 ladies who were present - they just didn't compute as they were squarely there to support the DOE -- shepherded in and out by the lawyers. Who were these people, we wondered?

When another MORE showed up late she was denied entry during a break --  DOE lawyer Francis Hobson claimed we were not allowed to bring in another chair despite there being space. Hobson claimed it was a ruling of the building manager, which we challenged. When someone was sent up and said we could add the chair, Hobson interjected that it was not allowed, despite having claimed to not making the decision. I challenged her right to tell the lady who came up not to allow it and she backed off. When I asked for her name she refused to give it to me. Betsy passed that info on. What arrogance these people from DOE legal have. Actually, most of the Tweedies.

Then it all clicked into place. They were packing the hearing room with their own people, people who I bet were getting paid to be there.

We looked up their names and:   OEO!!! Office of Equal Opportunity. More taxpayer money spent to "fill seats". If the press is looking for a good scandal to expose, FOIL their timesheets for Sept. 30. (They were there for the morning session only.) Were 2 employees of the DOE getting paid to attend the hearing?

Here they are. I called Tiwana Barnes and asked her about her attendance and she hung up on me. Feel free to give her and Roxanna a call to ask the same question.

Thomas Roxanna


RThomas17
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Shael in the Eye of the Storm in Debate with Parents on Testing

In many ways this was the most remarkable part of Monday night's CEC 15 High Stakes Testing event -- a real debate between a chief Tweedie (Gotham lists him as one of 5 potential Chancellor candidates) and parents and teachers. (You can see MORE's Lisa North and Michelle Hamilton making comments. You won't see anyone from Unity or New Action.) But I will give Shael credit for being the only Tweedie to even engage in these debates and not hide like Walcott and the rest. This should get him a good Superintendent job -- somewhere.

I had more material but edited some of it out since some of the comments were about their own kids and somewhat too sensitive to be public -- but so sad about the impact of high stakes testing on their kids. And let me say to those who comment that we need tests, blah, blah, blah. Yes we need tests -- tests created by teachers. And to those who say we need high stakes tests -- one D. 15 parent whispered to me-- What about getting into Stuy? I said if kids want to go through that fine, but why make millions do that? And why make kids in lower grades who can be so vulnerable educationally have to deal with high stakes tests that can brand them at such an early age?


Co-Location Madness: PS 196, MS 582 Petition to Stop 3rd School Co-location

Why would the DOE put a 2nd middle school in the same building where one already exists in addition to an elementary school?
Another act of madness by the exiting madmen and women at Tweed.

PS 196 is in District 14 on Bushwick Ave. just a few blocks north of the school I taught at for 27 years. I know Rob and many teachers at the school since I was the district tech liason there from 1998-2002 when I retired. Putting a 3rd school in there is beyond outrageous --- This came from Rob Burstein. I'm not a big believer in petitions. These things are reversed either by someone with enough political pull to scare the Tweedies or if there were a massive response from the community like there was in Marine Park years ago --- the only successful community charter resistance I can remember.
Dear Friends,

As many of you are aware, I am a teacher in a NYC Public School. My school is in a fight to protect itself from a devastating and inappropriate co-location of a third school into our building. I would be most appreciative if you would take a minute to sign our online petition and consider forwarding it to others, posting it on your Facebook wall and any other social media that you wish. We need all the help we can get to try to stop Mr. Bloomberg's last acts of pedagogical madness from hurting our students!
Thanks so much for your help--it's really appreciated!!

I just signed the petition "Stop The Damaging Third School Co-Location at P.S. 196 and M.S. 582!" on Change.org.

It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-damaging-third-school-co-location-at-p-s-196-and-m-s-582?share_id=pVUizqnuGu&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Thanks!

Rob

Rockaway Theatre Company Weekend Update: Last days to see Boeing, Boeing

NOTE: RTC has sent out a notice that due to the slimebags in Congress Gateway National Park, where the theater is located, is shut down. So amongst all the other stuff the incredible work these people put into the show is in jeopardy this weekend. Luckily they performed the last 2 weekends and I taped the performance last Sat night. It is up on the web in a private space for the RTC (can't make it public due to copyrite stuff - or so they tell me).

This is what I wrote before the notice from RTC came in.


I've seen the show twice and am going back this weekend. Three of the actors are NYC teachers, including MORE supporter Steve Ryan from Leon Goldstein HS, where co-director Michael Wotypka (who I know from way back in his TJC days) also teaches. And 2 of the major players in the theater, Susan Jasper and John Galleace, also taught at Goldstein before retiring. The nebbish is played by great comic actor David Risely who played Felix when I was in the Odd Couple. Steve - on the right - plays the lucky - or unlucky guy - trying to manipulate 3 fiances.

Here is my blurb in this week's Wave.
Take 3 beautiful stewardesses, mix them with a debonair boyfriend they all share, add in his nebishy best friend from Wisconsin and a live-in French maid - naturally since they are in Paris - and a sumptuous apartment with lots of doors - and for very good reason - and you end up with "Boeing, Boeing", the latest side-splitting comedy produced by the Rockaway Theatre Company. The show is in its final weekend at the Post Theater in Fort Tilden. Don't miss the final opportunity to see our amazing local and imported talent (from Brooklyn). The production follows a long-line of fine plays directed by Peggy Page and Michael Wotypka, who also have the distinction of providing me with my acting debut – and denouement – in the Odd Couple two years ago.
See video highlights of Boeing, Boeing at: https://vimeo.com/75933374



Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Shame on "Journalists" Supporting E4E Closed Meeting Where All Had to Sign "The Pledge"

When the so-called ed press takes part in a naked propaganda event to promote an organization funded by billionaires to put forth their anti-union, anti-real reform education. (Ask E4E what they think about a campaign to reduce high class sizes?)
Panelists included journalists Ben Max (Decide NYC), Lindsey Christ (NY1), Sarah Garland (Hechinger Report) and Sarah Darville (GothamSchools).
What does this say about these journalists? Teachers who do not agree with the E4E position are banned. We know that E4E supports every Bloomberg ed deform position and those allowed to attend must agree with the E4E position. So what are people who call themselves journalists doing there? I don't care about the others but I am disappointed in Lindsey Christ.

E4E-NY: The Next Education Mayor

E4E-New York teachers gathered on Thursday, September 26, 2013 to ask local journalists questions about the mayoral race and what it means for teachers in NYC.
  1. Thursday's panel was moderated by teachers Lilly Ruiz and Nick Lawrence. 

Thursday Oct 3: Rally to Save I.S. 2 Staten Island

And the beat of co-location goes on.
 
Thursday October 3rd @ 5:30 pm
(Outside I.S. 2 on Midland Ave)

Followed by a DoE PUBLIC HEARING @ 6:30PM at I.S. 2 in the Auditorium
We need every student, parent, teacher, elected official and community member on Staten Island to raise their voice and be heard!


Laura E. Timoney
(O) 718.987.6411
(C) 917.667.2711
Laura@Timoney.com

Video: Leonie Haimson and Jia Lee at CEC 15 High Stakes Testing Forum

Everyone knows Leonie. More and more people are getting to know Jia, who represented Change the Stakes and MORE on the panel. Amazing that I only met Jia in April 2012 when she attended a GEM/CTS forum with Carol Burris, Leonie, Gary Rubinstein and more. I'm posting the video in small chunks. More to come.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Video- Inspiring Brooklyn New School Principal Anna Allanbrook: BNS Principal's weekly letter 10.1.13

How come so many progressive principals like Anna Allanbrook and Carol Burris have become heroes to so many teachers while we look at our union leadership with disdain? I was inspired last night when I taped the panel at Anna Allanbrook's remarkable statement with Shael Polokow-Suransky, not only one of the chief Tweedies but second in command to Walcott standing a few feet away.

Many were asking why he seems so different from other Tweedies in his willingness to meet and dialogue with people. Some say "ambition to be the next chancellor." Some think he is a nice guy. Some say he sickens them with his slickness. I am agnostic but will recognize his patience and willingness to take the heat. (See the video I posted of parents and he holding a back and forth in the lobby after the meeting.)

Here is the video of Anna, followed by the written text for you to share if you like.



Dear Families:

Many of you joined me last night for the District 15 Community Education Council at 7:00 at MS 51. For those who weren’t able to be there, I include here the transcript of my words:

As we reflect on the new state test results, we need to ask “Why?” Rather than guessing, I checked out the United States Department of Education’s website where I found frequently asked questions. One was, “How does testing help teachers?” We are told: “Teachers gain a great deal of information about the performance of individual students that enables them to meet the particular needs of every child.”

Never mind that results arrive in the summer when it is too late to use this data to change instruction.

I would argue that today’s test scores do not tell us very much. There are few surprises. If the test was too hard, the score will be low. Too easy, the score will be high.

This year we saw that although everyone’s scores went down, results followed the norm: schools with more poverty, special education and second language learners performed more poorly than others.

Another question at the government website was,”How is testing handled for children with disabilities and for those with limited English proficiency?” The answer? “No Child Left Behind requires that all children be assessed.” How insightful. No acknowledgement that these tests are completely inappropriate for second language learners and those with disabilities. We already know they can be two or three years behind grade level so it makes no sense to test them on material that may be two or three years above it.

Uncle Sam continues, “Some say that testing causes teachers to teach to the test. Is that true?” Embedded in the answer is the claim that, “If teachers cover subject matter required by the standards and teach it well, then students will master the material on which they will be tested. In that case, students will need no special test preparation in order to do well.”

That’s a big if. There was a time when test preparation was considered unethical. Now, preparation for the tests is standard and in fact, at my school, parents will ask if we are putting their children at a disadvantage when we don’t do test prep.

Yet another question asks, “Do tests measure the progress of schools?” We learn that testing data determines whether a school is meeting the state's standard of "adequate yearly progress." Today this data is being used not only to measure schools, but to rate teachers from ineffective to highly effective in part by calculating the amount of student growth on standardized tests. In fact, each child’s rate of progress could conceivably affect the careers not only of his or her teacher, but of other teachers in the school.

What gets lost in this discussion is testing’s impact on the child. I was fortunate to have raised my daughters before the era of testing. They took tests, but there was no prep and no true concern about performance. Yes, when the school year ended (and not in the summer) the score was included in the final progress report, but then it was forgotten. Never did it occur to a parent to blame the teacher.

No one considered that number to indicate eventual career and college readiness. We understood that

education takes time, that there was always a developmental span between children and that it was okay if some of them didn’t test well. We understood, too, that the score was simply another indicator. We had no desire for our schools to be like Lake Wobegon, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."

Early in the age of accountability, standardized tests were much easier. One year, a fourth grade class in our school received twenty-five threes. Twenty-five

individuals had been reduced to sameness. But we didn’t learn who could persevere in reading and math or who understood more complex ideas.

To some extent then, the rationale for harder tests makes sense. Many of us are familiar with William Butler Yeats’ famous quote, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”, but test makers assume that knowledge can be thrown in the pail and then retrieved. Educators know it doesn’t work like that. Children learn by connecting what they already know with new ideas. When we cannot actively make meaning, we do not learn or remember.

We understood the purpose of the new Common Core tests to dig deeper and to differentiate between our learners. Differentiate they did, but only because last year’s tests were hard to do well on because there was no connection to the children.

Javier Hernandez in the New York Times said many teachers complained of inadequate training to prepare students for the exams. This was not the issue.

One of our teachers, Katherine Sorel, wrote a piece for Schoolbook in which she said, “As a savvy test-taker, I could usually identify which choice Pearson considered right. And sometimes I couldn’t choose.” These kinds of tests are weak measures of the ability to comprehend complex material, write, apply math, or understand concepts. Nor do they tell us what students can do on real-world tasks.

Another significant change between the 2013 test and the tests that my children took is the length of the exams. My children spent less than one hour a day. Now, children must be tested for three days for each subject. The test is seventy to ninety minutes long and even longer for students with IEPs. One of my teachers commented, “My students tried to rise to the occasion, but found it totally grueling and some just wrote 'something' to finish. Heads on desk, shifting in their seats, no amount of pretzels could help them keep their otherwise sunny dispositions. And I'm exhausted: I'd much rather be teaching. Either you can read and write critically on your grade level or you can't - three days is unnecessary and cruel.”

After viewing the process, a paraprofessional declared, “State sanctioned child abuse.” A teacher told me, ”I had at least one child in tears every day.” But the government website says only, “Although testing may be stressful for some students, testing is a normal and expected way of assessing what students have learned.”

One other concern that needs to be raised is the price of testing. Since 2008, we have seen reduced budgets with less money for basic supplies and substitute teachers. But not for testing and teacher effectiveness systems. Where is all this money coming from? Would we be more effective if we had more money for the classroom and less for “accountability”?

These tests hurt our struggling students. They have created a culture of competition amongst children, parents, teachers, and principals. The numbers become more important than the satisfaction of learning big ideas. We have given the message that we value more how children bubble in ovals than how they question or wonder about the world.

All for now,

Anna

Borowitz: Panicstricken Tea Party Supporters Flee U.S.


October 1, 2013

Millions Flee Obamacare


boro-flee.jpg
UNITED STATES (The Borowitz Report)—Millions of Tea Party loyalists fled the United States in the early morning hours today, seeking what one of them called “the American dream of liberty from health care.”

Harland Dorrinson, 47, a tire salesman from Lexington, Kentucky, packed up his family and whatever belongings he could fit into his Chevy Suburban just hours before the health-insurance exchanges opened, joining the Tea Party’s Freedom Caravan with one goal in mind: escape from Obamacare.

“My father didn’t have health care and neither did my father’s father before him,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let my children have it.”

But after driving over ten hours to the Canadian border, Mr. Dorrinson was dismayed to learn that America’s northern neighbor had been in the iron grip of health care for decades.

“The border guard was so calm when he told me, as if it was the most normal thing in the world,” he said. “It’s like he was brainwashed by health care.”

Turning away from Canada, Mr. Dorrinson joined a procession of Tea Party cars heading south to Mexico, noting, “They may have drug cartels and narcoterrorism down there, but at least they’ve kept health care out.”
Mr. Dorrinson was halfway to the southern border before he heard through the Tea Party grapevine that Mexico, too, has public health care, as do Great Britain, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, New Zealand, Slovenia, and dozens of other countries to which he had considered fleeing.
Undaunted, Mr. Dorrinson said he had begun looking into additional countries, like Chad and North Korea, but he expressed astonishment at a world seemingly overrun by health care.
“It turns out that the United States is one of the last countries on earth to get it,” he said. “It makes me proud to be an American.”
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Vote James for Public Advocate Today

All out for James. I don't have much time so check my blogroll for all the other bloggers supporting her. I also don't have time to republish the video I made of her at a PEP -- check the archives.

Here is James Eterno at the ICE blog:

VOTE FOR LETITIA JAMES IN TUESDAY'S RUNOFF (My View Only)


 
Get out the Vote for Tish James on Tuesday in the Democratic Runoff!
 
Letitia James fought the mayor's reprehensible school closing policies; she deserves our support.
 
Note this is my view only along with my wife and most of the family but not necessarily the position of ICE, Jeff Kaufman, MORE or anyone else.
 
I did write this segment for my Wave column published this Friday. I will publish the entire column on Friday. 
I am writing this just before going out to vote for Leticia James in the runoff for Public Advocate. So by the time you read this the election will be decided. I was disappointed that Phil Godfeder is/was supporting her opponent, Daniel Squadron. In his first campaign for office I ran into Phil outside Waldbaums and told him I expected to be disappointed in him on education issues like closing schools, charters, testing etc. I still haven’t made a judgment but I do support him on general issues. By endorsing the charter lobby-funded Squadron over James, who has stood up to big-chain charter invasions while Squadron has played politics, Goldfeder is making a statement on education deform – a disappointing statement. He is also making a statement on unions, mostly supporting James. I know, I know – loyalty to Chuck Schumer and all the other special interests backing Squadron. But still… James as a black woman lawyer from Brooklyn who has a proven record in the City Council, will be/would have been (depending on the results) a boon for all of the Rockaways, west and east ends – and the very growing and increasingly active middle. Once again, Rockaway –  A Tale of Two Cities. Or maybe three.


Monday, September 30, 2013

Sept. 30: Portelos Hearing, Protest Eva Invasion of Seth Low, High Stakes Test Forum at PS 51K

Oy! On a beautiful day that I would love to be spending in my backyard contemplating my little garden construction project that has become my obsession (contemplate, not do actual work on it -- but look for a photo soon to show where I am at with it) I am about to leave for the Portelos hearing -- where I hear the slimy investigators will testify. I know Portelos did talk to them and no matter how innocent you think you are they will twist any word out of place and use it against you. This should be a good lesson for all of us to pass on about how to deal with OSI. My instinct is to refuse to say anything. Let them gather evidence -- you will have your day at the hearing. Of course people talk to them hoping they will hear your side and there won't be a hearing. Looking at the evidence, they are not interested in your side -- the interview is to catch you. But maybe I am wrong -- check with lawyers.

As I've been reporting, we are not telling details -- you can check the charges at Protect Portelos -- but so far all I hear is nonsense from the DOE -- without much to go on they are trying to paint Portelos as a terrorist -- someone to fear -- like the principal and staff are afraid of him -- taking some of the words of anger he used when he came under attack out of context. The DOE lawyer was already whining that some are intimidated by him and won't testify against him. As NYSUT lawyer Chris Callegy said -- "If I had a nickel for every person intimidated by the DOE...."

Callegy keeps pointing out that if these people in his school were upset at him they wouldn't elect him as chapter leader. Let's see how many of these people actually testify against him. Given the actions of the principal towards Portelos supporters there is much more fear of her than of him. Here's my report from last Monday's hearing. Portelos Hearing: DOE Legal Invalidates Chapter Le...
I expect other retiree MOREistas to attend.

STOP THE CHARTER SCHOOL INVASION THREATENING DISTR... I have to leave the hearing about 4:30 to get to the 5:30 rally at Seth Low at 99 Ave. P (near West 9th St in Brooklyn) where Eva is invading. Say what? This is white Bensonhurst. The border of District 20 and 21. A charter there? Well you know the Eva drill. Poor kids of color are passe. She need to build her political machine in all parts of the city to fuel her mayoral ambitions. There is a hearing at 6 and I will stay for a while. Click the link above for more info. (I will take some footage).

MORE/Change the Stakes Jia Lee and Fred Smith on P...
But then I have to get over to PS 51 at 350 5th Ave in Park Slope for the CEC 15 sponsored High Stakes Testing forum where our pals Leonie Haimson, Jia Lee and Fred Smith will be on the same panel with Shael Polokow-Suransky. I will tape if I can.

I don't expect to get home until 10PM or later. And I will be very hungry. Can someone email me a chicken parm hero?