Parents Call on Moskowitz and Charter Lobby to Use Ad Money to Pay Rent

The charter wars heat up even as de Blasio and Farina take a neutral stance. Yes, Virginia, the enormous charter lobby taking money away from the interests of children and using it to create a bigger share for their own pockets, may be working. Thus the need to continuously counter attack.
See my posts yesterday, especially the misuse of PS 241 by Eva.

• Outrage Grows Over Eva Schools Allowed to Co-Locat...
• Breaking: Eva Moskowitz Violates Numerous DOE Safe...
• UPDATED LIST OF CO-LOCO REVERSALS and APPROVALS
• Moskowitz, NY Post, Charter - er Chalkbeat Try to ...

Also see Ravitch:

Diane Ravitch's blog

Parents, Eva Angry about de Blasio Co-Location Decisions, But for Different Reasons - Mayor de Blasio and Carmen Farina approved most of the Bloomberg administration’s charter co-locations, to the outrage and dismay of public school parents ... 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Media Contact:

Julian Vinocur, Julian@aqeny.org. 203.313.2479

Olivia Leirer, oleirer@nycommunities.org. 646.479.3426

Parents to Demand Wealthy Charter School Ad Campaign Backers Use Money to Pay Rent

Outrage Grows as Moskowitz Tries to Sabotage City's Pre-K Advocacy Day in Albany 

PRESS CONFERENCE

*TODAY, FRIDAY 2/28, 10:30AM, 

52 Chambers St./Steps of DOE*

WHAT: Following the charter school industry's new multi-million dollar ad campaign, parents impacted by co-locations will join the city’s leading education groups in demanding wealthy charter school backers put their money towards paying rent.

The controversial ads come as a major charter chain operator, Eva Moskowitz, announced plans to close her schools next Tuesday, to lobby for more charter school funding. Her lobby day is scheduled to compete with an advocacy day for universal pre-K on the same day, a fact that has angered parents across the city who believe pre-K is an urgent educational priority.

*Facts on troubling funding sources for ads will be presented*

WHO: Parents and community members from New York Communities for Change and the Alliance for Quality Education.

WHEN: Friday, Feb. 28th - 10:30AM

WHERE: 52 Chambers St. Lower Manhattan, NY.

# # #

Outrage Grows Over Eva Schools Allowed to Co-Locate

It's no secret that the only reason this charter school was approved was because of political reasons by Chancellor Dennis Walcott to satisfy a powerful charter school operator. ...joint announcement by Councilmen Gentile, Greenfield and Traygor

Today's announcement regarding the continuance of the charter co-locations at I.S. 96, Seth Low, and I.S. 281, Joseph B. Cavallaro, is a huge disappointment. Many of us who are part of the public school system were hopeful that with a new administration, we'd see a real, meaningful change that responded to the needs of the community. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case... District 20 CEC Pr Rel.

We identified clear criteria and we followed it.... Farina

 I’d like to know what the criteria were – Walk throughs w/ the SLTs and CEC reps should have been made in every case before these decisions were made; were they?.. Leonie Haimson

Not at the R049 building for Eagle Academy. No involvement or walk throughs.-- Francesco Portelos, Chapter Leader, IS 49.

The paltry list of reversals we posted earlier in the day is a major example of de Blasio buckling to the charter lobby.

Two Eva invaded schools in District 20 for upcoming years were being closely watched for reversals, given the outrage expressed at the October PEP shams pushed through by Bloomberg by politicos, parents, students and teachers. Here is the statement released by CEC 20 (Bay Ridge).

Breaking: Eva Moskowitz Violates Numerous DOE Safety and Other Regs by Calling Illegal Press Conference Inside PS 241

Success Academy parents were in attendance not because they chose to be there but because their children were held captive so that their parents would attend. Success Academy staffers greeted parents arriving to pick up their children (at 4:30) and directed parents into the school's auditorium telling them they could not pick up their children until after this meeting. Many parents were furious and complained but to no avail. They would not get access to the children until Eva had their captive attention.... Report from inside PS 241

When does the time come when this woman's blatant use of children and parents for her own selfish political ends will be challenged? Will de Blasio and Farina show some guts and hold Eva's feet to the fire? I'm betting not with today's sorry showing where only 9 co-locos were reversed even if 3 were Eva's. She should have gotten all of her school invasions reversed. Some communities are already up in arms, but more on that later.

Here is a report from an insider.

Eva Moskowitz held a press conference today in our school- for free- all the while utilizing NYC DOE property (and our sound system) while blatantly refusing to follow DOE protocol. 

She did not obtain the proper permits for holding a press conference/rally inside the building, let in press without prior approval from the DOE and risked the safety and security of all the children in the building who were attending after-school programs when her staff opened the back doors of the building to usher in adults who never signed in with security- this includes those members of the press who most likely knew they would never have gotten past security!!!

Security officers stated that they were never informed that any meeting, rally, or press conference would be held inside the school building.  They had been notified that there would be one outside the building in the school yard. The head custodian was never notified of any such event.  The principal of the school- who is solely responsible for submitting all permits to the DOE was not notified as well.  

Each of the above-mentioned parties called their supervisors when confronted with the "impromptu" decision to move the event inside- all of whom stated that this was not in accordance to DOE protocols and should not be allowed. School Safety stated they would be sending more officers to the site to shut it down as we only had two officers on site and one was scheduled to leave at that time. It was not deemed safe for these officers to handle the situation on their own without back-up.  The Custodial supervisor was not happy and went to call his supervisor. The school's Network personnel requested that a public school staff member be present at this event (to perhaps witness any further assaults on DOE protocol/procedures??).  

Success Academy parents were in attendance not because they chose to be there but because their children were held captive so that their parents would attend. Success Academy staffers greeted parents arriving to pick up their children (at 4:30) and directed parents into the school's auditorium telling them they could not pick up their children until after this meeting. Many parents were furious and complained but to no avail. They would not get access to the children until Eva had their captive attention.  

She then proceeded to persuade them that the de Blasio was closing one of their schools (interesting twist on not allowing more schools to open in space already occupied by existing schools.) Eva spoke to parents about her schools being the only successful schools- and the evil de Blasio stealing that away from parents- not allowing their children to get a real education. Because only she can provide a "real" education.  She then paraded out two black staffers (mind you- she is surrounded by almost all white staffers- everywhere) but parades out these two black staffers to speak to the parents- 99% of whom are black by my eyewitness account) to pressure them into attending Tuesday's lobby day in Albany. Her schools will be shut down that day- students missing an entire day of education- so that she can bring busloads of folks to Albany. I call this child exploitation- children should be in school learning- not spending half the day on a bus, paraded around the state capital, used as a pawn in one women's quest to monopolize and privatize public education.   

When the pre-event concluded, parents were ushed out to the school yard to attend a second "real" press event.

The event was kept short- probably knowing that she only had so much time before official were alerted and actually arrived on site- so that approximately 20-30 minutes after the event began- she moved everyone outside. 

Unfortunately- the DOE was unable (or maybe unwilling) to mobilize fast enough to stop this blatant disregard of protocol's set in place for all public schools- but apparently not for Eva. She will do anything to get more free space to run her schools- her own way- with no respect or regard for the same institution which feeds her. 

UPDATED LIST OF CO-LOCO REVERSALS and APPROVALS

As a follow-up to my last post (Moskowitz, NY Post, Charter - er Chalkbeat Try to Reverse Mayoral Election)
here is the update from Farina. Good news is Eva is gone from her downtown beachhead at Bergtraum. And watch the Post scream about this one which they, probably tipped off, have been doing for days over that credit recovery sham with attacks on de Blasio over keeping failed schools open. Not that that program didn't come under the Bloomberg admin, but why would the Post bring that up?

What about the Eva bastions in Bensonhurst and Mill Basin? Politicians were screaming about it. I guess since Dominick Recchia got Dewey - his alma mata -- off the list he abandoned Seth Low? And what about the slugs at Coney Island prep who were slammed at the PEP hearings?

Good news on the PS 84K expansion to K-8 -- Eva is right down about 2 blocks occupying a middle school and competing directly with PS 84. This should help, especially if Eva is blocked from expanding that school to grade 8.

Dear Community Members,

We are committed to engaging more meaningfully with our school communities—nothing is more important than involving families in decisions affecting their children’s education. I am writing to share our process for reviewing the 49 space-sharing proposals that were approved last fall. 

The previous administration handed over these proposals—and we have had to review all of them under inflexible deadlines. While the circumstances for each proposal are unique, we identified clear criteria and we followed it. But more importantly, as enrollment deadlines approach, we considered the thousands of families that could be affected.  We were deliberate in our decisions and, under the circumstances we inherited, believe this is the best approach.

If there is one thing school communities should know, it’s this: we are going to do things differently. Today, we are turning the page on the approach of the past. We are going to listen and be responsive like never before, and that will be reflected in everything we do.

First, we do not believe new elementary schools should be opened on high school campuses. While there are examples where it can be effective, overall we have heard concerns from high school communities, as well as elementary level ones, about this practice. We believe high school campuses should serve high school students. On high school campuses, if we have several schools together, we can encourage them to share resources such as AP classes or a library.

Second, we want to ensure that all new schools have the resources they need to provide the services students deserve. Very small schools—under 250 students—may have difficulty providing the range of support needed to serve students effectively.

Third, we considered construction. We looked closely at proposals that would have depended on significant capital work to create space for the co-location, or those that required substantial dislocation to the existing schools within a building.

Last, we considered District 75 capacity. We will not reduce seats for these students.

When making these decisions, we considered families. We have many deadlines coming up—in sum, these 2014 proposals have an impact on up to roughly 4,500 students going through upcoming enrollment processes. With Round Two of middle and high school admissions approaching, rescinding many or all of these proposals would mean that students would be limited in their second round options. We aimed to be minimally disruptive to those existing processes and the families going through them.

Of the 49 proposals from last fall, we are sharing our decisions on 45 of them, all of which are for 2014 implementation. There were four proposals approved for 2015, and we are deferring any decision on these at the moment because the needs of the communities between now and the 2015 school-year may change. We want to listen to community concerns as 2015 draws closer. 

Of the 45 that we have decided on, we are withdrawing nine proposals and revising one. In line with the lens through which we reviewed the proposals, we are proposing alternative locations to open three of the schools whose proposals we have withdrawn in order to provide better building matches. Here is the list of withdrawals:

84M386	M	Co-location of grades 5-8 of SA - Harlem 4 @ M149	Re-siting and grade reconfiguration
04M204	M	Opening of a New District Middle School 04M204 @ M096	New School
04M964	M	Expansion of CPE II from current K-5 to K-8 and Co-location @ Bldg M013	Grade Reconfiguration
16K762	K	Opening of New District Middle School 16K762 @ K335	New School
84MTBD	M	Opening of Success Academy - NY 1 K-4 @ M520/Murry Bergtraum	New School
84QTBD	Q	Opening of Success Academy - New York 5 @ Q400	New School
01M203	M	Opening of a New 9-14 CTE High School 01M203 @ M446	New School
21K768	K	Opening of New District High School @ K540/Dewey	New School
30Q335	Q	Enrollment Reduction of LIC and Opening of New District CTE High School @ Q452/LIC	New School

From the nine proposals that will be withdrawn, we are able to propose better building matches for three of those schools, which will be described in two educational impact statements.

We will propose opening a 9-14 high school – previously proposed for the University Neighborhood High School – and a Career and Technical Education high school – previously proposed for Long Island City High School – at the Murry Bergtraum campus. If approved, that means that campus will serve only high school grades. We also propose to open a district high school on the August Martin Campus, which was originally slated to open on the Dewey Campus.

In addition, we will revise a proposal regarding American Dream Charter School. Rather than opening four sections per grade at building X030 in the Bronx, we are proposing that it open three to better fit the space available.

As you may know, we are initiating a new, meaningful engagement process. The buildings of the above-described proposals will receive walk-throughs from senior DOE leadership, the principal, and the SLT. We will also consult with the school community significantly - the engagement process for these proposals is going to look very different than it has in the past.

For the 35 proposals that will be implemented, we will host a meeting for each school community to discuss next steps, listen to, and engage with parents and educators.

Let me know if you have questions and I appreciate all that you do.

Best,

Carmen Fariña

Chancellor

ortantly, as enrollment deadlines approach, we considered the thousands of families that could be affected.  We were deliberate in our decisions and, under the circumstances we inherited, believe this is the best approach.”

“If there is one thing school communities should know, it’s this: we’re going to do things differently. Today, we are turning the page on the approach of the past. We are going to listen and be responsive like never before, and that will be reflected in everything we do.”

  

Borough	Proposal Title	Type	Year of Impl.	Status
M	Opening and Co-location of a New 9-14 CTE High School 01M203 @ M446	New School	2014	Withdraw
K	Opening and Co-location of New District High School @ K540/Dewey	New School	2014	Withdraw
Q	TER of LIC and Opening and Co-location of New District CTE High School 30Q335 @ Q452/LIC	New School	2014	Withdraw
M	Co-location of grades 5-8 of SA - Harlem 4 @ M149	Re-siting and grade reconfiguration	2014	Withdraw
M	Opening and Co-location of a New District Middle School 04M204 @ M096	New School	2014	Withdraw
M	Expansion of CPE II from current K-5 to K-8 and Co-location @ Bldg M013	Grade Reconfiguration	2014	Withdraw
K	Opening and Co-Location of New District Middle School 16K762 @ K335	New School	2014	Withdraw
M	Opening and Co-location of Success Academy - NY 1 K-4 @ M520/Murry Bergtraum	New School	2014	Withdraw
Q	Opening and Co-Location of SA - New York 5 @ Q400	New School	2014	Withdraw
M	Expansion of Clinton Academy from 6-8 to 6-12 @ M898 (10 East 15th)	Grade Reconfiguration	2015	No decision at this time
K	Co-location of Explore Exceed Grades 6-8 @ K320	Grade Reconfiguration	2015	No decision at this time
Q	Co-Location extension of MS 311 @ Q744	Co-location Extension	2015	No decision at this time
K	Co-Location of New School Achievement First North Brooklyn Preparatory 5-8 @ K299	Grade Reconfiguration	2015	No decision at this time
X	Co-Location of American Dream @ X030	New School	2014	Revise and Implement
M	The Re-siting of UA High School for Emergency Management (CTE) to M520/Bergtraum	Re-siting	2014	Implement
M	The Re-siting of Mather High School (CTE) to M625/Graphics	Re-siting	2014	Implement
M	Expansion of P.S. 72 Lexington Academy from current K-5 to K-8 @ M072	Grade Reconfiguration	2014	Implement
M	Opening and Co-location of a New District Middle School 06M209 @ M192	New School	2014	Implement
M	Opening and Co-location of a New 9-14 CTE HS 06M211 @ M052	New School	2014	Implement
X	Opening and Co-location of a New District Elementary School (08X392) @ X192	New School	2014	Implement
X	TER of I.S. 131  and Opening and Co-location of Success Academy - NY 2 @ X131	New School	2014	Implement
X	Co-location of Girls Prep Charter School Grades 6-8 @ X120	Grade Reconfiguration	2014	Implement
X	Co-location Expansion of Mott Hall Charter School @X063	Co-location Extension	2014	Implement
X	Co-location Extension and Grade Reconfiguration of Children's Aid College Prep Charter School @ X193	Co-location Extension	2014	Implement
X	Opening and Co-location of new district ES 12X458 @ X050	New School	2014	Implement
K	TER of 13K113 and Opening and Co-Location of Compass Charter School @ K113	New School	2014	Implement
K	Expansion of 14K084 from K-5 to K-8 @ K084	Grade Reconfiguration	2014	Implement
K	Opening and Co-location of New District High School 16K765 @ K455/Boys & Girls	New School	2014	Implement
K	Resiting and Co-location of Success Academy 7 from K167 to K161	Re-siting	2014	Implement
K	Co-location of Uncommon High School 3 @ K515/South Shore	Grade Reconfiguration	2014	Implement
K	Opening of New District Middle School 18K763 @ K244	New School	2014	Implement
K	Co-location Extension of Invictus Preparatory Charter School @ K218	Co-location Extension	2014	Implement
K	Opening of New CTE High School 19K764 @ K420/Lane	New School	2014	Implement
K	TER of IS 171 and Opening and Co-location of New District Middle School 19K760 @ K171	New School	2014	Implement
K	Opening and Co-Location of Achievement First Charter School @ K166	New School	2014	Implement
K	Opening and Co-location of Success Academy - NY 3 @ K096	New School	2014	Implement
K	Co-location of Coney Island Prep K-4 @ K281	Grade Reconfiguration	2014	Implement
K	TER of 22K078 and Opening and Co-location of Success Academy - NY 4 @ K078	New School	2014	Implement
Q	Re-siting and Co-location of 24Q290 and 75QTBD	Re-siting	2014	Implement
Q	TER of 26Q435 and Opening and Co-location of New 9-14 CTE High School 26Q315 @Q435/Van Buren	New School	2014	Implement
Q	TER of 27Q475 and the Resiting of RHHS 9th grade cohort @ Q636 in building Q475/Richmond Hill	Re-siting	2014	Implement
Q	TER of Q226 and Opening and  Co-location of New District ESI High School 27Q314 @ Q226	New School	2014	Implement
Q	Opening and Co-Location of New District ES 28Q312 @ Q040	New School	2014	Implement
Q	Opening and Co-Location of New District MS 28Q332 @ Q072	New School	2014	Implement
Q	Opening and Co-Location of SA - New York 6 @ Q059	New School	2014	Implement
Q	Opening and Co-location of New District CTE High School 29Q313 @Q490/Campus Magnet	New School	2014	Implement
Q	Co-location of 30Q092 at Q329 (Temp Swing Space)	Co-location	2014	Implement
R	TER of R016 and Opening and Co-location of New District ES 31R010 @ R016	New School	2014	Implement
R	Opening and Co-Location of Eagle Academy grades 6-8 in Staten Island @ R049	New School	2014	Implement