Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Godspell Opens This Friday in Rockaway

With a great cast, including many of your NYC teacher colleagues. Also a great set designed by Director (and NYC teacher) Frank Ciaiti. Below the graphic is my recent piece in The Wave which focused on the cast.
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This is from a great email newsletter put out by Roger Gonzalez who has been in a bunch of RTC shows. Subscribe if you want to be up to date in community and regional theater in your neighborhoods. LocalTheatreNY.com


godspell RTC
cast2
Top to Bottom and Left to Right... John Panepinto, Renee Steadman, Chazmond Peacock, Matthew Smilardi, Stephen Ryan, Matt Leonen, Michelle Ricciardi, Nicole Mangano, Karen Mascolo. Not pictured: Jacqueline Samaha.
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PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE :

Sep 12, 2014 8:00 pm

Sep 13, 2014 8:00 pm

Sep 14, 2014 2:00 pm

Sep 19, 2014 8:00 pm

Sep 20, 2014 8:00 pm

Sep 21, 2014 2:00 pm

Sep 26, 2014 8:00 pm

Sep 27, 2014 8:00 pm

Sep 28, 2014 2:00 pm

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crew1
Left to Right .. Nora Meyers (Stage Manager) , Kimberly Simek (Assistant Director), Frank Caiati (Director), Gabrielle Mangano (Choreographer) , Jeffrey and Heather Arzberger (Musical Directors)
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Memo From the RTC: The Road to Godspell – The Cast



I popped into a rehearsal of Godspell at the RTC – the set is magnificent but if I reveal details I’d have to kill you – and had a chance to talk to some of the cast, led by Matt Smilardi as Jesus and John Panepinto playing dual roles as John the Baptist and Judas. Well, actually, Matt and John were doing other things so I didn’t speak to them but I did to Renee Steadman, Jackie Samaha, Michelle Ricciardi and Stephen Ryan, all of whom are playing Jesus disciples. “When my friends ask me what the show is about, it’s the parable of Jesus before the crucifixion set to rock music. Right, that’s normal,” said Michelle, making her RTC debut. The show is “carefree and vampy”, said Renee, also an RTC first-timer. Jackie thinks the music is great and loves how everyone works together. Steve, who has never seen the show, which is based on book of Matthew, is excited at Gabrielle Mangano’s choreography. “Gabby is no joke,” he said, “there are pyramids, cheerleading stuff, jumping on and off sets during dancing. If you can’t do it – well, we’re expected to do it.” Director Frank Caiati has staged a very fast moving show. Each character get to do a solo that enhances the parable – with the support of the rest of the cast singing 4 or 5 part harmony. The songs provide the flow of show. And Frank is encouraging the actors to ad lib. “We have freedom and space to act,” said Steve. “So if I came to see show on a Friday – it might be a bit different the next day,” I asked? They all nodded their heads.



I’ll try to catch up with the rest of the cast– Chazmond J. Peacock, Matt Leonen, Karen Mascolo and Nicole Mangano – in a follow-up interview in future columns.



Godspell runs at the Rockaway Theatre Company Sept. 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27 at 8:00pm and Sept. 14, 21, 28 at 2:00pm. Tickets can be ordered by calling 718-374-6400 or by visiting www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org

Tribune poll: Lewis ahead of Emanuel in Chicago mayoral race

Oh, the joy - for now. The hit jobs on Karen by the media will be be intense. But with Rahmbo being such an a-hole there is hope.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is losing the support of voters, according to a new Chicago Tribune poll.

A poll of 800 registered voters found that the mayor’s approval rating has taken a dive.

Two years ago it was 52 percent. That didn’t change much last year, but now it’s only at 35 percent.

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis has not announced that she’s running for mayor, but this poll shows she leads Emanuel, with 43 percent of the vote.

Emanuel has 39 percent, but 14 percent are undecided.

Another question asked if Emanuel relates to voters: 32 percent said he was in touch but 62 percent said he was out of touch.
http://wgntv.com/2014/08/14/tribune-poll-lewis-ahead-of-emanuel-in-chicago-mayoral-race/

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Jews and Social Justice

Pre-eminent among Jewish values in his mind, he said, is the call to do justice...Reform Judaism, which is the largest denomination in American Judaism, has a long tradition of social justice and activism, but it can be a challenge to convince many liberal, modern Jews of the need to live out those values in a Jewish context.... NY Times: A Rabbi’s Departure Manifests a Challenge for Jews in America
An interesting article a few weeks ago on Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope. Given some of the attacks on the concept of social justice, especially as related to unionism and the roles both the UFT leadership and MORE are playing, I thought it time to remind people of this tradition.

Some think Jews should only do SJ work for other Jews. I remember in my early years of activism in support of the Black and Latino communities in Williamsburg that were being shut out of power in education due to alliances between the Hasidic and Polish/Italian political forces I was hanging out with my Assistant Principal, the guidance counselor and an orthodox teacher who taught 6th grade across the hall from me. This guy had been my Hebrew school teacher when I was 10 and he was so mean and brutal to us I went home sick after every class. Finally I told my mother I would not go back to Hebrew school. And I didn't, prepping for my Bar Mitzvah with a private rabbi who lived across the street (who died a month before my Bar Mitzvah - I had an alibi.)

Whenever he talked Judaism to me I reminded him of his role in driving me out of religion. On this occasion, the 3 of them were ganging up on me for my activism in support of the Black and Latino community. "You should worry about your own people," they were telling me instead of the "shvartsas." They were, as were many of my colleagues, concerned - this was a few years after the '68 strike and wounds were still raw. My afro was growing out, as was my beard, so I looked the part and constituted a threat on the school and district level.

Not soon after, the Dist. Supt and the UFT District Rep paid a visit to my AP, suggesting he find a way to give me a U rating. He refused - and never became a principal. He always joked that in standing up for me his career was killed.


Now there was a mensh - he performed an act of social justice - for another Jew of course, but SJ just the same.

"Brother" Ernie Logan Throws UFT Chapter Under the Bus

When a UFT official called the CSA (principals union) our "union brothers and sisters" all I had to say is that justbecause the concentration camp guards have a union doesn't make them my brothers.... John Elfrank-Dana, CL Bergraum HS
Well Ernie Logan in this article scapegoats our chapter for Bergtraum's problems. You can read my response in the comments.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/besides-pre-k-what-is-de-blasios-schools-plan.html


I've maintained for 20 years that the UFT/Unity leadership owes more fealty to the CSA than to its members. If I were running the UFT I would say to Ernie Logan: Tell your scuzball bully principal element to cut the shit out or its all out war on them and your union. Thanks to John for this catch.

Cornel West Calls Al Sharpton the "Bonafide House Negro of the Obama Plantation"

West and his co-host Tavis Smiley both lamented that black leadership has become “so sold-out” so as not to have the courage to be a “bull in the china shop,” break rank, and talk about “racism, poverty, and militarism” at an otherwise “bought-out” event.

The Princeton professor also believes Martin Luther King Jr. would have been disappointed by the March on Washington anniversary speeches.


Like most who attended the 50th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington, Cornel West appreciated the symbolism of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic crowd of tens of thousands gathered to celebrate a landmark event in civil rights history. And, as usual, the professor and radio commentator also had his own spin.
This time the target of his colorful rhetoric was Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize the Aug. 24 event and spoke at the Aug. 28 celebration that featured President Obama.
"[We] saw of course the coronation of the bona fide house Negro of the Obama plantation, our dear brother Al Sharpton, supported by the Michael Dysons and others who’ve really prostituted themselves intellectually in a very ugly and vicious way," West said on the Friday broadcast of his Smiley and West radio program.
The prostitution reference is a not-so-thinly-veiled criticism of Sharpton, host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation, and Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson and other African-Americans who frequently appear on the cable network.
West also believes the speeches would have caused Martin Luther King Jr. to "roll in his grave" because of the lack of focus on jobs and other key issues.
"He wants people talking about the new Jim Crow and the privatization of education, and the various ways in which the well to do, the oligarchs and plutocrats are getting away with murder," West lamented. "You didn’t hear that whatsoever. You not only got a tame Martin Luther King Jr., but a real sense in which who he really was at the end of his life hardly surfaced at all."
BET Politics - Your source for the latest news, photos and videos illuminating key issues and personalities in African-American political life, plus commentary from some of our liveliest voices. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
(Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images)


Outspoken Prof. Cornel West called the Rev. Al Sharpton thebonafide house negro of the Obama plantation” during an impassioned interview in which he also tore into President Barack Obama, along with others who spoke at the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington this week.
Al Sharpton Is ‘Bonafide House Negro of the Obama Plantation, Says Prof. Cornel West
Dr. Cornel West (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
West said the MLK anniversary event lacked “truth” and merely offered a “sanitized” version of King’s vision, especially in light of who the civil-rights icon became by the end of his life.
“Brother Martin himself, I think, would’ve been turning over in his grave,” West said of the words spoken at the event, adding that instead “we saw the coronation of the bonafide house negro of the Obama plantation, our dear brother Al Sharpton.”
Al Sharpton Is ‘Bonafide House Negro of the Obama Plantation, Says Prof. Cornel West
Rev. Al Sharpton speaking at the MLK 50th Anniversary (Credit: AP)
West added that Sharpton is supported by the likes of MSNBC analyst Michael Eric Dyson “and others who’ve really prostituted themselves intellectually in a very ugly and vicious way.”
More from Mediaite:
West and his co-host Tavis Smiley both lamented that black leadership has become “so sold-out” so as not to have the courage to be a “bull in the china shop,” break rank, and talk about “racism, poverty, and militarism” at an otherwise “bought-out” event.
This is not the first time West has referred to Sharpton as being “on the Obama plantation.” The radio host made the same claim in July when he felt Sharpton did not advocate hard enough for a Department of Justice “civil rights” prosecution against the recently-acquitted George Zimmerman.
“Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream; Barack Obama’s got drones,” West said. “Martin Luther King, Jr. had prophetic mission; Barack Obama’s got deadly missiles that he’s ready to use; he already used them in Libya. And of course on the continent of Africa they’ve got what? Twelve centers for drones? Under his administration? For what?”
Listen to the exchange from PRI via YouTube:

He Wasn't Marchin' Anymore - How Al Sharpton Was Bought By Bloomberg

The march that Sharpton called was clearly in response to what happened in Staten Island and that's why it was held there. It was called even before the events in Missouri. Why were none of these marches called by Sharpton and his cronies during the Bloomberg era - especially with all of the stuff going on with stop and frisk? The person who calls for a march or demo is always an important question in the decision of whether to support it or not. Judging an organization's commitment to social justice on the basis of how they stand on a demo called by one of the most dishonest people on the face of the earth is absurd. Much of the opposition to the march did not center on the issue of police brutality but on the fact that the central player was Sharpton.... an ICE member

$110K grant kept Rev. Al Sharpton quiet about Mayor Bloomberg changing term limits

Sunday, August 15, 2010, 4:00 AM


















The Rev. Al Sharpton has long opposed nonpartisan elections, but stayed quiet when Mayor Bloomberg rammed through a law to extend term limits. Watson/Getty The Rev. Al Sharpton has long opposed nonpartisan elections, but stayed quiet when Mayor Bloomberg rammed through a law to extend term limits.
The Rev. Al Sharpton finally disagreed with Mayor Bloomberg a week ago on how to change elections in the city. It was a long time coming.
The most prominent African-American voice in New York has a warm and productive relationship with its richest and most powerful white man. They don't always agree, but they always get along.
On Aug. 7, Sharpton said he would fight any push to make city elections nonpartisan - which Bloomberg hoped to do this fall.
His public stand helped kill the idea. Barely 48 hours later, Bloomberg pulled the plug.
Two years earlier, though, Sharpton stayed mum while Bloomberg rammed through a law to extend term limits so he could run again.
Why?
Perhaps because, as the city was convulsed over term limits, Sharpton's National Action Network got a $110,000 grant from a brand-new nonprofit funded by Bloomberg.
In fact, on the very day Bloomberg announced he wanted to run again, the first $50,000 of the grant was transferred to the National Action Network.
The details are buried in filings from the Education Equality Project, a group started two months earlier by Sharpton and Bloomberg's school chancellor, Joel Klein, to close the gap between white and minority students.
The project reported only two cash donations in 2008, gifts of $250,000 each from two anonymous donors.
Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser would not discuss specifics, but said the mayor gave money to the education project in 2008 - which means Bloomberg was one of those two donors.
The National Action Network got $50,000 on Oct. 2, 2008, and the remaining $60,000 on Oct. 17, 2008. The Education Equality Project's tax filing claims there was no conflict of interest in giving money to a group run by one of its own founders: "There is no relationship between the Organization and NAN."
Sharpton told the Daily News last week the National Action Network never got any of Bloomberg's money - "not that I know of."
He insisted he spoke out against Bloomberg changing term limits, though it doesn't show up in any news clips from the time.
"When the mayor changed term limits, I've been on the record against it all along," Sharpton insisted. "The mayor has no financial arrangements, before or after, with us."
More to the point, he said the education project's cash didn't buy Bloomberg any favors from him - and he ended up quitting the group because he opposed Bloomberg's successful effort to renew mayoral control of city schools.
Sharpton endorsed the African-American William Thompson against Bloomberg last year but was barely visible. Sharpton denounces the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program at his Saturday rallies, but not on the steps of City Hall.
Allies of Sharpton say he opposed nonpartisan elections on the merits, fearing it would hurt minority voters and candidates.
Rejecting nonpartisan elections showed Bloomberg that Sharpton can't be bought.
But taking a dive on term limits showed Bloomberg that Sharpton might be able to be rented.
alisberg@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/110k-grant-rev-al-sharpton-quiet-mayor-bloomberg-changing-term-limits-article-1.204085#ixzz3Ca3A7Vf1

Malcolm X on The March on Washington

Who ever heard of angry revolutionists swinging their bare feet together with their oppressor in lily-pad park pools, with gospels and guitars and "I Have A Dream" speeches? And the black masses in America were--and still are--having a nightmare....
Malcolm X on the March on Washington, 1964

From The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1964. 278-281.

      Not long ago, the black man in America was fed a dose of another form of the weakening, lulling and deluding effects of so-called "integration." It was that "Farce in Washington," I call it.

      The idea of a mass of blacks marching on Washington was originally the brainchild of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters' A. Philip Randolph. For twenty or more years the March on Washington idea had floated around among Negroes. And, spontaneously, suddenly now, that idea caught on.

      Overalled rural Southern Negroes, small town Negroes, Northern ghetto Negroes, even thousands of previously Uncle Tom Negroes began talking "March!"

      Nothing since Joe Louis had so coalesced the masses of Negroes. Groups of Negroes were talking of getting to Washington any way they could--in rickety old cars, on buses, hitch-hiking--walking, even, if they had to. They envisioned thousands of black brothers converging together upon Washington--to lie down in the streets, on airport runways, on government lawns--demanding of the Congress and the White House some concrete civil rights action.

      This was a national bitterness; militant, unorganized, and leaderless. Predominantly, it was young Negroes, defiant of whatever might be the consequences, sick and tired of the black man's neck under the white man's heel.

      The white man had plenty of good reasons for nervous worry. The right spark--some unpredictable emotional chemistry--could set off a black uprising. The government knew that thousands of milling, angry blacks not only could completely disrupt Washington--but they could erupt in Washington.

      The White House speedily invited in the major civil rights Negro "leaders." They were asked to stop the planned March. They truthfully said they hadn't begun it, they had no control over it--the idea was national, spontaneous, unorganized, and leaderless. In other words, it was a black powder keg.

      Any student of how "integration" can weaken the black man's movement was about to observe a master lesson.

      The White House, with a fanfare of international publicity, "approved," "endorsed," and "welcomed" a March on Washington. The big civil rights organizations right at this time had been publicly squabbling about donations. The New York Times had broken the story. The NAACP had charged that other agencies' demonstrations, highly publicized, had attracted a major part of the civil rights donations--while the NAACP got left holding the bag, supplying costly bail and legal talent for the other organizations' jailed demonstrators.

      It was like a movie. The next scene was the "big six" civil rights Negro "leaders" meeting in New York City with the white head of a big philanthropic agency. They were told that their money--wrangling in public was damaging their image. And a reported $800,000 was donated to a United Civil Rights Leadership council that was quickly organized by the "big six."

      Now, what had instantly achieved black unity? The white man's money. What string was attached to the money? Advice. Not only was there this donation, but another comparable sum was promised, for sometime later on, after the March. . . obviously if all went well.

      The original "angry" March on Washington was now about to be entirely changed.

      Massive international publicity projected the "big six" as March on Washington leaders. It was news to those angry grass-roots Negroes steadily adding steam to their March plans. They probably assumed that now those famous "leaders" were endorsing and joining them.

      Invited next to join the March were four famous white public figures: one Catholic, one Jew, one Protestant, and one labor boss.

      The massive publicity now gently hinted that the "big ten" would "supervise" the March on Washington's "mood," and its "direction."

      The four white figures began nodding. The word spread fast among so-called "liberal" Catholics, Jews, Protestants, and laborites: it was "democratic" to join this black March. And suddenly, the previously March--nervous whites began announcing they were going.

      It was as if electrical current shot through the ranks of bourgeois Negroes--the very so-called "middle class" and "upper class" who had earlier been deploring the March on Washington talk by grass-roots Negroes.

      But white people, now, were going to march.

      Why, some downtrodden, jobless, hungry Negroes might have gotten trampled. Those "integration"-mad Negroes practically ran over each other trying to find out where to sign up. The "angry blacks" March suddenly had been made chic. Suddenly it had a Kentucky Derby image. For the status-seeker, it was a status symbol. "Were you there?" You can hear that right today.

      It had become an outing, a picnic.

      The morning of the March, any rickety carloads of angry, dusty, sweating small-town Negroes would have gotten lost among the chartered jet planes, railroad cars, and air-conditioned buses. What originally was planned to be an angry riptide, one English newspaper aptly described now as "the gentle flood."

      Talk about "integrated"! It was like salt and pepper. And, by now, there wasn't a single logistics aspect uncontrolled.

      The marchers had been instructed to bring no signs--signs were provided. They had been told to sing one song: "We Shall Overcome." They had been told how to arrive, when, where to arrive, where to assemble, when to start marching, the route to march. First aid stations were strategically located--even where to faint!

      Yes, I was there. I observed that circus. Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing "We Shall Overcome. . .Suum Day. . ." while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against? Who ever heard of angry revolutionists swinging their bare feet together with their oppressor in lily-pad park pools, with gospels and guitars and "I Have A Dream" speeches?

      And the black masses in America were--and still are--having a nightmare.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Congrats to John Elfrank-Dana who has now successfully battled two abusive principals

If this were Atlanta, Almonte would be leaving in handcuffs..... Ed Notes
Bergtraum HS principal leaves after caught pushing kids into substandard online courses & violating sped rights; sadly she will now likely go and ruin some adult ed program. Congrats to John ElFrank-Dana who has now successfully battled two abusive principals now…hope the school gets someone good finally!... Leonie Haimson
The school’s “blended learning” program, launched by Almonte, let hundreds of students take online courses at home in place of classes they failed or didn’t want to attend, prompting a state Education Department investigation....The state found the school failed to provide required services for special-ed students. Teachers reported constant threats and assaults by out-of-control kids during Almonte’s tenure. Dozens of staffers fled....The school had a 51.2 percent graduation rate in 2013.... NY Post
And the principal is rewarded:
Almonte, who made $144,777 last year, will become a city adult-school principal.
So she can go screw up another program. I know all about Almonte, who worked for a network and knew all about blatant cheating that went on at a school. If this were Atlanta, Almonte would be leaving in handcuffs.

We reported on the Bergtraum situation the other day: It's an exhausting enterprise getting rid of a principal, especially when you get NO help from 52 Broadway.

I'm glad Leonie acknowledges the work John has done in defending the teachers while the UFT told him to try to get along with the principal as she chopped away at his staff.

I have another piece to put up from John that will enrage everyone.


Haimson - Prepare to Be Really Sick - Comment on NY Times Mag Moskowitz Puff Piece by Daniel Bergner

Six teachers spoke to him as well as several parents. I was 100% honest with him. We were completely ignored. Many of things I talked about were the main things he focused on here. Conveniently left out.... Teacher at Mickey Mantle school where Eva attempted to evict the special ed children
Below is a comment by Leonie Haimson, followed by teachers who spoke at length to Daniel Bergner and realize they wasted their time.
NYT Mag shows itself to be again the worst media outlet in the nation when it comes to education; a totally one-sided puff piece on Success charters that is almost an exact replica to the biased piece they ran by Steve Brill on the same subject in 2010. Even replays the name of his book Class Warfare. I had to keep looking at it to make sure it wasn’t published in 2010. Obviously the editors have learned nothing since then. Again, all opposition is manufactured by the union, the battle over space is a personal grudge match between de Blasio and Moskowitz, they didn’t mention the high attrition rates of teachers and students at the school, nor did they interview a single parent or teacher in a co-located school. Just awful . One of the worst pieces of crap I have ever read. http://t.co/PpeFvBMkCb
Comment on FB from a Teacher at the Mickey Mantle school --
Wow! What a complete piece of shit! (I'm a little pissed at the moment.) I spent over 45 minutes talking to this reporter and a couple of others spoke to him as well. None of what we said made it in and as usual it's praise Eva and poor Eva with all the truth left out. She only has schools in co-located schools with room? Bull! That's just one thing. My rant can go on and on with truthful points that he denied his readers and general public. I know I shouldn't be surprised because there is a continued love affair between her and mass media. $$$ talks and the general public is clueless. So of course the teacher bashing will continue and roses will be dropped at her feet. I'm furious!.... Teacher at Mickey Mantle School
More teacher voices:
  • I couldn't read the whole thing I got sick to my stomach. NOTHING from you or other teachers who have to share with her made it in???
  • Nothing. Six teachers spoke to him as well as several parents. I was 100% honest with him. We were completely ignored. Many of things I talked about were the main things he focused on here. Conveniently left out. Hope he is on Twitter.

  • What a jerk. I'm so glad I didn't interview with him.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Samuel Freedman, on Bel Kaufman, Goes After Teacher Bashing, With Ties to the 68 Strike

Around the same time that “Up the Down Staircase” was published, New York City was convulsed by a battle over community control of public schools. The struggle reached its apogee between 1967 and 1968, with the installation of a black governing board in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn, its dismissal of several dozen white teachers, and a series of citywide teachers’ strikes in response. In retrospect, one of the most significant aspects of the controversy over “decentralization,” as community control was formally called, was how it fostered the idea of teachers as the enemy. Decentralization was the product of an alliance between organizations run by liberal élites, such as the Ford Foundation, and low-income black and Puerto Rican communities. This created a pincer effect, with middle-class white teachers and principals portrayed, from both above and below, as the problem. They didn’t live where they taught; they didn’t care.
The race-baiting element of teacher bashing has subsided over the years, as many nonwhites have gone into teaching. But the alliance against teachers remains intact, and, if anything, it has grown stronger.  Today, the élites are not only foundations but also hedge-fund philanthropists and politicians from both parties. Teachers’ unions are routinely portrayed not as legitimate stakeholders but as nefarious special interests. The mass firing of teachers—whether in Central Falls, Rhode Island, or by Michelle Rhee during her reign as schools chancellor in Washington, D.C.—are widely hailed as an overdue cleansing of the Augean stables. Hurricane Katrina provided a convenient excuse for getting rid of virtually the entire teaching and administrative staff of New Orleans’s public schools.
The antipathy toward teachers is often expressed through extolling the exceptional ones. In the nineteen-eighties, that meant books and films and TV shows about Jaime Escalante and Marva Collins. In the current moment, it means valorizing Teach For America participants, who commit only two years to the job. And it means, as in the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” believing that charter schools are the answer precisely because they aren’t in the devious hands of teachers’ unions and career educators.... Samuel Freedman, New Yorker
What a great article and review. I loved Samuel Freedman when he wrote the ed column in the Times - followed by other greats, Richard Rothstein and Mike Winerip.

How interesting that he connects the dots between the manipulations over community control in the late 60s and the current ed deform movement.

This is not the common critique one gets on the left of the 68 strike where it often is

community: good
union: bad

It's always more complicated than that. Freedman comes down on the predecessors of the hedge fund charter lobby, the Ford Foundation,

Farina Threat to ATRS Echos Our Opposition to the Contract

Fariña pledged to announce in the next two weeks a big reduction in the number of teachers getting paid despite not having steady classroom jobs. Earlier this month 114 of the roughly 1,100 teachers — known as the Absent Teacher Reserve — accepted $16,000 buyouts. Fariña said the numbers would dwindle further as principals are taught best practices for writing up teachers and beginning the arduous termination process.... Daily News
MORE and Ed Notes never wanted to be right about our predictions that the new contract clearly put a target on the backs of ATRS but we were pretty sure we were. That this was an underhanded way for the UFT and the DOE to solve their ATR problem. For, as the creation of ATRs in the first place by the UFT 2005 contract agreement, has put it and the DOE in an embarrassing situation. Elimination is the solution but in a way the UFT will try to  claim "it wasn't our fault." Once they're gone, well, you know, out of mind, etc.

I read the sad stories of dread on ATR listserves and FB pages and I feel a pit in my stomach - the same pit I would feel at times during my career - when you hoped to walk into a stable situation and then find your room had been moved, your class changed, your colleague didn't return -- I don't think there was one year when something didn't happen.

Now take those feelings and multiply them by a hundred to get an idea of how an ATR going into a strange school feels today.

Most teachers are not ATRs and are seemingly oblivious to their plight.

Remember: There would be no ATRS if the union had not agreed to it. You can't blame the DOE for doing what it does best - treating teachers like slimeballs. It is their nature. Always has been their nature, though not as vicious until Bloomberg took over.

Other bloggers have been addressing the issue:


Perdido: Let's Be Careful Out There
 
Newly minted ATR James Eterno at ICE: DID FARINA REALLY JUST DECLARE WAR ON ATRs?
 
The Pain and Isolation of an ATR

Fariña wants ... announce a big reduction in the number of teachers getting paid despite not having steady classroom jobs.

Eva Moskowitz Success Academy - Changes Locks on Renovated Faculty Restrooms to Shut Public School Teachers Out

My solution? Pee on the outside of the door.

A co-located public school teacher in an Eva invaded school. By the way, sources tell me that in this Success School you will find a hell of a lot of white kids, a bunch of them Jewish out of a Hebrew school - not corroborated - yet. Eva used the kids of color as a step to go where she really wants to go ---

Inside Colocation

The public school where I've been teaching for over ten years has been "colocated" by a Success Academy charter school. Most people don't know what a colocation looks like, or how it impacts the existing school community. I've been maintaining this blog since Success first moved in to document the process. 

The faculty bathrooms in the basement (where Success Academy has taken up residence) have been fully redone, as you can see on the left. The faculty bathrooms on all the other floors desperately need upgrades too, as you can see on the right. Not only did Success have their bathrooms refurbished, but they also managed to have the locks changed so that the building master key does not work on the basement bathrooms, keeping any other teachers in the building out of these new bathrooms. This effectively has turned the basement faculty bathrooms in this public building into private restrooms for Success.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Sept 2, 4:30: Unjust, unfair firing of probationary teachers – give them a second chance

Hey, good news. New Action is taking some action. I will be there to videotape it. Ed Notes has taken up the issue of Discontinued teachers who are blackballed from the system for many years - I'm too lazy to look for the links but if you search for '"the dreaded D" you will find a bunch.

Many of us in MORE have worked with people in this situation.

MOREista Patrick Walsh, CL of PS 149M, had this to say:

The issue of discontinued teachers is a disgrace of the highest order and one that makes a mockery  -- and an extraordinarily painful and costly mockery -- of simply human decency, never mind unionism.  Furthermore, I would argue that to unfairly strip a person who has labored for years in preparation of their right to make a living is too an attack on social justice, no less, in essence than the unfair and rigged closing of a school.   I have had the painful and unsettling experience of watching helplessly as some of my colleagues were cast away like trash by a psychotic principal via the process of discontinuance and four years later all four continue to struggle to find work and feed their families. 
New Action has to show this is not merely a publicity stunt. They need to follow up and use their UFT Exec Bd seats (I'm being a good boy and not commenting) to badger the leadership every single meeting to put an end to giving principals total power over the untenured to end their careers. I hope someone will be watching.

Note that I'm blanking out the teachers' names - even though their names are all over the place with announcements. Why? I believe that having their names out there jeopardizes them for future jobs. We've seen this already with others who spoke out publicly. In essence the DOE has people over a barrel and oh what a feeling of helplessness, even for me who wants to blast these monsters who abuse teachers while also wanting to protect the teachers. Grrrrrrrrrr.

NEW ACTION / UFT
NEWS RELEASE                                            
Contact: Greg Distefano
August 28, 2014                                           
Phone: 718 757 4552
                                                                  
Unjust, unfair firing of probationary teachers – give them a second chance.

Press conference 
Tuesday, September 2, 4:30 PM 
in front of the Department of Education (Tweed), 52 Chambers Street.

Stephanie (Barchitta) Casertano  PS3 Staten Island and 
Dana Parisi PS253 Brooklyn, both discontinued, will speak briefly, will deliver their appeals to Carmen Fariña, and will be available for interview.

Under the Bloomberg / Klein administration, many principals were hired based on management, not educational/pedagogical skill. While some grew to be fine principals, hundreds remained incompetent and became abusive. And as probationers can be fired without cause, hundreds of probationary teachers were unjustly discontinued and prohibited from working anywhere in the NYC Department of Education.

The teachers here today could work elsewhere in the system - other principals want them. They spent many years of college preparation, and were fired without being given proper support. But they are unfairly barred. They are asking the Chancellor to review their discontinuances. And we urge the Chancellor to review all the discontinuances of incompetent principals.


It's an exhausting enterprise getting rid of a principal, especially when you get NO help from 52 Broadway

Murry Bergtraum has a new principal. MOREista Chapter Leader John Elfrank-Dana helped lead the battle. The principal mis-used the data to target teachers.

I know people are impatient and unhappy over the slow pace of replacing the Bloomberg supervisor appointee horror stories. Of course, having our union be pals with the CSA, the bosses' union, doesn't help.
Like call Ernie Logan and say "Tell your people to stop the crap or there will be consequences."

If you are in such a school think about how to take action. If you want assistance contact me at normsco@gmail.com and I'll connect you with people who might be able to help you do what John did.
It's an exhausting enterprise getting rid of a principal, especially when you get NO help from 52 Broadway. Our chapter is exhausted.
Below is my angry email to Mulgrew.
Here's the link to our video of our PEP bombardment that seemed to pay off:


Question is: Will the UFT fight the ratings of teachers who were in a school so poorly managed with programming debacles and test administration issues that it calls into question the validity of measuring teachers based on MOSL. Furthermore, how about counting the MOTP scores of teachers whose APPR complaints were never addressed by the administration?

John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School


Dear Michael,

As you can see we did it again. What I mean by "we" is the Murry Bergtraum High School Chapter and not 52. The PINI article on Lewis four years ago was a good start for us. But, since then the UFT has acquired a peculiar tolerance for abusive administrators. When I hear them called "union brothers and sisters" at meeting at 52 by your staff I have grave concerns considering the grief they cause our members on a daily basis. 

Yes, we worked with the NY Post, because we were left for dead by 52. All of this MBO insistence on "playing well with others" is a joke when there's no good will and dishonesty on the other side. DRs cannot be social workers Michael. I need someone to pound the table. The litany of harassment complaints, safety complaints, and grievances that faded into the ether, and now APPR abuses make me wonder if you head a dues collection agency rather than a union. You can hide behind member apathy in other schools, but Bergtraum teachers don't throw their UFT election ballots in the trash. 

52 now has an opportunity to show it's still a union. The systematic mismanagement of our school calls into question the validity of many things. We will be in touch with what we expect to happen.

bcc: Members, Bergtraum Community

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Vera Pavone: Why there must be accountability for police and due process

After my last post on the NYPD, where I pointed out how MORE was being trashed from the left for calling for due process for police, Vera sent these thoughts, and I totally agree.
Due process does not mean automatic amnesty for all police no matter what they do. It includes investigation, prosecution and punishment of the guilty. All the guilty—not just those frightened, poorly trained, overly aggressive and socially challenged officers who are quick to use deadly force, manhandle, bully and otherwise abuse people who they are told to target. 

It also includes their superior officers who send them out to do their dirty work, as well as the top officials who determine policing policies and practices. Thus, due process allows us to locate the dangerous behavior of certain police in a context that is not necessarily of their own making.

Due process also protects those police who become whistle blowers, or who refuse to follow directives they view as discriminatory, unjust, dangerous to the public, or patently illegal. Or those who choose not to protect all those in the police chain of command who are misusing their power.

To my way of thinking, due process is the better way to achieve full accountability and to make changes in both policing policies and the behavior of individual police.