Thursday, April 3, 2008

Advice From The Trenches - URGENT! PLEASE READ THIS!

I'd like to share something that another parent affiliated with another school emailed me yesterday. I think it's very important to pay attention to the experiences of others who have been in the trenches over this (and related) issues.

John White is an arrogant man with a corporate mentality who has no sense
of what it is to be a child or a parent in the public school system -- nor does
he have the intention or interest in learning. He makes changes that
affect 1000s of children based on superficial numbers that he has in a piece of
paper. Another thing that we've learned through this process is that no
one in the DOE is trustworthy. The way to battle them is to move quickly,
because the more time passes the more difficult it is for them to
retreat. We were able to mobilize more than 350 parents in 3 days, had an
emergency PTA meeting with the Superintendent where the voices of the parents
were unified. We planned a press conference for the following week and let
them know that we were going to have the press conference. After the press
release went out and they read it, they called an emergency meeting two days
before the scheduled press conference. The other issue that you need
to consider is that the new Charter school will affect your school even more now
with the anticipated average $100,000 cut per school through the State and City
budget cuts. The Charter School will represent additional cuts on top of
those Citywide losses. Is the Charter School planned for the same
grades/services currently provided by PS 15? We can't stress enough
the importance of becoming organized and unified as a school community.

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