URGENT! DOE Meeting on May 7 at 5:30 re: siting of PAVE Academy at PS15

While checking my email this morning, I found this message from another parent whose child attends PS15:

When I was dropping off my daughter at PS 15, Ms. LaBoy (the parent
coordinator) informed me that DOE is holding a public meeting on the
siting of PAVE Academy at PS 15 next Wednesday, May 7 at 5:30 PM.
While DOE claims that this meeting is akin to the legally mandated public
hearing, it's unclear whether PS 15 parents and staff will be allowed to
testified. Moreover, the families awarded seats at PAVE via of
the lottery have already received notice that the school will be located PS
15 - weeks before the so-called public hearing. Sadly, the PAVE
families are being coached to raise a ruckus at the May 7 meeting to show
support for the charter school - clearly a sick and divisive tactic on
Spencer Robertson's part.

I'm glad she passed this information on - but it's warped that I made direct contact with the DOE offices in charge of charter schools on numerous occasions, and they claimed ignorance of when this meeting would be scheduled or even WHO was responsible for scheduling this.

Are we being intentionally deceived because the DOE has already made a decision about the siting of the charter school? I think it's very likely. I think it's also warped that Mr. Robertson also feels a need to resort to tactics like this to ensure that he has a location for his charter school; how does this serve the Red Hook community in any positive way? Is this someone we want to be stuck trying to negotiate with over two or more years? Does anyone else reading this blog think that this may be more about Mr. Roberston protecting his business interests rather than genuinely trying to help Red Hook's children? He makes a lot of noise about the importance of choice in education... I think we need to show him that true choice is a two way street.

I'll be contacting the school this morning to get more information about this, as well as the DOE.

If you support PS15, please make a point of attending this meeting and speak out. Email me at emilyholiday@gmail.com or phone me at 917-325-1348 if you want to discuss more details.

Emily