Friday, May 23, 2008

SCHOOL CO-LOCATION CONFIRMATION FROM DOE - a total miscarriage of anything remotely resembling justice

I received an email from John White this morning with a pdf attachment of the confirmation letter he's sent to the principals of PS15 and the PAVE Academy, as well as other key DOE staff members. I've pasted the text of the letter below.

This is WRONG! The decision to co-locate the schools does NOT reflect anything that anyone representing PS15 said at the public hearing on May 7; in fact, many people spoke out eloquently against this, raising important and relevant reasons why this should NOT happen. The public hearing was a kangaroo court; the DOE was obviously not listening and had already made their minds up. That doesn't sit well with me, and I think this requires direct and immediate action.

Anyone know a good education lawyer? I'm not ready to give up on this. Get your forks away from me, I'm NOT done, not by a long shot.

By the way, please notice that this doesn't appear to be on official DOE stationery; there's no logo, and some individual person's name appears across the top of the quoted text.

Miller Taneka S
From: White John
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 5:52
PM
To: Wyns-Madison Peggy (15K015); 'srobertson@paveacademy.org'
cc: Opromalla Neal; Stuart Rosemary; Bocchicchio Richard; Miller Taneka S; Duffy
Michael
Subject: School Co-Location Confirmation
Page 1 of 1
5/22/2008
Dear Principals Wyns-Madison and Robertson,
This letter is to inform you that the Department of Education has decided that the Patrick F. Daly School and PAVE Academy Charter School will share space in the K015 building located at 71 Sullivan Street beginning in the Fall of 2008 in order to
expand the amount of educational options available for our City’s public school
children.
This decision was made on the basis of space availability, demand for the services of PAVE Academy, and other community feedback. Though opinions on this issue vary, no facts presented lead us to conclude that both schools will not be able to succeed in this arrangement.
At this time PAVE Academy Charter School has been sited at K015 temporarily and will serve grades K-1 for the 2008-2009 school year. The Director of Space and Facilities Planning from the Brooklyn Integrated Service Center, Mr. Richard Bocchicchio (RBocchi2@schools.nyc.gov), will visit K015 to meet with you regarding the number of rooms, that will be allocated to PAVE Academy this school year as per
the Department of Education’s Instructional Footprint. Mr. Bocchicchio is ultimately responsible for making a final decision about the allocation of rooms to both schools. However, If you prefer to work together to create a plan for the equitable
allocation of rooms for recommendation to Mr. Bocchicchio, you are encouraged to do so.
PAVE Academy Charter School, with the assistance of elected and community leaders, is currently in the process of securing a private facility in order to grow to scale and serve its full complement of grades. In the interim, the Patrick F. Daly School and PAVE Academy Charter School will continue to co-locate dependent upon the student enrollment of the Patrick F. Daly School and as space permits per the Instructional Footprint.
The Instructional Footprint reflects the city-wide standard for space allocation in
Department of Education buildings and is intended to serve as a guideline for making decisions about space, while empowering building occupants to make decisions that best meet the needs of all students in the building. If you have not received a copy of the Footprint, one can be downloaded found in the Key Documents section on the Office of Portfolio Development’s website:
http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/Portfolio.
If you have any questions regarding space planning please reach out to Mr. Bocchicchio. If you have any other questions regarding this process, please feel free to reach out to me at jwhite8@schools.nyc.gov.
Sincerely,
John C. White
Chief Operating Officer
Office of Portfolio Development
New York City Department of
Education
(212) 374-5580

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