Meeting re: Charter Schools Tonight

District 15 Community Education Council

“Empowering Parents to Claim Excellent Education for All Students”

131 Livingston Street, room 301B, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Phone: 718 935-4267 Fax: 718 935-4356

CEC15@schools.nyc.gov

www.cec15.org









SPECIAL CHARTER SCHOOL HEARING




Date: April 28, 2008
Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Location: P.S. 146




AGENDA




1) Call to order




2) Introduction of members of the council – Ms. Jennifer Stringfellow




3) President’s Comments – Ms. Jennifer Stringfellow

4) Superintendent Rosemary Stuart - Introduction of Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein, Founder/Executive Director - Brooklyn Prospect Charter School www.brooklynprospect.org

5) Questions & Answers




6) Adjournment







Thank you for your active participation in your child(ren)’s education!







Next Calendar Meeting: Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 7:00pm - 9:00pm



Community District Education Council aka CEC, is a legislated body [See - Education Law, Title II. School District Organization, Article 52-A. New York City Community School District System NY CLS Educ.- 2590-c].

The Councils replaced the community school boards when the Mayor gained control of the school system, and are charged with representing parents’ perspective/issues/voices.

Fwd: Special Charter School Hearing Agenda

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CEC15 D15 <CEC15@schools.nyc.gov>
Date: Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 3:14 PM
Subject: Special Charter School Hearing Agenda
To:




District 15 Community Education Council

"Empowering Parents to Claim Excellent Education for All Students"

131 Livingston Street, room 301B, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Phone: 718 935-4267     Fax: 718 935-4356

CEC15@schools.nyc.gov <mailto:CEC15@schools.nyc.gov>

www.cec15.org



SPECIAL CHARTER SCHOOL HEARING




Date:  April 28, 2008


                                                Time:  6:30pm - 8:00pm

             Location:  P.S. 146



AGENDA



1)   Call to order



2)   Introduction of members of the council - Ms. Jennifer Stringfellow



3)   President's Comments - Ms. Jennifer Stringfellow

4)  Superintendent Rosemary Stuart - Introduction of Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein,     Founder/Executive Director - Brooklyn Prospect Charter School    www.brooklynprospect.org <http://www.brooklynprospect.org/>

5)   Questions & Answers



6)   Adjournment





Thank you for your active participation in your child(ren)'s education!





Next Calendar Meeting:      Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 7:00pm - 9:00pm



Community District Education Council aka CEC, is a legislated body [See - Education Law, Title II. School District Organization, Article 52-A. New York City Community School District System  NY CLS Educ.- 2590-c].

The Councils replaced the community school boards when the Mayor gained control of the school system, and are charged with representing parents' perspective/issues/voices.

--
"Never underestimate the power of a small, dedicated group of people to change the world; indeed, that is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Read my blog, Charter Free PS15 at http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com/

DonorsChoose.org Blog: Sale on NYC Charter School Projects

DonorsChoose.org Blog: Sale on NYC Charter School Projects Click on the link to find out more about one of the many generous ways organizations hand out money to Charter Schools.

It would be interesting to research whether similar funding is available for public schools.

Especially since I'm really irritated by certain people (ahem) complaining about how expensive it is to run a charter school (if you're going to complain about a key aspect of your job, then maybe you need to look for another occupation).

parent choice re: schools

It's interesting to hear that you feel that your lottery was an opportunity to celebrate parent choice. However, I do feel that I need to respond to your email addressing the issue of choice, and our apparently differing definitions of the word.

 

While I personally don't think much of charter schools, I do not dispute the right of other parents to choose to send their children to charter schools. But the real, core issue in a discussion of choice as it applies to sharing PS15's building with a charter school is this: PS15 was not offered a choice in the matter. The staff and parents were not consulted ahead of time; there was absolutely no choice - let alone an informed choice - involved. We were delivered an ultimatum by the Department of Education in February. The decision to place your charter school (or any charter school for that matter) within PS15's building has been put on hold, temporarily, but in the  meantime, the DOE has failed to respond in a definite way to requests for more information on holding  a public hearing about the issue, or about the status of their decision. This is fairly typical of how the DOE operates, and I speak from personal experience.

 

However, what I'd like to ask you is this: what other locations, other than the PAL location, have you considered as a potential location for your charter school? Red Hook is gentrifying rapidly right now; it's considerably different from what it was 10 years ago, when my husband lived right around the corner from PS15.  There's considerable new construction going on in Red Hook. Surely there are other options available within the area that would not infringe on a public school that's doing extremely well because it has small class sizes combined with a dedicated staff, as well as strong support from its parents and the community. It serves as an anchor for the community because it also houses the Beacon program that runs an after school program, a summer camp, and additional recreation and social improvement opportunities for community residents - all of which would be compromised by having a competing school which also happens to be a privately run organization sharing its space and competing for the same resources it needs. Considering the recent budget cuts to public schools, this competition would be even more unfair. It seems to me that if you are really seriously dedicated to helping the children of Red Hook, especially through offering their families real choices, you could find a way to do this without compromising the community's award winning public school.

 

I'd also like to know how much influence you have over the DOE's decision on your ultimate location? Considering the resources that appear to be available to you, I think it's safe to assume that you are in a position to bargain with the DOE fairly easily, and that if you were able to find another location for your school on your own, there would be a much stronger possibility that PS15 and the PAVE Academy could co-exist within the same community on equal and fair footing, which would obviously present a more democratic choice to the community.

 

That's my two cents on the issue, but I think you should take a look at the blog and see that other members of the community are also not interested in having a charter school imposed on PS15. For every person that has publicly posted a comment on the issue, be assured that there are at least 100 others who feel the same way. I'm genuinely interested in finding out whether you've pursued other venues, and would appreciate finding out more about this. 

 

Thank you,

 

Emily Brown

 

--
"Never underestimate the power of a small, dedicated group of people to change the world; indeed, that is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Read my blog, Charter Free PS15 at http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com/

A Response and Update from Spencer Robertson

srobertson@paveacademy.orgHi Emily- I saw your warm and supportive note on our Idealist Page and thought it merited a response. We have indeed been actively pursuing space within the PAL on Clinton Street. John McGettrich has been extremely helpful in terms of helping attempt to connect us with the right people to make a location there feasible. Unfortunately, at this juncture at least, it doesn't look like that is going to work out. We held our lottery last week. More than 60 families attended (of the 115 who sought admission for their children). It was a beautiful evening- a celebration of parent choice. I have attached several photos that I believe capture the joy and excitement of the evening. In the future, if you would like to communicate with me- please email me directly (at this address) or call me at 212 437 8332. It's far easier for me to address your queries and concerns this way. Enjoy the splendid spring weather. Toodles-- Spencer

Spencer was responding to the following comment I posted in the forum section of his Idealist listing - interestingly enough, the PAVE Academy is no longer registered with Idealist as of the end of April:

I'm sure that you're aware at this point that the Red Hook community is strongly opposed to having the PAVE Academy located within PS15 for a variety of reasons - some of which include a lack of consistent transparent communication with the Red Hook community about alternative locations, and a strong concern that co-locating would have a profoundly negative impact on PS15 by affecting the number of students using the classrooms and other facitilies in the building.
Another source of concern is the impact on financial resources for PS15 during a time when budgets are being cut dramatically, should your school be occupying their premises (rent free, I'd like to add). What benefit does PS15 get from having a charter school foisted on them?
Have you been able to locate another site yet? Are you actively looking?
Obviously, you're entitled to start up a Charter School and run it as best you can, but does it really need to be at the expense of a public school that happens to be doing an excellent job of serving the population you claim to want to help so badly - without the financial backing of a rich family or other outside sources of funding, by the way. PS15 has succeeded where others might have failed because of a very dedicated staff and seasoned, committed teachers who have spent time establishing a close rapport with the community - some of them are members of the community themselves - and they've done it on a shoestring budget.I t's a bit ironic having an outside organization show up out of the blue trying to preach to the community about what's best for them.
Just out of curiousity, how many students have you managed to sign up through your lottery so far?
Anyone who wants to know more about opposition to placing the PAVE Academy in PS15 can take a look at http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com, which is chock-full of information and has had well over 300 hits in the month the blog's been up.
Emily Brown

The Brooklyn Paper: Family Calendar

Note that on Saturday, April 19 at 3, PS15 will be the venue for plays written by Red Hook youth. Would we be able to do this next year if space had to be shared with another school? Or would we be competing for rehearsal space and our own auditorium? The Brooklyn Paper: Family Calendar

Atlantic Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times - Destroying Public Education in America

Atlantic Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times - Destroying Public Education in America PLEASE click on this link and read it all the way through, even if you read nothing else on my blog. This article is AMAZING!

idealist.org - Welcome to Idealist.org - Imagine. Connect. Act.

Just some commentary left on their idealist profile... to balance the story a bit. Click this link: idealist.org - Welcome to Idealist.org - Imagine. Connect. Act.

Brooklynian.com | Brooklyn Blog and Message Boards :: View topic - Proposed Charter School at PS 15 STOP IT NOW!!!!

Click on the following link to see what other people are saying about the PAVE Academy:
Brooklynian.com Brooklyn Blog and Message Boards :: View topic - Proposed Charter School at PS 15 STOP IT NOW!!!!

Location | PAVE Academy Charter School

Location PAVE Academy Charter School Please read this statement from their website carefully; note that they're in discussion with the DoE, not the community, about locations....

And keep in mind that they've been offered newly built, available space outside of PS15, but that they allowed too much time to pass before making a decision on the other location and lost it, and that Spencer Robinson complained about rental and other real estate prices and the cost of running a charter school during a small informational meeting at PS15. Boo, hoo: while charter schools get less funding than public schools from governmental sources, they're allowed (and expected) to do loads more fundraising to cover their expenses - the money's out there, especially for children's educational and cultural enrichment.

Gmail - Google Alert - PAVE Academy Charter School - emilyholiday@gmail.com

http://mail.google.com/mail/?source=navclient#inbox/1194ba95e079749c Click on the link for more internet material on the PAVE Academy

WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Sarah Collins, Spencer Robertson - New York Times

This is just a side note, but provides a little personal background on Spencer Robertson. He's apparently from a very well-off background... it must be nice to work for good old dad, but what about those hedge funds? How well is he really going to fit in in a place like Red Hook? Is he just "slumming", or does he have a real interest in improving education for local students, or is he just trying to compensate for having come up with plenty of advantages? WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Sarah Collins, Spencer Robertson - New York Times

Building Excellent Schools: Fellow-Founded Schools

Click on the link for recent fellowship recipients.

Building Excellent Schools: Fellow-Founded Schools

Building Excellent Schools, fellowship programs

Click on this link and you'll see the links to the fellowship programs offered by Building Excellent Schools. Spencer Robertson's getting $80,000 to start a charter school in their "home" communities.

Thing is, I just can't see Spencer Robertson calling Red Hook home, unless he's planning to move to Red Hook soon - into one of those buildings that's selling for a million dollars. We all know what gentrification does to neighhborhoods... especially to the people who were there for years BEFORE gentrification. (Anyone who isn't sure should read some Jane Jacobs...)
Building Excellent Schools: Fellowship

Building Excellent Schools: Bio Details

Click on the following link to see a profile of Spencer Robinson; I think it's interesting that while he has some professional experience teaching, his B.A. from Duke doesn't mention any focus on education, and obviously his Stanford M.B.A. is NOT an education degree. It's also interesting to note that his charter school, the PAVE Academy, is a project he's working on is through a Fellowship program , presumably through Building Excellent Schools. Some of the work details listed here make it sound like he may be more interested in running businesses than being on the front lines teaching. Since his most advanced degree is an M.B.A., it annoys me even more that during the meeting we had at the school last month, he challenged my questions about the legitimacy of his running a private business (the non-profit charter academy) on public school property - he tried to duck my question by questioning whether his non-profit was actually a business. He KNOWS it is, and he assumes that he's dealing with ignorant or uninformed people.

So my question today is this: is his commitment truly to educating students, or to establishing and administering education programs? I'm asking because the teachers who work at PS15 have shown their true dedication to teaching by remaining committed to working with the Red Hook population over the course of years - more years than the meager three that Mr. Robertson spent teaching in Harlem.

Anyway, have a look at the profile.
Building Excellent Schools: Bio Details

Fwd: Charter Schools being placed in existing public schools

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: DiLiberto Lisa (15K029) <LDiLiberto@schools.nyc.gov>
Date: Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Subject: RE: Charter Schools being placed in existing public schools
To: emilyholiday@gmail.com


Hi Emily,
I am not aware of the charter school you are referring to however this did occur at NEST+M 2 years ago when the chancellor wanted to place Courtney Ross's charter school in their building. Courtney Ross is the founder of The Ross Institute in East Hampton which is a private school. The parents and students at NEST, reserved 2 Jitney's and took a ride to EH in polite protest of the disruption this charter school would cause to their building and community. The parents won, but the charter wound up kicking out a school that was housed at TWEED.
The principal at NEST from that event no longer works at the school, but you may want to give the parent coordinator a call to see if that person would be willing to give you some ideas as to how they protested and won.

Good luck.


Best,
Lisa di Liberto
PS 29 Parent Coordinator
425 Henry Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
347.563.5386
ldiliberto@schools.nyc.gov
www.ps29brooklyn.org <http://www.ps29brooklyn.org/>
<http://www.nycps29pc.blogspot.com/>

________________________________

From: Emily [mailto:emilyholiday@gmail.com]

Sent: Mon 3/31/2008 11:31 AM

To: shy1995@msn.com
Subject: Charter Schools being placed in existing public schools

I'm the mother of a student at PS15 in Red Hook, and as you may have heard, the Department of Education has decided to place a new charter school in our building starting next fall. Many of the parents connected with the school - and other members of the community - are quite upset by this. Our school has received high grades, and excels in serving its existing student population - and has small classes and a "family" feel that really supports the students in many positive ways. As part of the effort to protest this decision, I've set up a blog that provides substantial background on the issue, and I'd like to ask you to take a look at  your convenience, and if you have any suggestions or feedback on how we can successfuly block having a second school arbitrarily placed on our premises, we'd be glad to hear from you.

And just for the sake of democratic argument, if you have an interesting argument pro-charter schools, feel free to speak up on that as well.

Here's the link to the blog: http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your consideration -

Emily Brown

--
You can also reach me by phone at 917-720-7335.

Check out my digital photography at http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyholiday/EmilyBrown; I also have a short slideshow video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4527071836788208173

Re: Charter Schools

Thanks for your response, and for looking into the matter. My understanding of what happened at that meeting was that the plan to place the PAVE Academy Charter School in PS15's building has been temporarily put on hold. While that may be a step in the right direction, and I definitely appreciate Councilmember Gonzales's efforts to support PS15 in this matter, this is still a  a temporary resolution, and the bottom line is that we're still concerned that the DOE will put off making a definite decision until so late in June that it will be difficult for us to coordinate an appropriate response should they decide to place the charter school in our building - and when I've called the DOE on several occasions, they have given me incredibly vague responses that amount to this : they dont know when they'll make the final decision about placement of the school, they don't know when they'll schedule an official meeting with the community about this, and nobody there seems to know (or won't tell me) who's responsible for scheduling these meeting or making the decisions (this is according to Michael Duffy himself, by the way).

 

Anyway, what can parents at PS15 do to make the DOE schedule an official meeting, get them to answer our questions honestly, and how can we best make it clear that we don't want the DOE to place a private business (which is what this charter school is) on the premises of a public school that deserves their full support - especially since PS15 has received honors in the past few years for fully supporting the educational needs of children in a neighborhood that has remarkably few other resources? The combination of both PS15 and the Beacon program that's housed in the school make the place an anchor for the community, and a valuable resource will have to struggle much harder in the face of budget cuts if an additional and  competing institution is co-housed in the same building - this would be completely wrong, and can't be allowed to happen.

 

Thanks

 

Emily Brown 

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 3:14 PM, Sarah Figuereo <sarah.figuereo@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Emily,

 

I am Sarah and I work for Councilmember Bill de Blasio. I spoke to Mark Schwienzberg at Councilmember Gonzales office and they said they held a meeting with the community, school, parents, and DOE.

 

I am trying to get more information on what the outcomes was of those meetings. I will inform you as I get the information. Thank you for alerting us.

--
Sarah Figuereo
Councilmember Bill de Blasio
2907 Ft. Hamilton Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11218
(O) 718-854-9791
(F) 718-854-1146
(C) 347-277-9972
This message and any attachments is intended for the named addressee(s)
only and may contain information that is privileged and/or confidential.
If you receive this message in error, please delete it and immediately
notify the Office of New York City Councilmember Bil de Blasio. Any copying,
dissemination or disclosure, either whole or partial, by a person who is
not the named addressee is prohibited.

--
You can also reach me by phone at 917-720-7335.

Check out my digital photography at http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyholiday/EmilyBrown; I also have a short slideshow video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4527071836788208173

Insideschools.org - Where to get help outside the school system

Insideschools.org - Where to get help outside the school system Click on this link for lists of organizations that may be able to help should we continue to fight the charter school placement at our school

Charters Go to New Recruitment Lengths | The New York Sun

Click on the following link to find out what depths charter schools sink to in order to boost enrollment. Pay special attention to the part where the article discusses how the DOE helps charters recruit by making mailing lists available through a mailing house. Where do you think the DOE really stands on supporting public schools vs. charter schools? Charters Go to New Recruitment Lengths The New York Sun

Battle Over School Space Will Heat Up Today | The New York Sun

More coverage of another public school's current fight against a charter school co-location - click on the link below:
Battle Over School Space Will Heat Up Today The New York Sun

News Copy, New York: Charter Schools

News Copy, New York: Charter Schools: "charter schools"
This is a blog with some odd analyses of the charter school situation, and it also has a batch of links to mainstream news outlet blogs that may be useful for additional research.

As Bid to Privatize Schools Ends, Supporters Second-Guess Effort - New York Times

This is somewhat deep history on the opposition to privatization issue, but is relevant because there appears to be an ongoing pattern of the DOE giving less support to public schools in less affluent neighborhoods - and possibly neighborhoods where they feel there isn't going to be much organized resistance.

As Bid to Privatize Schools Ends, Supporters Second-Guess Effort - New York Times

Public Advocate for the City of New York – How We Help

Public Advocate for the City of New York – How We Help
Click on this link to find out more about how the Public Advocate (Betsy Gotbaum)'s office can help with education issues.

An Opposing Viewpoint

Hi Emily: I do have had extensive experience with charter schools & space issues in NYC. Think about it. Schools are large, fixed spaces. Communities that serve these schools fluctuate in size. This means that over time some buildings become very overcrowded and other buildings become very underutilized. The DOE places multiple schools into underutilized buildings to minimize the overcrowding in other schools. . The DOE has moved past the idea one building, one school; it just doesn’t work anymore. I was at a school building recently that had 3 schools (a K-8 DOE school, a DOE 75 special ed school & a new charter school). The school building was still dramatically under-utilized. Its capacity was 1400 and it only had 800 students. The charter school was leaving, and the DOE was intending to place a large second elementary school in the newly freed up space. I just checked & your school building is one of the most under-utilized elementary school buildings in Brooklyn. . It has space for 762 students and as of 06-07 had only 409 students enrolled. You are at 53% capacity. (http://source.nycsca.org/pdf/bluebook/classic_report_final.pdf) If you can fight off this particular charter school, that doesn’t mean that the DOE won’t turn around and fill your school with something else, like overflow from another school or a 75 special ed school. By the way, the ones that suffer most from this arrangement are the charter school, not the existing school. The existing principal has the upper hand in deciding whether or not the new school gets to use the gym or the auditorium or the play space. So why don’t charter schools get their own facilities? Well, they are public schools, but they only get 70 cents on the dollar for educating each child. The missing 30 cents is the money that the district spends on facilities. So they have no choice but to go into DOE schools. Your school does have good reviews, but that doesn’t mean that it works for every parent in your neighborhood. There are parents on the charter school side who would like a choice besides PS 15. In my experience, a strong and positive school culture comes from parents, teachers and the leadership at the school. There is no correlation between a school being isolated in a building and its having a family and friendly feeling. Hope this helps answer your question, - Elena

a blurb from Class Size Matters (sorry it's after the fact)

Leonie Haimson to nyceducationne

A total of 15 new charter schools are being established next year – a record for NYC.
 
 See message below from mom at PS 15 in Red Hook in D15 in Brooklyn – which is being forced to accept a charter school in its building against the wishes of parents and staff at the school.  She has posted a blog at : http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com/  that you should check out and post comments on.
 
There is also a meeting tomorrow night at P.S. 123 about a new charter school, Harlem Success Academy, one in Eva Moskowitz' chain of charter schools, that is being placed in their building against the will of the CEC in D5 and parents at the school.
 
TIME: 5:30 PM
SPEAKER'S LIST:  5:30- 6:15 PM
DAY:  Tuesday
DATE:  April 1, 2008
LOCATION:  301 W. 140th Street| Village of Harlem
 
 
Meanwhile, see article in NY Sun here about the recruiting efforts of these schools, that are apparently being given access to public school parents names and addresses through the DOE mail house. http://www.nysun.com/news/new-york/charters-go-new-recruitment-lengths
 
 
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320
leonie@att.net
www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/
 
Please make a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters now!

feedback from another school

Hello
This is my two cents:
My school, PS 295, shares space with MS 443. We were in this building first. Sharing works out just fine.

Shari Pulido
Parent Coordinator
PS 295
718-965-0390  x4105
347-563-5367  cell

Here's a real downer...

I got this message recently, and it's depressing:

DOE has made several decisions with or without parental consent or
concerns, and they will continue to do so. Please keep in mind the NYC
School System is run by the Mayor??
The decisions are done deals.
CEC
District 181106 East 95th Street, Rm. 112Brooklyn, NY 11236Phone:
718-566-6037Fax: 718-649-7074cec18@schools.nyc.gov

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.

The DOE is stalling...

I may have mentioned that I spoke to Michael Duffy yesterday, asking when a meeting would be scheduled to present the charter school issue to the Red Hook community, and he couldn't tell me when it would be - he mentioned that a colleague of his was the one that would be making that decision. He took my email address and said they'd be in touch. (Please, someone get me an oxygen tank in case I pass out from holding my breath!)

 

Today, I got an interesting voice mail from a very reputable source who I can't name at the moment, telling me that often the DOE doesn't schedule these meetings until they've already made a decision  - and the meetings are to present what's essentially a fait accompli, and warning me that we shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security just because the placement of the charter school has been temporarily put on hold. At the very moment I was listening to the message, my cell phone rang, and it was a fellow named Chris calling from the Office of Charter Schools. I asked him point blank when the DOE planned to schedule a meeting, because the DOE is in violation of education law if it insists on placing the charter school in our public school without holding the community meeting first. He told me he didn't know; I asked him if he could find out who was in charge of making that decision, and how I could arrange to be notified - and he claimed not to know who handles these decisions. I told him I found that incredibly difficult to believe; I also let him know that we needed to have the meeting scheduled before June, because the community was entitled to have their voices heard on this issue, have a dialogue, and be included in the decision making process - and asked again whether he could find out who was in charge of booking the meetings and when it would be, and get back to me. He continued to be vague and unhelpful, which made me wonder why he'd bothered to call me in the first place. He said that the principal would be getting notification as soon as the DOE had scheduled the meeting, and that it would probably be scheduled before June. It's obnoxious that he called to essentially tell me NOTHING... and at the end of the conversation, I let him know that I'd be calling on a regular basis to follow up on this because it's critically important.

 

By the way, I've heard from various sources that the DOE often assumes that it can place charter schools in public schools where there won't be much resistance because they assume (often wrongly) that the PTA is not very strong or well organized or involved in the school's development and day-to-day operations. Let's show them that they've made a mistake about Red Hook!

Gmail - CEC 15 March Updates

Our situation is mentioned in this newsletter, and CEC 15 appears to be supportive of our side. http://mail.google.com/mail/?source=navclient#inbox/1190cb5db687dd68

Public School 123 space spat pits Eva Moskowitz against Harlem parents

Public School 123 space spat pits Eva Moskowitz against Harlem parents

Click the link above for a VERY interesting read, and see if you see some parallels. We're hardly alone in the fight between public and charter schools. This is an unusual story, though, because the apparently well-connected (or very much deluded about the extent of her power) head of THIS charter school brags that she'll fight back by bringing "hundreds" of parents supporting her school to a public meeting... can we all say CATFIGHT? Meow, meow.

DOE Lack of Response on when a community meeting will be scheduled...

I called Michael Duffy's office this afternoon to find out when the DOE was planning to schedule a meeting with the community and PS15 to discuss placing the PAVE Academy in PS15; he told me he didn't know, but would check with a colleague and email me an answer.

Hmmm.

I wonder whether having more people call in on a regular basis would prompt him to find out and let us know sooner. Here's the phone number: 212-374-5419; you'll reach an automated voice system - choose 5 for Mr. Duffy.

GrandCentral: The New Way to Use Your Phones

Apparently the NY Post is also interested in being kept in the loop on this issue.

GrandCentral: The New Way to Use Your Phones

At Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay - New York Times

Here's a very controversial charter school model....
At Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay - New York Times

Public vs. Charter Schools: A New Debate - New York Times

This is a somewhat old article, but shows that other schools have been in the same position as PS1, and that some of the official players are still the same...
Public vs. Charter Schools: A New Debate - New York Times

NEST M - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For an interesting story on what can happen when a school protests a proposed school sharing arrangement, check THIS out... some of you may remember hearing about this in the news a while back, but it's an interesting read.
NEST M - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strength in Numbers? Another strategy...

Narger@aol.com Dear Emily, As a parent of two public school students, I am extremely sympathetic to your concerns. I just learned that IS 88, a middle school in Park Slope that just came off the "at risk list" two years ago is scheduled to have a Charter School placed in its building next year as well. It seems counter-ntuitive. The DOE should be looking for ways to improve its failing or non-erforming schools rather than saturating its successful schools and their facilities with additional students. I haven't had an opportunity to visit your blog, but I wanted to suggest, if you haven't consideredt already, that you work together with other schools that are expecting new Charter Schools next and that have received high grades and address this problem systemically, rather than trying to preserve the small school feel of only PS 15. The DOE knows there is strength in numbers and many successful schools will be seeing their student populations increase significantly next year. Have you considered contacting the Head of Parent Outreach? askmartine@schools.nyc.gov I hope this information is useful. Sincerely, Rachel Gertzog

Fwd: [Charter-Free PS15] New comment on Web Visitors.

I'm re-posting this more prominently so it's more visible to all ... and I appreciate the comment.

 

Now, of course, the question is WHEN this hearing will be scheduled? I've been trying to get the DOE to pin down a date and time, but I keep getting snarky responses from them, and based on my own prior experience in dealing with the DOE, they take their time and do things at THEIR convenience (rather than anyone else's) - and I'd hate to see this meeting take place in JUNE when there's no time for follow up if we don't get the results we want and need.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 5:02 PM
Subject: [Charter-Free PS15] New comment on Web Visitors.
To: emilyholiday@gmail.com


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Web Visitors":

NYS Charter School law states that there must be a public hearing prior to siting a charter school in an existing public school: http://www.newyorkcharters.org/documents/NYSCharterSchoolsActof1998.doc#S2853



Posted by Anonymous to Charter-Free PS15 at March 31, 2008 5:02 PM

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Fwd: [Charter-Free PS15] New comment on General Question for Readers.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: involved parent <noreply-comment@blogger.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Subject: [Charter-Free PS15] New comment on General Question for Readers.
To: emilyholiday@gmail.com


involved parent has left a new comment on your post "General Question for Readers":

It may not be considered a "charter" school but we are in the same boat as you. We had one high school imposed on us and now they are leaving. DOE wants to place yet another high school on us and we are fighting them tooth and nail on it. To read our story click on my name above.



Posted by involved parent to Charter-Free PS15 at March 31, 2008 10:55 PM

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Fwd: Charter Schools being placed in existing public schools

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CEC19 D19 <CEC19@schools.nyc.gov>
Date: Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Subject: RE: Charter Schools being placed in existing public schools
To: emilyholiday@gmail.com


I'm sorry to hear that but if there wasn't a forum about it you can protest the whole thing.

Community Education Council 19
557 Pennsylvania Avenue Rm. 315
Brooklyn, New York 11207
(718) 272-8033

________________________________

From: Emily [mailto:emilyholiday@gmail.com]

Sent: Mon 3/31/2008 11:31 AM

To: shy1995@msn.com
Subject: Charter Schools being placed in existing public schools

I'm the mother of a student at PS15 in Red Hook, and as you may have heard, the Department of Education has decided to place a new charter school in our building starting next fall. Many of the parents connected with the school - and other members of the community - are quite upset by this. Our school has received high grades, and excels in serving its existing student population - and has small classes and a "family" feel that really supports the students in many positive ways. As part of the effort to protest this decision, I've set up a blog that provides substantial background on the issue, and I'd like to ask you to take a look at  your convenience, and if you have any suggestions or feedback on how we can successfuly block having a second school arbitrarily placed on our premises, we'd be glad to hear from you.

And just for the sake of democratic argument, if you have an interesting argument pro-charter schools, feel free to speak up on that as well.

Here's the link to the blog: http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your consideration -

Emily Brown

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Check out my digital photography at http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyholiday/EmilyBrown; I also have a short slideshow video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4527071836788208173

General Question for Readers

Has anyone reading this blog participated in - or heard about - public schools successfully fighting (as in, winning a fight) with the DOE about having a charter school placed in their local public school? Would you care to share your insights and experiences? I was dismayed to see that some school buildings house more than two schools.

Please post responses!

Web Visitors

I'm glad we've got the web counter installed; on Friday, there were only 300 hits, and today there are over 360 hits. People have been busy - we're getting lots of visits. NOW I wish people would comment on what we've got posted. It would be great to hear what other people think of the issues and posts so far.

If this is your first visit to this blog...

Please make sure to scroll all the way down and also visit the archives for February for full background on the whole issue. There are a lot of layers to the story, and both the DOE and Spencer Robertson's plans don't seem to be as completely transparent as they should be, and some people have commented that there may be questions about the legalities regarding how the DOE is proceeding with their plans (especially in NOT having a community meeting to present what the plan IS before it was decided on).

More helpful advice from a parent

Emily,The only information I can share with you is that my son is at MS 447 where they placed the Khalil Gibran school. There are now 3 schools in that buiding. There was plenty of space for Gibran. Many school buildings have 2 or more schools and they seem to be working. In your negotiations around this, if the DOE makes any promises (e.g., we'll renovate your auditorium or your cafeteria in exchange for this...) get it in writing! and stay on top of them.Good luck Beth G. Kneller Deputy Director The CUNY Baccalaureate Degree for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies 365 Fifth Avenue, suite 6412 New York, NY 10016 212-817-8238 FAX: 212-817-1512 bkneller@gc.cuny.edu www.cunyba.cuny.edu http://cunyba.gc.cuny.edu/ (Blog)

Helpful feedback from Class Size Matters

Leonie Haimson to me show details 11:44 AM (12 minutes ago) Reply
Emily: are the class sizes expected to swell at PS 15 as a result of the charter’s placement in the building? If so, to what levels? Are you expected to lose cluster rooms etc. as a result? It would be helpful to have more detailed info about the likely impact of this move. I’ve forwarded your message to the NYC education news list serv. FYI, DOE pledged not to put new schools into existing buildings where it would force class sizes up above the levels principals planned or wanted for their schools. Let me know how I can help. Thanks, Leonie HaimsonExecutive DirectorClass Size Matters124 Waverly Pl.New York, NY 10011212-674-7320leonie@att.netwww.classsizematters.orghttp://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/ Please make a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters now!

Fwd:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CEC15 D15 <CEC15@schools.nyc.gov>
Date: Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 1:09 PM
Subject:
To:




Good Afternoon To All,

Please seve The Date for CEC15's next calendar public meeting April 17th, 2008.

Thank you,
Community Education Council
District 15

PLEASE POST DISTRIBUTE

ALSO PLEASE ENCOURAGE PARENTS TO ATTEND

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Questions and observations

In March, I was able to meet Spencer Robertson at a meeting held at PS15; Ms. Wyns-Madison, several PTA and School Leadership Committee members, PS15 staff members and a representative from the Department of Education were also present - and I'll go into more detail on this meeting in a separate post.

Mr. Robertson seems like a personable enough fellow, but he doesn't really seem to be all that familiar with Red Hook as a community - and I am willing to bet that the other participants in this meeting were even more sensitive to this than I am because they actually live and work in the neighborhood - I've only been visiting for the past decade (my husband lived there for a while when I first met him; I've been over to the neighborhood frequently for events at BWAC, and of course my son has been attending school there for the past 5 years). I didn't get the gut feeling that he has a real commitment to Red Hook itself - I got the sense that his commitment is primarily to promoting his charter school - but I also wonder how much experience he has running a private business (he seemed to be extremely offended when I pointed out that I was surprised that he was given approval to start up the PAVE Academy without having secured a definite location to run his business from; he seemed to have an issue with calling a non-profit (501(c)3 organization) a business - but it IS a business! Either he's incredibly naive, or his reaction was a pretense; either way, the reaction was completely weird.

During the conversation, it also turned out that despite what his proposal presented about serving the Red Hook community, citing statistics about the 50-50 ratio of Hispanic and African American students he felt should be enrolled in his school, it turns out that he has had the Department of Education do a mailing to parents throughout the 11231 zip code to recruit students. That zip code certainly includes Red Hook, but it also extends through several other neighborhoods with very different ethnic compositions - all the way up Court and Smith Streets to Union Street, for instance, which some people would refer to as Cobble Hill. Something isn't adding up right here, and I don't know whether it's Mr. Robertson's true intentions, or the way the DOE is "helping" him.

One parent pointed out, after he made a pronouncement about wanting to "share" for the sake of mutually helping each other, that this comment was ironic: it was like having an uninvited guest barge into their living room and start babbling about sharing. I'd been having similar thoughts before the meeting myself, and it was a relief to hear someone else actually voice that concern. He offered to help PS15 out with things like building a green roof for the school, or providing air conditioning.

Mr. Robertson, by the way, spent a lot of time at the meeting talking about how he would actually prefer to use the Miccio Center than PS15, because in some ways that building has several advantages from his point of view - including easier access to mass transit (it's closer to the Smith & 9th Street F station), which would be more appealing to the young teachers he wants to recruit to work in his school, as well as some of the families he's trying to recruit to attend the school. (Again, whatever happened to his original plan to serve student from the immediate Red Hook neighborhood?) Fine. He's got his eye on another location - but what he wants may not connect smoothly with what the DOE decides to do in the long run. He also took offense again when I pointed out that Red Hook has been cut off from the rest of Brooklyn with only bus access ever since Robert Moses built the expressway, and that despite that, PS15 has committed teachers and some families who value the school enough to make the effort to commute in from considerable distances EVEN THOUGH it's not right next to a subway station. His reaction to this was borderline hostile, and another parent attending the meeting basically told him to back off.

After he left the meeting, the DOE representative pointed out several things that PS15 may need to seriously consider: the PAVE School has more money attached to it than some other charter schools, and that with the low enrollment situation at PS15, the PAVE Academy might be one of the more positive alternatives because we might be able to negotiate more positive "sharing" options with them than some other schools with very little financial backing - for instance, an up to date science lab, rather than merely air conditioning systems which have a limited lifespan. It appears that - according to the DOE - as long as PS15 has low enrollment, it's almost inevitable that there will be pressure to place SOME charter school in its building. We may need to develop strategies to boost enrollment if we don't want another school dumped on us; we might add 6th through 8th grade to the school (which could actually be a positive move for many of the Red Hook families who may not want their kids bused out of the neighborhood for middle school). We could also include a bilingual lab, and/or a Mommy and Me program for kids who are younger than pre-K students (and this could be a feeder program for the pre-K program at the school).

Things to think about. I'll be adding more posts soon - but these issues have been on my mind for a while now.

I'd love to see some comments posted here - the webcounter is showing nearly 300 hits as of today (March 27), so I know people are looking at the blog.

Gmail - Google Alert - PAVE Academy Charter School - emilyholiday@gmail.com

Follow the link to see several stories about the issue... here's the thing, though - it seems like the story's been dropped, at least for the moment, but we're still sitting in the dark about what the DOE will end up deciding go do.
http://mail.google.com/mail/?source=navclient#inbox/118e1abe52cc46ae

Real Estate Brooklyn coverage Bay Ridge Eagle Brooklyn, 2007 NY information :: daily paper in Brooklyn

Real Estate Brooklyn coverage Bay Ridge Eagle Brooklyn, 2007 NY information :: daily paper in Brooklyn

*************FOUNDING LEAD Teachers K & 1*********************

*************FOUNDING LEAD Teachers K & 1*********************

Editorial Notebook; In Defense of 'Bloody' Red Hook - New York Times

Editorial Notebook; In Defense of 'Bloody' Red Hook - New York Times

This is an old story, but reinforces the point that the staff of PS15 has worked very hard to create a safe haven in a neighborhood that outsiders have a lot of preconceived notions of. It also underscores how grating it is that the DOE wants to "reward" PS15 by parking a Charter School, run by a novice who doesn't apparently have much of a clue about Red Hook or our school, in our building.

P.S. 15 Patrick F. Daly School

P.S. 15 Patrick F. Daly School

Just some background that reiterates the importance of small class sizes at PS15

The Brooklyn Paper: Parents win: Education Department agrees not to add charter school to Red Hook’s PS 15

The Brooklyn Paper: Parents win: Education Department agrees not to add charter school to Red Hook’s PS 15

501(c) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

501(c) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "private"

OK: this gets a little sticky, and Wikipedia's not the Ivy League choice of reference, but when I asked Spencer Robinson whether he didn't feel there was a conflict of interest operating a private business in a public school (and asked whether most private businesses asking for investment backing wouldn't need to secure a definite site of operation before they'd be able to convince investors that they were stable), he got all flustered and tried to make it sound like his charter school was a public business...

Charter schools are often 501(c)3 organizations - that's the designation for educational organizations - and they're also PRIVATE organizations. For all the gory details on tax exempt status, etc., click the link above.

Education Law - Google Search

The Department of Education may be in violation of Education Law because it didn't present the charter school issue to the communitybefore making their bombshell announcement about putting the PAVE Academy in PS15 last month. Here are some resources.
Education Law - Google Search

Gotham Gazette is an excellent source of additional information...

I've posted links to some of their articles on this blog to give readers a sample of the kind of fair and balanced reporting they present. For more, go to www.gothamgazette.org and find the "Education" tab and click on it. Then type in "charter schools" in the search box - the results are quite fascinating.

The Edison Election (Gotham Gazette, March 26, 2001)

The Edison Election (Gotham Gazette, March 26, 2001)

History repeats itself... this article focuses on the privatization issue in connection with charter schools, and shows how parents and community groups get shut out of the decision making process. Is this really what we need in our schools? There are privacy issues involved as well, and parts of the issue also underscores the divide between families that are well off and those that aren't.

Poor Grades for a School ‘Contract’ (Gotham Gazette, July 2007)

Poor Grades for a School ‘Contract’ (Gotham Gazette, July 2007)

If you're at all concerned about budget cuts and how money is distributed between public schools and charter schools (and you should be), make sure to read this one!

The City’s Resistance to Cutting Class Size (Gotham Gazette, April 24, 2006)

The City’s Resistance to Cutting Class Size (Gotham Gazette, April 24, 2006)

PLEASE read this article if you're at all concerned about funding discrepancies and legal responsibilities...

Cloning A Charter School From Connecticut (Gotham Gazette, August 2004)

Cloning A Charter School From Connecticut (Gotham Gazette, August 2004)

Charter schools are nice, but some public schools with dedicated staff are just fine, too, thanks - and if we respect our unionized teachers, should we support charter schools who don't have to use them? And the privatization issue is still very much there....

Charter Schools (Gotham Gazette, November 14, 2005)

Charter Schools (Gotham Gazette, November 14, 2005)

This is one of several articles I'm going to post from Gotham Gazette presenting background information on charter schools in generals. Please don't miss the resource links at the end of the article.

More Media Updates

Real Estate Brooklyn coverage Bay Ridge Eagle Brooklyn, 2007 NY information :: daily paper in Brooklyn This link title is misleading: it's actually an update about the PAVE Academy issue...

The Brooklyn Paper: Contact Us

The Brooklyn Paper: Contact Us

If anyone wants to share aspects of the charter school invasion issue with a local paper, get in touch with The Brooklyn Paper.

A Response To The DOE's Position on "Sharing"

Mr. Friedman states in an email to Emily Brown that the proposed co-location for the charter school PAVE is temporary while it secures a private facility. The President of PAVE, Spencer Robertson, in a meeting at PS 15 with parents last week, could not guarantee a time-line . The temporary status thus remains fuzzy because it depends upon PAVE finding another place. This can take months, years or decades. Even a few years would be too long as PAVE would be starting to crowd out PS 15.

Mr. Friedman also brings up that over 600 schools in New York City share space. There are, however, only about 60 charter schools in New York City. Are the other schools sharing space with other private non-profit enterprises or with public programs like English as a Second Language or Programs for the Gifted? It is not clear how this statement relates bringing in a Charter School at PS 15.

With the phrase"Giving the realities of space in New York City,... " Mr. Friedman seems to express the Bloomberg administration's sensitivety to real estate, and viewing most public schools as expensive or wasted real estate.

He follows up with"... each school having its own facility is not feasible if we are to ensure that there is an appropriate range of high quality school options throughout the city." This view is based on the belief that the schools need to be packed with many more students and services. This view is challenged by the fact that PS 15 is in control of the facilities, makes use of the space creatively through allocating class room space to art, music science and social history classes, and that the school was on the Mayors own list of most improved schools.

The solution for better schools might be right under the Chancellor's nose. Don't pack the schools, allow for class room space (in elementary) for art, music,social science and science, and keep the school population small.

Paul van Linden Tol

DOE Meeting with Red Hook Community re: PAVE Academy co-placement in PS15

I'm a parent of a third-grader at PS15 who opposes the co-placement of the PAVE Academy (or any charter school, for that matter) in my son's school.  I understand that this decision has been put on hold temporarily, but I and many other parents are still extremely concerned about this issue. If you'd like to see WHY we oppose having a charter school placed in PS15, please see http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com.

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

Sincerely,

 

Emily Brown

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P.S.15 PTA Update

On March 3, 2008 Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez held an informational meeting regarding PAVE Academy coming to PS15. Invited by Ms. Gonzalez were Ms. Madison, and a representative from the following: PTA, School Leadership, UFT, The Justice Center, PAVE Academy, Department of Charter Schools, Department of Portfolio Development, and the Red Hook Civic Association.

John White, from the Department of Education's Portfolio Development apologized for the way the decision was made, but stuck to his statement that PS15 is the "mos underutilized school in District 15, making it the best choice for PAVE Academy". Mr. White promised that the Department of Education is committed to providing choice to parents, and that PAVE Academy would not encroach on PS15. MANY comments were made regarding the lack of notification of parents, school staff, and community members in this decision. Mr. White stated that a study was done of PS15 and the number of "underutilized" classrooms exceeded the number of utilized. Even with the majority of all of our classrooms used for programs like Creative Arts Tean, the Science Lab, Social Studies, Art, etc., Mr. White stated that the DOE follows a formula. Mr. White prmised to send Ms. Gonzalez his reports on that decision, and Ms. Gonzalez would be able to share information at her discretion. We have not heard from her.

Later that week, Jon McGettrick of the Red Hook Civic Assocation gave Spencer Robertson from PAVE Academy a tour of alternative sites in Red Hook. Seems Mr. Robertson really like the PAL Miccio located at 110 9th Street. Regardless of Mr. Robertson's feelings about sites, the decision is ultimately up to the DOE.

Member of the Assembly Felix Ortiz wrote a letter to Chancellor Klein voicing his concern about the placement of PAVE in P.S.15. He applauded the decision to put the proposal on hold and urged the Chancellor to "Search for an alternative site for PAVE. No further steps should be taken to implement the controversial placement of PAVE in PS15 until the plan has been thoroughly examined, and the parents, teachers, school officials, and residents of the Red Hook Community have had a voice in the process." Senator Velmanette Montgomery also wrote Chancellor Klein in opposition of siting PAVE at P.S.15, and of leaving the community out of the decision process.

The DOE has only delayed the decision to site the PAVE Academy at P.S.16. They didn't kill it. Until we see something in writing from DOE that the charter school will not be housed at P.S.15, we should continue to organize an opposition. ANY school coming to P.S.15 would pose a threat to our growth and progress. We are actively looking for ways to increase our enrollment. Please contact the PTA leadership if you have any ideas on how we can attract more families/students to P.S.15. We want our school filled with our community's children.

Please continue to contact Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez, Senator Velmonette Montgomery, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, Chancellor Joel Klein, and Mr. John White from the Office of Portfolio Development (the decision maker here) with your concerns and questions regarding P.S.15's future. We deserve not to be kept in the dark again. We deserve to be part of the process, whatever it may be.

Re: Message to the Mayor

Dear Mr. Friedman,

 

I appreciate your taking the time to respond. However, there is one pressing question I need to ask on behalf of all the concerned parents of PS15 students: in light of the fact that the proposed co-location has been put on hold - at least temporarily - pending a community meeting with the Department of Education, when and where will this meeting take place? 

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

Sincerely,

 

Emily Brown

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 3:57 PM, Friedman Peter <PFriedman3@schools.nyc.gov> wrote:

Ms. Brown:

 

Thank you for writing to Mayor Bloomberg regarding the space sharing of PS 15. Your correspondence has been forwarded to the Department of Education (DOE) so that we may respond accordingly.

 

Your input in the matter is greatly appreciated. Please be advised that the proposed co-location is temporary while PAVE secures a private facility. However, in the interm, the DOE is confident that the co-location will not harm the educational program of PS 15. Also, the utilization of the building and the proposed co-location will not cause increased class size at PS 15.   

 

Over 600 schools in New York City share space. Given realities of space in the New York, each school having its own facility is not feasible if we are to ensure that there is an appropriate range of high quality school options throughout the city.

 

I hope this information is helpful. Thank you again for taking the time to write the Mayor.

 

Peter Friedman

Associate

Chancellor's Strategic Response Group

NYC Department of Education

52 Chambers Street

New York, NY 10007

 

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Fwd: CEC 15 MEETING ON MARCH 19TH, 2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CEC15 D15 <CEC15@schools.nyc.gov>
Date: Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Subject: CEC 15 MEETING ON MARCH 19TH, 2008
To:


PLEASE POST AND DISTRIBUTE








District 15 Community Education Council

"Empowering Parents to Claim Excellent Education for All Students"

131 Livingston Street, room 301B, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Phone: 718 935-4267   Fax: 718 935-4356

CEC15@schools.nyc.gov



After the Rally at City Hall



. . . Let's continue the conversation



Budget Cuts - $1.7 million in District 15 Alone



Wednesday March 19th, 2008

7:00pm to 9:00pm






P.S. 32 - Samuels Mills Sprole

317 Hoyt Street (Between Union and President Streets)

Subway:  F, G to Carroll Street

Bus:  B71, and B75

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You can also reach me by phone at 917-720-7335.

Check out my digital photography at http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyholiday/EmilyBrown; I also have a short slideshow video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4527071836788208173

Fwd: Budget Cuts - and protest/actions coming up soon!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CEC15 D15 <CEC15@schools.nyc.gov>
Date: Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Subject:
To:


PLEASE POST AND DISTRIBUTE


THANK YOU
FROM CEC 15

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You can also reach me by phone at 917-720-7335.

Check out my digital photography at http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyholiday/EmilyBrown; I also have a short slideshow video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4527071836788208173

PAVE Academy

I'd like to know when the public meeting to discuss the PAVE Academy's proposed placement in PS15 is scheduled to take place. I'm a parent of a PS15 student, and like most of the other parents at the school, I am very strongly opposed to having this happen; I've been researching the issue and have compiled and organized a blog dealing with the issue, which you're welcome to look at at http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com - it makes it manifestly clear why this decision will have a profoundly negative impact on an excellent and high achieving public school. Please contact me at emilyholiday@gmail.com or at 917-325-1348. It's of the utmost importance that this meeting take place in order to have a true dialogue between the community and the Department of Education; our childrens' educations are at stake.

 

Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Emily Brown

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You can also reach me by phone at 917-720-7335.

Check out my digital photography at http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyholiday/EmilyBrown; I also have a short slideshow video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4527071836788208173

- Contact Us: Helping Hand

- Contact Us: Helping Hand

Here are some contacts that may be helpful

Welcome - A Note from the Founder | PAVE Academy Charter School

Welcome - A Note from the Founder PAVE Academy Charter School

This is the Welcome message from Spencer Robertson, who talks about "accountability" in his message:

When we got the green light to open the school from New York State on January
16, 2008, PAVE Academy immediately became accountable to a number of entities
throughout the state and city governments.

What he DOESN'T mention, however, is how he will be accountable to the Red Hook community in general. Does it sound like he feels he's only accountable to governmental agencies? He has to be accountable to them if he's going to operate a school under their auspices.

By the way, it wasn't easy finding this website - it's not even registered with any of the popular search engines yet. There's not a lot of depth on the site yet, either. Does this inspire confidence in prospective parents? Take a look at the credentials of the people involved in the organization so far - they have fine academic credentials, but it doesn't sound like they have very much hands-on experience yet.

Location | PAVE Academy Charter School

Location PAVE Academy Charter School

Click the link above to see the Academy's public statement about their plans (or lack thereof) for a location for their school. This issue has been bothering me for a while for several reasons. Initially, I felt that the Department of Education deserved most of the blame for wanting to insert a charter school into an existing public school, but the more I've thought about it, the charter school itself should share responsibility for poor planning on this particular topic. What business (and make no mistake, this IS a business, and a private one) in any other sector would be taken seriously if it made plans to start operating by a specific projected date without having a definite location secured IN ADVANCE? Please. This is what any business person with any common sense would call POOR PLANNING.

The Brooklyn Paper: Parents win: Education Department agrees not to add charter school to Red Hook’s PS 15

Another press clipping about the situation

The Brooklyn Paper: Parents win: Education Department agrees not to add charter school to Red Hook’s PS 15

Founding Teacher PAVE Academy Charter School

Here's the job posting recruiting teachers for the PAVE Academy.

Founding Teacher PAVE Academy Charter School

Why Charter Schools and Privatization Are Un-Democratic and Do Not Serve the Public's Best Interest

I'm posting this on behalf of Paul van Linden Tol, a Brooklyn Public Library librarian who worked for many years at the Red Hook branch and helped initiate several programs including one which brought books from the BPL system to PS15; he is a parent of a PS15 student. - The Moderator

I lived in Red Hook, worked in Red Hook and my Son is in third Grade school and has been at PS 15 since pre-K. We were Lucky! because Max's first teacher in Pre K was Ms. Perry. Ms. Perry, now retired , was a great teacher, storyteller, philosopher and a keen psychologist who understood the soul of children. She worked for the public schools all her life and was committed to Red Hook and PS 15. (Moderator's note: Ms. Flanagan was the other teacher in Max's pre-K, and she was also wonderful!) We discovered since then that PS 15 is rich in teachers like her.

PS 15 is not a failing school. PS 15 an example of what a good public school can do. The school was on the Mayor's list of most improved schools. The last and the current principals both were /are pro-active. The combination of a dedicated staff, a strong PTA and an involved community, has made the school a good example of how, without any gimmicks, a good public school can work.

The Board of Education had arbitrarily decided to house the Charter School PAVE at PS 15. The Charter School would capitalize on the good foundation that had been laid by the teachers, principals, PTA , the community and the parents. They would skim of the cream of the students and force the school to have larger classes per teacher

The Board of Education is only partly to blame. Although charter schools existed in the 60's, they have now become an hallmark of republican administrations in an overall effort to privatize the public institutions including the schools as much as possible. Both former mayor Giuliani and the current mayor Bloomberg adhere to this * "market fundamentalist" credo. It boils down to "privatize as much as possible-;2. de-professionalize as much as possible; de-fund as much as possible. They thereby hand over the public ( and democratic) domain over to private enterprise. If left unchecked they would privatize the water supply (which already happened in some townships in Maine). This un-democratic attitude was expressed in Red Hook by the disdain the Board of Education and Chancellor Klein showed in deciding to go ahead with the Charter School at PS 15 without input from the community.

The development of charter schools started in New York in big way during Mayor Giuliani's tenure with such companies like Edison Schools Incorporated. The idea was that these schools were to be more innovative and unencumbered by the restrains of the public schools. They could hire non- union teachers and could be exclusionary in regards to students.

However, in California where they are ahead from us in their experience with Charter Schools,
University studies from the University of California failed to show any significant improvement.
They strongly suggest that there is no magic bullet about improving the schools.
Also in California, sixty charter schools had to close recently because of a 113 indictment of its Director. The charges included siphoning 5 million dollar from the schools to the management section of the company.

A similar situation happened in Milwaukee's New Hope School when its director was indicted for embezzling $300.00 dollars

In general Charter Schools
1. Drain funds from the public school budget to private companies
2. They are not truly accountable to the public and not really that different.
3. They are selective and often cream off the best students.
4. There is also an indication that most of the Charter Schools are actually under-funded and
receive only four fifth of the dollar per student.
5. Chancellor Klein has given a positive performance rating of the charters schools they monitor.
What is unconvincing is that the report only rated 13 of the 60 charters school in New York.

Because of the above and as a parent I am opposed to housing a charter school at PS 15
It will marginalize PS 15 because of larger class size, less special programs, less students and less money.

Thanks,
Paul van Linden Tol

* A Market Fundamentalist believes that "private enterprise "can solve all problems in the world no matter how complex.

MEETING TO DISCUSS PLANS FOR PAVE ACADEMY

I noticed a sign in Spanish posted in the 77 bus stop shelter this evening that read

PAVE Academy Charter School
Reunion para informacion
Hora: 6:30 - 7:30
pm
Fecha: Tues., March 11th
Lugar: Red Hook - 7 Wolcott
Street
Telefono: (212)437-8332

As soon as I saw the sign, I took one of the tear-off tags hanging from it and checked my son's knapsack to see if there was a similar announcement from the school inside. There wasn't. There are several things about this sign that are interesting to me; first, obviously, that there wasn't a similar notice from P.S. 15, which makes me wonder whether the organizers of the meeting had bothered to tell the school yet. Second, why is the sign only in Spanish, at least at the particular bus stop where I found it? It's obvious even to a non-Spanish speaker like me what the sign means, but still. Also, the sign was printed up on totally plain paper - no letterhead, not even a logo or any other distinguishing marking.

When I got home, I called the phone number listed on the sign, and got a recording telling me that it was the PAVE Academy's phone number and that I could leave a message for Spencer Robertson and Timothy Burke, and that I could also reach Spencer Robertson after hours at 347-218-2684. By the way, this is the first time I've been able to get any contact information for either the PAVE Academy or Mr. Robertson - and I've checked all over the internet already. The level of secrecy up to this point puzzles me - I don't know why someone starting a new school would make it difficult for others to find ways to reach them. I'll be calling back in the morning because I want to know what their plans are now that the original plan to locate the school at PS15 is on hold.

7 Wolcott Street happens to be the address for the local Brooklyn Public Library.

I'll update the blog when I find out more... maybe I'm making too much of a mystery out of a little piece of paper hung in a bus stop, but a few things just seem a little off.

Fwd: PAVE Charter School to be placed in PS15, Red Hook

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Devor <jimdevor@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: PAVE Charter School to be placed in PS15, Red Hook
To: emilyholiday@gmail.com,

As of Tuesday evening, it is our understanding that the plan to place PAVE inside of PS 15 is "on hold"

To be clear, notwithstanding its clear obligation under the Education Law, at no time did the central Department of Education "consult" with the local Community Education Council regarding our opinions as to where PAVE should be located or even as to whether or not the Charter School in question was a good idea. Indeed, none of us were told of the planned placement of PAVE inside of PS 15 until a few days before the parents were.

This cavalier disrespect for our Council (and Community) was especially grating since we had recently gone through the turmoil over the placement of the Kahil Gibran Academy last spring. We took great pride in our role in amicably resolving that problem and were promised by the Department that we would not again be similarly taken by surprise in the future. That pledge like so many others by the Department of Education was shamelessly broken.

As I was quoted in the Courier, PS 15 may (or may not) be the best interim location for a Charter School serving Red Hook, but that first requires a conversation between the community, the CEC and the DOE. Personally, I still insist that conversation must be held BEFORE any such decision is finally made.

____________________________________________
Jim Devor (1st VP, Community Education Council 15) jimdevor@yahoo.com

Gotham Gazette: City Government

Gotham Gazette: City Government

Here's some more information about District 38 and Representative Sarah M. Gonzalez, and how to contact her.

NYC DOE: Office of Charter Schools, Contact Us, Charter Schools, Our Schools

NYC DOE: Office of Charter Schools, Contact Us, Charter Schools, Our Schools

CEI-PEA: Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association

CEI-PEA: Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association

Public Advocate for the City of New York – Contacts

Public Advocate for the City of New York – Contacts

Public Advocate for the City of New York – Homepage

Public Advocate for the City of New York – Homepage

Google Search Results

Google Search Results

It's interesting to note that while searching the DOE website for "charter schools", you get literally hundreds of hits, but if you type in "opposition to charter schools", you only get two results, and they're the kind of self-congratulatory stuff that's mildly interesting, but not really very "meaty" in the long run.

Google Search Results

The NYC DOE's official statements and policies regarding Charter Schools are presented here



Google Search Results

The New York City Department of Education

The New York City Department of Education

The New York City Department of Education

The New York City Department of Education

Feedback Form

Feedback Form

Insideschools.org Blog: Search results for Patrick Daly

Insideschools.org Blog: Search results for Patrick Daly

City charter school plan for PS 15 is put on hold

City charter school plan for PS 15 is put on hold

Advocates for Children Sums It Up...

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Tuesday, February 19
Seeking space for new schools, DOE comes up against into angry parents

Posted by Philissa at 11:04 AM


If it's February, it must mean that the DOE is scurrying to find spaces for all of the new schools it plans to open in September. In addition to the 27 high schools and transfer schools opening in the fall, some number of elementary, middle, and charter schools will also open, and they all need space. Many of the city's schools are officially under capacity, but those schools have been able to make headway in reducing class size and improving performance, and they don't want to compromise their gains. (Official school capacities assume that classes will have the largest legally permitted number of students.)

This year, in response to complaints in the past, the DOE is giving school communities greater warning before placing new schools inside them. As a result, parents afraid of age-mixing, overcrowding, and other tensions have more information earlier — and they're just as angry as they were last year. I don't envy the DOE's Office of Portfolio Development right now.

Here are a few space-sharing issues I've come across this year. I'm sure I'm leaving some out — have you heard of more?


When the DOE announced that it was planning to place a new high school devoted to the film industry in Long Island City's IS 204, parents and students there protested. It's still not clear where the school will be located.

In Red Hook, Brooklyn, the DOE would like to house a new charter school in PS 15. The widow of Patrick Daly, the PS 15 principal who was killed in 1993 in gang crossfire while searching for a truant student, says he would have opposed the charter school.
Without any available space in the North Bronx, where it has been open — and housed in trailers — for the last two years, the Young Women's Leadership School is being moved into IS 162 in the South Bronx.
Kingsborough Early College School, previously located on the community college's campus, which lacked many amenities, will be moving to the Lafayette building; according to the Daily News, some parents won't be allowing their kids to move along with the school.
When the principal of PS 21 in Queens received a letter that said the DOE was considering putting another school in the building, parents were angry, saying that sharing space would diminish the quality of their excellent school.
At PS 84 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where last year middle-class parents reported being made to feel unwelcome when they asked for new programs, the DOE proposed creating a new elementary school. Hispanic parents protested, saying the DOE was trying to create a system of "separate but equal" schools in the building. The DOE now says no new school will open in PS 84 this fall.






1 comments:
Anonymous said...
PS 15 is a good school in a tough neighborhood. It's on the verge of becoming a top-performing and truly integrated school for the first time in its forty year history. Placing a charter school in PS 15 would lead to crowded classes and drain vital resources. There are no other charter schools sited within public schools in District 15. We want the same consideration.

Mary O'Neill

February 19, 2008 10:00 PM
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