Cathie Black to Head Ed Notes Expansion to Russia

Published in The Wave Friday, April 15 - www.rockawave.com

Phee-Asko
by Norm Scott

If you don't know what the title of this column refers to you have not been a regular reader. Just consider it your phonics lesson of the day. But all is not lost for Cathie Black. I have decided to hire Black as the publisher of my blog Education Notes, thus giving her an opportunity to combine her vast experience in publishing with all she learned in her three months in the world of education. Cathie and I have a lot in common – we're both 66. She asked, “If I were a guy, would I have had the pounding that I did?” I assured her she would be treated just like a guy. And when she complained about all those unflattering shots of her that appeared in the press, I was careful to tell her she could pick any photos she wanted to use. When she compared the experience as Chancellor to trying to learn Russian in a weekend, I jumped at the opportunity and put Black in charge of translating Ed Notes for the Russian market.

The same people who praised Bloomberg for appointing Black are giving him credit for acting quickly once he realized he made a teeny-weeny mistake by dropping an atom bomb on over one million school children – Bloomie, our own Dr. Strangelove. Want to see a list of people who jumped on board? Check out this link on my blog: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-oppose-walcott-waiverlist-in.html. We haven't heard from Opra or Whoopie since Black left.




Rather than get into the details of the Black/Walcott switch, here is a selection of headlines from Gotham Schools with the publishing source in parentheses.

· Once tightly organized, the city Department of Education after Cathie Black’s tenure is in disarray. (Times)
· Black’s downfall highlights the reality that the education reform debate is deadlocked. (Times)
· City government employees had bets placed on when Bloomberg would fire Black. (Post)
· Dennis Walcott was part of all of Bloomberg’s education decisions except the one to hire Black. (Post)
· Walcott fielded the City Council’s questions but didn’t impress the UFT’s Michael Mulgrew. (Times)
· The city is positioning Walcott as Black’s opposite, but their policies are no different. (Daily News)
· Walcott spent part of his first day fielding questions on teacher layoffs. (Wall Street Journal)
· Congregants at a Brooklyn church backed Walcott, but worried about their local schools. (Times, Post)
· Having to reprint diplomas twice this year because of the chancellor switches is costly for the city. (Post)
· Michael Goodwin: Bloomberg is dismissive of public opinion, so Black’s firing was a good step. (Post)
· Andrew Wolf: Walcott represents just a continuation of Klein’s and Black’s policies. (Daily News)
. A city education reporter says schools chancellors aren’t relevant under mayoral control. (City Room)
· Mike Lupica: Black’s hire was like when George Steinbrenner hired a football coach. (Daily News)

I particularly recommend the Lupica piece where he reminds us, "It's easy to forget that before [Bloomberg] spent a fortune buying his job in City Hall, people thought of him as a kind of a jerk. Rich and successful, but a wise guy with a big ego who thought he was the smartest guy he ever met."

That about sums up the entire Black'nBloom Phee-Asko.

Co-locos go on and on
I go to many co-location hearings where the DOE attempts to shoehorn a favored charter school into a public school building. Then a month later, the Panel for Educational Policy meeting ignores public school voices and rubber stamps whatever Tweed wants them to do. These hearings and meetings all run together — sort of like being stuck in the Tweed version of the movie "Groundhog Day." (At least Bill Murray gets the girl in the end.) The advocates for the charter school are often bused in, given scripts and sometimes food and signs that claim they are public schools even though profit-making corporations often manage them. And they all wear the same tee shirts. And of course, the entire neighborhood has been inundated with posters, doorknob hangers, fliers and direct mailings promoting the charter school so they can claim there is so much demand. You just have to watch the charter school overseers (I've heard the term "plantation" used in conjunction) scurry around with their Blackberries in hand - funny how they and the Tweedies all look alike - but then again....

The defenders of the public school try to rally their troops. In some neighborhoods they are severely outgunned. But once in a while I go to a hearing where there is serious pushback. On April 4 I attended a hearing at Lincoln HS where the parents and teachers of the 3 current schools occupying the IS 303 building (IS 303, Rachel Carson HS and a District 75 Special Ed school) came out in force to fight the DOE attempt to add Coney Island Prep Charter as a 4th school in the building. They marched with a big crowd to Lincoln, where of course they found that the charter school people were already on line to get first dibs as speakers. I taped much of the meeting and have put videos up on my blog. It really is like being in a science fiction movie.


The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman
Speaking of movies, we are reaching the final stage of our response to the anti-teacher, anti-union film, "Waiting for Superman", directed by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim of "The Inconvenient Truth". Our premiere will be at Riverside Church on May 19 and we are proud to have Diane Ravitch on our panel. (Diane was gracious enough to grant us an exclusive interview for the film.)

We are still editing the most recent interviews we did with former charter school parents who have left their schools with harrowing accounts of how they and their children were treated. Our no-budget movie has been created solely by teachers and parents and we are offering copies for people to use in house and school parties as a way to counter the propaganda juggernaut of WFS, which was funded by Gates, Broad and other corporate ed deformers. Both movies were shown in Harlem at the Maysles Cinema a few weekends ago and I finally got to see WFS and thought it was a poorly made film beyond just the content and misleading information – millions of dollars that could have gone into school classrooms instead of being used for propaganda purposes.

So far our one-hour film has had a very positive response. It cost us time and energy but no one wants to make a dime off it. Basically, we are saying, "Steal our film and go forth and propagate it."

Norm blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Black and Bloom: Norm in The Wave, Dec. 10, 2010

by Norm Scott

I can fill an entire edition of The Wave with new chancellor Cathie Black related stories and in fact my blog has been overflowing, along with the blogs of NYC teachers. So the process of choosing what to share for my twice monthly column is almost painful. I've been attending rallies and meetings of parent and teacher groups. A Brooklyn parent has filed a lawsuit over State Ed commissioner David Steinberg's granting her a waiver ­– no one in the know is buying "Black's deputy is an educator line." As we hit deadline we have an exclusive report that activist lawyer Norman Siegel will file another lawsuit. I will be covering the press conference for The Wave and should have a report next week.

Cathie Black's placement on the board of Harlem Village Academy as a way to get her ed creds- despite the fact that she didn't attend any meetings, has focused attention on this scandalous school and its relation to the BloomKlein corrupt running of the NYCDOE. This school has been lauded nationally. So naturally school founder Deborah Kenney takes home $450,000 for managing 450 students. HVA loses 32% of their students between 6th and 8th grades and there is vast teacher turnover. Bloomberg has called the school a national "poster child" for school reform. Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave $5 million. The charter school scam in full flower.

The average class size at Kent boarding school, the school Black sent her own kids to is 12. It is ironic that Bill Gates and other ed deformers attack teacher longevity and credentials and among Black's first statements in public she complains about LIFO - Last in first out for teachers who might be laid off. Yet Kent advertizes: "Many of our faculty have advanced degrees and our average tenure is more than a dozen years."

My pal NYC Educator manages to say in a few words what takes me a book:

Well, Cathie Black's been let out of her cage after a good two weeks of Sarah Palinizing and what insights has she gleaned in the hour or two she spent in public schools?  Looks like she's fixing to fire teachers.  There's no better way, apparently, to help city children than by firing their teachers.  Arne Duncan and Bill Gates have determined larger class sizes are the way to go, and Cathie is gonna help them get their wish....she wants to get rid of last in first out. Since she's already determined to fire people, why not go after the older and higher-paid teachers? That would put a bigger dent in the bottom line. And then she wouldn't have to bother with any of that nasty due process in that inconvenient tenure law. Oh, she wants to get rid of that, too. Perish forbid any American worker should have job security. Cathie Black agrees with everything Joel Klein did.  That's fine with me.  Let her go after teachers for nonsense. There's a reason teachers need tenure, and that's to protect us from demagogues like Cathie Black, who get into education for two weeks and have the audacity to behave as though they're experts. I wouldn't want her teaching my kid.  Fortunately, she isn't licensed to teach, and they aren't yet handing out waivers for that.

I'll leave the Black story for this edition of School Scope but I hope you get a chance to read my "exclusive" interview with Black in the Nov. 19th edition of my blog.

Beach Channel and other schools are on the closing block again

Howie Schwach has been on this story so all I'll add is this Dec. 6 report from parent activist and class size reduction activist Leonie Haimson:

Today, in justifying the eleven school closings, with more to come, Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg made the following statement: “Year after year, even as we provided extra help and support, these schools simply have not gotten the job done for children." Did they ever try systematically reducing class size? No. Most of these students at these schools continue to suffer from overly large classes that far exceed the state average of twenty students per class, as well as the goals in the city’s mandated class size reduction plan. In fact, class sizes have risen sharply in most of the schools slated for closure. For example, check out the increases in class size [INCLUDE GRAPH] at Beach Channel High school, one of the schools on today’s list of closures, which have occurred despite a promise from the DOE to make specific reductions at this school in return for hundreds of millions of dollars in Contract For Excellence funds. As Sternberg said, “…we cannot afford to let schools continue to fail students when we know we can do better.” Most parents and teachers would agree. The Department of Education’s stubborn refusal to follow the law and to allow the students at these schools to have their best chance to succeed is unconscionable, and set up these schools for failure.

Let's remind everyone that the UFT helped sell Beach Channel down the river through its deal with Klein to allow a new school to open and help drain the freshman class.

Survival, Rockaway Style: Debuting in The Odd Couple

I've got an idea for a new reality TV show. Throw 8 people onto an island- or a peninsula  - and they must survive by putting on a performance of Neal Simon's "The Odd Couple." Even better, toss in one 65 year old guy who has never performed before amidst a sea of veteran actors and see how long he can go before you have to call 911. Well, I did survive my acting debut playing Vinnie the card player, the whining, hen-pecked husband – true typecasting other than the part that Vinnie always wins at poker – last Friday night at the Rockaway Theatre Company production of "The Odd Couple". Lucky for me that in this version of Survival an actor doesn't get voted off the island after each performance. "You mean I have to come back tomorrow and do it again," I asked? Well, three performances down and six to go. Would I do it again? Ask me after the closing performance on Dec. 19.

I could do an entire column - and may just do so when the run of the play is over - on this experience, one of the most challenging I have undertaken. "Norm, you were a teacher/performer for so many years and you have spoken in public so often," people tell me. "So what's the big deal?" Appearing on stage and being responsible to the other actors to know your lines and respond on cue is one awesome responsibility. The fact that I have watched in wonder while video taping every show at the RTC over the last 4 years and have seen production after production worthy of Broadway was more than intimidating. I have watched my fellow actors on stage in various roles over the years and despite being a newbie they made me feel right at home. The directors Michael Wotypra (who I've known for years as a fellow teacher activist) and Peggy Page have been fabulous to work with, as have all the other behind the scenes people like the wonderful stage manager Nora Coughlin and her assistant Jodee Timpone ((both NYC teachers in real life). Wasn't it just a few months ago that I saw Jodee do an amazing job as the lead actress in "Cactus Flower?" Now she is serving me coffee back stage. The theater world can certainly turn reality upside down.

When Norm is not being Odd, he blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com

The WAVE: NY Times Gets Louis Renault "Shocked, Shocked" Award

www.rockawave.com

Oct. 15, 2010

by Norm Scott

The October 11 NY Times front page story on the testing score fiasco in NY City and State led me to take a look at the famous Claude Rains clip in Casablanca where his character, Louis Renault, is "shocked, shocked" to find there's gambling going on at Rick's place – while collecting his winnings just as Bloomberg collected his winnings - a third term as Mayor - based on phony test results.

The story was titled, "On New York School Tests, Warning Signs Ignored," ironic since it was the Times that did so much ignoring of the warning signs from teachers, parents and other commentators. Parent activist and leader of Class Size Matters Leonie Haimson even published letters she had sent to the paper regarding their distorted reporting favoring BloomKlein on the issue. Haimson commented on her NYC Public School Parent blog:

"Anyone who was paying attention knew at least as far back as 2007 that there was rampant test score inflation...The article also offers a rather irrelevant story, relating how Joel Klein earnestly tried to convince the state to change its scoring system to use a value-added method instead, as though that would have addressed any of the problems regarding the score inflation...The Times itself had plenty of reason to know about concerns about the state test score inflation throughout this period but not only failed to report on it, but generally toed the company line."

For those not familiar with the term "value-added", that is the method being pushed like a magic drug to cure all educational ills by trying to measure how "effective" individual teachers are based on the test scores of students over time. VA has been attacked as a faulty system due to the number of variations that creep into the testing process – the background of the students, the nature of the particular class, etc. And then there is all that cheating on so many levels, especially at the top where they play with the cut scores – one year 5 out of 10 correct passes, the next 3 out of 10.

State Regent head Merryl Tisch - whose educational expertise is based on having taught pre-k Hebrew school briefly - certainly was shocked, shocked. Leonie wasn't buying any of it: The article also gives Regent Merryl Tisch a pass, letting her have the last word, saying "We came in here saying we have to stop lying to our kids," without mentioning that throughout the test score inflation period, she was Deputy Chancellor of the Regents, and yet reliably supported Bloomberg and Klein's claims of great improvement.

Our own former Region 5 Superintendent Kathleen Cashin was also shocked, shocked and is quoted in the Times article.

As a superintendent in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Kathleen Cashin had seen several schools improve throughout the early part of the decade. But when she saw the sudden jump, she said, she was shocked. “I said to my intimate circle of staff, this cannot be possible,” Ms. Cashin recalled. “I knew how much effort and how much planning any little improvement would take, and not all of these schools had done any of it.” But Ms. Cashin, who retired in February, held her tongue at the time. Asked why she did not take up her concerns with Mr. Klein or his deputies, she said, “I didn’t have their ear.” 

I know, I know, all you Region 5ers out there - and former District 23ers from pre-Klein days - are shocked, shocked at Renault's – er – Cashin's being shocked, shocked. She also collected her winnings based on test scores in rising almost to the top of the BloomKlein phony ed house of cards. There were even rumors that she might one day replace Klein. Then she was cast aside because she had a semblance of ed credentials, which when it happened just shocked, shocked me.

Rhee in DC Resigns

Teachers all over the nation weren't shocked, shocked but were cheering the resignation of Michelle Rhee, Superintendent of schools in Washington DC. Rhee came out of the Joel Klein School of running public school systems into oblivion, but with an even more vicious snarl. Everyone understands she was the cause of Mayor Fenty's loss in the DC primary. Her famous Time magazine cover photo holding a broom now has true meaning as she flies out of town on Halloween. One blog commented:

The recent defeat of DC mayor Adrian Fenty spells the end to the damaging career of dilettante school reformer, Michele Rhee, originally recommended to Fenty by Joel Klein, a close friend of Bill Gates and Eli Broad and described by people experienced in the teaching profession as edubusiness entrepreneurs’ attack dog. Lacking any discernible qualifications, her shocking appointment, can be understood only when you realize that Rhee was brought in to inflict maximum damage on the district’s public schools. And as a cultist (Teach For America, New Teacher Project) and true believer she came at a bargain basement salary. Real superintendents were courted (Fenty visited Miami with several members of the D.C. commission to interview Dr. Rudolph Crew) but those candidates could not be counted on to mindlessly take a club to D.C.’s public schools. The havoc and disruption that Rhee has caused was no accident. It was the plan! ---http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/73608

Well, I'm off on my own broom – to see the Rockaway Cafe at the Rockaway Theatre Company's Halloween extravaganza this weekend and the following two weekends. Then off to rehearsals for the December production of The Odd Couple in which I'll be making my acting debut. I was shocked, shocked that such a professionally operated theater company with access to immense talent would give a role to a rank amateur.

When Norm is not flying around on his broom he blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.

BloomKlein's Very Own Gusher: Spill, Baby Spill

by Norman Scott

School Scope Column
The Wave, June 25, 2010
www.rockawave.com

You don't have to drill a mile down into the ocean or run a drilling rig into oblivion to create the disastrous muck of an oil spill. Or go to The Gulf to see the impact. We have our own education version of the disaster right here in the NYC Department of Education, better known as "Tweed" for the courthouse built by the original corrupt politician known as Boss Tweed.

The Tweedies are at it again with the umpteenth reorganization. Let's see now. First we had districts. Then regions. Then no regions. Then districts again. But only sort of. How about empowerment zones? Then no empowerment zones. There were those LSOs, LMOs, LSMFTs. How about just plain LOSERS?

The latest craze are Childrens First Networks where all women network leaders are strong, the men who do the bidding of Klein good looking and the children are above average - way above average after taking the rediculous NY State tests rigged to make BloomKlein look good. Support services have been reorganized from districts to regions to boroughs and now into these networks. Truly, almost no one has a clue but the prime directive is that jobs must be found for all. Just make sure no one gets so pissed off they spill the beans that BP is a master of competence compared to Tweed. BP chief Tony Hayward for Chancellor, anyone?

NY Politicians create own version of the spill
Let's never forget that the reason BloomKlein have been able to send globs of muck onto the shores of the schools is because they were handed the reins through the overwhelming endorsement of the politicians in both the city and state. Now we know the NY State legislature is considered one of the most dysfunctional political bodies in the world, finishing in a tie with Kyrgyzstan. (The Obama administration considered swapping the NY State Assembly with the Kyrg version, but was turned down in the interests of better government - for the Kyrgs.)

We are real lucky here in Rockaway to have some of the leading lights of the legislature and their current and former pals in Congress - Malcolm Smith, Gregory Meeks, Floyd Flake. The NY Times has been paying particular homage to our crew. The front page of the June 18th edition focused on Flake, the leader of the pack with this headline: "2006 Sale of Ministry Property Positioned Queens Pastor to Gain Riches." They devoted a full page - a full page - with pictures and all sorts of sidebar goodies on the financial manipulations that went on around a senior citizen center. There was a whole lot of political influence with Bloomberg and even Elliot Spitzer. The best part to me was reading that court clerk Gloria D'Amico - the same Gloria D'Amico who signs our call to jury duty notices - was a key person signing off on the deal. The added detail was that her son was one of the partners in the Flake deal. The next time you get a jury duty call from Gloria, write her a few choice words.

While the Times story didn't connect all these guys to the charter school games they are involved with, it did manage to dredge up the ugly Aqueduct story where Malcolm Smith was in up to his ears, with Meeks playing a role too. The story also pulled in Governor Patterson. But as readers of The Wave you know all the gory details. I hope you saw the wonderfully alliterative headline from last week: "Meeks' Non-Existent Non-Profit Profits From Public Money."

Helen Marshall refuses to yell "Fire" in a crowded school system
And then there's our Borough President who appeared on WNYC to proclaim schools in Queens were no longer overcrowded. Leonie Haimson on the NYC Public School Parent blog had this comment: "According to official DOE data (which most experts think underestimates the problem), 67 percent of elementary school children in Queens attended overcrowded schools; and 77 percent of high school students. And this does not count thousands of students in trailers. Class sizes are still increasing rapidly throughout the borough, and as of this March, nearly 800 Queens children were on waiting lists for their zoned Kindergartens."

Washington educational oil slick
Of course we can't ignore our federal government's attempt, led by Obama basketball buddy Arne Duncan, who ran the Chicago schools into the ground, to take over the nation's schools through Race to the Top. RTTT has forced school districts and unions to modify contracts to conform to the test till you drop mode of education, a system guaranteed to bring forth masses of graduates who will be adept at working the cash registers at the two largest employers in the nation - McDonalds and Walmart, one of the major backers of charter schools.

Chicago, Chicago, a wonderful town
The Duncan/Daley tandem in Chicago has so turned teachers into a hostile force, a new leadership led by younger progressive teachers has taken over the union. The Caucus of Rank & File Educators (CORE) is a two year old caucus led by the new Chicago TU President Karen Lewis who is already becoming a national voice to counter AFT president Randi Weingarten's capitulation to the education deformers. Lewis declared: "What drives school reform is a single focus on profit. Profit. Not teaching, not learning, profit."

Beach Channel stays open for an extra year, but are any future freshmen registering?
Remember that "successful" UFT/NAACP court suit to keep the 19 closing schools open that has extended their lives for a year? Joel Klein made it clear that the DOE would do whatever it takes to close these schools next year - the UFT suit was based on Tweed not following procedures in state law, so next time they will do it "right." It seems the feeling of inevitability of the school's closing has kept many 8th graders from registering. (Jamaica HS has had a similar experience.) Schools that enter the death spiral of closing down have a growing feeling of despair and a loss of services as the enemies at Tweed who are sworn to manage the schools, do exactly the opposite. While I was for the UFT lawsuit, I also felt it did not go far enough and had more than a touch of a public relations stunt (there was a UFT election going on at the time and Mulgrew's 91% - and yes I am a 9% dissenter - was padded by that suit). Anyone who has watched the slick Tweedies knew full well they would do what they could to undermine the schools but the UFT did nothing to extend the suit - like force them to do more to recruit new classes for these schools. How about a budget approaching what charter schools get to put out those slick brochures?

There was a wonderful letter in last week's Wave from Beach Channel's Drama Club Director, Marjorie Damashek Levine listing the successful events Beach Channel still has going, closing with "YES, Beach Channel High School is alive and kicking."

And so am I as I close this year's series of School Scope columns. Have a good summer and look for my daily rants on my blog: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

School Scope in The Wave

My June 11, 2010 column in The Wave

Rumblings
by Norman Scott

It may turn out to be a minor quake, the equivalent of two rocks rubbing against each other, or something much bigger. It started at PS 24K in Sunset Park where teachers decided to picket on the morning of June 4th. The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) that I work with started to promote the idea and other schools began to pick it up. By June 4th over 20 were participating, focused on the budget cuts, the on again, off again Bloomberg game with layoffs and other issues of importance to the schools. GEM produced a toolkit for schools to use: a press release, a flier, a petition and signs.

The week before a group of us gathered in Prospect Park for a sign-making party. Someone said it is a shame that all the schools can't get together. "Let's go to Tweed after school," someone said. And we did. Maybe a hundred people but this was not a manipulated rally. There are reports and videos (and a list of schools) for the individual schools and the Tweed rally on the GEM blog: http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

On Seniority
When The Indypendent's John Tarleton asked me to do an article in defense of seniority, I started tossing in all the things I wanted to say, starting with a complete history of Joel Klein's use of the issue, from his early years to claim the "best" - senior teachers - were not in the schools most in need because of the UFT transfer policies - to the fair funding formula that made senior teachers an economic liability to the schools. The bullshit the Ed deformers throw around would fertilize a small nation. Shill, baby, shill! When I stopped writing I had 2200 words, well over double the space John had given me.

John was the editor on the piece and we had a few very long conversations that revealed the complexities of the seniority issue. I found it a very rigorous exercise to go through a process like that with someone who was very astute but not tuned into all the details that boil up when you start drilling. John took my scattered thinking (see the recent front page article in the Times on the distractions of the internet to see why) and focused things in a way that makes sense, to such an extent that I hesitate to take total credit for the article.

The article is at http://www.indypendent.org/2010/06/03/teaching-under-assault/


Bloomberg Machine to Run City Until 2225- at the very least
Term limits? Don' need no stinckin' term limits. Last week's NY Times puff profile on Bloomberg's mate Diana Taylor is practically an announcement that she will run for mayor when his term is over. And when her term is over, Emma will be ready. Add the Unity Caucus lifetime control of the UFT with designated successors and, you see, we do live in a monarchy. Long live the king (and queen).


No thorns in Cactus Flower
I did the video of the Rockaway Theatre Company's' current production of Cactus Flower last Saturday night and the RTC keeps topping itself. In a play that takes perfect comic timing to pull off, the RTC players have perfect comic timing. Every single performance is of the highest quality. The set design is stunning. And the direction by Susan Corning as stunning as every other thing she does at the RTC. Three performances left to see a play that costs as much as many movies today. You are crazy if you are spending hundred of bucks going to Broadway and miss this Broadway quality play for fifteen bucks.

Guess the School?
This comment was left on my blog.
Guess the school and win a
When? When will this nonsense stop? On June 2, 2010, there was a ‘Code Blue’ at PS ____ and principal ---- was not in the building. What does it takes to remove this crook? She showed up at 2:35PM after she was called about the ‘Code Blue.’ She did not drive her car when she finally showed up at 2:35PM because of course she was pretending that she was already at work. Liar, she is late every day. Who is she supervising when she shows up for work at 2:35PM? She is blatantly stealing time. Check with the teachers in the building she has been on time on no more than four occasions this school year. If the NYCDOE is lucky she shows up by 11:30AM. She has the acting assistant principal, math coach, IEP teacher, senior school aide, Core Knowledge facilitator, and parent coordinator covering for her.

Superintendent Michele Lloyd-Bey, you must be aware of this blatant theft of time by now. What do you intend to do about it? I must remind you that you are also paid by taxpayers’ dollars. Does this scoundrel have secrets for you? Why aren’t you doing your job? We all know she is incompetent but you can relief her of her position because she blatantly steals time. She has not earned her pension or sick time. Who is keeping tabs? Certainly not a particular OSI investigator. I wonder what his hours are? He ‘investigates’ at PS ----- late evenings when the principal shows up.

The mayor and school chancellor should be investigating the principal of PS ----and the superintendent for district 27. They should not be allowed to collect their paychecks. One for theft of time and the other for negligence. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The people of Far Rockaway pay taxes and deserve better for their children. Who cares for the poor? Wake up people in authority and get rid of the crooks running this school.

The Hits Keep Comin' by Norm Scott in The Wave

May 28, 2010

[Ed Note: Headline links not active]

Peruse the newspapers, listserves, blogs and other internet sources and not an hour goes by without some new piece of education related news (mostly awful). I've got to get some sleep. Here are just a few headlines and my comments:

Charter Schools’ Big Success? Accounting Tricks, Shady Land Deals, and Skimming Off the Top

What else do you expect? One thing I know, State Senator Malcolm Smith's scandalous Peninsula Prep charter, along with all his other scandals, has smoked him out and into social service work. Vying for the Nobel Peace Prize, he is personally going around pulling up the pants of gang bangers.

Charter School Scandals

A blog chronicling the daily influx of skullduggery from Oakland parent activist Sharon Higgins. Sharon is kept very busy these days. http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com

Big profit in building charter schools

Gee, do you see all those expensive ads running attacking the teachers union for calling for some greater oversight over charters? They smack of the kind of desperate spending of people who fear they will be stopped from making a lot of money if they don't get the cap lifted.

District 1: Choice, confusion & charter schools/Red Hook parents push to toss PAVE charter school

Yes, parents are confused but some are pushing back

Rochester looks to N.Y.C. for mayoral control lesson

Mayor Duffy wants to be Bloomie and be a dictator over the schools, with lots of parents and teachers fighting him tooth and nail. But now he can be Cuomo's boy Friday as Lt. Governor. And we know what happened with the last Lt. Governor. With so many governors vaporizing and Cuomo's arrogance, practice saying, "Governor Duffy."

Are ELL Students Underrepresented in NYC Charter Schools?

Is the earth round?

Why the Charter Cap Bill Should Not Become Law by Leonie Haimson and Mona Davids

Leonie and Magnificent Mona. The good guys ride to the rescue

Sol Stern Calls for End of Cash Bonuses Based on Test Scores to Reduce Layoffs

Sol suggests why not try to save $35 million and apply it to reducing layoffs? Because at Tweed it's all about market-based ideology, not education.

Just Say No to the Race to the Top

Diane Ravitch says, "It might better be called the Race to Nowhere, or as some have dubbed it, the Race to the Trough or the Dash to the Cash."

Teacher Evaluation Deal Sparks Ire

Another sweetheart deal to get teachers judged based on student test scores made by the UFT to make life wonderful for teachers. The UFT claims a great victory. "They wanted to judge by 50%. We cut it to 40%." Wowy.

New Teacher Evaluation Passes Assembly

One NYC teacher blogger said: A sad day for education; 40% of teacher evaluations are now tied to test scores; Welcome to all test prep all the time; The new normal for public education; Public education will look like the Gulf of Mexico when they got done with it.

AFT Claims NYT Mag Included Made Up Quote

Did you read Steve Brill's hatchet job on teachers in the Sunday Times, a wholly owned subsidiary of BloomKlein, Ltd? AFT President Randi Weingarten, the great enabler, is crying about something Brill said she said she says she didn't say. Who cares?

City Gets $5 Million To Hire New Teachers...even as they get ready to lay off 6,400 teachers:

Yep, makes sense in Bloomtown. Bloomberg's rubber stamp PEP passed it last week with only 3 votes against, including our own Queens rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj. Way to go, Dmytro!

UFT at PEP Meeting: Oh The Irony

The UFT leadership cried about the lack of democracy on the PEP, which ignores what the public has to say. Come to a few UFT delegate assemblies and executive board meetings to see the model for ignoring what people have to say.

1,983 teachers received layoff notices while Teach for America returns to Detroit schools

When Arne Duncan asked Diane Ravitch, "What are we going to do about Detroit?" she responded with, "Give it to KIPP [the charter school chain.] He laughed. Hey, it's Detroit. You can't give it away.

More Scrutiny for Charter Schools in Debate Over Expansion

Finally, the NY Times has jumped into the fray. The NY State Ed Department is the monitor for charter schools. Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.

Here is a piece about NYSED I put up on my blog:

Some parents have been chronicling the corrupt NY State Department of Education and its ugly parent the NY State Board of Regents too, headed by Bloomberg friend and neighbor Meryl Tisch, who also has Joel Klein over for Passover to ask the 4 questions, one of which is always: Why is this reorganization different from all the other reorganizations that came before it? UFT Pres Michael Mulgrew loves Meryl and spent a good chunk of time at the last Delegate Assembly singing her praises because she "knows education," which makes sense since she spent 10 minutes teaching pre-k at an exclusive Hebrew school about a hundred years ago.

Recruitment Poster for Charter School: Hey Kid, Wanna Make a Hundred Bucks?

A photo of a poster on a 3rd floor wall at a charter based at IS 126 in Williamsburg/Greenpoint was being passed around by parents and community groups as outrage grows. The Believe charter group is offering a $100 bounty to any student who can recruit someone for the school who will stay for one term. Can you BELIEVE this? They make the poor kid who recruits some sucker wait an entire semester before collecting his 100 bucks. They must have electronic force fields keeping them in. (I know more than a few parents who have been there, done that and left.) What happened to all those waiting lists to get into charters that they are so desperate they have to bribe kids with a hundred bucks to get recruits? For a hundred bucks I'll enroll there myself.

The Passion of NY State Senator Bill Perkins

School Scope Column in The Wave: Friday, April 30, 2010

(Ed Note: The first section is an expanded rewrite of a posting from a few days ago, now tied into the Bill Perkins charter school hearings.)

Passion

by Norm Scott

"These guys must be crazy," I was told by someone I know. He was referring to those who keep fighting no matter how bleak things look. "Why would someone of retirement age stuck in the rubber room not just retire," he said? I can't explain it but I understand it. Why stand up to BloomKlein when they own the world, including the press (except the Wave, of course)? Or the UFT leadership?

Not that there is any comparison in terms of danger, but I thought of that guy standing in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square. Or the people who stand up for human rights against Putin in Russia no matter how many of their friends are killed. Or any number of people throughout history who were mad as hell and wouldn't take it any more.

I thought of this as I was watching the academy award foreign language winning film The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina). One review states: "A thoroughly entertaining murder mystery, The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) stars Ricardo Darín as a retired prosecutor who can't let go of a 25-year-old rape and murder that he considers still unsolved, but solvable."

Benjamin, the detective, is relentless in pursuing answers. But the movie is really about passion. His 25 year unrequited passion for his married boss, who may have had similar passions (they keep you guessing.) The unending passion of a husband for his murdered wife. Benjamin's alcoholic sidekick Sandoval helps track the killer by figuring out he is a passionate soccer fan. "You can change almost anything," he tells Benjamin. "But you can't change passion. It will always win out."

I find many Humphrey Bogart films fall into this category. In "Deadline-USA" he edits an independent newspaper standing up to the mob while it is being sold to a Rupert Murdock type publisher who will kill the paper so his sleazy NY Post prototype will have a monopoly. Bogart gets the gangster in the end but loses the paper. However, his speech to the judge about the need for a democracy to provide divergent points of view is a must see. In Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" Bogart is a seemingly cynical boat captain who does the right thing by his rummy helper (Walter Brennan) and a woman on the loose (Lauren Bacall), finally standing up to the WWII German tyranny by helping resistance fighters. And then there is Casablanca, my favorite movie of all time, where Bogart (Rick) jumps off the fence and begins a beautiful friendship with the resistance.

Maybe passion is what explains so many inexplicable actions by so many people. And thank goodness for these crazy, passionate people. If not for them we would all be living like the zombies in that revolutionary Apple commercial at the 1984 Super Bowl. Or like the drones at Tweed.


The Passion of NY State Senator Bill Perkins

Speaking of joining "The Resistance", a national network has been forming to fight the attacks on public education with lots of action in Florida (where some teachers engaged in a sick-out), Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC where a dissident, Nathan Saunders is running for president and if elected would throw a spear at a dirty contract deal being set up by Superintendent Michelle Rhee and AFT President Randi Weingarten.

With it being open season on politicians, NY State Senators have been amongst the most ridiculed in the nation. Our own Malcolm Smith, Pedro Espada and recently deposed Herman Monserrate are prime suspects. But then comes along Harlem State Senator Bill Perkins, who gives you a little faith.

Perkins, you see, has been one of the lone politicians to swim against the charter school tide, not only in NY but perhaps the nation - including President Obama, whose market-based support for undermining the public school system takes him as far away from being a socialist as possible.

Pretty gutsy stuff for a Harlem politician to push back against the policies of the most popular president in history in the Black communities. And Perkins has been vilified. The sleazy NY Post has been rabid, with up to three articles, editorials and columns a day attacking him for holding hearings examining the activities of charter schools.

If you have read the Wave over the past few months on the activities of Malcolm Smith and his Peninsula Prep charter school, you know what "activities" I'm talking about. Scandal after scandal has emerged about these schools that put our tax money into the hands of private interests with little or no oversight. Their partners in crime at BloomKlein headquarters are aiding and abetting them by favoring charters over the public schools they run, especially with the co-location shenanigans where they purposely declare a public school underutilized - see our own Goldie Maple here in Rockaway, where parents have attempted to push back.

Perkins leads an emerging line of resistance coming from Black and Latino/a communities undergoing the charter school influx. Harlem is the epicenter, with 28 charters, and more Harlem politicians are joining Perkins.

Hedge fund managers and other Wall Street types who led us into the world of financial meltdown support charters. (Why miss an opportunity to get their fingers on public funds?) Democracy Prep charter school founder Seth Andrew is so outraged at Perkins that he is calling on his buddies on Wall Street to raise a massive amount of money to defeat Perkins who is running for reelection this year. In what may shape up as the modern equivalent of "The Battle of Hastings" in 1066, the Norman conquest of Britain, Wall Street backed armies, joined by charter school advocates, will invade Harlem this summer in an attempt to knock Perkins off as an example to any politician who might dare to question how charters are misusing public money. I know of at least one Norman who will be there standing with Perkins.

Perkins' hearings were held on April 22 and started at 8am. I was the last speaker when it ended at 9pm. Boy, was I hungry, since I got there at 10am with my trusty little video camera and tripod. See some amazing parent voices on the ednotesonline you tube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/EdNotesOnline

The WAVE: The Joys of Aging

March 3, 2010, for publication in The WAVE, Mar. 5 edition

by Norm Scott

This column will be a shortie – Susan Locke (WAVE Publisher) is doing cartwheels. The 9am Wave deadline approaches on the day I begin Medicare and social security – and the most fun of all, the day I start to use my half fare Metro card – take that Jay Walder. My wife is waiting to take me shopping for my birthday gift, which she thinks should be an exercise ball instead of that 200 inch flat panel TV I really need. "But honey, shouldn't we also get that TV to go with the ball so I can see the video that comes with it really well?"

That's all I have to say about the aging process. I am hoping some extra aging is going on over at Tweed over the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez's exposure of the emails between Joel Klein and Harlem Success charter school queen Eva (Evil) Moskowitz (Mockowitz, Moskowitch - take your pick). The ed literati are howling with glee over the 70 pages of emails that reveal uncle Joel's predilection for charter schools over schools he is supposed to be running. Gotham Schools' Elizabeth Green had this tidbit:

April 16, 2009, was a hectic e-mailing day for the odd couple. First, Klein offers his frank thoughts on his new buddy Al Sharpton, after Moskowitz asks whether she should invite Sharpton to visit her school. He’s good on charters, but not on mayoral control, Klein says. But he is “working” on Sharpton. The same day, Klein lets Moskowitz know that Bill Clinton called him to say he’s upset about the teachers union attack on charter schools — “keep confi,” Klein instructs. Clinton apparently “wants to do an op ed.” Pretty sure this never materialized, though Moskowitz offered some talking points.

Always being focused on the UFT, I picked up this piece from Green's report:

WHAT RANDI SAID: In an Oct. 8, 2008, e-mail, Moskowitz claims that former city teachers union president Randi Weingarten, and her personal enemy, suggested that the duo write a thin contract together. Presumably that would mean that Harlem Success schools would become unionized, and the resulting work contract would have very few restrictions. Moskowitz said she would but only if Weingarten also agreed to a thin contract at half of all city schools. The union’s first thin contract, with the Green Dot charter school in the Bronx, landed in June 2009.

Could you just imagine the Randi/Mulgrew qvelling and distorting if they actually got Evil to go along with this? We've been predicting that the UFT moves to organize charters will be all about thin contracts with "very few restrictions" on the charter operators. Which will screw the teachers, of course. In ICE and GEM (the organizing groups I work with) we ask ourselves what to tell charter school teachers who might be interested in having the UFT organize them. My instinct is to say, "Try the exterminators union." But seriously, do you urge them to become part of an undemocratic, narrow, sell-out union?

Last week I got a call from a former student in my 6th grade class – from 1979. I haven't seen her since she was in high school. We're getting together for lunch. She's in her 40's. Now THAT makes me feel OLD. But I will feel much better after my yearly dose of Beef Wellington tonight at One if By Land, Two if By Sea.

WAVE Editorial Calls for Investigation of Malcolm Smith

Flake, Smith - The crew in this piece are all up to their ears in charter schools. Below the editorial, see a list of powerful articles by Wave editor Howard Schwach. Or go to then Wave web site and search the archives (www.rockawave.com). If not for this corrupt political system, they all - and I include many Tweedies here - would be taken out with coats over their heads. Anyone have a teabag to lend me?

Published February 5, 2010 (www.rockawave.com)

It’s Time For An Investigation

There have been many disquieting stories about State Senator Malcolm Smith, who serves as both the Senate’s President and our representative to the legislative body.

Any one of the stories, taken alone, should be enough to spark a state ethics investigation. Taken together, they reveal a picture of greed and unethical behavior that surely should trigger an investigation. However, our state ethics laws are so skewered toward protecting the wrongdoers, that such an investigation is anything but certain.

Just two weeks ago, Smith’s earmark of $100,000 for the Peninsula Preparatory Academy, a charter school he founded and to which he maintains strong ties, came into question, as did his push to pass a state law that would allow double the number of charter schools in New York City.

Tied to those questions is the growing belief that Beach Channel High School is being closed primarily to clear the room for another Smith-founded charter school, this one a high school to accommodate his PPA students once they graduate from the middle school.

On the heels of those questions came allegations from a national group that recently filed a state ethics charge against Smith in connection with a non-profit organization that he and Congressman Gregory Meeks founded in 2001.

Two of the original board members for that non-profit were Smith’s wife and the wife of a former business partner, Darryl Green, who had been convicted in 2004 of stealing money from those who purchased his expertise about minority hiring. Green is also a partner with former Congressman Floyd Flake in the Aqueduct Entertainment Group, which was just awarded a multi-million dollar contract from the Senate and the Governor to run a gambling Racino at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Smith worked for Flake and remains a close friend. In addition, Smith, Meeks and City Councilman James Sanders Jr. brokered a deal that required the developer of a huge cargo facility on Rockaway Turnpike to provide $250,000 for community development in southeastern Queens. That money was given to the non-profit started by Smith and Meeks, reportedly on Smith’s “suggestion.” Records show the money going in, but little coming back to the community.

The Aqueduct deal also raises red flags because the Flake group was not the highest bidder. In fact, all three incidents raise red flags and indicate that an investigation is due and due soon.


More articles:
Senator Malcolm Smith’s Mentor Wins Aqueduct Racino Bid Paterson Pulls Winning Lever For Flake

WAVE Editor Howard on State Senator Malcolm Smith's Ties to For Profit Victory Charter School and its $750,000 Slice of Public Money

Howie Schwach: It's All About Charters And Breaking The UFT

The DOE says that Victory Schools is paid by PPA through fundraising, but I am willing to bet that Victory Schools is being paid by taxpayer dollars funded by Malcolm Smith and his cohorts in the State Senate.

WAVE Editor Howard Schwach on State Senator Malcolm Smith's Ties to For Profit Victory Charter School and its $750,000 Slice of Public Money

In this article published last Friday, my editor at the Wave, former long-time teacher Howard Schwach, nails Malcolm Smith and his ties to Peninsula Prep Charter School, the connections to the Victory Charter School chain, and builds a bridge to what seems like a political decision to close Beach Channel HS to make room for Smith's charter.

Don't you love the use of the corporate term "divested"? Hmmm, what exactly did he divest? Not interested in moving into the Beach Channel building, Malcolm? Make a public divestiture by declaring you will oppose moving the charter school you founded into BCHS building even if it's the last building standing.

You might ask your self whether the UFT has supported Smith in his election campaigns - don't know off hand, but I bet they did. Which just goes to show that this den of thieves all lie in the same bed. Why does it take a community newspaper to expose these guys when the UFT had a fully staffed newspaper that should be doing this kind of work all along. But the UFT doesn't really want people to know about the political crew they play footsie with.

Question Smith’s Ties To Local Charter School

By Howard Schwach

State Senate President Malcolm Smith, who represents Rockaway in that body, says that he has divested himself from the local charter school he founded in 2004.

State Senator Malcolm Smith (center) joins children and officials of the Peninsula Preparatory Academy in cutting the ribbon for the school’s new home in Arverne By The Sea. The ceremony took place in September of 2008, four years after, Smith says, he divested himself from the school. “Senator Smith has been completely divested from any involvement in the governance or the administration of the [Peninsula Preparatory] school for about four years,” his Albany spokesperson Austin Shafran said recently.

Shafran’s comment was in response to questions of Smith’s involvement specifically in the Peninsula Preparatory School (PPA) in light of the fact that he recently earmarked $100,000 in public funds for the school. In addition, his stated goal is to double the number of charter schools allowed by New York State.

Although Smith was the founder of the school, and an original board member, Shafran said, Smith divested himself in 2004 when he was named the Senate Minority Leader.

Tai White, the local spokesperson for the senator said last week, however, that Smith remains “involved and active with the school.”

When White was asked if Smith has a financial interest in the school, she told a Wave reporter that somebody would get back with a comment, but no comment was forthcoming by press time, nearly a week later.

While Smith says he is not involved with the school, in 2008, when the PPA moved from its temporary home in Far Rockaway to several trailers set up on Beach 67 Street in Arverne By The Sea, Smith was front and center in the ribbon cutting ceremony, the only politician who was so honored.

There have been questions about the school from the first, and those questions have deepened over the years, and especially over speculation that the phase-out and closing of Beach Channel High School is part of a political plan to clear the school to make room for a PPA high school component.

Smith’s office denies those allegations.

When the PPA was chartered with Smith as its founder in 2004, it shared space with Middle School 53 in Far Rockaway.

Within a year, however, the state began renovating a building on Foam Place, right next to MS 53. Shortly thereafter, the PPA quietly moved into that building.

At the time, The Wave questioned the genesis of the money used to renovate the building, but no answers were forthcoming, either from the state, Smith, or the school.

From the first, the school, which is a private non-profit charter run by public money, has been administered by the Victory Schools, a for-profit organization that administers many public charters in New York City.

Records show that PPA pays Victory more than $750,000 a year.

Records also show that in 2006 and 2007, Smith received a total of $12,000 in campaign contributions from Seven Kilnsky, who founded the company.

No recent donations from Kilnsky to Smith were recorded.

A company spokesperson told Daily News political reporter Kenneth Lovett that the donations were meant as a show of support for Smith’s pro-charter stand.

Sources say that PPA pays no rent for the trailers in Arverne By The Sea, and that the school will one day move into a new building in that development, a building that the developers must build with their own money as part of the contract they signed to get the land for development.

Experts say that, as long as Smith has no financial stake in PPA, there is nothing illegal about his involvement and his steering money to the school he founded.

The president of the state’s teachers union, however, thinks that, while probably not illegal, Smith’s involvement shows that special interests are driving the recent move to double the number of charter schools, which generally do not fall under union contracts.

Norm's Column for The Wave, Jan. 22 Edition

Just made this morning's deadline for The Wave.

Resistance is NOT Futile: Federal Court Issues Injunction Protecting Right to Protest at Bloomberg Residence

by Norman Scott

Email: Normsco@gmail.com

Well, we've certainly had a busy two weeks since you received my last communication – from outer space. Where to start? In the middle, of course. I mean, why should I try to help decipher the gibberish in this column any more than I have in the past?

Last time I told you about this protest planned at Mayor Mike's home at 17 East 79th street on Jan. 21. It's a day after my deadline, so you will have to wait for the breathtaking results until my Feb. 5th column. (Unless you check my blog, http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com.) Civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel handled the case in front of Judge Alvin Hellerstein. As one of the organizers, I was in court on Jan. 15 when the decision was handed down. Lucky I didn't have to testify because I'm sure my big mouth would have blown it.

“The decision reaffirms the rights of citizens to protest on a city sidewalk, and prevents the mayor from turning a public city street into his own private front yard. Furthermore, it will allow parents, students, teachers, and members of the 22 communities affected by school closures to have their voices of discontent heard by the Mayor,” said Seung Ok, a teacher at Maxwell High School, one of the schools being closed down. Maxwell suffered from a massive influx of students when nearby Thomas Jefferson (my alma mata) closed down, similar to Beach Channel's fate when Far Rockaway closed. Seung is a charter member of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) members of which have been attending and documenting closing school hearings.

"Today is historic for protesting in the City of New York," said Julie Cavanagh, a teacher at P.S. 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Julie is a member of Concerned Educators for Public Education (CAPE) which has been fighting off the invasion of their school by the PAVE charter school, under the control of the son of billionaire Bloomberg pal Julian Robertson who contributed $10 million to Bloomberg school projects ("Daddy, buy me a school!") That investment has paid off in spades, as BloomKlein will be handing Spencer $26 million dollars of our money from a charter school support slush fund to build his own play school. "I am so proud to stand with the parents and students I serve," Julie continued, "as we fight not only for our right to organize, but as we advocate to protect and preserve public education in our great city. It is not lost on me as an educator that this decision was made on Martin Luther King’s birthday. His legacy of peaceful and loving activism captures the culture of our school, P.S. 15. It is in this spirit that we bring our voices and concerns to the Mayor’s block in the hopes that there, we will be heard.”

Kudos to Seung and Julie, both in their early 30's and teaching for a little over a decade, for standing up for public schools and the children, parents and teachers of this city. In a sea of fear, their bravery is well worth noting. It is also worth noting that Norman Siegel was so impressed, he offered them his support for life if there should be one iota of retaliation against them.

Kudos also goes out to the now famous Beach Channel student Chris Petrillo, whose passionate defense of his school has garnered citywide attention. At the Jan. 6 meeting at BCHS, reported on so well by the Wave's Miriam Rosenberg and Howie Schwach, I introduced Chris to Jamaica HS chapter leader James Eterno, whose school is also being closed and was having their hearing the next day. (James came to show his support for BCHS. CL Dave Pecoraro, who like James has been popping at school closing hearings all over the city, returned the favor the next evening.) We talked to Chris about going to Jamaica to meet with student leaders there the next evening.

And sure enough, Chris was first on line at Jamaica to speak about student solidarity. He and Jamaica's student leader Rachel Ali got together later in the evening and they both went up to the microphone to make a joint statement. When I left Jamaica at 9PM, Chris and Rachel were still hatching plans and over the next week, became a dynamic duo, heading up the Choir Academy closing hearing in Harlem the next evening - a Friday evening, of all things and other school closing hearings. I ran into Chris at the Maxwell hearing on Jan. 12 and he approached the arrogant Tweedie John White and wangled an invitation to Tweed for later that week.

Chris and Rachel popped up at Leonie Haimson's Class Size Matters' emergency parent conference on January 16, which attracted a surprisingly large group of parents and teachers for a SAturday on a holiday weekend. Norman Siegel was the keynoter and James Eterno and Rachel Ali made presentations on Jamaica, as did a teacher and a very impressive recent Columbus HS alum. A central theme of the conference was fighting back and the rally at Bloomberg's home is looked at as a beginning.

As the week wore on, the Jan. 21 rally at Bloomies seemed to capture the imagination and as I write this on the morn if Jan. 20, there were rumors of support from surprising groups, with even some politicians hankering to get on board. The UFT, of course, was nowhere to be seen for this demo because they didn't think of it or organize it and behind the scenes were working to keep people away. Attempts will be made at today's Delegate Assembly to shake the tree.

GEM is also organizing protests and actions for the Jan. 26 Bloomberg rubber stamp Panel for Educational Policy meeting at Brooklyn Tech where all the school closings will be voted on. (Bring cots and food, as this will be a long one.) Beach Channel and Jamaica will be watching how Queens BP Helen Marshall orders her PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj to vote. Send him a message at pepofqueens@yahoo.com. And call Marshall's office, (718) 286-3000, before Jan. 26.

The UFT IS focusing on the PEP and holding a 4PM rally before the meeting. Will the UFT tell people the vote is final and "we put up the best fight we could, now go back to your schools and wait for their death?" Or will the fight continue?

GEM is already planning follow-up events with forums and rallies, even contemplating visits to PEP members and borough presidents who ignore the outcries of their constituents. (See ya soon Helen.)

I can't leave you without talking about State Senator Malcolm Smith. The charter school he founded in Rockaway stands to benefit from the Beach Channel HS closing. A Daily News article pointed to how Smith, with impoverished Rockaway schools enveloping the district he supposedly represents, gave a hundred thousand dollars to the charter school he founded. His supporters argued that he "divested himself" from the school. Don't you love the corporate terminology? And we find that the Victory Schools charter management company took over $750,000 in "management" fees. Victory's CEO is Margaret (Peg) Harrington who ran NYC high schools - you know, those "failing schools" that people like her supposedly ran into the ground to the extent that BloomKlein had to come riding to their "rescue" - by destroying them.
To top it off, the article said: "In 2006 and 2007, Smith received a total of $12,000 in campaign donations from Steven Klinsky, who founded the school's management company, Victory Schools Inc. Victory officials said that Klinsky's donations were meant as a show of support for Smith's pro-charter school stance. Smith recently introduced a bill to double the amount of charters allowed under law."
Gee, I'm sorry I didn't buy that bridge in Brooklyn Malcolm Smith was selling.

The Wave's Howard Schwach on Beach Channel High School Closing: What Isn't The DOE Telling Us?

Howie gave me permission to publish these 2 pieces he wrote on Beach Channel HS due to its immediacy (WAVE articles on the web are embargoed for 2 weeks). First is his commentary followed by his report on the informational meeting held at Beach Channel on Dec. 15. There were stories out yesterday that local Republican recently elected Erich Ulrich is outraged at not being notified by the Tweed death squads that a major high school was being closed in his district. Sources are talking about putting pressure on the Queens PEP member Dmytro Fedkowskyj but he is just a tool of horrendous Queens borough president Helen Marshall. One day we can only hope thousands of students from Beach Channel and Jamaica HS show up at her door.

Here are links to my reports on the meeting with video attached. (I have more video which got sidetracked by my working on the PEP meeting vids.)

Tweed's Shameful Performance at Beach Channel High...

Note the video of the senior at Beach Channel named Chris confronting Michelle Lloyd-Bey, the DOE flunky assigned to put a public face on the death squad. Rumor has it that Chris and Joel Klein somehow made contact and Chris supposedly has a meeting with Klein lined up where Chris will argue the case to save his school. And Chris is a senior who will not be affected by the closing.

Beach Channel Meeting Video #2
In this video Schwach and I confront Lloyd-Bey, who denies she played any role in the influx of kids from Far Rockaway HS but in fact played a major role in the closing of Far Rock which was the exact cause of the influx of kids to Beach Channel. Have these people no shame? Guess not.

The Rockaway Beat

Beach Channel High School Closing: What Isn't The DOE Telling Us?

Commentary By Howard Schwach

Beach Channel Drive High School So, the Department of Education has announced the phase-out and closing of Beach Channel High School, something that I have been predicting for months.

The DOE went a long way in destroy ing Beach Channel High School by placing two competing programs in Rockaway, one that drew all of the high level students and the other that took the rest of those who could read and write.

If you do not believe that the Scholars' Academy, with its own high school, right across Beach Channel Drive from BCHS drew some of the top students that might have attended BCHS and that the high school unit of the Channel View School for Research drew the rest of the motivated students, just talk to some parents.

What BCHS was left with were all the students who could not get into those two schools.

I spoke with Deputy Chancellor John White last week, shortly after the announcement was made, and he told me that there will be a new school in the BCHS building next year to share the facility with the Channel View School for Research.

That school, he says, will be designated as 27Q324, housing 432 students in grades 9 to 12.

He also said that the school would not have an "admission screen," meaning that it will take any student who wants to attend.

That begs the question: If the students are going to be the same, what sense does it make to close the school in the first place?

If the Far Rockaway High School closing is any example of the way it will play out, then many of the students who would have been slated for Beach Channel High School will wind up instead at mainland schools such as John Adams. There is no place else to go because, for the first time in more than 120 years, there will not be a comprehensive high school on the peninsula.

White was right when he said that the change will be good for the security of the neighborhood and for the community in general.

The questions that need to be asked are, will it be good for Rockaway's students, those who can't earn their way in to the new schools; and, will it be good for the mainland schools where the Rockaway kids finally wind up?

First of all, I believe that White was being disingenuous in his answer to my question about whether or not the new school would be for all Rockaway students.

Perhaps I'm being too tough on him. Perhaps he is being lied to by his bosses just as we are.

In any case, I believe that the new school at BCHS will turn out to be a charter school hosted by State Senator Malcolm Smith, and will quickly become the high school equivalent of his Peninsula Preparatory Academy that now runs in some trailers in Arverne By The Sea.

Call me skeptical, but I see it coming. It's almost as if the DOE set out to destabilize the school so that Smith could eventually have it as his own.

After the announcement of the phase-out of Far Rockaway High School in 2007, many of the thugs who could not find places in the new, small schools at the Far Rockaway Edu ca - tional Campus were sent in stead to Beach Channel High School, completely destabilizing that school.

We've written about this previously.

From The Wave edition of November 30, 2007.

The opening months at Beach Channel High School were marred this year by a spate of disruptive incidents, including drug possession, weapons possession, fighting, insubordination to school security agents and staff, and even an attack on the school's dean. Most of these incidents were perpetrated by students who were transferred to the Rockaway Park school from Far Rockaway High School, officials and school staff say.

In all, sources say, more than 50 students who are zoned to attend Far Rockaway High School because they live nearby showed up at Beach Channel High School in September with transfers in hand.

A Beach Channel High School staff member, who asked not to be identified because he had no permission to speak with the press, said that many of the transfers were problem students.

"Some of them had criminal records, some had been suspended for fighting and for theft," the source said. "Others were gang members in their home neighborhoods and were at war with the gang members at Beach Channel [High School] even before they got here."

The source told The Wave that two administrators at the school outlined the problems caused by the newcomers in a memo that was sent to Department of Education officials.

While this newspaper was denied access to the memo by DOE officials, a source at the school said that the memo detailed the problems caused by the transfers, including the 50 who came from Far Rockaway High School. In addition, 16 other transfers came to BCHS from alternative programs, including some who had been incarcerated. Eleven came from full-day special education programs, including the hospital day school program.

"[The transferred students] caused lots of mayhem in the building for the first few months," the source said. "From the beginning of September

until mid-October, more than 25 of those students were involved in disciplinary actions, some of them very severe. They were a real problem."

Last month, the DOE placed BCHS on its list of "Impact Schools," those that require special attention and more school security resources.

That designation came after an incident where a Far Rockaway High School student got into the building and joined transfers from that school in beating another student in the cafeteria. And, while the DOE admits that there were many problematic transfers to Beach Channel High School, a spokesperson said that the school was not being singled out in any way.

"Beach Channel has not been singled out as a dumping ground for troubled students," deputy press secretary Andrew Jacob told New York Times columnist Samuel Freedman. "I don't see how anyone can make the argument that one school is being favored or disfavored over any other."

He said that many of the Far Rockaway students were sent to Beach Channel simply because that school had open seats and is close to Far Rockaway.

"There is nothing out of the ordinary about the process of getting their transfers," he added. Any large high school in the city is going to be dealing with students from a wide variety of backgrounds."

Will this progression of closing schools and reopening them for a small percentage of the original student body, sending the "unwanted" elsewhere and proclaiming victory continue with the Beach Channel closing?

Will the "other school" at BCHS turn out to be a charter run by a politicallyconnected local such as Mal Smith or Floyd Flake, as we have perdicted?

Only time will tell.

Lots Of Angry Questions; Few Answers At BCHS Meeting

By Howard Schwach

City Councilman Eric Ulrich speaks at the BCHS meeting on Tuesday night while Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer and UFT Chapter Chairperson David Pecoraro await their turns. District 27 Superintendent Michelle Lloyd-Bay looked like a hockey goalie unable to stop the slap shots coming at her hot and heavy in the Beach Channel High School auditorium on Tuesday night.

A question about where the majority of students would go after the school was phased out and closed.

"I can't answer that question," Lloyd- Bay said.

A question about where teachers would find new jobs and whether or not they would be fired should they not find a new position in a year.

"I don't have that information," Lloyd-Bay said.

A question about why the school did not receive the support it needed to stay afloat, support that has already been promised for the new school that will take the place of BCHS.

"I wasn't involved, and I really can't answer that question," she said.

About 125 parents, students, school alumni and staff gathered in the auditorium on Tuesday night to find answers as to why their school was being closed and what would happen next.

Department of Education representative Ewel Napier speaks as District 27 Superintendent Michelle Lloyd-Bay backs him up. Because the district's high school superintendent was "attending another meeting just like this one elsewhere," Lloyd-Bay, who is the superintendent for elementary and middle schools, was thrown into the breach. As the questions got angrier and her answers more evasive, the meeting turned into a shouting match.

Ewel Napier, the DOE's deputy borough director for the Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy, began to read a list of a dozen bullet points about what students and parents should do under the phase-out and closing plan.

Although the plan still has to be voted on in a January 26 meeting in Staten Island, both he and Lloyd-Bay acted and spoke as if it were a done deal.

The school's UFT chairman, Dave Pecoraro, however, says that the city agency is in for a fight.

"More than 2,000 years ago, the Maccabees revolted with a much smaller army and against a greater foe than we face," Pecoraro said. "As long as we are above ground, we have a fighting chance."

Parents and alumni wait to speak. "The new school slated for this building will seat only 125 kids. We have double that coming in each year. Where will the other kids go?" he asked.

Denise Sheridan, a mother of a special needs student at the school, said that her daughter was getting a good education at the school and that she feared that would change during the phase-out period.

"The city is setting our kids up for failure," she told The Wave outside the auditorium. "I have no idea where my kid will get her services, because I am sure the new school will not take special needs students."

Dr. Davis Morris, the school's principal, was also standing outside the auditorium, as if he were not invited to the meeting.

He declined to comment on the meeting or on the closing of his school.

"We are all soldiers here," Morris said. "We all follow orders."

Parent Denise Sheridan speaks to officials as Democratic District Leader Lew Simon waits. Lloyd-Bay added to that when she told the meeting, "We are only messengers here. This is done, and the question is, how do we move forward?"

"The statistics show that this school is no longer equipped to help students move ahead," she added. "The parents have expressed their dissatisfaction and it is time to phase out and close the school."

Maria Camacho, the personnel liaison for the citywide operations center, angered many in the crowd when she said that teachers at the school would have to reapply for their jobs and that only 50 percent of them could be hired for the new school, the others being forced to move into the "open market system."

"Those teachers who are qualified for the new school can be rehired," she said.

When an ex-teacher said that he was confused, because all of the teachers presently in the school had to be qualified to hold their jobs, she answered that the new principal and a panel of others would have to decide whether the teachers were qualified for that school, which brought catcalls and angry shouts.

Special needs teacher Patti Holloran asks where her students will go as other students wait to speak. Where would those teachers who were deemed not qualified find jobs?

Camacho shrugged and said, "They would have to go elsewhere or become district teacher reserves [teachers without jobs who fill in as subs.]"

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announc - ed last week that he is moving to fire all DTRs who have not found a permanent job in one year.

In many cases, however, the excessed teachers are more costly than new teachers, and principals are quicker to hire the cheaper teachers, experts say.

A number of angry parents stood in line to take the microphone to charge that DOE officials set up the school for failure by sending students from the closed Far Rockaway High School who destabilized the school and then by diverting much-needed resources to both the Scholars' Academy and the Channel View School for Research, a school that shares the building with BCHS.

City Councilman Eric Ulrich was angered because no advance notice of the closing was sent to his office and because no plans were apparent for those students who would not be admitted to the new school, which will open next September.

"If they can't get into the new program, there is no place in Rockaway for them to go," Ulrich said. "If they can't get a free bus pass and can't afford public transportation off the peninsula each day, where are they going to go?"

Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer was also angered.

"You had a responsibility to have somebody here tonight who can answer these questions," she said. "People came here to find the answers to their concerns and all they get is 'I can't answer that, and the person who can is not here.' "

Democratic District Leader Lew Simon also challenged Lloyd-Bay.

"You force our kids to go off the peninsula for school, then you take away their bus passes and add a toll on the bridge. You have laid-off parents and single parents who can't afford that. Somebody has lost their mind," he said.

There will be another meeting at the school on January 6 at 6 p.m., Napier said. Three members of the city's educational panel will be present and locals can make statements, but no questions will be allowed.

The Educational Priorities Panel will meet on January 26 in Staten Island for a final vote on the closing.

Locals are petitioning the board to move that meeting to a more central location for Rockaway residents.

"It's another example of the way the DOE treats us," a parent said. "There are no schools being closed in Staten Island, and that's where they chose to hold their meeting."

Pecoraro was more sanguine.

"I didn't know that there was a blizzard coming, but this meeting was a real snow job," he said. "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."