Are School Closing Choices Being Made on Basis of Costs of Teachers?

It certainly would seem to be obvious without even looking at the data. Think of the strategy. End LIFO, go after the ATRs, create lots more relatively senior ATRs by under resourcing schools selected for closing on the basis of teacher costs, create a phony layoff crisis, lay off these people and then turn around and hire lots of newbies after declaring crisis is over- exactly what Michelle Rhee did in DC, but this will be on a massive scale. For the UFT to declare victory after this onslaught will take superb PR skills, but watch them try.

Gotham reported today: The city said it wants to close two more schools, both transfer schools. (NY1, Brooklyn Daily Eagle). Here's a job for an enterprising investigative journalist.

One source emailed me:

With the closure of the two transfer schools, announced yesterday, Pacific and Bronx Academy it is pretty clear that the decision to close a school has more to do with the average cost of teachers at that school than anything else. While they cite progress reports and other criteria Pacific had an average teacher salary of 78,000 and Bronx Academy, 76,000. If a correlation could be made between closing and opening schools using average teacher salaries, cost of administration one could predict which schools will be on the chopping block. The info is all on the DOE web site under Budget Summary for each school. The average teacher cost varies a little by license and there are a number of other additions and subtractions to this amount but this measure does seem predictable.

 Are there schools in the same category with lower ratings and lower average salaries that were not closed?

-----------

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Last night's Panel for Educational Policy meeting

As predicted, the PEP (Panel of Eight Mayoral Puppets plus borough appointees) voted to approve ten school closings and several co-locations and expansions of Success Academy Charters into public school space.

See video of the Caped Real Reformers (parents and teachers ) singing "What a Wonderful World it would be" and students at Metropolitan Corporate Academy, one of the schools being closed, perform, ""DOE don't care about us" at last night's PEP meeting. More video of the evening's events at NY1, including Chancellor Cathie Black's annoyed response to the vociferous crowd.

Some lyrics:

They don’t know how to teach history,
they don’t know how to teach biology,
They don’t know much about science books,
they don’t know much about the cuts we took,
but they do know how to close down schools,
we’re fighting back you know that we’re not fools,
What wonderful schools they could be.

They know a lot about charter schools,
and that they think that merit pay is cool,
..Parents, teachers, students know there’s more
They know there’s more than just test scores
What wonderful schools these could be.

My comments last night:

Choice is not real choice if someone else’s child is being squeezed out into hallways, closets or basement rooms. Choice is not real choice if someone else’s child is being forced into larger classes or you are closing their school, against their will. Every time you close or co-locate a school you are creating more overcrowding and more disruption of someone else’s education. Every time you close or co-locate a school, you are undermining choices for all parents and their children, and imposing your own will on a community. Clearly the people whose lives are most affected oppose these proposed closing and co-locations. I urge you to listen to their choices, and to vote against these proposals.

Exclusive Video of CEJ Rally and Civil Disobedience at Tweed

A rally of mostly NYC students near City Hall in NYC focused on the forced closing of schools as part of the drive to privatize by short-changing these schools of resources. Over 20 people blocked Chambers Street near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and were arrested. Students began a march to the precinct but on the way they were told the police to avoid the march were taking the arrested to another precinct. The event was organized by the Coalition for Educational Justice, consisting of community based organizations.

We have heard for weeks that this rally called by CEJ (Coalition for Educational Justice) would ramp up the protests into civil disobedience. Originally scheduled for last Weds, the day before the Stop School Closing Rally but postponed by the snow it was held on Monday, Jan. 31.

Why two rallies? Complex, but the simple answer is two different messages and approaches between GEM and CEJ but we are communicating and supporting some efforts. We are mostly teachers and they are mostly parents and students and one day soon the train shall meet.

Joel Klein called the misnamed "achievement gap" the "civil rights issue of our time." His and the other ed deformer strategy of forcing the closure of many inner city schools to make way for favored privately controlled charters is the real civil rights issue of the time, as this video shows with students and parents declaring that their schools have been purposely set up for failure so justification can be found to shut them down and turn the valuable real estate their buildings represent over to charters.

Here is 14 minutes of edited video I shot: the rally, excerpts from speakers, the push into Chambers St., the arrests and the follow-up march to the police station. Fabulous stuff from a great bunch of students who did us all proud.

http://vimeo.com/19443862


Here is Lindsey Christ's story on (NY1)

Also check out this amazingly supportive piece from Gabe:
Gabe Pressman Supports Teacher Experience

Stop the school closings rally!

Jamaica HS teachers and students fight for their school's survival

Jamaica HS Closing Hearing: James Eterno Presents the Real Data from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

This video from Norm Scott is truly stunning. Check out Deputy Chancellor John White, 2010 graduate of the Broad Superintendent Academy, at the Jamaica HS closing hearings, vs. the school's justifiably angry, articulate and well-informed parents, teachers & students.

My mother-in-law taught at this school, and would be turning in her grave to see what the Bloomberg gang have done to try to destroy its success – but haven’t yet managed to damage its spirit.

Come to the rally on Jan. 27 to protest school closings and charter takeovers

Come join our rally at 4 PM at City Hall Plaza to protest school closings and charter takeovers! Even if your kids are not affected this year, their school could be next. Stop the privatization and the dismantling of neighborhood schools, which causes disruption, damages kids, and more overcrowding elsewhere.

From co-locations to budget cuts to Kindergarten wait list to increasing class size, the DOE is doing everything they can to undermine the success of neighborhood public schools. There are several schools on the closing list with principals that parents and teachers complained about for years, and DOE did nothing. The responsibility for their future is directly attributable to the failure of DOE leadership.

Co-sponsored by Class Size Matters, CAPE, GEM, the UFT, and many other parent, teacher and community groups. Click on the flyer above for more info.

Stop School closings and charter takeovers!

Come to the Panel for Educational Panel meetings on January 19th, Feb. 1st, Feb. 3rd and March 1st, where the fates of more than thirty schools, either closings or co-locations, will be decided.

Let your voices be heard against the forces that would privatize and undermine our public schools -- and damage the future of most of the students in these schools.

Let Cathie Black, our new Chancellor, hear how parents really feel about these proposals. She has said that she wants to listen to parents and other stakeholders; find out how sincere she is.

Click on the GEM flyer to the left, to print and distribute in your schools.

The UFT Non-demo at Tweed, Ad Hoc Committee to Fight School Closings to Hold First Meeting Dec. 21

UPDATE: SEE JOHN POWERS' ADDENDUM TO THIS POST
 
Friday, Dec. 17, 2010

I'm sorry if the Lehman teachers were looking for magic bullets to keep them open but we must link the fightbacks to the political intention of school closings, something the UFT refuses to do as they too fall into the data trap of defending the schools' numbers which are so manipulated based on the kinds of kids the school is sent and the number or lack of resources. - see my comment below

Did you know the UFT actually held something or other at Tweed on Wednesday? At least there was a rumor that they would end the Delegate Assembly early on Wednesday and march over to Tweed. I couldn't be there, thank goodness (Promises, Promises).

Were they worried that a resolution on closing schools was going to be sponsored by a variety of groups? Probably not but more a sign that they are feeling some heat from the members. Thus a pipsqueak show of force. Apparently they are saving their big one-shot show of force for the Feb. PEP meeting where closing schools will have their fate sealed.

Chapter leader John Powers, who has been sending emails daily to the UFT leadership sent this to ICE-mail:

SSSSShhhhhhhhhhh. Did you hear? There is a UFT protest outside of Tweed tonight. CL's received the news. How about the rest of our membership who toils every day under the dictates of a billionaire mayor and his puppet and soon to be puppet: Klein and Black? Did they receive the news?

SSSShhhhhhhhh. There is a protest tonight. SSSSShhhhhhhh. Don't bring anyone. It might get crowded.

BLUNT.

BLUNT.

BLUNT.

No action alert on UFT homepage. No e-alert to all members.

Big Mike wants it to be a quiet affair.

SSShhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Apparently John shamed them into actually posting something on the web. And there's a rumor they actually held some kind of rally. They even have a video. From the UFT web site:

Hundreds of UFT members gathered in the bitter cold on Dec. 15 outside DOE headquarters at the Tweed Courthouse to rally against the city's plans to close 25 struggling district schools.

Hundreds? You mean they actually got hundreds out? We got 500 last year at the rally at Bloomberg's house. How pathetic - there are over 3000 delegates and .....jeez, I won't go on.

There were some interesting posts on ICE mail regarding the UFT and how they are reacting to closing schools and I highlight two of them from Marjorie Stamberg and Ellen Fox at Norms Notes.
Here are a few excerpts but head over and read all of it.

Unity caucus is trying to pick up the opposition verbiage; their motion talks of "building a grassroots movement" to stop the closings and a lot of militant talk, for them.  I also think the word got out that many of us were organizing to bring signs and present a motion at the D.A. for a UFT citywide rally, to bring together the local school-based protests against the school closings. The bureaucracy wanted to get in front of the train, before it left the station without them.- Marjorie

The original resolution calls for the DA to vote on the following final RESOLVED: THAT     in recognition of the outrage this Delegate Assembly, representing the educators of all NYC public schools, feels about the proposal to close 25 schools, we hereby adjourn this meeting and reassemble for a mass protest [emphasis mine] at City Hall and the central offices of the NYC Department of Education. 

It's fascinating to see that, at least originally, our leaders were thinking of the number of Delegates and Chapter Leaders who manage to show up on Wednesday to constitute a mass protest.  I forget what the quorum number is, but the actual number of people in attendance rarely, if ever, exceeds 1,000.  Some mass protest!  I see London, I see France!

The words of the resolution sound militant, until you realize that, once again, the UFT "leadership" is putting the onus on individual schools, rather than formulating some sort of unified response that would apply to, and draw a connection between, all of the affected schools; and would also draw all UFT members into support of the threatened schools -- not just at the February "doomsday" PEP meeting, but in some sort of sustained way.  They've had the gall to suggest, at a variety of meetings, how they're going to "offer help" to the newly attacked schools just as they "helped" the threatened schools last year.- Ellen

Read both of their full posts at Norms Notes where they also discuss the attack on large schools as part of the weakening of the union by breaking down big chapters, though Ellen points out that while the union at the school level is weakened the top leadership actually benefits from small schools because the opposition has to work harder to do outreach.

I'm fairly sure that the closing of these schools would bring Unity leadership a bit of secret joy along with just the tiniest bit of angst about losing overall union strength.  On the whole, small schools are much easier to control, and keep within the Unity fold.- Ellen

I gave a presentation at the Lehman high school's UFT meeting a week ago in which I pointed to the failed policy of the union regarding the ed deform mania for closing schools, the main purpose of which is ideological, political, economic, even a real estate grab, with Children First being Last.

No matter what is said, the very idea of charging a school with being a failure comes down to blaming the teachers and then tossing them into an ATR pool where they will be vilified (the UFT honcho in the room made sure to say at least they still have a job and that we could have had a contract if the UFT were willing to give up the ATRs.) I pointed out that it is often a job in hell and these jobs only exist because of the 2005 contract.

I pointed to the UFT "victory" in the law suit last year that kept 19 school open temporarily (15 are on the new list) because the DOE had been sloppy in following procedure. In other words, the UFT was not opposing the concept of closing schools, which they have supported since the idea gained hold almost 2 decades ago, but making sure procedures are followed.

When the Far Rockaway HS closing was announced, I got a call from a disgruntled teacher who was upset that the UFT District HS Queens rep Rona Freiser (now Queens boro rep) had come down not to help them fight the closing but to inform them of their rights (which weren't all that much). Of course Howard Schwach, my editor at The Wave and I immediately began to predict that Beach Channel HS, the other large HS in Rockaway would be next because the small schools opening at Far Rock would not take the most difficult kids. And so that has come to pass. The UFT PR machine could have made a big deal about this intentional domino effect but didn't.

I told the teachers at Lehman that if they followed the pattern of Bronx school closings the arrow would lead right to them and that the UFT should have been exposing this and using its resources to forestall the inevitable instead of rushing in with too little too late. I didn't have time to mention that the DOE intentionally sends in principals as "closers", some sharp and ambitious who know exactly what they are there for and others clueless but clearly lacking people skills that would turn so many people off the school community would have little fight left to battle. I pointed this out in my blog the other day about Murray Begtraum and Lafayette HS. (Is Murray Bergtraum Principal a "Closer?")

I'm sorry if the Lehman teachers were looking for magic bullets to keep them open but we must link the fightbacks to the political intention of school closings, something the UFT refuses to do as they too fall into the data trap of defending the schools' numbers which are so manipulated based on the kinds of kids the school is sent and the number or lack of resources. To the DOE, resources means coordinators, watchers, trainers.

What can we do?
I have no easy answers other than to get out the word and try to organize and activate people as a force within the UFT that can become strong enough to either force the leadership to do the right thing (which you know I doubt since I consider them Vichy) or even stronger to threaten their control. I will post separately on how my point of view differs from other activists opposing Unity.

An ad hoc committee to fight school closings is in the process of forming. It is holding its first meeting on Tuesday. Come on down.

Fight School Closings

NO School Closings!

NO Charter Invasions!

All are welcome to join an

Ad Hoc Organizing Meeting

to fight back against:

-school closings

-charter invasions and privatization

-school transformations/restructuring 

Tuesday, December 21st

4:30 pm

CUNY Graduate Center

(34^th St and 5^th Ave)

Room 5409

You are invited to help build this major campaign. 

Bring your ideas to this planning meeting.  

We will plan mobilizations to the Mayor's PEP meetings, to DOE hearings to close schools and to invade with charters, and to pressure City Hall and the Mayor.

The campaign will involve letter writing, petitions, media blitzes, talks, workshops, forums,videos, cultural presentations, fight-back Fridays, and much much more. 

With your involvement we can build this campaign and movement to promote quality education and stop the drive to privatize.

Ross Global Charter to be Closed Along with 11 Public Schools

Here is the list announced today with more to come tomorrow. Beach Channel knew it was a fait accompli.

Ed Notes had a detailed report on Ross Global Charter which is such a bad school it couldn't be protected due to the relationship between Courtney Ross and Joel Klein's wife - maybe the real reason he is leaving - so he doesn't have to face his wife and Courtney.  

SEE ADDED MATERIAL BELOW THE FOLD

Story at Gotham Schools.

Here is the background with some an interesting robocall from Ross to the parents when the DOE tipped hre off that some activists (Lisa Donlan) might attend a meeting so Ross packed it.

DOE Warns Courtney Ross at Ross Gobal Charter: The Real Reformers are Coming, The Real Reformers are Coming

Courtney Sales Ross' Robocall Warning of Anti-Charter School Attendees at Meeting. Ross' charter school was tossed out of Tweed and many consider it in the running for one of the worst schools in NYC with countless principals and other problems. There are stories that Ross is a pal of Joel Klein's wife. He authorized the opening of the school and it has been protected despite the poor results.

Ross is the widow of deceased Time-Warner head Steve Ross, whose bio I read and was a fascinating figure (grew up around Newkirk Ave in Brooklyn- look what his inheritance has unleashed on the world.)

Read Lisa Donlan's account of the meeting as it scrolls over Ross' call to parents to come out. 

Here is the you tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJTnWjv_cc

Also see at Norms Notes 

Council for District One On Ross Global Academy charter school DoE authorized charter renewal hearing

More on Ross Global at Norms Notes - and check comments too for a laugh.




Expect another expensive legal battle over this one; clearly Ross can finance it.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704156304576003754103843190.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Not sure where the WSJ got the facts for this article but CEC 1 came across very different evidence in our searches of DoE and SED accountability documents.

The statements below are all culled directly from DoE/SED official reports, including annual Quality Review reports, Progress Reports, Charter School annual reports, Site visit reports, financial statements, etc

School Instability: high turnover/ low demand

High turnover of leadership:

Since opening in 2006, Ross Global Academy Charter School has had 7 principals in just 5 years, losing 4 in the first year alone.

The first three left before the school was 6months old:

First year Principal/Salary/length of stay

FM/60 days/$53,704

JD/47 days/$24,923 (left before school started)

ME/4months/$22000

These changes were NOT communicated clearly to parents, creating confusion and uncertainty among the families that had chosen RGACS.

High teacher turnover:

2006-07=  92%, or 13/14 left

2007-08 = 75%, or 18/24 left

2008-09 = 42%, or14/33 left

During RGACS’s first year (2006-07), teachers reported chaotic working conditions; many quit/were fired in the middle of the year (8 before the middle of the year) and only 1/14 returned in 2007-08.

During the school’s second year, there were documented reports from staff of fear of retribution and exclusion from secret meetings; other complaints ranged from  inconsistent instruction, to lack of data/benchmarks/measures of accountability; from there being  no plan aligning RGA curriculum to NYS standards, to the failure to monitor that curriculum was progressively developing through the grades.

Comparing RGACS with national teacher attrition rates, we see that the RGA rates

 are unacceptably high, indicating serious administrative issues.

Leaving profession, including retirement
Regular public schools: 7.9 percent
Charter schools: 12.5%

Moving (switching schools):
Regular public schools: 7.5%
Charter schools: 11.4%

High student attrition:

 According to the Department of Education, by February 2010, the middle of the 2009-10 school year, some 91 of the 410 students enrolled at Ross Global had left, at a rate of more than 22%.

 (Note- total enrollment was reported as 420 on 1/12/10 by Forbes).

 In 2009-10 more than 100 students transferred out from a total enrollment of 415 students (24%)

 In 2008-2009, the self reported attrition rate = 20.1% (80/399 students left).

In 2007-08 = 24% (64/268 students left)

And 2006-07= 20.5% (39/190 students left). 

Parents cited as reasons for pulling their kids out of RGA: violence/disorder/ curriculum too test focused, and not as elaborate as described in brochures/Summer school cancelled.

Not only it is important to note that these students attrition rate numbers are higher than average attrition rates for other schools, but we must keep in mind the documented positive correlation of student performance and attrition. 

The more a school counsels out  troubled or hard to reach students, students with high needs, English language learners, etc, the more likely the school is to show high performance.

Yet if we look at the attached  analysis of RGA's  performance on the ELA/Math tests  for the past 2 years as compared with the DoE peer schools that most closely matching RGA's demographics, we see that schools with similar demographics largely out performed RGA every year.

Lisa Donlan

High-Profile Charter Becomes Non-Starter

By BARBARA MARTINEZ

A prominent charter school made the list of underperforming schools that the Department of Education plans to close, and the school said it intends to fight for its survival.
The Ross Global Academy Charter School on the Lower East Side was founded in 2006 by Courtney Sale Ross, the widow of Steven J. Ross, former chief executive of Time Warner.
The school's test scores for 2009 show it's one of the city's three worst-performing charter schools. Only about 30% of its students were proficient in math or English. It has had four principals in five years, and 77% of its teachers and 25% of its students left last year.
In an interview before the DOE's decision, Ms. Ross, 62 years old, said last year's test scores were an aberration and that some of the contributing factors were beyond the school's control. "This was a start-up riddled with turbulence," she said, pointing to the DOE's decisions to relocate the school three times. She added that the school had already begun a process of turnaround with a new principal.
On Monday, the DOE dismissed Ms. Ross's version of the school's tenure. "This was not a one-year problem," the agency said in a statement. "The school has received four notices of concern or deficiency over the past five years. In our review this year, we did not see evidence that these concerns were addressed or that there was a plan in place to address them."
It will now be up to the Board of Regents at the New York State Education Department, which can agree with or oppose New York City's recommendation.
There are nearly 100 charter schools in New York City, and more than 1,500 traditional public schools. While the DOE has shut down dozens of schools in the past several years, it has only closed one charter school. It has given six charter schools less than the maximum five-year renewal terms in the past two years because of poor performance.
"Normally, they don't close a school in this fashion," said Kevin Quinn, a partner at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna and Ross's attorney. He said the DOE has failed to follow its own process in the case of Ross by not giving the school an opportunity to comment on the DOE's recommendation before announcing publicly its intention to recommend that the school be closed. He said he's unaware of the four notices of deficiencies that the DOE claims, but that there was only one notice, and the school successfully challenged it.
"I'm concerned this decision may have been made before they even started the process," said Stephanie Wilson, a Ross board member and parent of a student. She said the school has a strong plan in place for its turnaround. Two weeks ago, Ross held a meeting in which more than 100 parents, teachers and students touted their school to the DOE officials.
Write to Barbara Martinez at Barbara.Martinez@wsj.com

UFT Failed Policy on School Closings: Ignores School Closings Based on Political and Ideological Grounds

Gotham schools Reports Backroom Dealings Between DOE and UFT on School Closings
Longtime Outcomes: DOE: 90-120+, UFT: 0

This story is so typical - if true, which I believe it is - of how the UFT has dealt with school closings.
It should be pointed out that the DOE has closed over 90 schools with barely a whimper from the UFT. But the announcement last December that they would close 19 schools, just as Mulgrew's first UFT election campaign was getting started forced the UFT to act - bringing out people to the Jan. 26 PEP meeting and filing a law suit - not a law suit based on the premises I will lay out in the following paragraphs that closings are based on ideology and politics, not educational grounds, but on procedural grounds, something the DOE is correcting this year. So the schools were kept open another year and despite the fact that the DOE did everything it could to keep students from going there the UFT made a deal to allow them to insert new schools to further undermine them. This year they are again a target.

UFT Wiki-leaks
So this item in the Gotham piece caused me to take notice:

“I think they’re making a real attempt to avoid what led us to win that suit against them,” said the [UFT] official. “I don’t think it’s any glasnost, there’s no kumbaya here. But they’re making an effort to avoid getting sued.”

So the UFT is leaking that the DOE is afraid of another law suit - over what - procedures that they are following to the T? This leak is for the members who are agitating within their schools and communities - "SHHHH! We may be able to make a deal for you if you are quiet." And desperate schools may just do it. I was at the Dewey rally on Friday and saw some signs (which I may be misinterpreting) that there might be a behind the scene buzz emanating from the union that a deal could be made by the UFT and DOE to save the school - for now. I bet they are telling that to all the schools. Just like they probably told to the staffs of the now closed over 90 schools.

One GEMer said:

That is why I think having Fight Back rallies and Demo's might actually make a difference.  If the DOE sees that a school community is going to fight, they might think twice about closing it or even using the turn-around model.  My understanding is that the Federal government only allows a certain percent of schools to be transformed.  I believe that is 17 out of the 55/60. Interesting that they do not seem to be using the "conversion to charter" model.  It is one of the 4 choices.  Perhaps this is because "charter" school operators do not want to take on such a "hard" job as "fixing" a struggling high school.  Remember Jeffrey Canada's Harlem Children Zone Charter School "fired" a whole 9th grade class instead of having them move on to high school. Have any of the schools on the list been contacted by the UFT to have input into the negotiations?

Note that Randi Weingarten and the AFT have not made a peep against the federal turn around mandates that forces locals to do their bidding. Well, you know, they wouldn't want to be branded by the ed deformers as a union unwilling to go along.

I have been a critic of the UFT/AFT policy on school closings since BloomKlein took over, claiming much of the policy is based on politics and ideology rather than on educational grounds. And on the use of numbers, at times cooked (see Jamaica HS) rather than looking at the real situation within the school. The idea is that the only way to get around seniority and tenure rules is to use these closings or turn around models to dump out the teachers and start new schools with many newbies who cost less and are often more compliant.

By that I mean they can wring more "productivity" out of newbies who won't complain if prep periods or lunch periods go missing or people have to stay in school until 6PM to get their work done. I mean, why pay people per session for extra work if you can get it for free? We hear that charter school teachers work 30% more. That is the ed deform model.

And let's not forget that these teachers get so much lower pay as newbies they can hire more of them.

[As a sidelight - note the latest ed deform attack is on the salary structure itself that is based on number of years and qualifications. Their ideal: all teachers start out with the same base salary no matter how many years and get bonuses each year based on the kids' performance on standardized tests. How about a gym or art or music teacher you ask? Get your kids to run a 4-minute mile, produce a Picasso or write a symphony and you'll be rich.]

The ed deformers have come up with this policy nationally to enforce their ideology, part of which holds that small schools only are the way and that large comprehensive high schools must go. That these large schools are often bastions of strong union support is a factor.

Tweed has used various techiniques to make large schools disappear. Using a geographical method, first in the Bronx, then in Brooklyn and now in Queens, the DOE has created a domino effect by keeping the most at risk kids out of their cherished small schools and forcing crowds of them into the next school down the line. Examples: Far Rockaway/Beach Channel - and next John Adams. Lane/Jefferson/Canarsie/South Shore - next Sheepshead Bay. Lafayette - John Dewey. I don't know the Bronx geography well enough to map it but I hear Lehman HS is a big target now.

But the UFT refuses to act as if this is true. They refuse to try to organize the threatened schools as a united force, giving behind the scenes advice to each school individually. The outcomes have been disaster for the schools.

This comment came in from another GEMer:

Has there been any rank-and-file involvement as our leadership helps decide which schools stay and which get thrown on the trash heap? Note also the new emphasis on the more draconian "turnaround" rather than just "transformation."  Funny that the CSA is publicly protesting that this would be extracontractual, but no peep from the UFT about all their members in a school being forced to reapply for their jobs (and only half being able to be rehired).

Yes, pretty funny that the union for supervisors comes off as being more supportive of their members than the UFT is.

Full Gotham story below the fold



http://gothamschools.org/2010/12/03/city-and-union-officials-are-in-talks-over-school-closures/

City officials have been holding on-again-off-again meetings with the
teachers union to discuss the fate of the nearly 60 schools that could
be closed or have their principals removed this year.

A source familiar with the meetings said they’ve been going on
throughout the fall and have been spearheaded, on the DOE’s side, by
Deputy Chancellor John White. A union official said part of the reason
for the talks is that the city is eager to avoid another lawsuit like
the one last year that barred the planned closure of 19 schools.

“I think they’re making a real attempt to avoid what led us to win
that suit against them,” said the official. “I don’t think it’s any
glasnost, there’s no kumbaya here. But they’re making an effort to
avoid getting sued.”

City and union officials would not comment on the substance of the
discussions. As early as next week, city officials will begin
announcing which schools they plan to keep open, which will close, and
which will undergo one of several “turnaround” models mandated by the
federal government.

City officials are also trying to iron out an agreement with the
principal’s union that will let them use the turnaround method in some
schools, according to the Council for School Supervisors and
Administrators spokeswoman Chiara Coletti.

One of the four school improvement strategies being offered by the
federal government, the turnaround method, calls for a school’s
principal to be replaced and its teachers and administrators to
reapply for their jobs. Only 50 percent can be rehired.

Coletti said the union’s contract doesn’t allow the city to dismiss
principals and other administrators without a hearing.

“We have a contract that doesn’t allow for the wholesale removal of
administrative staff, so that’s obviously under discussion,” she said.

Earlier this year, the union reached an agreement with the city that
allowed for the principals of several transformation schools to be
replaced while others got a new title of “transformation mentor
principals.”

“As we’ve said, we are talking to stakeholders about struggling
schools, and getting input from parents, teacher, school leaders and
communities,” said DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld. “We’ll consider
their input, and the data, as we make the best decisions for kids.”

Cathie Black meets a real life public school parent and gets an earful....

Seung Ok: Why Closing Schools Will Always Be Illegal

Mayor Bloomberg and Co. is again attempting to close tons of schools that the community wants open. And to that effect, they will be releasing Impact Statements as required by law. Unless those statements truly list the horrendous effects these closures will have on those students and communities, the city again will be open for a lawsuit.

When a school is closed, the students on track to graduate have the option of transferring out, which they often do. The school being phased out will be left with lower enrollment, and a high proportion of ELL, Special Education, and low achieving students - since other schools tend to reject their applications.

So that school, which needs more support, not less, will have an insufficient budget and number of qualified staff - since special education teachers are the biggest expense in a school (12 to 1 student to teacher ratio). This school will be forced to deny their students legal rights to their services. This is what's happening all across the city. The DOE is forcing schools to break the law.

Because of a smaller staff, courses will have to be dropped. This year in Maxwell HS, chemistry is no longer offered and many teachers are teaching courses out of their license.

Let's not forget the schools that will be installed into the building after the closure. The DOE allows these new schools to reject ELL and Special Education students for the first 3 years. The result on the community is clear. Other schools in the community will have their enrollment of high needs students skyrocket. This is happening to schools all over the city as well.

Those schools targeted for closure must be witness to this travesty and fight it by documenting all the negative effects closures have had on their students. Officially report services not provided to their special education students. Report the number of classes taught out of license. Report the number of ELL and Special Education Students. Document the rise of lower level students concentrating in one school. Document the rise in class size.

And this time - let's approach an organization less complicit than the UFT. In last year's lawsuit settlement, the UFT compromised on keeping schools open by still allowing new schools to co-locate in their buildings (see the case of Jamaica High School). Jamaica High School now has issues of 50 students in some classes and withering space and programs for their students.

Seung Ok

John Dewey HS in Brooklyn, NY Initiates Fight Back Fridays

Threatened with being closed down after being fed a poison pill by the NYCDOE of having the very programs that have attracted generations of students eliminated, an influx of students from other large high schools in Brooklyn and budget cuts, the John Dewey school community has implemented a Fight Back Friday series of before school rallies on Stillwell Avenue beginning at 7:15. If you are in the neighborhood stop by or honk as you drive by.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y3tXGAxCOs

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Join the Grassroots Education Movement and the Real Reformers at the November 16 PEP meeting at Brooklyn Tech at 5:30 as they perform the rap song "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up!" in front of the school as a prelude to the meeting.

The 47 proposed school closings: it turns your stomach and breaks your heart

It is appalling to look at the list of 47 schools targeted for possible closure, as well as to think of those already closed in the last few years by this regime.

When you attend a closing "hearing" for one of them as I did for my alma mater, Christopher Columbus H.S., or if you attended the P.E.P. "hearing" at Brooklyn Tech. for 19 at once, and you see every person who works at one of these schools, or attends one, or sends their kid or kids to one, get up and say "don't close this school" and you see the bureaucrats who have unfortunately been given power over this public school system remain unmoved, unpersuaded, acting like they could care less about what the people they are supposed to be serving, or managing, want, or say, or think, it can turn your stomach and break your heart.

When you think of people who have been made temporary custodians of an enormous public school system which is, I believe, in its third century, acting like they have the right to just do away with so many of that system's pillars, with no obligation to maintaining them, it makes your blood boil. People who said "put us in charge and hold us accountable" -- when faced with parts of that system which need some assistance --stand aside with their arms folded saying "tsk, tsk, you're dead meat" rather than rolling up their sleeves and wading in (if they even have the skills to do so) with an all-out effort to bring with them the resources to help lift these schools up. Naturally, the immediate injury is done to those now in those school communities threatened with closure, and then to those who would be coming in after them. But there is a historical component to this as well, and some looking backward is justified.

For example: When I heard that my alma mater (which has been around for 72 years) was threatened, one of the things that crossed my mind was that if that happened, and I was asked in the future what high school I went to, I'd have to say "It doesn't exist any more". I thought that Joel Klein went to Bryant H.S., and I didn't see him talking about closing HIS school. I called Robert Abrams, former NYS Attorney General, for whom I'd worked in that office, because I knew he'd gone to Columbus as well, and told him about the threat. He immediately wanted to know how he might get involved in the situation.

I thought of the school's 50th anniversary celebration, which I'd attended at the Glen Island Casino, where alums came, all dressed up, carrying their senior yearbooks, showing classmates they might not have seen in years their photos and autographs. I learned that yet-to-be-disgraced State Senator Guy Velella was an alum by standing in back of him on the sign-in line. And journalist Robert Scheer. (I already knew about Anna Maria Italiano, who later changed her name to Anne Bancroft).

The 60th, in 1998, was at the school itself, where there was more renewal of acquaintances and the discovery of facts you never knew before.

EVERY LONG-TIME SCHOOL IN THE NYC PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM HAS ITS OWN STORIES LIKE THESE, AND ATTACHMENTS, AND A LIST OF ALUMNI, WHO IF CULTIVATED AND ORGANIZED, COULD POTENTIALLY HELP THE SCHOOL. Shut them down and you are shutting down that history, and that potential.

I heard attorney Norman Siegel say at an education forum after the 19 intended closings were announced last year that he'd gone to New Utrecht, and if they ever tried to close his alma mater, that he'd be in the streets.

This bunch that has unfortunately been put in charge of the old, historic NYC Board of Education (still it's legal name, whatever they claim) has no respect for its history, and its traditions, which, even if there have been failures, have also included enough things to be proud of, to be boasting about, to be trumpeting, from the more than 150 years of its existence. Where is the historical perspective, the pride that should come with having taken over an institution with such a rich history? Is there a NYC public schools museum? An archive? Do they encourage historical research, make records and documents available? Keep them in a central, advertised, accessible place for historians to mine?

Can we organize alums at threatened schools into an effective force to push back against the threats? Can we organize a demonstration at Bryant with the message that we're glad that the school (where Joel Klein went) still exists, and we want all the others to have the same security?

Any thoughts? -- Richard Barr