NY1 Video/Article: PEP OKs Five Co-Locations As Group Fights Charter School Expansion
News 12 Video: DOE approves 2 Brooklyn school mergers
Brooklyn Paper: Success’s success! City approves controversial charter’s W’burg bid
NYTimes Schoolbook Blog: Success Charter Wins Approval to Open a Williamsburg School
GothamSchools blog: Supporters, opponents clamor as PEP backs charter co-location
Thanks to Clara Waloff for the amazing photos.
Thanks to all the SCSC, especially those members who took part in the rally & press conference: Councilmember Diana Reyna’s Office, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’ Office, Advocates for Justice, Alliance for Quality Education, Brooklyn Legal Services, CEC 14, Churches United, El Puente, First Spanish Presbyterian Church, Grassroots Education Movement, Lutheran Churches – Williamsburg, Occupy DOE, Williamsburg And Greenpoint Parents for Our Public Schools (PS 84, PS132), and more…
And a great many thanks to the El Puente youth and facilitators who worked with city-wide coalitions to bring the youth voice to the forefront!
But thanks to PEP Member Patrick Sullivan (Manhattan Rep.), who fought for the community’s right to self-determination.
The welcome we received at the steps of Ft. Greene Park
For Immediate Release: Wednesday February 29th, 2012
Contact: Luis Garden Acosta, 718-387-0404
Public Officials and Major Civic Leaders Break with the Bloomberg Version of Mayoral Control
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Councilwoman Diana Reyna and a host of other public officials and high profile leaders will take the unprecedented step of breaking with the Bloomberg administration control of the public school system. A press conference is scheduled for tomorrow, March 1st, 2012 at 5:00 p.m., Brooklyn Tech High School, 29 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn NY, (set up at S. Elliot Street and DeKalb Avenue) prior to the Panel on Education Policy (PEP) public meeting at Brooklyn Tech High School at 6pm.
Coming on the heels of a disturbing meeting with public school Chancellor Dennis Walcott, public officials as well as church and community leaders will charge the Chancellor with “Academic Malfeasance” and call for an end to the PEP process that they decry as the antithesis of good government practice.
Church and community leaders of the Southside Community Schools Coalition* will be present to denounce the Bloomberg administration handling of schools as irresponsible, lacking integrity and a failure for District 14 (Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bedford-Stuyvesant) public schools in general, and Williamsburg Southside schools, in particular.
High school students from at least four high schools will rally across the street against the “closed back room dealings” of corporate driven charter networks that do not emanate from the communities they propose to serve, are not accountable to those communities and who are backed by the Mayor’s autocratic rule in the use and abuse of public school space.
Click here for the full Press Release.
Tonight was the 2nd DOE Hearing on Success Academy Colocation into MS50 Williamsburg
Just to re-cap. Due to ‘clerical error’ on the part of the DOE, instead of relying on the community input generated at the original DOE Colocation Hearing for MS50 (on 01/17/2012), the DOE scheduled the hearing tonight. THAT original hearing drew several hundred Williamsburg residents who were overwhelmingly AGAINST the Success Academy colocation (fewer than 25 were there in support of the charter).
Tonight’s hearing drew many more hundreds of people, and wouldn’t you know it, there were about 5 busloads of Success supporters – imported mostly from Harlem, with very few Williamsburg-based supporters. And more power to Harlem Success Academy.
But the diversity of Harlem Success Academy’s school community, the success of their academic curricula, the awesomeness of their matching orange shirts – none of that was ever in question. In fact, the whole point of the meeting (one would hope), is that the NYC Department of Education was there to solicit WILLIAMSBURG community input on proposed changes to a WILLIAMSBURG school. So there is only one question: WHOSE schools?
OUR schools.
SCSC member organization, Advocates for Justice: A Public Interest Law Firm, is filing a suit against Success Charter Network, on behalf of Cobble Hill Parents.
Backed by a law firm that has battled the Department of Education in court repeatedly over the past year, a group of Cobble Hill parents announced today that they are suing to stop Eva Moskowitz’s Brooklyn Success Academy 3 from moving into their neighborhood.
GothamSchools.org has the story.
Read the full legal petition here.
What lies ahead in the SCSC’s struggle to keep Success Academy Charter out of MS50 in Williamsburg?
(Original video and article on Ed Notes Online: )
El Puente Leader Savages Moskowitz/Success Invasion of MS 50 as Eva Rallies Her Troops
Los Sures (Southside Williamsburg, Brooklyn) Town Hall.
Frances Lucerna, Executive Director & Founding Principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, raises many of the push-button charter school and co-location issues.
We still need for as many community members as possible to sign the online Petition asking the DOE to stop the colocation of Success Academy Williamsburg into MS50.
The public comment period (written or oral) for the March 1st Panel for Education Policy meeting is open from now until 6pm on Weds. Feb. 29th.
EVERYONE should email d14Proposals@schools.nyc.gov and tell them “WE DO NOT SUPPORT the colocation of Brooklyn Success Academy Charter School 4 (84KTBD) with Existing School J.H.S. 050 John D. Wells (14K050) in Building K050.”
You can also call Toby Shepherd of the DOE: (212) 374-0208 and tell him the same thing.
For a teacher’s perspective, check out the updates to the “Inside Colocation“ blog, on the Success Academy Charter’s takeover of a Cobble Hill School.
For a policy perspective, take the time to read Consensus for Reform: A Plan for Collaborative School Co-Locations. This report by NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (July 2011) expands upon two case studies that highlight persistent shortcomings in the NYC Department of Education’s processes for co-locating schools. It concludes by outlining eight concrete steps the State and City should take to reform co-location policies.
Southside Community Schools Coalition 