Wednesday, January 27, 2010

19 Schools Rubber Stamped Down the Drain by PEP

Obviously, many of us were up very late last night for the 3:40 a.m. massacre where the Panel for Educational Policy closed down 19 schools. I left around midnight to take care of a family matter; hundreds of people including 7 from Jamaica High School stayed until the bitter end. In the nine hour public comment period, not one speaker spoke out in favor of the closures. Juan Gonzalez wrote an excellent piece on closing schools in the News.

I will try to write more about this later. Today, it felt like we were attending a funeral at Jamaica High School.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"it felt like we were attending a funeral of 19 schools."

Fixed.

rexuther said...

” its a disgrace that students believed they were watching democracy in action and that their voices really mater in government , But instead they were watching a bogus puppet show under the rule of an illegal third term mayor who paid the 8 members he appointed to kill our schools without even looking at the evidence we provided as false DOE statistics about our school” the other member just followed suit cause there were no closures in staten island …. i applaud the integrity of mr sullivan, mr fedkowskyj, mr okotieuro, and ms santos for voting against these closures!!!”

there is no democracy in nyc….. there is only the rule of a tyranical mayor who is a corrupt businessman and does not care about the will of the people in any way shape or form, and the fact that the state and federal government has allowed him to do so only tells me that there is more corruption now then in the late 1880’s in america! these are the actions of a leader that caused revolution in 1776 yet it is allowed to go on in 2010

Anonymous said...

You are right. There is no more democracy in NYC and in the country in general. We are living in the GESTAPO times. We have a peaceful demostration by the mayor block and the police takes your picture. What is going on in AMERICA?

Anonymous said...

I hope that one of the following two actions will be filed:

1) Education Law §310 appeal -- NYS Education Department (Commissioner David Steiner)

2) Civil Practice Law and Rules Article 78 litigation -- NYS Supreme Court

Anonymous said...

Why not both?

Anonymous said...

The Education Law §310 appeal should be filed first. It's considerably cheaper to file than an Article 78. Whichever side disagrees with the Commissioner's decision may file an Article 78 in the NYS Supreme Court, Albany County.

Anonymous said...

Isn't there a timeline to filing the appeal? Does the school file the appeal or does the union do it for the school?

Once the appeal is filed, what's the length of the process? How long does a school have to wait before a hearing is set?

Why didn't all the other schools file this appeal in 2002?

Anonymous said...

An appeal to the Commissioner of Education must be filed within thirty days after the action being challenged has taken place.

There is no "hearing," although the petitioner can ask for "oral argument."

The Commissioner renders a decision based on the verified pleadings, exhibits, and memoranda of law (if any).

I don't know why there weren't any previous appeals filed relating to NYC school closings.

Full information about the procedures relating to Education Law §310 appeals may be found at:

http://www.counsel.nysed.gov/appeals

Here is a quotation from the above webpage:

"Education Law §310 provides that persons considering themselves aggrieved by an action taken at a school district meeting or by school authorities may appeal to the Commissioner of Education for a review of such action. In addition, Education Law §306 allows the Commissioner of Education to remove a trustee, member of a board of education and certain other school officers for wilful misconduct or neglect of duty.

Procedures for the presentation and defense of such appeals and for the conduct of proceedings for the removal of school officials are contained in regulations of the Commissioner of Education."