At Jamaica, the community has reacted strongly. Community activist Kevin Forrestal has written a second letter to UFT President Mulgrew (a copy is below or follow this link; Ed Notes has the first letter). Members of the School Leadership Team met with community activists and it was covered by Jamaica Times reporter Anna Gustafson.
Then, this past Monday we were once again at the Panel for Educational Policy standing up for ourselves and our students. Seven of us from Jamaica attended, four spoke and my public comment is copied below (I didn't finish because my two minutes were up). One of the great unpublicized stories on school reform is how many students are casualties. The pupils who are in a school have their education compromised to make way for the "flavor of the day" schools that are pushing the downsizing school out. The impact of the de facto phase out is appalling as programs and classes are dropped like flies.
It is also interesting to note that on Monday Joel Klein admitted that the UFT and DOE merely agreed on how to implement the lawsuit and that there wasn't a settlement of the case. We think they are both now violating the law.
On Thursday, Public Advocate deBlasio had a press conference in front of Tweed where he released a report that calls for a moratorium on school closings and co-locations until an independent study can be done assessing its impact. Sounds like a good idea that will probably never get off the ground under the current regime at Tweed and City Hall, but it's a start. Ten of us from Jamaica attended this event and we saw people from Maxwell and PS15 as well as many others.
We are now in the process of reaching out to Jamaica's school community to decide how to proceed.
Queens Tribune
Illegal Collusion
To The Editor: Open Letter to Mr. Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers:
This is in follow up to an e-mailed letter to you dated June 11, 2010, with the subject line, "Justice for Jamaica High School." (See Ed Notes) With that letter, we forwarded a copy of a letter to a student admitting the student to Francis Lewis High School rather than to the student's choice of Jamaica High School.
Today we write in response to the agreement made yesterday between the United Federation of Teachers and the Department of Education. The plan submitted to the Panel for Educational Policy in January was for a phased closing of Jamaica High School combined with a phased opening and growth of three new small schools. Accompanying it was a flawed Educational Impact Statement. This plan, approved by the Panel for Educational Policy, was presented as one integrated resolution. The Supreme Court of New York State, upheld by the Court of Appeals, has found the PEP votes for the approval of that resolution null and void and annulled the votes.
New York Education Law - Article 52-A, § 2590 - clearly gives the procedure for the co-location of new schools in an existing school. See also Chancellor's Regulation A-190, "Significant Changes in School Utilization", which clearly outlines the procedure which begins with a filing six months before the start of the school year and calls for an EIS, hearings, and a vote of approval by the Panel for Educational Policy. The announcement of the UFT and the Department of Education's agreement to allow the placement of new schools at Jamaica High School in violation of New York State Law is reprehensible. It sends a terrible example to the students and staff. The action pairs the UFT with the DOE as co-collaborators to circumvent the letter and the spirit of community-based decision making.
I call upon you to reconsider your decision and extricate yourself from a course of action that is a flagrant act of defiance of the new Mayoral Control Law passed last summer.
Kevin J. Forrestal,President, Hillcrest Estates Civic Association
James Eterno
Panel for Educational Policy Statement
July 19, 2010
Iam James Eterno, a social studies teacher at Jamaica High School. Those of us from Jamaica did not plan on being here tonight in the middle of July but last week’s events where the UFT and DOE agreed to hand our school a de facto death sentence compelled us to act once again and speak here.
I am not a lawyer but it appears to me that the new school governance law was broken by DOE and now UFT too with your new agreement. There is a significant change in Jamaica High School's usage, the co-location of two new schools in the Jamaica High School building, that will virtually kill Jamaica HS and probably result in fewer high school seats in crowded Queens that is being allowed to move ahead without a proper educational impact statement or a joint meeting of the School Leadership Team.
How will our school be impacted? Teachers are being thrown by the score into the Absent Teacher Reserve Pool where teachers do not want to be so of course we are being affected. But now let’s talk about the students. It is supposed to be children first always but once again children are getting treated horribly.
The following courses and programs were announced as being done away with in June at Jamaica because of the possible co-locations of two new schools in our building. AP US History dropped, a new AP Government class gone. Also phasing out is the Finance Academy program, the Virtual Enterprise program and the Freshmen Law classes. There will be no African American history, no pre-calculus, no psychology class, no environmental science, no Latin American literature elective or African American literature elective, no more visual basic classes, no music classes at all and we are down to two very overcrowded health classes. There will be no social studies ESL classes for grade nine and no native language classes for Spanish freshmen. In fact there are no classes scheduled at all for our incoming ninth graders.
Even if you were to restore all of these classes today, there would be no room for them because you gave away the east wing of the third floor and the east and west wing of the second floor to the two new schools and a third school, Queens Collegiate, which is expanding to include a grade six class.
Even if you gave us our teachers back and said ok you can teach those classes, with so few rooms left it would be a nightmare to try to program all of this where students would get the classes they need and their programs would fit. Even if you give us back our staff, you would be asking us to do the impossible: run a full comprehensive high school program with honors level and Advanced Placement classes, regular classes, self contained special education, and English as a Second Language programs in half a building. Please help us instead of defacto killing us.
Panel for Educational Policy Statement
July 19, 2010
Iam James Eterno, a social studies teacher at Jamaica High School. Those of us from Jamaica did not plan on being here tonight in the middle of July but last week’s events where the UFT and DOE agreed to hand our school a de facto death sentence compelled us to act once again and speak here.
I am not a lawyer but it appears to me that the new school governance law was broken by DOE and now UFT too with your new agreement. There is a significant change in Jamaica High School's usage, the co-location of two new schools in the Jamaica High School building, that will virtually kill Jamaica HS and probably result in fewer high school seats in crowded Queens that is being allowed to move ahead without a proper educational impact statement or a joint meeting of the School Leadership Team.
How will our school be impacted? Teachers are being thrown by the score into the Absent Teacher Reserve Pool where teachers do not want to be so of course we are being affected. But now let’s talk about the students. It is supposed to be children first always but once again children are getting treated horribly.
The following courses and programs were announced as being done away with in June at Jamaica because of the possible co-locations of two new schools in our building. AP US History dropped, a new AP Government class gone. Also phasing out is the Finance Academy program, the Virtual Enterprise program and the Freshmen Law classes. There will be no African American history, no pre-calculus, no psychology class, no environmental science, no Latin American literature elective or African American literature elective, no more visual basic classes, no music classes at all and we are down to two very overcrowded health classes. There will be no social studies ESL classes for grade nine and no native language classes for Spanish freshmen. In fact there are no classes scheduled at all for our incoming ninth graders.
Even if you were to restore all of these classes today, there would be no room for them because you gave away the east wing of the third floor and the east and west wing of the second floor to the two new schools and a third school, Queens Collegiate, which is expanding to include a grade six class.
Even if you gave us our teachers back and said ok you can teach those classes, with so few rooms left it would be a nightmare to try to program all of this where students would get the classes they need and their programs would fit. Even if you give us back our staff, you would be asking us to do the impossible: run a full comprehensive high school program with honors level and Advanced Placement classes, regular classes, self contained special education, and English as a Second Language programs in half a building. Please help us instead of defacto killing us.
22 comments:
This really has become the Jamaica High School blog.
Apparently it is the only thing that ICE felt was worthy to comment on over the last 9 days.
This really has become the blog of an activist chapter leader.
Apparently the Unity chapter leaders in the same boat have opted to do nothing about it over the last 9 years.
The two anonymous postings show how shortsighted these individuals are. This is not just about Jamaica High School.
The courts ruled that the PEP votes in January were annulled. The lawsuit uses the words "Significant Change in Use" just as the NYS Education Law does. The DOE must follow the law to change the use of existing schools.
The UFT has chosen to sign an agreement to look the other way as the DOE illegally places new schools in schools--not just at Jamaica High School--that they plan to close next year.
How can an agreement to ignore the law be legal? Are the DOE's actions not contempt of court? Is sending students to overcrowded Francis Lewis HS rather than Jamaica HS not impeding the judge's order to allow students to enroll at Jamaica?
SO LOUDMOUTH ZAHLER -FOUR PENSIONS- IS UP EARLY CHECKING THE BLOGS FOR THE VICHY CROWD.
FORGET THE CONVENNTIONS AND THE PERKS AND THE DO- NOTHING JOBS AT 52 BROADWAY.
RANDI LEFT MULGREW IN CHARGE- THEN KLEIN SENT HIS GUY BRIAN GIBBONS IN TO KEEP MULGREW ON A SHORT LEASH FOR ONE REASON ONLY:
RANDI HAS GIVEN UP ON UNIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND SHE WANTS TO BE A PLAYER IN D.C.
SHE AND MULGREW WILL DO ANYTHING TO WIND UP ON THE RIGHT SIDE- THE RIGHT SIDE BEING GATES, BLOOMBERG, ET. AL., AND BOTH OF THEM COULD EASILY BE AT D.O.E. SO SHE GUTTED THE CONTRACT, LEFT THE RUBBER ROOMERS IN LEGAL LIMBO FOR TEN YEARS AND STARTED PROTECTING HER FRIENDS IN D.O.E AND GREEN DOT AND SHARPTON AND THE OTHER MISCREANTS.
THIS IS ABOUT DESTROYING TEACHERS UNIONS AND DESTROYING PUBLIC EDUCATION AND RANDI AND MULGREW ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.
EVERYTHING ELSE IS A DISTRACTION.
Well, Randi's policy has led to that witch Michelle Rhee firing 241teachers because of test scores. Thank god she isn't the UFT president.
The last person must know that Randi is still very much involved at UFT.
Norm beats ICe to a lot of stuff over at Ed Notes. No need to duplicate. We all go there too.
I say, why stand in the way of progress? Close them all, say I. Bravo to Joel Klein and this Mulgrew fellow for hastening the inevitable, and I pledge here and now there will always be positions at the Smellington Academy for those willing to do long hours for the reward of a job well done.
Norm beats ICe to a lot of stuff over at Ed Notes. No need to duplicate. We all go there too.
I know some excessed teachers who would now settle for a position at the Smellington Academy. That is how bad it has gotten.
The Hillcrest letter was never received by Mulgrew because it was sent to the wrong adrress, which is Vichy, France.
When Bloomberg sells the property to one of his pals, the Unity lapdogs will get discounts.
Immoral?
Doesnt that assume that Unity collaborationists had morals to begin with? stop thinking about Unity jobs at the school.
as Deep THroat said in the movie- "follow the money."
This is much bigger than 19 schools closing.
It's about the slow death of public education and public unions and those like Mulgrew and his Jim Jones followers will get their just desserts from Bloomberg down the road when there is no union-And it wont be another ride on the mayor's plane- Mulgrew will do almost anything to ride on that plane.
Cant he buy his own with his bloated salary, unlimited expenses, a full-time driver, a $60,000 SUV (go green Mike!) and driver, a D.O.E. and a UFT pension and all the free food and booze he can con sume?
With this new betrayal, the UFT's collaboration with the privateers has a feeling of currupt desperation.
Only we can stop it by pressuring Mulgrew to change course.
Speaking of Collaboration: Did you read the Master/Turn-Around Teacher Agreement?
Link to Agreement can be found here:http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/3D99B15C-276D-4FF6-9575-52AB2C5F8A08/0/MasterTurnaroundTeacheroutreachletter722_final.pdf
Top Ten:
10. The term “Master Teacher” reeks of colonialism. The term “Turn-Around Teacher” assumes some magic panacea.
9. As of today, July 27, 2010, the UFT has not released any information about the Transformation Schools Agreement other than placing a NY Times link on their website. An agreement of this magnitude and which involves an evaluation system that was supposed to be negotiated and be unveiled next year surely requires a blurb, memo, or an article of some kind by the UFT via electronic mail, snail mail or a link on their website.
8. Teachers must be available for interviews during a time when many are away for vacation.
7. At its core, is uses money (merit pay) to seduce “exceptional” teachers into accepting a position with no safety net. There is no right to return in the agreement. Did someone say ATR?
6. If a teacher does not complete the three years, their “pension and/or unused cumulative absence reserve will be calculated without the additional pay increment.” Therefore the extra work one has completed and the financial entitlements attached to this work are subject to a penalty.
5. It potentially creates a divisive environment where “Master” and “Turn-Around Teachers” indirectly and or directly play a role in the rating of their colleagues and are thus viewed as collaborators.
4. The (“Master Teacher / 30% merit pay) requires teaching a maximum of four periods per day plus a minimum of two periods per day performing a number of activities related to staff development at the principal’s discretion. Staff development requires time, patience and flexibility. Having a “Master Teacher” teach upwards of four classes per day in addition to his or her staff development priorities is a recipe for lower performance and burnout.
3. The (“Turn-Around Teacher / 15% merit pay) will “carry a full course load” and must make his or her classroom “available for one period a day as a model/laboratory classroom.” In addition, they will work “30 hours additional per year to learn and facilitate lesson study.” The 15% merit pay is deceiving when one considers that these additional 30 hours would have normally been calculated at the per-session rate and have been guaranteed pensionable. More problematic, however, is that any staff developer will tell you that when you model lessons for colleagues and thus “open your classroom door” it inevitably requires a post discussion / Q and A time for sharing and further follow-ups. How is that time built into this agreement for “Turn-Around Teachers”? The answer is that it is not. Therefore, you can be sure that many “Turn-Around Teachers” will not turn away their colleagues and will thus work more than what was agreed to in the contract. Or they can perhaps forgo their lunch or prep period to help the needs of others while sacrificing their own much needed time.
2. The UFT has again rushed into an agreement without holding discussions and asking for input from their many members, many of whom would jump at the chance to engage in such important matters.
Note #1: How many teachers reading this think that any number of the UFT leaders / staff who signed off on this agreement fit into one of the following categories: 1. Never served as a staff developer in a school. 2. If they did serve as a staff developer it was before Bloomberg and Klein came to power. 3. Are lawyers with no teaching experience let alone staff development experience? Note #2: I suspect the UFT Teacher center staff developers are not happy with this agreement.
1. The number one reason why this agreement is flawed is: It is another example of appeasement. It will suck the blood and marrow from many of the Master Teachers who take a shot at it only to have the DOE three years from now use the agreement to further denigrate teachers and close schools. They’ll say: “You see, we tried.” If the UFT and DOE were serious about using experienced teacher/leaders to help ‘transform schools” they could have argued for an agreement that…TBC
My point of view, for whatever it is worth, is that it is always easy to use the scapegoat and blame teachers for all the problems with education. The administration and dysfunction of some families is also part of the puzzle and even the students themselves, of course.
It is a shame what is happening with public education. Smaller schools have been marketed as "the best model" to assure an excellent education....but without seasoned teachers to mentor, programs to help with special needs and a true collaboration between administrators, teachers and parents...and students again, of course...education will not improve. Those of us who have been in the education field for a while have not been heard...we don't need to shout, just be listened to...money talks and it is unfortunate that money is the driving force behind all these chopping up of large schools.
Just look at one factor...the larger schools are not given up-to-date technology and the newer, small schools are set up with laptops, etc. How can you compete? A large high school needs proper funding to help all students, A students, B, C and D and even F students. By the way, a kid who fails a class is not destined to fail all classes and be a bum the rest of her/his life, right?
It is so ridiculous to give a school a letter grade. No teacher can MAKE a student pass a test...the student must do the work....it isn't rocket science to understand all this. It takes people with power who truly care about the needs of all students to succeed. My Two Cents!
Hey James, it's been nearly 5 days, when's the next blog entry about Jamaica High School coming out?
For the record I have been in contact since the stab in the back by UFT and DOE with colleagues from three of the other closing schools who all seemed pleased that we are keepiing the issue alive.
Sure, and since you specifically mention those three other schools, who you are in contact with in them, and what you are doing...we believe you.
I taught at a HS that phased out last month. We had Randy come to the school and she spoke at a meeting supporting us and then we never heard from her again.
The principal at the school was rewarded with a mini school in the building and was fully aware when she came to the school over four years ago the the school would be phased out.
In fact Charley Turner the Brooklyn HS rep helped her to phase out the school, How is that for UFT help.
Statements were made by the AP in her school that none of the teachers in her old HS would teach in her school. So much for the Mass Market transfer.
Most teachers became ATR's and were sent to other schools 2 years ago.
So keep up the good work with this blog and keep giving us information that the UFT will not.
This was not only a stab in the back of the teachers that fought so hard to save these schools, but to the parents and students as well.
Nice going Mulgrew. Any more back door deals in the making? Or is Gates still thinking up more things for you to jump at?
I'll make a deal with you Mr. Unity: you tell us who you are and right then James will tell us who he talked to in the three schools that were slated for closing.
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