FARINA APPEALS JUDGE'S ORDER ON SLT MEETINGS BEING OPEN

The school system continues to become more secretive under Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina.

The latest example is the DOE appealing a ruling from a judge that says that School Leadership Team meetings must be open to the public to comply with state Open Meetings laws. The Post reported on this case today.

No surprise that Farina closed SLT meetings when she was a principal in the nineties but what does the DOE possibly have to gain by fighting this case?

According to the Post:

In the latest court papers, the city claims the SLT meetings “have never before been open to members of the press and general public,” and that complying with the state Open Meetings Law would be a “sea change in the status quo.”the SLT meetings were never open to the press or public and it would be a sea change.

Under Chancellor Dennis Walcott, meetings were open as the Post reported and they cited a document to show this.

Using the word never is normally not a good idea.  Jamaica High School had an SLT meeting in 2012 where representatives from two local politicians were there.

Leave it as usual to Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters to do what the UFT should be doing and criticizing de Blasio. Leonie was quoted in the article:

"We’re going backwards. There’s less transparency than under Bloomberg,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, which joined a lawsuit to keep the meetings open. Public Advocate Letitia James also joined the suit.

Oh where oh where is the UFT?