Subject: Monday event calling for an
investigation into Success Academy
I know that it's last
minute, but I just got word that tomorrow, Monday, April 22nd
at 1pm at Tweed (52
Chambers Street)
Bill deBlasio will be hosting a press conference calling for an investigation
into Success Academy and Eva
Moskowitz.
deBlasio will be talking about the special access the NYCDOE gives Eva
Moskowitz and the disparities between the schools where she
co-locates, her host buildings, and neighboring schools.
deBlasio will also ask for an investigation into the lower numbers of children
with special
needs and English Language Learners.
If you can't make this event, PLEASE send this email along to colleagues who
can.
Bill deBlasio will be hosting a press conference calling for an investigation into Success Academy and Eva Moskowitz.
deBlasio will be talking about the special access the NYCDOE gives Eva Moskowitz and the disparities between the schools where she co-locates, her host buildings, and neighboring schools.
deBlasio will also ask for an investigation into the lower numbers of children with special
Gonzalez: Irate parents, teachers say Brooklyn public schools received meager improvements as charter school in same building enjoyed big makeover
The Department of Education counters that it invested more than $2.1 million in upgrades to the public schools and spent $350,000 on charter school Success Academy Cobble Hill on Baltic Street. The law requires the department to spend at least as much on the public schools, the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, the School for International Studies and Public School 368K.
Comments (8)NY Daily NEWS April 18, 2013
LINK
The school building at 284 Baltic Street is home to a charter school and three regular public schools. “If they spent all that money, why are there still holes in the ceiling of the locker room?” asked Pamela Bynoe, president of the Global parents assocation.
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Construction crews worked feverishly last summer to renovate space for Success Academy Cobble Hill, a new charter school that began sharing space in September with three regular public schools in the same city-owned building on Baltic Street in Brooklyn.
The workers removed decrepit asbestos floor tiles in the hallways and a dozen classrooms assigned to the new charter school. They outfitted new bathrooms. They got rid of old lighting fixtures that had been leaking dangerous PCBs and upgraded electrical lines. They installed new doors, carpeting and furniture, then painted the entire area.
“The Success portion looked like a brand-new school when it was finished,” one teacher said.
But angry parents and teachers say the Department of Education failed to provide similar improvements for three public schools in the same building, as mandated by state law.
That law was passed several years ago when the state lifted caps on the number of charter schools. It requires the DOE to “spend the same amount on each noncharter public school” co-located with a public school “within three months” of the charter school improvements.
Renovations at the public school included $1.3 million for new lockers, a new dance studio and fitness room used by the two secondary schools in the building, along with $770,000 this winter to completely gut and create new classrooms for the special-education program, according to the Department of Education. The first pair of photos shows the public school space at left and the charter at right. The second also shows the public school space at left and the charter at right.
DOE officials insist they have done more than the law required.
The agency spent only $350,000 to renovate the Success facilities, agency spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said, while the charter school, part of a chain of charters run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, spent another $340,000 of its own.
At the same time, Feinberg said, the DOE invested more than $2.1 million in upgrades to the three public schools — the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, the School for International Studies and Public School 368K, a special-education program.
The improvements included $1.3 million for new lockers, a new dance studio and fitness room used by the two secondary schools in the building, along with $770,000 this winter to completely gut and create new classrooms for the special-education program, Feinberg said.
But parents and teachers can’t see where that money went.
MARIELA LOMBARD/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz runs Success Academy Cobble Hill, which spent an additional $340,000 of its own on upgrades.
“That just blows my mind,” said Clare Daley, a longtime physical education teacher at Global Studies and chairwoman of the teachers union chapter. “There’s no way they spent $1 million on the gym improvements.”
Yes, the DOE cut the girls’ locker room in half and built a small new dance studio, Daley said. And yes, it put up a wall in the boys’ locker room and created a fitness center with some exercise machines. But nothing was done to repair the shower rooms that haven’t worked for years or the fetid bathrooms that adjoin the locker rooms.
“If they spent all that money, why are there still holes in the ceiling of the locker room?” asked Pamela Bynoe, president of the Global parents assocation.
As for those special-education renovations, Cecila Green, whose child attends that school, says no major repairs have been done, except for a paint job last summer and some new smart boards.
Oh, and those lighting fixtures leaking PCBs? They are still present in all the classrooms of the three public schools.