Senator John Sampson Bites The Bloomberg Bullet

Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson backs boosting charters to get federal aid
BY Glenn Blain AND Elizabeth Benjamin
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU, Tuesday, December 29th 2009, 6:04 AM
LINK

ALBANY - Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson (pictured above) voiced support Monday for raising the number of charter schools in the state.

Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat, said raising the state's cap on charter schools was necessary to qualify for much-needed federal aid.

"My philosophy is you have to be in it to win it," Sampson told reporters yesterday. "So I think we need to put ourselves in a position to take advantage of ... moneys that can come from the federal government."

In order for the state to compete for $700 million in federal funds, the Legislature must pass a law by Jan. 19 that would at least double the number of charters allowed in New York to 400.

Gov. Paterson and the state Board of Regents have called for the Legislature to raise the cap. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, has not indicated whether he'll support the measure, which is opposed by the state's powerful teachers union.

Sampson, in a wide-ranging session with reporters, also said the state Senate needs a "makeover" in the eyes of the public following a tumultuous 2009.

"There's a strong possibility that every one of us could be primary'd," Sampson said.

"That's why it's so important that we come out of the box in January and start really passing some progressive and positive legislation."

Sampson said ethics reform was an issue they hoped to address in January.

Sampson also said it will probably take a "couple of weeks or so" for the committee reviewing Queens Sen. Hiram Monserrate's misdemeanor assault conviction to recommend whether he should be kicked out of the Senate.

gblain@nydailynews.com

Looking At Klein's "Accountability" Data and School Closings, Nothing Makes Sense

An excellent analysis of the NYC DOE "accountability" data -

Thanks, Jackie!

Also read Ed In The Apple:

School Closings: It’s Never the Kid’s Fault, Punishment Leads to Recidivism, If Some Of Us Have Figured It Out, We Can All Figure It Out, Let’s Learn From Each Other

Ignoring Accountability, but Closing Schools
Posted By Jackie Bennett, EDWIZE, January 2, 2010 @ 12:11 pm
LINK

NYC’s accountability system — Progress Reports and Quality Reviews — has cost the city millions and millions of dollars and wrought infinite havoc on the schools. Terrified of being closed if they don’t satisfy the formulas and rubrics, schools recast the work they do for children into work they do for the system. To satisfy the demands of the Progress Reports, schools teach to deeply flawed tests. To satisfy the demands of Quality Reviews, they place their limited resources (time, money, people) on grooming the dogs and ponies for the reviewer. That is an unavoidable consequence of high stakes cultures, and one that (in the case of QR) probably dismays some DoE’ers as much as us.

But dismay aside, the DoE is utterly invested in its accountability system. It has been the favorite child, and actually the only child, of Chancellor Klein. It is also the one he takes on the road with him when he visits other states. And the message is clear: We are going by the data in New York, and using the data in sophisticated ways in our accountability system. If a school can’t meet the standards of the Progress Reports and Quality Reviews, well then, we just might shut it down.

Which is why it comes as some surprise to me to discover that the DoE pretty much tossed out its own accountability system when it named the schools it wants to close [1] this year. We know this because for the first time, the DoE has been forced to provide the school communities with Educational Impact Statements (EIS). In them, the DoE must explain why it wants to close the school.

That DoE standard is comprised first and foremost of grades on the Progress Reports and Quality Reviews. Yet, though the standard brazenly asserts itself in the EIS, the DoE just as brazenly ignores it. In fact, of the twenty schools proposed for closure, fourteen scored above the basic criteria for being considered for closing (they did better, in other words). Nonetheless, if the DoE gets its way, then they will close.

Whether or not that ought to happen, I don’t know. I do know we are spending an awful lot of time on an accountability system that was tossed out in the end.

But let’s take a look at the EIS [2] for just one of the schools that the DoE hopes to close. Let’s compare it to the standard. In the EIS for The School for Community Research and Learning (SCRL), the DoE writes:

“Under the DOE’s accountability framework, schools that receive an overall grade of D or F on the Progress Report….”

[SCRL received a C this year and has never had a D or F.]

…[or] schools receiving a C for three years in a row…

[SCRL has not had three C’s. Last year it received a B.]

…and a score below Proficient on the Quality Review are subject to school improvement measures. If no significant progress is made over time, … closure is possible.

[SCRL has a “Proficient” on its Quality Review. Here are a few of the many fine things the Reviewer had to say:

•The high expectations of teachers, students and parents are in evidence in all aspects of the work of the school.
•Students in greatest need of improvement receive valuable support from the teachers and other staff and make good progress in their achievement levels.
•There are good communication systems, which engage parents as partners in their children’s education.
That report was written just two years ago. Last year, the school did not have a Quality Review because schools with B’s and “Proficient” were functioning well, and therefore were exempt.

This year, the DoE wants to close the school.

The DoE recognizes that it is ignoring its own accountability system and in fact says that for SCRL “the overall scores on the DOE’s accountability tools do not meet standard criteria for closure.”

Good point. Nonetheless, the school is slated for closure, and so to justify that closing, DoE does some reaching. With each reach the justification gets curiouser and curiouser, and then curiouser again.

First, DoE says that the school received a D on some sub-grades. But sub-grades are rolled into the overall grade. SCRL’s overall grade was a C. Closing a school for a failing sub-grade is like expelling a student because he failed in Math. Besides are all the other kids with sub-grade D’s getting expelled? (The answer’s no.)

Second, DoE says the problem is that the graduation rate is low.

Say what? What do we need Progress Reports for if we are going to resort to the crude raw numbers of graduation rates when it comes time to judge a school? Wasn’t that the point of all these formulas? To evaluate schools fairly against the challenges they face? SCRL serves one of the toughest populations in the city: 25% of its kids are special education. The Progress Reports are far from perfect, but no one believes it would be an improvement to simply close the schools according to their flat-out graduation rates. That suggestion would be laughable coming from the data-driven DoE, if it weren’t so serious for the communities involved.

And DoE’s final rationale: it “conducted an assessment of the school’s capacity to improve.” So, why exactly are we paying for Progress Reports and Quality Reviews, and turning the schools upside down to prepare for them if in the end, the school will be shut by a mysterious “assessment”?

What is true of decisions about SCRL’s proposed closing is true of a lot of the schools throughout the city. Of the 20 schools chosen for closing:

•Thirteen were found to be Proficient on the Quality Review
•None had an F and eight did not have a D either.
•Three did not have three C’s in a row.
And, by the way, six are in good standing with the State.

Ultimately, with SCRL — and in fact a lot of the schools that DoE wants to close — the decision seems arbitrary, or else based on the demographics of the students rather than the quality of the schools. The schools proposed for closing have on average significantly more vulnerable populations than the city in general, but are not necessarily the ones that have failed on Progress Reports and Quality Reviews.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from Edwize: http://www.edwize.org

URL to article: http://www.edwize.org/ignoring-accountability-but-closing-schools

URLs in this post:

[1] schools it wants to close: http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management

[2] look at the EIS: http://www.edwize.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/X540_EIS.pdf

The Closing of New York City Public Schools: A Case of “Persistently Failing DoE Management”

Posted By Leo Casey On December 13, 2009 @ 7:05 pm In Education, NYC DOE | Comments Disabled

With the last of the official announcements of the schools targeted for closure by Chancellor Klein, the final grim toll can be tallied. An unprecedented twenty-one schools have been told that the Department of Education will begin their phase out in September 2010. Fifteen of those schools — a completely disproportionate number — were high schools.*

With this wide swath of devastation, there can be no illusion that this is a process based on an educational calculus. The evidence simply tells a very different story: the Chancellor could not close significant numbers of Elementary and Middle Schools, once 97% of them scored A and B on School Progress Reports that so heavily weighted the wildly inflated and broken state exams. So Klein decided that to reach his targets, he would close high schools in much larger numbers. Among the high schools slated for closure are schools which are in good standing with the New York State Education Department and schools which are meeting their Annual Yearly Progress benchmarks under No Child Left Behind, as well as a school which just received the school-wide bonus. The list includes schools which never received a School Progress grade lower than C, and schools which actually improved on every measure in the School Progress Reports.

Why take a machete to New York City public high schools in this way? The reason is not difficult to decipher. The Chancellor needs a great deal of space in public school buildings to pursue his political and ideological agenda of creating and supporting new charter schools and new DoE schools. Since it had become politically untenable to create that space by closing large numbers of elementary and middle schools, the space would have to be found in high schools.

What is telling is that the one high school which received an F grade this year, Peace and Diversity Academy in the Bronx, was passed over when schools were chosen for closure. DoE representatives said that the school had been unfairly bounced [1] from location to location like a ping pong ball, and that this was the major cause of the school’s plummeting graduation rate. Of course, the DoE spokespersons puts these failures in the passive voice — the infamous ‘mistakes were made’ — in which no one takes actual responsibility for what was done wrong. In DoE-speak, accountability is a term that applies only to educators and schools, not educrats. Restore the active voice, however, and they are exactly right: what DoE officials at Tweed did to Peace and Diversity was inexcusable, and the school community should not be punished for the failures of DoE management.

But the same case can be made for high school after high school that were closed. In case after case, Tweed’s mismanagement was directly responsible for whatever trials and tribulations the school is experiencing. There are schools on that list that have had thoroughly incompetent and inept administrations, brought to the attention of Tweed by the UFT, schools where DoE officials acknowledged the problem and promised changes — only to fail to follow up. Now the school communities are being told that they need to bear the burden of Tweed’s failures.

Just as importantly, the DoE concentrated students with the greatest need in the schools slated for closure: high schools receiving an A grade had an average peer index of 2.53, while high schools receiving a D and F grade had an average peer index of 2.13 — a very robust and significant difference, with schools receiving a D and F grade bearing a far heavier concentration of need. [The 'peer index' is the DoE's own measure of the concentration of need: for high schools, it is based on the 8th grade ELA and Math exam scores, adjusted for the numbers of Special Education students and overage students.]

Equally significant is the contrast in students with special needs: when compared to schools receiving an A grade, schools receiving a D grade had nearly a third more special education students, with all of the additional number coming from students with the more severe learning disabilities. Schools receiving a D grade have, on average, four times as many students with the more severe learning disabilities.

HIGH SCHOOLS RECEIVING ‘A’ GRADES


HIGH SCHOOLS RECEIVING ‘D’ GRADES

11.5% OF STUDENT POPULATION


16.5% OF STUDENT POPULATION

9.15% IN LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT


9.2% IN LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT

1.9% IN MORE RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT


7.67% IN MORE RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT

Yet what extra supports has the DoE given these schools to aid their efforts to teach such concentrations of the highest needs students? Where are the funds for lower class size, the caps that keep the schools from being overcrowded, the assistance in establishing special programs to meet the needs of their student population, the provision of meaningful professional development?

What distinguishes the schools the Chancellor slated for closure from Peace and Diversity is not Tweed’s failures or the DoE’s responsibility for their current plight, but the fact that Peace and Diversity was a small school created on Joel Klein’s watch — it was one of the select circle Klein likes to call “my schools,” as if every public school should not belong to a Chancellor with a seven year tenure. When it comes to a high school created before Klein’s reign, be it large or small, Tweed accepts no responsibility for its management failures.

THE COLUMBUS STORY

One school which is being slated for closure — Columbus High School in the Bronx — exemplifies the profound injustice that is being done to closing high school communities. Before Klein’s tenure and the creation of legions of small high schools in the Bronx, Columbus had a significant, but manageable concentration of high needs students. But as surrounding comprehensive high schools were closed and small schools which took very few high needs students opened, it was sent more and more high needs students. Today, nearly in 1 in every 5 students are English Language Learners [ELL], and nearly 1 in every 4 Columbus students are Special Education, with the bulk of these — 13% of the school’s population — in a more restrictive setting. Last year’s graduation cohort entered Columbus four years earlier with only 6% meeting ELA standards and only 14% meeting Math standards. The bottom third of the population sent to the school is made up entirely composed of students with scores of 1 on the state exams — far below standard.

By the DoE’s own peer index standard, Tweed created in Columbus High School the second highest concentration of need in New York City’s 400 high schools. But the peer index is calculated in a way that fails to capture a great deal of the need concentrated in Columbus, such that the true picture is much more dire than DoE statistics acknowledge. The peer index for high schools measures from 8th grade test scores, but a very significant portion of Columbus students have no 8th grade scores — in large part, these are ‘over the counter’ admissions spread out over the school year. They include recent immigrants who do not speak English and often have interrupted formal education in their native country, students returning from correctional institutions such as Rikers Island, and transfers from the citywide Special Education and Alternate High School districts. In short, these are students with the greatest need, but are largely unaccounted for in the peer index of the School Progress Reports. To have an idea just how many of these students Columbus receives, note that half of their students taking the ELA and Math Regents exams last year had no 8th grade scores and that last year Columbus received 360 over the counter admissions — over 25% of their total student register. ['Over the counter' admissions are a crucial measure of need not simply because those students are disproportionately drawn from the pools of highest need, but also because the way in which they are sent to a school, by dribs and drabs over the course of a school year, disrupts the school's program and schedule and deprives the students of the full term of instructions in their classes. Schools with admissions tests, screened programs and small high schools receive virtually no 'over the counter' admissions, leading to their concentration in large comprehensive high schools like Columbus.]

The ‘peer index’ also fails to distinguish between special needs students in the least restrictive environment and in a more restrictive environment, failing to take into account the greater challenge posed for high schools with large numbers of students with the most severe learning disabilities, such as is the case with Columbus.

If the c0ncentration of need were not bad enough, Tweed also overcrowded Columbus. When last year’s graduation cohort entered Columbus in the fall of 2004, Tweed had the school operating at 180% capacity. Since the building was being shared with small schools, this left Columbus with no choice but to go on back-to-back schedules: 7 AM to 12:30 PM, and 12:30 PM to 6 PM. The academic program was stripped down to the absolutely essential, and the extra-curricular activities were decimated. With the difficult schedules, truancy and cutting increased, as students skipped classes to go to jobs and pick-up siblings from their schools.

The top leadership of the DoE understood full well what they have been doing to Columbus. When Michelle Cahill [2] was Senior Counselor for Education Policy at the DoE, she commissioned a study [3] by the Parthenon Group [4] which examined, among other things, how different high schools performed with high needs students. They found that there was a tipping point at which the concentration of high needs students became so overwhelming that it created an obstacle virtually no school could completely overcome. When it comes to the high schools created in the last seven years which the Chancellor calls “my schools,” Tweed goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid such overwhelming concentrations of need. But not so for Columbus and other older high schools. At various time over the last five years, the UFT and others have raised with the DoE leadership the admissions policies that created this overwhelming concentration of need at Columbus High School, to no avail.

Last June, when the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs studied [5] the reform process in New York City’s public high schools, it found that the DoE’s creation of new schools had significant “collateral damage.” [6] The disproportionate concentrations of high needs students in closing schools were not redistributed, but deflected almost entirely to neighboring comprehensive high schools which then began to decline. If one looks at a map of the large comprehensive high schools just announced for closure, one can see that they are geographically proximate to schools that were closed in previous years: Maxwell proximate to Jefferson, Bushwick and Franklin K. Lane; Paul Robeson to Prospect Heights, Wingate, and Tilden; Norman Thomas to Martin Luther King and Park West; Beach Channel to Far Rockaway; Smith to South Bronx… and Columbus to Evander Childs and Adlai Stevenson.

But the tale of what Tweed did to Columbus is only half of the story. Faced with this challenge, most schools would have surrendered. Not Columbus. With an accomplished staff, a preeminent Teachers Center, and a caring, excellent leadership, they rolled up their sleeves and went to work: they would find a way to educate and care for whomever Tweed sent to them. The school reorganized into four small learning communities in the 9th and 10th grades, and created another program focused on career and educational future in the 11th and 12 grades. Special programs were created for students with particular challenges: ‘Boys to Men’ for male students with severe behavioral issues, ‘Women’s Empowerment’ for analogously situated female students and Renaissance Academy for students with substance abuse, teen pregnancy and physical abuse issues. They put together an ELL program to support the large numbers of ELLs they educate. Here is a powerful video [7] Columbus put together on its programs.

In its justification for its decision to close Columbus, the Department of Education points to absolute measures such as four year graduation rates and Regents passing. What it fails to provide is any context for those statistics. Tweed cites the fact that only 50% of last year’s graduation cohort met standards for ELA, but it neglects to point out that the school made dramatic progress, given that only 6% of that cohort met ELA standards when they entered the school. It makes much of the four graduation rate, but fails to note that Columbus sticks by its high needs students as long as it takes and graduate large numbers in 5, 6 and 7 years. Indeed, the latest 7 year graduation rates [8] [p. 24] shows Columbus at 81.5%, nearly ten percentage points better than the citywide average of 72.2%. Finally, it ignores the fact that the same flaws in the School Progress Reports that failed to account for the true depth of need created at Columbus by its admissions policies [the reliance upon 8th grade test scores] also meant that the school did not receive full progress credit for advancing those high needs students who did not take those exams — fully 1/2 of the Columbus cohort. The School Progress Reports simply do not provide an accurate grade of the excellent work down at Columbus HS.

In sum, when the DoE asserts [9] that “Christopher Columbus has shown a lack of capacity to improve student performance in significant and consistent ways,” it is not only dead wrong, but attempting to shift responsibility for the immense challenges and obstacles it created for a praiseworthy high school community.

PERSISTENT FAILED MANAGEMENT: DÈJÁ VU ALL OVER AGAIN

What is particularly unfortunate about Chancellor Klein’s decision to target twenty-one schools for closure is that it is not simply the culmination of Tweed’s persistent management failures at those schools, but the breeding ground of yet more rounds of failure. All one has to do is read the DoE’s educational impact statements [10] to realize that it does not have any meaningful plans for replacing the high school seats it is eliminating through the closure of 15 high schools. If Chancellor Klein gets his way and these closures take place, there will be massive overcrowding once again at comprehensive high schools neighboring closing schools. Immense concentrations of high needs students will be sent to these schools, tipping them toward failure. In budgetary hard times, the Absent Teacher Reserve pool will be flooded by educators excessed from closing high schools, as they will not be able to find new high school positions.

What needs to be phased out are not New York City public schools, but the persistently failed management of the New York City Department of Education.

_______________________________________________

* For the sake of clarity, the list follows. [Since New Day Academy is a 6-12, it has been counted twice on some lists.]

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
PS 332, D23

MIDDLE SCHOOLS
ACE M344, D5
KAPPA II M317, D5
Middle School Grades of FREDERICK DOUGLAS III, D9
MIDDLE SCHOOL FOR ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL EXCELLENCE K334, D17

HIGH SCHOOLS
COLUMBUS X415
GLOBAL ENTERPRISE X541
PAUL ROBESON K625
NORMAN THOMAS HIGH SCHOOL M620
BEACH CHANNEL HIGH SCHOOL Q410
ALFRED E. SMITH X600
BUSINESS, COMPUTER APPLICATIONS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP HIGH SCHOOL Q496
CHOIR ACADEMY OF HARLEM M469
MONROE ACADEMY FOR BUSINESS/LAW X690
ACADEMY OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE SECONDARY HIGH SCHOOL M635
JAMAICA HIGH SCHOOL Q470
NEW DAY ACADEMY [6-12] X245
ACADEMY OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE M635
W. H. MAXWELL CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION HIGH SCHOOL K660
METROPOLITAN CORPORATE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL K530
SCHOOL FOR COMMUNITY RESEARCH AND LEARNING X540

Article printed from Edwize: http://www.edwize.org

URL to article: http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management

URLs in this post:

[1] unfairly bounced: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/11/18/2009-11-18_frated_bx_school_kept_getting_boot.html

[2] Michelle Cahill: http://www.carnegie.org/sub/about/cahill.html

[3] a study: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/nyregion/22dropout.html

[4] Parthenon Group: http://www.parthenon.com/

[5] studied: http://www.newschool.edu/Milano/nycaffairs/publications_schools_thenewmarketplace.aspx

[6] “collateral damage.”: http://www.newschool.edu/Milano/nycaffairs/publications_schools_thenewmarketplace_fourtharticle.aspx

[7] powerful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQlqYz_moL0

[8] 7 year graduation rates: http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/Reports/Data/Graduation/Class_of_2004_Final_Longitudinal_Report_shortversion.pdf

[9] asserts: http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/F0043783-8608-433C-855E-99228622A268/73557/11X415ChristopherColumbus7.pdf

[10] educational impact statements: http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/leadership/PEP/publicnotice/Proposals+1-26-10.htm

A Personal Goodbye To The Tavern On The Green

I want to take a few seconds of your time to remember a great New York Institution, Tavern On The Green in Central Park.
When I heard that Tavern on the Green was in bankruptcy I was very sad because I knew the owner, Werner Leroy see below.. He was quite a character, and somebody that the minute you met him knew he was a Force. What do I mean by a "Force?"? Someone to be reckoned with; Someone who made a difference, and was not Afraid.

Werner Leroy

When I was the producer of the Cue TV magazine on Channel J I went to the opening of Tavern On The Green in 1976 with my camera crew. I saw Andy Warhol, and I asked him if I could videotape him for the camera. I said, "Just one word!" A few minutes later Mr. Warhol said exactly what I asked him: "One".
Nevertheless, Tavern On The Green is an icon, and I hope that the new owners respect the legacy that the 'old' Tavern has in New York City.

January 2, 2010
A Last New Year’s Eve Toast for Tavern on the Green
By GLENN COLLINS

It ended as it all began, in a rush of light. But even the brilliance of its mirrored corridors, twinkling trees and shimmering heirloom chandeliers could not avert the bankruptcy blackout of Tavern on the Green.

And so there was a last waltz. With formidable revelry and not a few tears, some 1,700 New Year’s Eve celebrators paid $125 to $500 a person for the privilege of welcoming 2010 with a last, vast, rollicking hurrah for the landmark restaurant in Central Park.

It shuttered after 4 a.m. Friday for at least six weeks before facing an uncertain future: a new operator, a new décor and possibly even a new name.

“Obviously there is sadness here, but I think Warner would be very happy about how we finished this,” said Michael Desiderio, Tavern’s chief operating officer, referring to Warner LeRoy, the legendary restaurateur who reinvented it in 1976. “He gave a wonderful gift to New York, so in a way, this is a celebration.”

Shelley Clark, a spokeswoman, said that Jennifer Oz LeRoy, the 30-year-old chief executive of Tavern, was too distraught to attend, explaining that it would have been unseemly “for her to be celebrating when so many people would be out of work.”

Ms. LeRoy presided over the end of her family’s long reign after her father, Mr. LeRoy, died in 2001 at the age of 65. Some 20 million patrons have visited since 1976.

Given the historic import and sheer scope, it was the night’s most prominent celebration, said Andrew Fox, who heads Newyears.com, which hosted more than 40 New York parties on Thursday night.

There were 300 seated partygoers in the restaurant’s Park and Chestnut Rooms, and the remainder of the guests roved among the buffet tables, open bars, disc jockeys, jazz ensembles and strolling guitarists in the Crystal, Rafters and Terrace Rooms. By 10 p.m. every nook, cranny and crevice of Tavern was jammed.

Outside, in the run-up to midnight, an unending sleet-pelted line of limos at Warner LeRoy Place — the official name of the 67th Street extension to Tavern’s front door — delivered guests who queued in a slushy shuffle until they could enter the winter palace.

Inside, wreaths ringed the stained-glass windows. Lasers played on the Waterford chandeliers. Santa stockings dangled from the rafters. And holiday swags swathed the mirrored walls.

The party was a destination for some visitors at the sold-out event. “This is the last night to be part of the history,” said Judy Tucker, who traveled from Houston with her husband, Larry, just for the party because “it was the place to come to.”

Reminiscences were rampant. Anthony J. Micari, 68, and his 66-year-old wife, Maria, recalled their wedding — and reception for 130 — at Tavern on June 4, 1972. “We think it’s the most beautiful place in the world,” he said.

They were happily tucking into their menu of Hudson Valley foie gras, tataki bluefin tuna salad and rack of Colorado lamb.

“This really was the place to celebrate,” said Tony Musich, a retired telecommunications manager whose wife, Mary Ann, was a Tavern regular.

Even Mr. Desiderio shared his Tavern memories: He met his wife, Karen, in the restaurant 13 years ago, and “I grew up here,” he said.

There were, however, first-timers in the crowd. “I can’t believe it’s so big,” said Stephanie Stuart, navigating the corridors with Bob Stoddard, who had asked her out on what she said was “a great New Year’s date.” She had a sense that history was being made, “and in the future,” she said, “I think it will mean something to us that we were here.”

But if Tavern’s flameout was Champagne-rich, the restaurant’s outlook was grim.

In August the city awarded a 20-year license starting in 2010 to a new Tavern operator, Dean J. Poll, who runs the Boathouse restaurant in Central Park. Mr. Poll has yet to sign a contract with Tavern’s landlord, the Department of Parks and Recreation. His lawyer, Barry B. LePatner, said before New Year’s that “we expect to finalize an agreement with the city shortly,” but a key to that accord is a settlement with the powerful Hotel Trades Council, the union that represents some 400 Tavern employees. Negotiations are stalled.

And the restaurant’s vast assemblage of candelabras, samovars, weather vanes, sculptures, murals, prints, lighting fixtures, topiaries and other eccentric assets is to go on the auction block in a three-day sale at the restaurant by Guernsey’s auction house, scheduled to begin Jan. 13.

The assets of Tavern are being aggressively contested in two federal courts as hundreds of butchers, bakers, balloon artists and other purveyors try to keep alive their hopes for repayment. In dispute is even the ownership of its name.

Some Tavern staffers professed optimism despite the tear in the eye. “I fully believe this staff will return,” said Wendy Baranello, a 57-year-old server who has worked the tables at Tavern for 32 years. “We’ve had a good long run, and I think Mr. Poll will make it even longer.”

To another server, Jesus Montesano, the staff of Tavern “is a family,” he said, “and we hope we can keep our family together.”

The name-ownership issue has been a flash point in Tavern’s bankruptcy case because the name — which has been appraised at $19 million — is potentially the restaurant’s most valuable asset.

But early Friday morning, the restaurant still called Tavern on the Green was aglow in its swan song. And as the party-hardy partied on, Tavern on the Green did not go gentle into that good night. “It was about getting this night right,” said Mr. Desiderio, perhaps speaking for all of those who would rage, rage, against the dying of the light.

Joel Klein Says Get Teachers Out of the System After One Year Without An Assignment!

Joel Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott Argue For Mayoral Control, February 2009

NY1 interviewed Joel Klein on what the possibilities are of NYC winning "Race To The Top" federal funds. I have the usual astonishment which accompanies any interview Mr. Klein does as he misleads new reporter Ms. Christ and does not tell her that NYC is not paying the 3020-a Arbitrators, and has not paid them since last June (this is not true anywhere else in New York State); that now the people who create the transcripts for the 3020-s Hearings are not being paid; that the lawyers who work for the Teacher Performance Unit ("The Gotcha Squad" for incompetence cases) and the ATU (Administrative Trials Unit, which deals with corporal punishment issues, theft, other more serious charges)are bringing new charges into almost-finished hearings, post-poning the closing in cases that otherwise should never have been brought in the first place; that charges are still not brought in a timely fashion, due to Principals throwing out good teachers against whom there are no charges to bring or just cause for penalties....etc.

Read my book "How To Sabotage Your Employees and Get Rid of People For No Reason" for more on this topic.

Happy New Year everybody!

Betsy Combier

NY1 Exclusive: Schools Chancellor Joel Klein Seeks New Rubber Room Rules, More Federal Funding

In the second half of an exclusive year-end interview, NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ (pictured below at right) asks Schools Chancellor Joel Klein about changes he hopes the state Legislature will make to allow New York to qualify for federal education and to remove teachers from the public school system.



Schools Chancellor Joel Klein: "Race To The Top" is a federal program, where they put aside $3.4 billion that states have to compete for. And there are big requirements in terms of major changes in standards, on data, teachers effectiveness, teacher evaluations, on closing schools. A lot of the things, quite frankly, Lindsey, that we've been talking about in New York for the last seven or so years.

Lindsey Christ: But the state of New York is the one that's competing and there are some state laws that could potentially get in the way. The first deadline is January 19. Do you think New York will make change in the next couple of weeks?

Klein: I hope so. Obviously, that is up to the Legislature. It now costs our city almost $50 million a year to keep teachers in the "rubber room."

Christ: So these are teachers [in the "rubber room"] who have been accused of potential wrongdoing, there is a very long process before they can either be acquitted or dismissed.

Klein: A very long process. Sometime it takes seven years. I mean, it is a ridiculous process. We need a quick process, one that gets people evaluated in a meaningfully way, and either out of the system or back in the classroom, but not a process where for five or six years someone doesn't work and they are getting paid by the taxpayers. That's ridiculous.

Christ: There is also another group of teachers who are getting paid full salary who don't have permanent teaching positions. Those are teachers who have lost their jobs because their schools have closed down or because of budget cuts but have not actually been fired and are just waiting for a new job in the system. With all of these school closures announced this year, there are going to be a lot more, potentially, of these teachers. How do you see that pool of teachers going forward? Is the city going to keep supporting it, even though they don't have permanent positions?

Klein: I hope not. Some of those teachers doing incredibly good work, most of them get rehired. Those that don't, I think there ought to be a time period where teachers either find a job or have to leave the system. I think it will put a real incentive on these teachers to look for a job. Quite a few of them really don't look for a job. And it will also enable us in a meaningful way to say to people, "Okay, a reasonable time has come and you haven't been able to find a job in the system."

Christ: What's a reasonable time?

Klein: Well, the number the mayor used was a year, and that sounds reasonable to me.

Christ: This is something you have to get in the union contract?

Klein: I think it should be done by legislation. This is important to us, to make sure that if someone isn't rehired then they must exit the system. We can't afford to pay for teachers, particularly in tight budget times, for teachers who aren't fully and gainfully employed at a school.

Related Stories

12/30/2009 NY1 Exclusive: Schools Chancellor Joel Klein Stands By DOE Closings

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: "I am more, Mr. Bloomberg"

This video is an answer to the ridiculous opinions of Mr. Marcus Winters:

"I am more, Mr. Bloomberg"

sent from blogger SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL

Marcus Winters on "Teacher Quality"

2009-12-19 10:06:00 ednews
Teachers’ Unions vs. Progress—Again
Education News

Marcus A. Winters

New York resists reforms that would bring in millions and improve teacher quality.
Ever wonder how effective your child’s teacher is? Officials in Albany would rather you didn’t know. At least that’s the lesson one has to take from their refusal to allow data systems to match students to teachers, though doing so would help the state compete for a pot of perhaps hundreds of millions of federal dollars. Narrow political interests stand in the way of improving our schools and easing New York taxpayers’ burdens.

The use of data to improve student learning is a crucial modern education reform. Standardized tests produce rich sources of information that researchers can use to identify effective policies and practices. The data revolution, moreover, promises to move education policy away from politics. Numbers don’t have agendas or run for reelection. Accurately collected and properly analyzed, data can reveal truths that escape our sight.

One such truth is the effectiveness of individual teachers. Data analysis is far from perfect, and no one argues that it should be used in isolation to make employment decisions. But modern techniques can help us distinguish between teachers whose students excel and teachers whose students languish or fail. There’s just one problem with the data revolution: it doesn’t work without data. States must develop data sets that track the individual performance of students over time and match those students to their teachers.

Unfortunately, New York has deliberately refused to take that step. The state already has a sophisticated system for tracking student progress, but it doesn’t allow this statewide data set to match students to their teachers. No technical or administrative factors prevent the state from doing so. Only political obstacles stand in the way. The premise underlying the policies favored by the teachers’ unions, which govern so much of the relationship between public schools and teachers, is that all teachers are uniformly effective. Once we can objectively distinguish between effective and ineffective teachers, the system of uncritically granted tenure, a single salary schedule based on experience and credentials, and school placements based on seniority become untenable. The unions don’t want information about their members’ effectiveness to be available, let alone put to practical use, and thus far they’ve successfully blocked New York State’s use of such data.

Along with its refusal to improve its data system, the state has kept cities from adopting reforms. When New York City hinted that it would use its own data system to evaluate teachers based on student test scores, the state legislature passed a law banning the practice. Fortunately, that law is set to expire next year and may never actually be enforced, thanks to the city’s new reading of it, which frees city officials to use test scores for tenure decisions this year. Still, the legislature’s actions illustrate its opposition to using data in any way that would identify ineffective teachers.

New York’s stubborn resistance to the data revolution not only harms the education our children receive; it leaves hundreds of millions of federal dollars on the table during a massive budget crunch. The Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant competition will distribute $4.35 billion to states that pursue modern education reforms. According to the competition’s rules, however, any state with a law that prohibits the use of test-score data to evaluate teachers is immediately disqualified from consideration. A state’s application also becomes more attractive under the guidelines if its data set matches students to teachers. Currently, New York fails on both counts.

It’s time for New Yorkers to push Albany politicians for real information about teacher quality. Getting New York into the running for Race to the Top funds is a compelling reason to make the change now rather than later.

Marcus A. Winters, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, conducts research and writes about education policy, including such topics as school choice, high school graduation rates, accountability, and special education.

Comments (2 posted):
Doug Little on 2009-12-19 17:41:22

The Manhatten Institute is not some detached apolitical organization. It is a far right wing anti-union outfit with an agenda. Nobody is surprised by their position. There is no research that shows that this would be advantagous to education. There are simply far too many variables. It is a field full of contradictions. Even testing before and after a term/year and doing so-called value added if full of holes. Some groups are easier to move than others. This is another prime example of educational comment by people who are not educators and are not close to education. A know-nothing opinion.

Christine D'Amico on 2009-12-27 09:41:09

What "sophisticated data-system" is this guy actually referring to? You mean the faulty tests that are dumbed down and are not showing any real progress? The same NY State Tests that the Federal Government has just reported are too easy? Are you going to take into account all the variables involved in teaching. Perhaps a kid is from a wealthy home and gets tutoring on the side? Would that be taken into account when he scores well? And who gets graded the teacher or the tutor? Come on, this is the Obama administration side-stepping the real issue which is that CURRICULUM, which works and is research based needs to be the focus of these funds. Instead, they want to grade teachers for using curriculum which is often NOT of their choice to see whether or not they are effective teachers. For the RECORD, the Bloomberg administration SIDE-STEPPED lots of Federal Funds when they chose the MONTH-BY-MONTH Phonics program which had no research whatsoever behind it, because it was cheaper than a solid program like Sing, Spell, Read & Write which has 35 years of research to back it up.

Scoring system for school aid
Obama program assigns points to reform efforts in competition for funds
By Nick Anderson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 12, 2009
LINK

Educators argue endlessly about the merits of one idea or another to improve schools. But with billions of dollars at stake, the Obama administration Thursday will lay out a novel federal system for keeping score.

Making education funding a priority? Good for 10 points. Demonstrating significant progress in raising achievement and closing gaps? That's worth 30. Developing and adopting common academic standards, turning around the lowest-achieving schools and ensuring successful conditions for high-performing charter schools: Those are worth 40 each.

But improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance is worth more than any specific improvement: 58 points.

Those are the priorities in the Education Department's rulebook for the unprecedented $4.35 billion Race to the Top reform competition. States and the District of Columbia are invited to compete. Bids will be rated on the point system, which Education Secretary Arne Duncan approved. A perfect bid will score 500 points and could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The call to action on teacher-principal improvement, which means factoring student test score growth into job evaluations, is likely to draw intense scrutiny from unions.

Arne Duncan

"We're saying student achievement matters and teachers and principals make a huge difference in students' lives," Duncan said in an interview. "That has never happened in the history of this country before. We're getting a lot of pushback on this, but it is a game-changer."

The fund, created through the economic recovery law, is unique. No education secretary has ever had so much money for school improvement with so few conditions from Congress. Proposed rules, announced in July, drew significant criticism from teachers unions and stirred debate in the education world because they offered a window into Obama's thinking about how to move beyond the No Child Left Behind era. Officials said they drew up final rules with that feedback in mind but kept the essentials intact.

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, who had criticized major elements of the proposed rules as "Bush III," praised the final version. She said the administration made changes to ensure that teachers are included. She also cited the addition of a key qualifier -- that teachers should be evaluated on "multiple" measures, including, but not limited to, student achievement.

"They worked hard to find the right balance. I see a real culture shift in these regulations from what we had seen in the previous administration," Weingarten said. "At the end of the day, the culture shift is about can we collaborate, work together to make schools better."

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union, with 3.2 million members, said the final rules were better. But he said he was disappointed by the continuing focus on tying test scores to job evaluations. "I think they missed the mark," he said.

Maryland and D.C. officials said Wednesday that they plan to compete in the first round, with bids due in mid-January. Virginia officials did not commit to a timetable.

"We've got great conditions on the ground that make D.C. a really interesting competitor," said D.C. State Superintendent of Education Kerri Briggs. She cited the city's growing charter school movement and a new teacher evaluation system. "We're on board."

At stake for the District is $20 million to $75 million. For Maryland and Virginia, awards could range from $150 million to $250 million each.

Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick said the state is seeking help from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to draft a bid. The funding, Grasmick said, "serves as a catalyst for a visionary approach to where are you going in this 21st century and how can you use the money to leverage very significant changes. That's what we want to do."

View all comments that have been posted about this article.

The MTA and/or NYC Must Continue Free Public Transportation For NYC Public Students

The elimination of free bus basses would inevitably be so catastrophic to so many families that it cannot be done or, cannot be sustained if the policy is approved by any one agency, including the MTA.

With the new legislation signed by our Governor, the MTA may have a big problem making the move that they suggested, with the bus passes (see below):

New York State Governor David Paterson Signs Legislation That Will Make Public Authorities More Accountable To Their Constituents

Several years ago there was a lawsuit to open the books of the MTA, and Straphangers’ Gene Russianoff sued, and won in NYS Supreme Court. Then the MTA hired Chief Judge Judith Kaye’s husband at Proskauer Rose to do the appeal at the Appellate Division, and the win was overturned (surprise???). Two of my daughters were on the Board of Directors last year of New York Public Interest Research Group, a great group that does some very terrific work and could certainly be brought into this fight, if necessary, I suppose (hope, would urge, etc)!

Here is my article from back then:

NY Metropolitan Transit Authority Continues On It's Path of Keeping NYC Unsafe, User Unfriendly

And, just to be optimistic, I really don’t see how the MTA could devastate the public school education system so drastically as denying free transportation to children who need to get to school.(Unless there is already a signed no-bid contract for public online schools to be mandated throughout NYC in September 2011, and this is a forerunner of this).

Oh my gosh – this sounds almost too awful and could be true. Oh, by the way, the City of New York subsidizes public school transportation for private school (+ religious and charter) school students.

Betsy Combier
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter

December 18, 2009
Students See Hard Future if Free Fares Are Ended
By SHARON OTTERMAN, NY TIMES

When Alejandro Velazquez, 15, was selecting a high school last year, he decided on Washington Irving in Manhattan because of its strong Spanish-English bilingual program. It was a 40-minute trip from his home in the Bronx, but his mother assented, in part because he could travel free.

His family’s calculus, he said, would have been different had he needed to pay $40 a month or more to get to and from school, a reality that will begin next fall if budget cuts passed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday are carried out. His mother, an immigrant from Ecuador, works as a cook in a Bronx restaurant to support him and his 10-year-old brother, and there is little cash to spare.

“If I had to pay for the MetroCard, my mother would have preferred a school closer to me — there’s one right down the block from our house,” he said.

The cuts to the student subsidies for the MetroCards are not yet final. The M.T.A. board will have a public comment period over the coming weeks, and then another vote early next year. If the cuts are approved, the 584,000 city students who receive free or half-fare MetroCards would all receive half-fare cards beginning next September. In September 2011, they would pay full fares — nearly $700 for a school year at current rates.

As elected officials wrangle over the responsibility to pay for the program, parents, administrators and students on Wednesday painted a drastically different school landscape were the cuts to go through. It would be one in which school choice, a program expanded under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, would be limited by students’ ability to afford transportation across the city. Absenteeism and truancy, many students predicted, would rise.

Students have had free transportation in New York City for decades, although urban areas in the state are not legally required to provide it, said Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Education. (Rural areas are.) Even so, the system is the backbone of the competitive high school system, which has eliminated most high zoned schools in the city.

Robert Rhodes, the principal of Millennium High School, a sought-after college preparatory high school with a liberal arts focus at 75 Broad Street, said he feared that the change would significantly alter the composition of the school.

“We value the diversity of taking kids from different neighborhoods and different income levels,” he said. “Will it become a school that’s only available if you have enough money and live in a certain radius? Is that the kind of school that we want?”

Jamillah Burke, 24, is the legal guardian of her 13-year-old sister, who takes two buses to a Leadership Academy school each day from their house on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue. Ms. Burke, who recently lost her job, said she could not afford to pay for her sister’s MetroCard.

“I know a lot of kids who are not going to come to school,” said Iquan Richardson, 15, of Bushwick, as he arrived at the Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuvyesant in Brooklyn. “Or they’ll jump the turnstile.”

David Bloomfield, the former general counsel for the city’s Department of Education, said that the state would most likely face legal challenges were the cuts to go through. “If suburban students have the right to transportation,” he said, urban families would probably press for the same right.

“I believe it would have a devastating impact, especially on kids over 17,” he said. “This might be just another reason for dropping out of school.”

Participation in after-school programs would also suffer, students predicted. Right now, student MetroCards are good for three trips per day, to give students the opportunity to travel to competitions or other events.

The transportation authority says students took 7.3 million rides on the subway in October, and 7.2 million bus rides, a typical month during the school year.

As the cost of the program rose from $162 million in 2000 to $239 million in 2008, based on average fares, the city and state contribution remained relatively constant: about $45 million from the state and $46 million from the city. In 2009, however, the state’s share fell to $25 million, then $6 million.

Several members of the transportation authority’s board said that while they are legally required to pass a balanced budget before the end of the year, they would not vote for many of the specific cuts later. The mayor’s office said his four appointees on the board would not approve the student-fare cut when it comes up for a vote again.

State officials, citing severe shortfalls, say the transit agency should be able to find the money in its operating budget, which is due for an overhaul. The agency says it should not have to bear most of the burden for what is essentially an education benefit.

“No other transit agency in the country subsidizes free or discounted student travel,” said Kevin B. Ortiz, a transit agency spokesman. “Transporting students usually falls on the government body responsible for educating them.”

Karen Zraick contributed reporting.

South Bronx Teacher Writes About The [Corrupt NYC BOE] System

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL
Friday, December 25, 2009
LINK

See Ya Kid!!

So why am I writing this on Christmas day? One, I have the time, and two this is something very near and dear to me. I am writing about something in my school which I swore I won't do anymore, but now I am compelled to. I will attempt to put my cynicism and sarcasm away for a few moments.

On Wednesday I said goodbye to a student. He is in second grade. He was held over this year. He went to another school where there is a special ed seat open for him, and he will have a management para. This is the best thing that could happen to him. I am happy for him and his mom. But I am saddened.

I have spent the better part of this year focused on this student. He has a lot of issues. Major anger issues, but also wants and needs major attention. Unfortunately he was getting too much negative attention. But he also has a huge heart, is quite verbal, and quite smart. Academically he is very behind. But through no fault of his teachers.

He has thrown chairs, flipped over desks, tried to stab students with pencils, blocked the door and refused to allow his class to leave the classroom. I can't count the times I had to look for him all over the school. He has a sense of entitlement, and all the instances I mentioned have come at the slightest perceived provocation.

But he loves music and art. He wants to be loved, and needed. One on one, or in a very small setting he shines. He is caring. He does have empathy. He is not a mean kid, nor a bad kid. He truly is good. He wants to be good. He just does not know how to go about it at times.

His mother is on the ball. The father is a sperm donor. He speaks a good game, but it is all talk. Mom is the one who has to deal with the phone calls, and the promotion in doubt letters, and the crap. I feel for her.

I told the kid that he can call me anytime, that mom has my phone number. I promised him I will visit him at his new school and that he better visit me. I will genuinely miss him.

But according to Joel Klein, I am a failure, even though I am not responsible for his academic progress. I know that somehow, someway I have had a positive influence in his life. I know that ten, twenty years from now something I said will click in his head and he will become a better person for it. I know when he hears my name in 2033 he will smile. But I can't now, and I don't know if I will then. The SYSTEM, not his teachers, has failed him thus far.

The SYSTEM is responsible for making learning unfun, everything skewed to some bullshit tests that only benefit the test making companies and the DOE. The SYSTEM is responsible for the large classes this kid should never have been in. The SYSTEM is responsible for monies going to Tweed lackies, Klein toadies, and charter schools instead of getting this kid a management para long ago. The SYSTEM is responsible for an asinine method of holding kids over no matter the test scores or ages when ever freaking study out there shows that the only time this benefits a student is when it is done in Kindergarten! Let's have more fifteen year old fifth graders and let's see how their self-esteem is doing. Yeah, I have seen such students.

The SYSTEM is broken. Joel Klein is walking around butt naked but very few wish to tell him the truth.
Posted by A Teacher In The Bronx at 4:24 PM

comments:

Chaz said...

Not only that but telling him to call you can lead to an SCI investigation and charges of inappropriate conduct. Be careful, very careful.

December 27, 2009 9:30 AM

DAVID PAKTER said...
___________________________________

Re: "SEE YA KID" & SAYING GOOD-BYE
___________________________________

Bravo to South Bronx School for a very insightful and quite touching Christmas Day essay.

I write this comment from a small village near the border between Belgium and Holland.

Even being so far from New York cannot prevent or knumb the brain from recalling the institutional havoc and gargantuan human misery Joel Klein, Esq., NY's Faux Schools Chancellor by Special Waiver, has visited on one million innocent children, their parents and one hundred thousand hard working, dedicated teachers.

How ironic to think that had Michael Bloomberg never decided to purchase the Office of the Mayor of NYC, then a former Federal Prosecutor who knows zero about the field of Education would never have been appointed to a position he is so clearly NOT QUALIFIED for from any and every point of view.

How sad that for lifetime career educators like myself, no matter where we go in the world, even for a brief respite from the NYC DOE, it is never far enough to escape the awareness that such sorry excuses for human beings as Joel Klein, resides among us.

The young child who was so horribly cheated by the NYC DOE, so movingly and memorably described by South Bronx Teacher, reminds every NYC public school teacher of the thousands of children they also have encountered in their careers. Children who were and still are, being cheated of their futures and simple human dignity on the chessboard of the pompous power mad charlatans who treat all those who have spent their lives in Education as if they were only their personal pawns.

Those of us who have dedicated ten, twenty, thirty, forty and more years of our lives trying to level the playing field for all of New York City's mostly, at risk, inner city children know all too well what South Bronx School is speaking of when talking about biding farewell to a child who has become a permanent part of our lives.

Surely no New Yorker will feel any regret when our egotistical Mayor and "Legend in his own mind" faux, uncredentialed schools Chancellor are consigned to the scrap heap of New York City's history.

Bloomberg Loses a Key Vote

Parsing Kingsbridge (Updatedx2)
By Elizabeth Benjamin
LINK

Lobbyist Richard Lipsky is feeling pretty good in the wake of the unusual defeat by two Council committees of the rezoning required for the Kingsbridge Armory project, confidently pronouncing the plan permanently "dead" - no matter what the administration might try to revive it.

UPDATE: The project has now been rejected by the entire Council. The vote was 45-1 with one abstention from soon-to-be-former Land Use Committee Chairwoman Melinda Katz. The lone vote in opposition came from another outgoing lawmaker, Councilwoman Helen Sears. (Clarification: The vote was to oppose the rezone, so it was 45 in favor and one against).

"He didn't quite grasp the almost seismic nature of the shifting political landscape," said Lipsky, who has been working for months against the Bronx redevelopment.

"People were emboldened by the election results, and the Council leadership vote in January created a unique set of circumstances (for Speaker Christine Quinn). Why would you want to roil the waters and go against the entire Bronx delegation with this vote?"

Lipsky called Quinn a "winner" in the Kingsbridge fight because she decided to side with the Bronx elected officials, who made the living wage issue a deal-breaker, over Mayor Bloomberg and the developer, Related Companies.

"She understood the political winds and she didn't need to be a weatherman to know which way they were blowing," he quipped.

Quinn's relationship with the Bronx delegation has been uneven - not as strong as her ties to the Queens delegation, but far better than her touch-and-go dealings with Brooklyn, which is home to her lone announced opponent for the speaker's chair: Councilman Charles Barron.

Quinn angered new Bronx Democratic Chairman Carl Heastie last February by rewarding Queens with the city clerkship in what was widely viewed as a demonstration of her displeasure that Heastie had been scheming with Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez.

The delegation was far more united on Kingsbridge than on the clerk vote, in which Heastie did not manage to provide a united bloc of votes.

Of course, the players have changed since then - most notably with new Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr., who made opposition to the Kingsbridge project without a living wage component his cause célèbre.

Diaz, who won a nearly uncontested special election for the seat vacated by BP Adolfo Carrion, has been mentioned as a potential mayoral contender sometime in the future - perhaps as early as 2013.

Other winners, in Lipsky's eyes, include RWDSU and its president, Stuart Appelbaum, who was among outgoing Comptroller Bill Thompson's most vocal supporters during the mayor's race and made the living wage fight in the Bronx a top priority for his union.

UPDATE2: Bloomberg, who is in Copenhagen, released a statement calling today's vote "disappointing and irrational," adding:

"As a result of today’s vote, we can say one thing for sure: there will be no wages paid at all at the Kingsbridge Armory for the foreseeable future...New Yorkers can rest assured our Administration will not waver in our efforts to encourage private sector investment and job creation in The Bronx and throughout New York City."

Whistleblower PE Teacher Daniel Smith Sues the NYC BOE in Federal Court For Putting Him in the "Rubber Room" For More Than Two Years

Contact: Alan J. Wax (631) 873-8044
(631) 574-4433
or Todd Shapiro (516) 312-6573
alanjwax@waxwordsinc.com

COACH IN DEPARTMENT OF ED’S RUBBER ROOM SUES TO GET OUT;
CLAIMS HE IS VICTIM OF RETALIATION FOR BEING OUTSPOKEN

NEW YORK (Nov. 12, 2009) -- Daniel Smith, the outspoken former Dewitt Clinton High School girls softball coach and Bronx high school gym teacher, is suing the New York City Department of Education to get out of one of the city’s infamous “rubber rooms.” Smith claims he’s been assigned to the rubber room for speaking out against school officials.

“The New York City Department of Education, despite clear evidence that Dan Smith was not guilty of improper conduct assigned him to the rubber room and delayed proffering charges against him for an entire school year,” said his attorney, Lenard Leeds of the Carle Place law firm Leeds Morelli & Brown PC, specialists in employment law. “He’s been harassed and disciplined in retaliation for exercising free speech.”

The suit seeks an injunction against the school system, unspecified financial damages for lost income and punitive damages for the humiliation and physical and emotional damages that Smith alleges he has suffered. A jury trial has been requested.

“Dan was charged with the unfounded sexual harassment allegations levied against him by a student who was absent on the day she claims to have been harassed, with coaching a team on a day in which he utilized sick time for a doctor’s appointment, and for receiving an unsatisfactory rating from his supervisor,” Smith’s lawyers claim in the suit filed Nov. 6 in Manhattan federal court (Index No. 09 CV 9256). “These charges were pretext in retaliation for speaking out about a matter of public concern,” the complaint stated.

In the lawsuit, Smith claims he was placed in the rubber room, or reassignment center, in retaliation for talking out about racial and regional bias in the Public School Athletic League’s football program and because of his vocal efforts to get money for the under funded Clinton girls team. Until their cases are resolved, which can take years, teachers, who receive their full salaries, are required to spend the 181 days of the school year in the spartan rubber room.

Smith, who was assigned to the “rubber room’” or reassignment center in 2007 after he was accused of sexual harassment by a student, is one of hundreds of Department of Education employees who've been accused of wrongdoing -- ranging from buying a plant for a school against the principal's wishes to inappropriately touching a student -- and who do absolutely no work.

Also named in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are various school administrators at Clinton and Grace Dodge High School.

Smith, who has worked in the city schools since 1985, says in his suit he’s being punished for speaking out about racism and economic bias in the Public Schools Athletic League, and because of his attempts to get funding for his softball team, Smith formerly was also a football coach

Smith’s suit alleges that school officials have harassed him since 1999 and that the harassment peaked in 2001-2002, when he received an unsatisfactory rating for his teaching. The rating eventually was removed. The former coach says further retaliation was the result of publication in 2008 of a story in the New York Daily News about the budget disparities that he complained about.

In March 2007 a student made a false allegation of sexual harassment--on a day the student was absent from his class. An investigation, he claims was not launched until a month later, after an article entitled “Grudge Match” appeared in the Daily News mentioning Dan in his capacity as a softball coach for speaking out about the lack of equipment provided to the girls’ softball program at Clinton. Smith alleges that school officials made no effort to interview a faculty eyewitness to the alleged event. In August 2007, Smith learned he had been assigned to the “rubber room” as a result of the student’s allegations and because he coached on a day when he was absent from his teaching job. No other students among the almost 100 in the class at the time were interviewed, except for a friend of Smith’s accuser.

“Reassignment to the rubber room has left Dan ineligible to coach within the Department of Education system, in turn costing him income he regularly earned by coaching in years prior,” he claims in his suit. Formal charges against him were not filed until May 2008, a month after a second Daily News story was published.

Daniel Smith Complaint

The case has been assigned to Judge Denise L. Cote.

Teacher Sues DOE Over Molestation Charges

Teacher Accused of Sexual Misconduct Wants Out of Rubber Room
Gothamist
By John Del Signore in News on November 13, 2009 1:30 PM
LINK

For well over two years now, Bronx gym teacher and coach Dan Smith has been sidelined in one of the Department of Education's infamous "rubber rooms," thanks to an allegation of sexual misconduct in March 2007. But while other teachers (over 600 hundred of them!) use their rubber room time to play Sudoku and nap, Smith has been hatching a plan to get out.

Yesterday Smith filed a federal lawsuit against the DOE for an unspecified amount of money and for the right to get out of the rubber room and go back to work. His lawyer claims it took a year before the DOE filed charges against him, and says Smith has been told "he won't have his hearings for another two years, so four or five years [in the rubber room]."

Smith and his lawyer contend the misconduct allegation was "trumped up" by administrators at Dodge High School to retaliate against Smith for speaking to the Daily News about unequal funding for the girls' sports teams. Last year Smith told the News, "My attorney said (the Dept. of Education) is going to ask for me to retire or resign, but I don't intend to do that. I'm not guilty of this charge, and this should have been deemed unfounded. The only reason it's not is because they have a hidden agenda and ulterior motives. ... I'm not making any deals. I want my name restored."

A female student claims Smith told her to sit on his lap during gym class, but Smith tells WABC, "I have something I normally I say and that's 'take a lap and sit on your spot.' Students are normally assigned floor spots, and she said, 'I have to sit on your lap.' I said, 'No. You heard what I said." Smith claims his constitutional rights are being violated by the rubber room banishment, and adds, "I can't understand why the taxpayers of this city are not outraged by what's going on. You can't get your day in court. You can't even be heard."

Comments (8)
[1] | hotstepper

he's got a valid point. no accusation without trial. meanwhile we taxpayers pay salaries to those "accused" teachers stranded in the rubber palace because of this idiotic policy.
November 13, 2009 1:42 PM

[2] | HOTCUP

the DOE and UFT can both shove it.

and there needs to be a better way of dealing with accusations of sexual abuse in schools. decent people can be ruined at the whim of an adolescent, it's out of control.
November 13, 2009 1:45 PM

[3] | Splicer

If they had evidence, they would have plea bargained this thing out. It's obvious they've got nothing to go to trial with. No evidence, no case. The end.
November 13, 2009 1:48 PM

[4] | tom9d

Why would he tell a student to sit on his lap in front of the whole class? It makes zero sense, and if it really happened, one would think other students would back it up.
November 13, 2009 2:20 PM

[5] | ANGRYGOD11

The entire process to fire a tenured NYC teacher is 7 long steps. It costs a lot of time and money. Therefore, it might be cheaper to pay them to rot in the rubber room as some are near retirement and some will just quit.
November 13, 2009 2:41 PM

[6] hotstepper replied to comment from ANGRYGOD11

that's false economy, because as taxpayers we get no return on our investment from those rubber roomies. better to get to the bottom of the complaint expeditiously and fire them or, if deemed innocent, get them back to work ASAP. it's the long drawn out process that is the problem.
November 13, 2009 2:54 PM

[7] EricRoberts

The New Yorker had a really good article about the Rubber Rooms back in August:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill
November 13, 2009 2:47 PM

[8] | GalBklyn

We need to begin looking at what the Department of Education really does on a day to day basis. I see it as a bloated, ineffectual and callous black hole for teachers and parents that is destroying public education in NYC. Not to mention that nutty budget of theirs.

The problem is that creating logic and efficiency at Klein's DOE is not fit the Bloomberg paradigm of blame the teachers. It's going to take a few more stories like this - and a Lui audit - to make a difference.
November 13, 2009 4:01 PM

Clinton coach Dan Smith slams ban
BY Matt Gagne, Tuesday, April 22nd 2008, 12:17 PM
LINK

Suspended Clinton softball coach Dan Smith, a coach and phys ed teacher for 22 years, says sexual misconduct allegations stemming from March 2007 incident are unfounded.

Dan Smith has taught phys ed and coached softball and other sports for the last 22 years, but these days he spends his work hours reading, watching movies on a laptop and playing board games at a Dept. of Education reassignment center, where he is likely to remain through at least the remainder of the current school year.

Smith, who finished last season with a 215-47 career record at Clinton, was removed as coach of the softball team and from his teaching position at Grace Dodge HS in September, following allegations of sexual misconduct that prompted inquiries by Dodge principal Craig Shapiro and the office of Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the New York City school district.

The 46-year-old Smith, a tenured teacher who describes himself as one who doesn't "bow down to people," recounts a longstanding record of "friction" between himself and numerous supervisors. He says that the sexual misconduct charges are politically motivated and part of a calculated effort to remove him from his coaching and teaching positions as payback for speaking openly with the Daily News last spring about what he characterized as the unfair treatment of himself and his softball team by Clinton officials.

"My attorney said (the Dept. of Education) is going to ask for me to retire or resign, but I don't intend to do that," Smith said. "I'm not guilty of this charge, and this should have been deemed unfounded. The only reason it's not is because they have a hidden agenda and ulterior motives. ... I'm not making any deals. I want my name restored."

Nobody from the SCI, the Department of Education, Clinton or Dodge High Schools would comment on Smith's case. Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said only that the department was following the proper disciplinary and adjudication procedures contained in the current teachers contract, and that details of the schools' case against Smith would not be discussed until the hearing begins.

There has been no date set for the hearing.

The allegations stem from an incident in the Dodge gymnasium on March 12, 2007 in which Smith is alleged to have approached two female students as they sat on mats in the gym and told one of the girls that "I want you to sit on top of me, on my lap."

Representatives from the teachers union stopped short of calling the charges a conspiracy, but said there were holes in the reports made by Shapiro and the SCI that served as the basis for Smith's removal.

Dodge phys ed teacher Chris Fink, who shared a classroom with Smith and was witness to the incident, maintains that the incident unfolded differently than investigators reported.

"There's an open gym, and I know what I saw and heard," Fink said. "He said (to the girl), 'Long time no see,' and 'You're going to have a hard time passing.' And she said, 'What? Do I have to sit on your lap? . . . He said, 'No, take a lap and go to your spot.' "

Fink was not interviewed by SCI investigators, and although he was interviewed by Shapiro, his account was not included in the Dodge principal's report. Fink said he confronted Shapiro and provided a written statement in an effort to have his
account included, but it is unclear whether it was added to the report.

"I've only known (Smith) for two years. I have no reason to protect him," Fink said. "The truth is the truth when it comes to something as serious as what they've accused Danny of. If I'm there and I'm a witness, I have to live with myself."

Smith raises other questions about the investigation's timing in making his case that Clinton and Dodge officials worked in tandem to put him in "a state of purgatory to get me out of coaching." Smith says that parents of softball players at Clinton learned of his removal before an offical announcement was made. He adds that Dodge has subsequently scrutinized his time slips and charged him with coaching at Clinton on days he was absent from his teaching job at Dodge, a violation of Department of Education regulations. Students also were not removed from taking phys ed classes in the same gymnasium where Smith was teaching after the charge was filed last March, also stipulated by DOE policy.

Smith concedes that he has a lengthy record of less-than-cordial relations with supervisors. Following an altercation between Smith and a referee in 1999, Clinton principal Geraldine Ambrosio fired Smith from his post as the school's assistant football coach. The incident was resolved in arbitration, but Smith says that it led to an icy relationship that's never thawed between himself and Ambrosio.

Despite the current controversy, Smith's former team has continued its winning ways this season. Clinton is 9-1 in Bronx 'A'.

Richard Eaton, who took over varsity coaching duties on March 1 after being the JV coach the past three years, said he was told the arrangement was temporary. "The school says if (Smith) is cleared of everything, then it's his job to get back," Eaton added.

Senior Jazcelyn Pagan and other players on the team told the Daily News that Smith coached them without incident. "He was professional. He respected everybody, and we respected him," said Pagan, a four-year player. "We had fun, and nothing wrong ever happened on the team with him."

For now, the Lady Governors will continue their pursuit of a second straight division crown while Smith continues to await the hearing that could exonorate him or leave him jobless and facing criminal charges.

Lynne Winderbaum, the Bronx district represenative of the United Federation of Teachers, says it's not unusual for the Department of Education to wait a year or more to schedule a hearing after charges against an employee have been formally filed. In the meantime, Smith continues to report to the reassignment center, one of the so-called "rubber rooms" where more than 700 DOE employees report daily while awaiting the adjudication of their cases.

"It's not a taxing day other than the duress of these allegations," Smith said. "You've been thrown in the Tower of London, and you're not going to see the light of day.

"My way of thinking is, if they're going to cut my throat, I want it to be out in the light of day."