Schools Chancellor Apologizes, But Parents' Say His Apology is "Too little Too Late"

Chancellor Richard Carranza and Mayor Bill De Blasio

It is indeed sad that NYC Chief Apologist, Chancellor Richard Carranza, seems to want to forget how improper his actions have been in the past couple of weeks - no, let me re-think this...since he took office.

Of course, Carranza had his assistants post the following article on the NYC Department of Education blog on January 30, 2020  just in time to invalidate his apology:

How the DOE is Creating Safe, Supportive Learning Spaces for All Our Students
In early January, The Morning Bell joined Chancellor Richard A. Carranza on a visit to Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance in Bedford-Stuyvesant to observe teacher Catherine Devine and her tenth graders engaged in a restorative circle. 

This activity looks just the way it sounds. Students sit in a circle and talk as a way to build relationships, respond to conflicts, and understand how their actions affect others. Creating safe spaces for students to express their feelings and solve problems together is an important way to keep them in the classroom and focused on learning.

Ms. Devine, a math teacher, began the exercise with a check-in. “How is your week going?” she asked, and responded that hers had been good, but busy.  

Not all of her students were quite as upbeat, with responses ranging from “good” to “bad,” to “very peaceful” and “very tiring.”
 

Following this exercise, the teacher passed around pieces of paper with some of the personal struggles that students had written down, and encouraged the group to try to resolve them together. One student described the stress she felt about all the violence in the world. Classmates suggested taking a break from the news, listening to music, or reaching out for help by talking to the school counselor.

These conversations were reminders that when students enter City schools every morning, teachers may not know what happened to them that day or the week before. Maybe a student’s father lost his job. Maybe a grandparent passed away. Maybe a child had an argument with a friend or simply didn’t get enough sleep.

These kinds of stressors can affect children mentally, emotionally, and academically. To succeed in school and in life, children need both social-emotional skills (for example, the ability to name, manage, and share their feelings) and access to restorative justice (practices that promote conflict resolution and minimize punishment).

School communities like Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance, and across the nation, have experienced the power of these practices. According to studies, students who have social-emotional skills display more understanding, have stronger relationships with their classmates, communicate better with their teachers, and show improved academic performance. And these skills follow them throughout their lives.

Thanks in part to our restorative justice efforts, New York City’s public schools are safer, and students are spending more time in the classroom. Suspensions have fallen roughly 39 percent in the past five years. Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance Principal Danielle Darbee, who began implementing restorative practices in the 2018–19 school year, noted a 63 percent decrease in suspensions over the previous school year. All her teachers now lead restorative circles.

Encouraged by these outcomes and the research, the DOE is expanding social-emotional learning and restorative justice practices citywide. So far, more than 240 elementary schools have participated in training on social-emotional learning through our partner, Sanford Harmony, and 500 middle-and high- schools are part of our ongoing restorative justice training and support.

These are not “soft” skills, notes Chancellor Carranza. Nor do they come at the expense of academics.” Instructional time is lost if students are suspended from school, or if they are not actively engaged in academic studies,” he says. “Learning opportunities are lost if students are worried about what happens outside of the classroom. And they are lost if the body is there, but the mind is not.”

Helping every student gain the social and emotional skills they need to stay focused at school is imperative for their learning, and for coping with life’s challenges that lie ahead.

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From Betsy Combier:Which story do you want to believe?

See previous posts:
NYC Wants the Chancellor Fired. Now.
NYC ALERT: Do Not Criticize Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza
Former NYC School Chancellors On Carranza Playing Race Card: ‘Put On Your Big Boy Pants’
Schools Chancellor Carranza Says He Has Been Victim Of Racist Remarks Due To His Policies
Carranza’s Failure -  The callous chancellor must go

Dear Chancellor Carranza: How is the Implementation of Your "Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education" Policy Coming Along?

NYC Chancellor Richard Carranza and His "Toxic Whiteness" Social Justice

 NYC DOE Chancellor Carranza Rules With Hate


Betsy Combier, betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

Richard Carranza finally apologizes to Queens parents after walkout

By Rachel Green and Selim Algar

 

, NY POST, January 30, 2020

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza finally apologized to a pair of Queens parents whose kids were recently assaulted on school grounds — following a two-week avalanche of criticism from parents, teachers and politicians.

“I in no way, shape or form want to show any disrespect to any parent that wants to be heard and I apologize,” Carranza said at a Wednesday night meeting of the Panel for Education Policy. “Because as a parent myself, I can only imagine the pain that parents are feeling when their children have been hurt.”

He also offered to meet with both parents personally, but added he did not want it to be a “public spectacle.”

Carranza walked out of a District 26 meeting in Queens on Jan. 17 after Katty Sterling, the mother of a girl who was beaten in a school cafeteria, and the father of a girl who was sexually assaulted in class demanded time to speak amid a chaotic and contentious gathering of more than 500 people.

But despite Carranza’s belated olive branch, both parents told The Post on Thursday that too much bad blood had already been spilled.

“It’s too little too late,” the father said. “I’m a forgiving person, but the way he handled this has just been unbelievable.”

NYC Wants the Chancellor Fired. Now.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio and NYC Chancellor Richard Carranza

Well, now it seems that there is an official "Hands Off" policy which forbids anyone from investigating either the NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio or NYC Chancellor Richard Carranza, exactly as we wrote in our prior post. This block seems to be state-wide.

See:
NYC ALERT: Do Not Criticize Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza

This is alarming. Our tax dollars pay the salaries of these two ($$258,750 for Mayor De Blasio, and $ $345,000 goes to Chancellor Carranza every year). For photo opps just like the one at the top.

Richard Carranza spars with Rep. Grace Meng on Twitter: ‘No more politics’

What we have seen in the past few days is how broken the NYC public school community is. The Mayor needs to repair this, but we don't see any accountability by Carranza for causing any of it. That is unfortunate.

 

What I do not condone is belligerent, insulting and hysterical comments by anyone to anyone. So, if Carranza is not responding to parents calling him names and insulting him, I think he may have reason to ignore them. However we are looking at all of Carranza's actions, including hiring improper staff for high positions, allowing cheating and assaults of teachers and students without trying to put a stop to these events, and basically looking down at anyone who criticizes him. The total sum equals zero. He must go.

We urge the Mayor to fire Chancellor Carranza, and replace him immediately with a person who can heal the broken community of people in the New York City public school system, the biggest in the country. Please Bill, it's time.

Former NYC School Chancellors On Carranza Playing Race Card: ‘Put On Your Big Boy Pants’
January 29, 2020 at 11:15 pm

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Former city schools chancellors spoke out Wednesday about allegations by the current education czar that he’s been the subject of racial attacks as he tries to reform the school system.

Some told CBS2’s Marcia Kramer they’re stunned.

It has been a way of life since, well, pretty much forever — schools chancellors on the receiving end of the wrath of public school parents.

MORE: Schools Chancellor Carranza Says He Has Been Victim Of Racist Remarks Due To His Policies

Cathie Black got skewered over proposed school closings. Carmen Farina was attacked over the Common Core English exam. So Richard Carranza is no exception, though he sure doesn’t seem to be weathering the storm as stoically as his predecessors.

“Just look at the abject racist things that are said about me: ‘Go back where I came from,’ ‘taco-eating Carranza,’ ‘fire Carranza Ai Yi Yi,’ with the exclamation points in Spanish. Absolutely, they’re racist,” Carranza said recently.

There have been nine full-time chancellors in the last 30 years. Six have been African-American and Latino. Kramer spoke to some of the former school bosses and they told her they were frankly stunned by Carranza’s attitude.

“Put on your big boy pants,” one former chancellor said.

“Playing the race card is [expletive], a cop out,” another said.

Carranza’s incendiary charges came in response to questions about why he walked out of a recent public meeting in Bayside, Queens, when emotional parents demanded answers about a number of disturbing incidents at their middle school, including a violent lunchtime brawl, a reported case of sexual harassment, and an alleged sexual assault in a bathroom.

“Walking out on the parents at the Queens school was dumb,” charged one of Carranza’s predecessors.

Carranza’s sulking over the ongoing criticism, his public pity party, had a predecessor offering advice.

“Don’t personalize things. You’re the chancellor of New York City schools. You should expect to be beat up. It’s New York City. You get paid to take it,” the former top educator said.

The chancellor’s ability to deal with public criticism and parent protest is expected to be challenged again Wednesday night. Sources told Kramer protests are scheduled before and during a meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, which Carranza is expected to attend.

What will it take for de Blasio to fire radioactive Richard Carranza?

NY POST Editorial Board, January 29, 2020

Carranza’s Failure -  The callous chancellor must go

Karol Markowicz, NY POST, January 27, 2020

 

Coward! Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza (c.) walking out of a town hall with parents outraged over violence in their children’s schools.

Betsy Combier
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ blog
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials 

City blocked investigations of de Blasio, Richard Carranza: whistleblowers

by Susan Edelman, NY POST, November 23, 2019

Hands off.

An explosive whistleblower complaint sent to three city councilmen claims the agency charged with investigating wrongdoing in city schools has blocked probes of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and their allies, The Post has learned.

The Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) for city schools is sitting on nine cases of waste, fraud and corruption involving the upper echelons of City Hall and the Department of Education, according to a type-written, four-page letter that catalogues the wrongdoing in detail.

One of cases cited involves first lady Chirlane McCray’s embattled $850 million mental health program, Thrive, which has a large school component.

The insider document blames Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman, who was appointed in February 2018, after prevailing in a power struggle with former Department of Investigations Commissioner Mark Peters, an aggressive prober of the mayor’s administration and city agencies.

“Under Coleman, SCI is continuing to hold or redirect investigations into City Hall, Chancellor Richard Carranza and de Blasio allies with business or that are connected to the DOE to protect de Blasio’s image while he runs for president,” says the anonymous Aug. 20 letter signed by “SCI Investigative Staff.”

De Blasio dropped out of the presidential campaign on Sept. 20.

Other mothballed cases included a probe of possible mayoral interference in an investigation of Orthodox Jewish yeshivas that get city funds but skimp on required secular education; contract spending on de Blasio’s aborted “Renewal” program for failing schools; and allegations about Carranza and his top aides.

“SCI investigators assigned to investigations involving executives at the DOE and City Hall, including the Mayor, have been directed to instead focus on matters not related to the mayoral administration, his allies, etc,” the letter says.

SCI agents, it adds, “have been denied support in conducting these investigations and their independence in pursuing leads . . . that point towards City Hall and top-level executives at the DOE.”

In response, SCI said that Coleman “is aware of the anonymous complaint as well as its recipients,” adding that the letter was forwarded “to the appropriate agency for review” — referring to the city Department of Investigation.

Coleman denied the accusation her office has protected the powerful. The statement says, “the Commissioner added, unequivocally, that SCI has not, and will never, slow-walk an investigation based on the subject or the subject matter of the complaint.”

Jane Meyer, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said, “Any Implication that  City Hall directed SCI  to slow walk Investigations is untrue and ridiculous. We respect the Special Commissioner of Investigation’s independent authority.”

Coleman was at the center of a battle between City Hall and former DOI chief Peters. In February 2018, Peters tried to seize control of SCI. He fired Coleman after she reportedly resisted his attempts to have more say over SCI investigations. That led de Blasio to issue an executive order giving only the mayor power to hire or fire SCI commissioners.

The mayor canned Peters, a former close friend and campaign treasurer, in October 2018, after a series of damning DOI probes of city agencies, including major problems at the Administration for Children’s Services following a toddler’s death.

In a letter after his ouster, Peters accused Hizzoner of axing him in retribution for past probes and to stem ongoing investigations. Peters said the mayor had screamed at him in a late-night call, accused him of trying to bring his administration “down,” and demanded he keep the January 2017 ACS report under wraps.

The recent incriminating missive was sent to City Council members Ritchie Torres, chairman of the oversight and investigations committee; Mark Treyger, chairman of the education committee, and Robert Holden, who has called for a federal RICO investigation of academic fraud in city schools.

Holden said he forwarded the letter to the Queens District Attorney’s office, which is overseeing a probe of grade-fixing at Maspeth High School.

Both Torres and Treyger told The Post the letter raised red flags they have already recognized.

“The letter confirms what we’ve long known: The SCI, as constituted, appears fundamentally ineffective at overseeing the DOE,” Torres said. “The overseer needs oversight of its own.”

He added: “It’s strange that the DOE — the behemoth of city government — is subject to the least amount of oversight.”

The DOE’s $34 billion budget makes up about a third of all city spending.

Treyger agreed: “The largest department in the city of New York deserves a robust watchdog that can effectively do its job.”

Torres and Treyger have met with Coleman and stressed the need for SCI to conduct pro-active, systemic investigations of the DOE, and offered to help with funding if needed.

Since then, the  SCI issued a review of the DOE’s training to combat student-to-student sexual harassment. In September, SCI issued a blistering report finding that the DOE paid nearly $9 million for 6,000 school-bus GPS units while up to 80 percent were never turned on. The bungling also prevented the city from obtaining Medicaid reimbursements for special-ed services.

But the SCI has punted on academic misconduct. The agency received 880 complaints of test-tampering and grade fraud in the past three years, but sent 823 to the DOE to investigate itself. The DOE won’t give the results.

Naftuli Moster, executive director of YAFFEDJ.C. Rice

On the yeshiva issue, frustration has plagued Naftuli Moster, executive director of YAFFED, an advocacy group that triggered the DOE’s investigation in July 2015. Still waiting for the probe’s completion, Moster has long suspected the mayor’s office made DOE drag its feet to pander to Orthodox Jewish leaders.

“Now it appears the investigation into possible mayoral interference is also being stonewalled,” Moster said. “We need to get to the bottom of this.”

Torres complained that SCI has ignored big issues.

“The NYCHA inspector general had a leading role in exposing the lead crisis in public housing.  By contrast, SCI had no role at all in exposing the lead in city schools,” Torres said.

“SCI is MIA.” 

NYC ALERT: Do Not Criticize Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza

Chancellor Richard Carranza

The alerts currently being posted on the internet by parents is a serious matter. Richard Carranza, supposedly the "diversity king" of education who wants equality and fairness for all, does not want to be told he is not doing what he should be doing, namely putting the safety and welfare of students FIRST.

I want to give you all some examples of the widespread "protect Carranza" policy:

When I heard that the New York City Council was having a public meeting on special education programs in the City's public schools, I made 30 copies of my report on how teachers in ICT (Integrated co-teaching) classrooms do not always have a co-teacher or any teacher with a certificate to teach special education, and also other wrongdoing perpetrated by the NYC DOE and handed it personally to Jan Atwell, the proper person for submitting the documents to City Council, in the hearing room. On December 16, 2019 I asked Mark Treyger, chair of the Committee, why I never heard back from him, and he told me he knew nothing about my papers. Zero. I gave him my number, and told him to let me know if he had any questions. Until today, never heard back from him.

On December 16, 2019, I spoke at the New York State Assembly meeting on Mayoral control, chaired by Assemblyman Michael Benedetto. Mr. Benedetto warned all speakers not to criticize the Mayor or the Chancellor, who showed up for 10 minutes, because he (Benedetto) did not want to hear any criticism. He said the hearing was not set up to listen to critics of the education department. Every speaker, almost, had a criticism of the way Mayoral control over the Department of Education has been less than good, but Benedetto did not listen to any of that. Then what was the purpose of the hearing, I asked. No one understood the political theater presented.

We know that teachers are being kicked, assaulted, and verbally abused in NYC everyday, by students who are never disciplined for any action they take.

See:
Too Many Teachers Are Getting Hit, Kicked, and Punched by Students


I’m a Teacher Not a Boxer, and I’m Tired of Being Beat Up by My Students
When Educators Are Assaulted

Threatened and Attacked By Students: When Work Hurts

Dealing with Violent Behavior

What can a teacher do if a student hits them?

The Partnership of Bully Power and Media Can Convict a Teacher at 3020-a

Student Violence in public schools is a national problem, and the Carranza administration is turning their backs. This is the serious issue which has made parents so angry, because no one is safe right now in the NYC public schools.

Our suggestion when you, a teacher, are assaulted in school? Immediately file a police complaint, and then go to your principal or the hospital. Rules be damned. Principals are telling all employees to come to them first, and trust me on this, the coverup will begin. Then investigators will charge you, the teacher with the violence and/or not stopping the battery.

Watch the video below, and I am sure you will conclude just as we have, that Richard Carranza must go. His termination from the NYC Department of Education is necessary to re-establish the Mayor's good faith in the public education arena. Kids must come first, and politics must be erased from public education.

Betsy Combier
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ blog
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials 

 Outraged parents jeer DOE head Richard Carranza off the stage at Queens town hall meeting

Add caption

Richard Carranza blames everybody but himself after ditching Queens meeting

By Selim Algar, NY POST, January 28, 2020

It’s everybody’s fault but his.

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza blamed everything from racism to vans full of agitators to privacy worries Tuesday for his abrupt departure from a chaotic community meeting in Queens earlier this month.

Carranza left the Jan.17 District 26 gathering after the two parents whose kids had been assaulted at MS 158 in Bayside demanded time to speak amidst a jeering crowd of more than 500.

“This is about some voices in the community don’t like me,” Carranza said at an unrelated press conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio Tuesday in Brooklyn.

Carranza claimed bigoted epithets posted to his Twitter account were evidence that critiques of his policies stem more from racial animus than legitimate dissent.

“Just look at some of the abject racist things that are said about me,” Carranza said, reciting tweets that explicitly derided his Mexican origins.

The meeting collapsed soon after Community Education Council 26, a volunteer parent group, read out a statement from a teachers union group that sounded the alarm on cratering classroom conditions.

While Carranza and Superintendent Danielle Giunta both addressed the issue, many in the crowd felt that there should have been more discussion of school discipline and safety before moving on to the next topic.

The father of a girl who was forcibly groped in class in December rose and asked to be heard despite not having turned in a question card and was soon joined by Katty Sterling, the irate mother of a girl who was beaten in a videotaped cafeteria assault that went viral.

Carranza, who previously ripped the two MS 158 parents for “grandstanding” at the meeting, again critiqued Sterling Tuesday and cast himself as a guardian of her daughter’s privacy rights.

The schools boss said she was “shouting out questions that have to do with the personal information of a student alleging they’ve been abused,” he said. “I’m an educator. I will not allow that to happen and violate that student’s rights. It was a set-up.”

The two parents were joined in denouncing Carranza at the meeting by several vocal members of an activist group that has been trailing him at meetings across the city and loudly demanding his resignation for alleged anti-Asian bias and other objections.

Carranza ripped the protesters who now routinely heckle him at public meetings and said they were “brought in vans to agitate” at the gathering despite not being from the district.

He also pinned the sudden adjournment of the meeting on CEC 26 president Adriana Aviles, who has repeatedly denied the claim. “She said, ‘I’m going to adjourn the meeting,’ and I walked out,” he said Tuesday.

But the CEC has a different recollection, insisting that Department of Education personnel and Carranza were the ones who chose to cut bait and bolt.

“Unfortunately the Chancellor chose to end the meeting abruptly due to what he felt were safety concerns,” the panel said in a statement soon after the meeting.

Aviles reiterated her stance Tuesday on Twitter after Carranza revived his claim.

“He knows what really happened,” she wrote. “It’s on him.”

Carranza reiterated that the disorderly end to the meeting had little productive value and that senior DOE personnel have since been diligently attending to the two parents’ concerns.

De Blasio stoutly backed his lieutenant Tuesday, arguing that Carranza’s polarizing agenda is causing rightful discomfort in certain sectors.

“If you haven’t made enemies, you haven’t done anything of consequence in public life,” de Blasio said. “So when you try to change things, yes, opposition comes with it.”

Asked how he was absorbing the tumult around his tenure, Carranza remained characteristically defiant.

“Bring it on,” he said.