Comments on: Chief school builder is a seasoned city planner and Park Slope mom http://gothamschools.org/2008/11/17/chief-school-builder-is-a-seasoned-city-planner-and-park-slope-mom/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:27:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Parsing The Search For Skyler’s Replacement http://gothamschools.org/2008/11/17/chief-school-builder-is-a-seasoned-city-planner-and-park-slope-mom/comment-page-1/#comment-262311 Parsing The Search For Skyler’s Replacement Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:03:07 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=4738#comment-262311 [...] today, I heard a new name in the mix: Sharon Greenberger, who heads the city’s School Construction [...] [...] today, I heard a new name in the mix: Sharon Greenberger, who heads the city’s School Construction [...]

]]> By: Park City Vacation Rentals http://gothamschools.org/2008/11/17/chief-school-builder-is-a-seasoned-city-planner-and-park-slope-mom/comment-page-1/#comment-252544 Park City Vacation Rentals Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:11:57 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=4738#comment-252544 Great post! I totally agree with you. Keep up the good work. Great post! I totally agree with you. Keep up the good work.

]]> By: Leonie Haimson http://gothamschools.org/2008/11/17/chief-school-builder-is-a-seasoned-city-planner-and-park-slope-mom/comment-page-1/#comment-983 Leonie Haimson Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:28:51 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=4738#comment-983 This article writes that " SCA has spent the last four years barreling through a capital plan that promised to add 63,000 seats and included repairs at hundreds of schools. ... “The volume of work and the quality at which we’ve performed it has really been extraordinary,” Greenberger said." No mention of the fact that though the SCA may have “promised” to deliver 63,000 seats, less than half that number will be finished when the capital plan is completed in June; no mention of the fact that though the SCA always asks parents plaintively to find new sites for schools for them, but that when parents do, the SCA routinely turns them down; no mention of the chronic crisis of overcrowding that has wreaked havoc on our kids lives and is getting worse in many neighborhoods, with more than 40% NYC students attending schools that are overcrowded according to the SCA’s own data, 50% of NYC principals saying that the overcrowding at their own schools leads to unsafe conditions for staff or students; and 86% of NYC principals saying that they are unable to deliver a quality education because of excessive class sizes. No mention of the fact that the SCA in the new proposed capital plan continues to deny that reality, claiming to the contrary that overcrowding and large classes are a very “local phenomenon”; no mention of the fact that the proposed capital plan proposes only 25,000 seats, with 8,000 rolled over from the last plan, which represents only about 15% of the new seats necessary to eliminate overcrowding and reduce class size; no mention of the fact that nearly a billion dollars in the plan are devoted to more “technology” –more than is allocated to build or lease new schools in the entire boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx combined – and that if spent on new capacity could produce about 20,000 additional seats; no mention of the SCA’s continued and shameful insistence on building schools on contaminated land without proper environmental review – a practice that the court recently found to be illegal and that yet, another billion dollars is allocated in the plan to environmental remediation. No evidence that any questions related to these issues were even asked; no, what matters, according to the piece, is that “it’s getting schools built, not the barriers she’s broken, that makes Greenberger proudest. “The agency is delivering, and that speaks better than everything,” she said. Well there are many advocates, parents and teachers who might differ with Greenberger's conclusion that the agency is delivering; next time you might include their views as well. This article writes that ” SCA has spent the last four years barreling through a capital plan that promised to add 63,000 seats and included repairs at hundreds of schools. … “The volume of work and the quality at which we’ve performed it has really been extraordinary,” Greenberger said.”

No mention of the fact that though the SCA may have “promised” to deliver 63,000 seats, less than half that number will be finished when the capital plan is completed in June; no mention of the fact that though the SCA always asks parents plaintively to find new sites for schools for them, but that when parents do, the SCA routinely turns them down; no mention of the chronic crisis of overcrowding that has wreaked havoc on our kids lives and is getting worse in many neighborhoods, with more than 40% NYC students attending schools that are overcrowded according to the SCA’s own data, 50% of NYC principals saying that the overcrowding at their own schools leads to unsafe conditions for staff or students; and 86% of NYC principals saying that they are unable to deliver a quality education because of excessive class sizes.

No mention of the fact that the SCA in the new proposed capital plan continues to deny that reality, claiming to the contrary that overcrowding and large classes are a very “local phenomenon”; no mention of the fact that the proposed capital plan proposes only 25,000 seats, with 8,000 rolled over from the last plan, which represents only about 15% of the new seats necessary to eliminate overcrowding and reduce class size; no mention of the fact that nearly a billion dollars in the plan are devoted to more “technology” –more than is allocated to build or lease new schools in the entire boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx combined – and that if spent on new capacity could produce about 20,000 additional seats; no mention of the SCA’s continued and shameful insistence on building schools on contaminated land without proper environmental review – a practice that the court recently found to be illegal and that yet, another billion dollars is allocated in the plan to environmental remediation.

No evidence that any questions related to these issues were even asked; no, what matters, according to the piece, is that “it’s getting schools built, not the barriers she’s broken, that makes Greenberger proudest. “The agency is delivering, and that speaks better than everything,” she said.

Well there are many advocates, parents and teachers who might differ with Greenberger’s conclusion that the agency is delivering; next time you might include their views as well.

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