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WhAT A SHAME—all the conspiracy theories were true!! SPENCER ROBERTSON IS A LIAR AND A THEIF!!!!!!!!!! he had his eyes on this building the entire time!!!! This will not be tolerated! if people thought there was tension in the building before, wait til monday. its on!!!

AN ETHICAL PERSON:

* SPEAKS THE TRUTH
* IS CLEAR ABOUT HIS/HER INTENTIONS
* IS TRUE TO HIS/HER WORD
* HAS EXCELLENT CHARACTER
* IS SENSITIVE TO THE HARDSHIPS HE/SHE MAY CAUSE OTHERS AND AVOIDS ACTIONS WHICH MAY LEAD TO SUCH HARDSHIPS

DOES THE ABOVE SOUND FAMILIAR???????….SEEN IT SOMEWHERE BEFORE????? The children of Red Hook DESERVE to be taught by ETHICAL individuals. PAVE ACADEMY AND ITS STAFF….LEAVE PS15 NOW!!!………..

It is unclear what is more disturbing: The Department of Education’s surreptitious school space utilization and formulas, their incompetence in interpreting these very formulas, their damning disregard for what is best for children not to mention parent and community voices, their corrupted charter school movement, their deliberate defiling of public education and community public schools, or their lubricated lies that slide off their tongues dripping and oozing with Orwellian language that loudly proclaims, “we have an agenda, and we fully intend to execute it.” The DOE has done it again; they prove with Friday’s announcement to continue to house a charter school, PAVE Academy, beyond the two year agreement promised to the Red Hook, Brooklyn Community and its AAA school, PS 15, that their interest lies with not the children and the citizens of this city, but with the corporations, hedge fund managers, billionaires and sons of billionaires, who propagate, organize, and oversee the charter school movement plaguing our public school system.
The Educational Impact Statement released Friday announces the Department of Education’s intention to extend PAVE’s stay in Public School 15, beyond the 2 year agreement set to end in 2010, until at least 2015 while expanding through grade seven. The statement has formula and mathematical errors and was created without an onsite visit to truly evaluate the impact and without a public hearing or any input from the stakeholders affected by this decision. Beyond the formulaic errors, the statement claims there will be no negative impact on PS 15. This of course is outrageous; considering PS 15 has no unused or underutilized rooms and its current usage is within the parameters of the DOE’s instructional footprint, (http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/8CF30F41-DE25-4C30-92DE-731949919FC3/65901/NYCDOE_Instructional_Footprint_revisedMay2009_noco.pdf) when you take into account all the formula leaves out (medical office, dental office, social service partner office, DOE nurse, and mandated related services).
Friday’s announcement sets a new precedent and elevates the intensity of existing policies that privilege the charter school movement. The Department of Education with this impact statement, with the way they tried to usurp the mayoral control laws in the granting of the PAVE extension in the first place, with their continued manipulation of faulty school space sharing formulas and dishonest decision making, takes an aggressive step forward in promoting and supporting charter schools and signals Mayor Bloomberg’s willingness to spend his political capital on undermining and attacking public school families and their educational opportunities.
The battle lines have been drawn. New York City now finds itself on the frontlines of opposing movements. On one side, there are those fighting for the protection and preservation of public schools. On the other side, those who seek to separate and sort our children with a philosophy that privileges some, while subordinating others, and the intention to privatize education, to outsource public money to private interests, to dismantle public schools and replace them with charters. This is clearly a fight the DOE wants to have: raise your swords.
The DOE has done it again; they have used made up formulas to enact their agenda, they have chosen business, money and power over children, they have spit on the voices and in the faces of parents and stakeholders, they have decided to destroy public education. It is time to rise up New York City, our children deserve our protection; our community schools must be preserved.

I am a proud ps 15 parent, that school has done amazing things for my children. pave and spencer robertson have harmed my childrens school. they promised to leave ps 15 this june this is what our community was told and it should be followed. ps 15 can not provide for our children with the loss of space and also with having to deal with spencer robertson who thinks whatever he wants he can take. ps 15s space should go to red hooks children first most of thier kids are not even from here. 2010!

Add PS 241, PS 123 and PS 149 of Harlem to the list of public schools under attack by charter schools that are backed by overprivledged and educationally ignorant hedgefund managers. Harlem Success Academy, which will be attacking more public schools soon, presumes to own the buildings they occupy.  Eva Moskowitz has promised her parents that their children will graduate from Harlem Success Academy as 8th grade students.  The PS 241, PS 123 and PS 149 communities are just a temporary inconvenience. They will soon be trashed to make room for a chain school operator that could care less about the hardships she is causing to the communities that surround her schools. Hey, what does she care? She’ll just increase the already high enrollment of prekindergarten, kindergarten, first, second and third grade children who come from outside her school’s community.  Oh wait, Harlem Success doesn’t have a charter for prekindergarten. Oh wait, anything goes in NYC education under Mayor Bloomberg if you have the money.  
Don’t like the rules…misinterpret them.
Don’t like the laws…break them. 
Don’t like the standards…lower them.
Don’t like the schoosl…close them.
Don’t like the opinions…fire them.
Don’t like the grades…change them.

We need City wide action NOW!  
We need the United Federation of Teachers to be brave in the face of this overt attack and to meet it head on. 
We need politicians to have the courage to challenge this educationally ignorant Mayor and not the sideshow War Rooms of the self congratulating Scott Stringer.
We need an honest dialogue that seeks to understand the state of our schools, our children and their communities, not the blind replacement of one school system with another based simply on hope.
This should be important to every New Yorker, whether you’re an educator or not!

Please contact: Natalie Ondiak D12Proposals@ schools.nyc.gov 718-935-4158 and inform her of your comments, feelings, questions, and point out erros concerning the Educational Impact Statement and overal DOE policy on 1. The innacurate, unreasonable, and undemocratice EIP 2. The holding of PEP and public meetings so far away from the public they cannot attend (the pep meeting for this issue is set for Staten Island and the public meeting is set, only a few days before the PEP meeting for Manhattan). 2. Their flawed shared space utilization formula which does not correlate with their flawed instructional footprint.
The DOE is a sham-ponzi organization and they must be stopped! Join us in shutting down the precedent the DOE is trying to set w/ the PS 15/PAVE issue- they are trying to set the precedent that they can literally do what they want, when they want- even if it means lying about numbers, having schools at over 100% capacity, lying to communities, obstructing justice and undermining our democracy. Please make your voice heard! Your school is next! Let’s stop this NOW!

I can’t believe this is still going on in my children’s school! They said two years and now it’s changed to 2015? What a lying billionaire. But then again, why should anyone expect anything less? Spencer is no different than Bernie Madoff stealing billions from people! The only difference is that PAVE parents haven’t smartened up and taken their children out of that sham school!

Why can’t SLAVE Academy just leave and stop trying to take over our school building and steal our children. While several other PS 15 parents & I were sitting in the park, some recruiter for PAVE had the nerve to come over and ask us if we wanted out children to have a “real education and opportunity to go to college.” As if PS 15 can’t do as good, if not better than PAVE? Who the heck does Spencer and PAVE Academy think they are?

More protests will come! We will fight the Mayor & Chancellor who both seem to have Spencer in their back pocket… giving them more money and more space to lure our Red Hook families in. Stop trying to take over our building. Stop trying to underhandedly recruit PS 15 students and families. If you think things were tense at the last CEC meeting, just wait! Go ahead Spencer, get ready to spend your father’s money to buy more t-shirts to make your supporters happy. 2010! 2010! 2010! 2010! 2010! 2010! 2010! 2010! 2010! Keep your word… but then again, you’re a liar. Is your name even Spencer? You’re probably related to the Mayor which is why your lies go unchallenged.

This should not be happening. I went to a conference with Joe Klein and he stated that charter schools are a good idea to help the public schools that are failing. P.S. 15 is NOT A FAILING SCHOOL. Our building is not made for two schools, it’s only has two floors. PAVE needs to leave in 2010. The link to the PEP’s public notice for P.S. 15 was hidden with-in a header for a Bronx school. With-in that header were two futher links to get more information about the public hearing which was inaccurate information. All public hearings are held with-in there own Borough except in Brooklyn, which will be held in Manhattan if not change at the last minute. The hearing should be in Brooklyn, this is an inconvenience for us parents and another way not for us to show-up because it’s too far to get to on time.

Did Red Hook Parent mean Marty Markowitz rather than Jim Devor? Mr. Devor and other cec 15 members visited both schools and are not partial to either side of this debate. Devor and the CEC’s role is to advocate for parents and to make sure the laws are followed. The parents and teachers of CAPE feel the CEC and Mr. Devor have acted fairly… we cannot expect an advocating body to take sides. Marty Markowitz, the borough President, visited PAVE only last week and did not announce the visit to PS 15. His office pointed out they were not specifically invited to PS 15. We look forward to Marty’s visit and for his support in protecting the education of Red Hook’s children.

Could someone please explain to me why the information for contact about the EIS is incorrect? In addition, can someone explain to me why the DOE was notified of this error and the location of the public meeting illegally being in Manhattan error and they ‘corrected’ these two things and posted a revised document, but did not change the posting date. This robs our community four response days… and counting b/c the contact info listed is STILL incorrect! This is either incompetence or intentional disenfranchisement… either way the DOE should be held accountable!!!!!
NO PAVE extension not one, two or five years! NO to the PEP meeting set for Staten Island, again this is the disenfrachisement of our community. Klein, the Office of Portfolio Development, and all of the DOE workers who support and propagate this sham should be ashamed of themselves!

One of the problems is, this should be within our control. We exist now under a Mayoral Administration who believes they can do what ever they want and privilege private, corporate interest. This is still a democracy, we have our voices and they should be used. In additon, there is nothing to “be worked out” the agreement made to the PS 15 community was two years… done and done. There should be no other discussion. 2010 2010 2010!

I agree with Red Hook Teacher.

That said, if the building is not being used anywhere near capacity (70% or so from recent posts), chances are another school may be sited.

If PS 15 wants a single occupancy school building, they’re going to have to build demand for seats and bump up their enrollment. I hope they have a strategy in place.

Everyone from the mayor on down to the board of Ed. should be ashamed of themselves.
PS 15 in Brooklyn doesn’t deserve the shoddy treatment they are receiving from the mayor and the DOE.
Even an executed man is not required to dig his own grave.
They want the PS 15 students, parents and staff to smileand ask…
Yes sir may I have another as they watch the school they know and love dissected.
The DOE’s formula might say there is more than enough room to house 2 seperate schools in that building . The one thing the formula doesn’t take into account is the quality of the learning going on in the building. The only way Pave can expand is at the expense of PS15. As that happens both schools will suffer.
If Pave wants to offer their brand of education to the people of Redhook let him use their own money like any other private school and open their own place.

I truly think Mayor Bloomberg is out of control. He should worry about the financial status of the city. People unemployed, people starving, no housing. You have a lot on your plate, start doing something about it. Instead of using all your money on campaigning, you should have given it to the poor. something you don’t know about. Leave teaching to teachers. Put your charter schools next to you so you can watch them yourself.

Capacity… what is capacity? Is it under capacity if you privilege small class size? Is it under capacity if you use rooms for science labs, computer labs, enrichment, and intervention? Is it under capacity if you have less kids in a room due to federally mandated special education numbers? Is it under capacity to have the space to run programs that make a school great? Are you under capacity when you have kids being serviced in corners of libraries under rennovation and in closets? Yomister: PS 15 would have more than enough ‘capacity’ (since that’s what we are calling kids these days) if we could accept children from out of zone. PS 27 parents who go to PAVE have repeatedly stated they wanted their child in PS 15, but were told no because of zoning. This is symptomatic of the many problems with charters and co-locations; it is not equitable and the draining of the existing school’s resources is certainly not worth it. Furthermore, we are at ‘capacity’… there are NO empty or unused or underutilized rooms, in fact we have teachers sharing rooms and as I mentioned earlier, they run programs and see students in corners and closets. This is all maddening because the DOE and Spencer are not telling the truth about PS 15′s ‘capacity’. PS 15′s children are being negatively impacted and not for nothing, PAVE students are being negatively impacted as well; neither school has adequate space to run their programs, and this is the second year (imagine 2015!?). Spencer Robertson and the DOE should be held to the agreement they made to the community, the end of the housing of PAVE needs to be in June 2010, it is the ethical thing to do.

Yomister: I appreciate your acknowledgement, but disagree w/ the sentiment. You may choose to accept what you perceive to be an inevitability… we will continue to fight for our children. Shared space w/ any school, this is not a specific fight against charters, is inappropriate, unrealistic, and bad for kids. I should also mention, this co-location was forced upon our community school during the first year of our current Principal’s tenure… she was not even given a chance to grow the school. In addition, Red Hook has undergone major transformations in the last two years and the new families who have moved in do not want to send their child to PS 15 because of the shared space issue, they feel it would negatively impact their child’s opportunities. It should also be noted, these families amazingly get variances to send their kids out of zone, but PS 27 families do not and are forced to choose their restructured school or PAVE. There are many layers of stink at work here- someone said today, “this is like peeling a rotten onion”.

This “anti-charter school… this is OUR building” nonsense is going way too far! I just got home from working nights to find a “picket PAVE flyer” under my door and a note from my oldest child (a PS 15 student) on the kitchen table saying that she and my younger child (a PAVE student) were scared to go to school and use the bathroom because other PS 15 students are saying mean things to them and writing “I hate PAVE” in the bathrooms. My family watched the Ruby Bridges movie over the summer and my kids are now asking me if that is what it will be like at their school with all the grown-ups (and their children) holding signs, shouting and throwing things at them.

It’s one thing to have an issue with an adult and their principles or beliefs of trying to create choices and opportunities in a community… or the school system, Chancellor and Mayor who may be allowing this to happen and are the REAL people you should be battling with. But to continue to outwardly do things, that teach hatred (even if it’s subliminally or unintentional) to children and then be outside a school building protesting while other children are coming into school to learn?

How is this accomplishing your goal? Real moral adults would be down at City Hall or the Mayor & Chancellor’s house protesting, not in front of a school where children, PS 15′s and PAVE’s, are trying to learn and be shielded from this madness!

My children, born and raised in Red Hook, like I was and my mother, have a right to go to whatever school, I their parent, put them in, regardless of where that school is and who attempts to claim the building. If one protesting adult or child puts a hand on my children or continues to harass them, there will be true civil disobedience when the police are called, charges are pressed and you are protesting with your signs, red tee-shirts and black arm bands from inside the 76th precinct or Central Booking. This battle is NOT our children’s and they should not be subjected to it or influenced to participate in it. Consider channelling your anger and energies in the right direction before things go too far and our community is further divided.

PAVE/PS 15 parent.
I understand your outrage, but the situation you and the Red Hook Community find Itself in is only the beginning. Your situation, which is also taking place in many of Harlem’s public schools, is the product of Bloomberg, Klein, Duncan and even Obama’s wonderful vision of operating our school system like a competive business market. Race to the top means there are winners and losers. Your finding out early in the mayhem Bloomberg is causing that we all lose when we are competing against one another rather than working together. This market based approach has been impossed upon the public. If you think it’s bad now, just wait until 200 more charter schools open. The inevitable fighting that is going on over space, over recruiting students and over resources WILL and IS being paralleled down to the children of NYC. This is why so many people are pulling together to stop Bloomberg. This is why a business man has no business running an education system. Bloomberg, Klein, Duncan, and Obama are not capable of seeing the damage they are causing because they are consumed with staring at and are blinded by numbers. Bloomberg will escape the inevitable bursting education bubble that NYC is headed for, just like he escaped the financial one unscathed. Many of the higest needs children of NYC are already beginning to pay the price.

In the end the issue at PS15 is not about PAVE. It is not about PS15. It is about our mayor and his lead educator determining that they want to dismantle the existing educational system.
The charter schools are merely a means to an end. That end is the privatization of the school system. Bloomberg believes his business model paradyne will win out in the end when used to run the educational system of the city.
I for one say let qualified educators and teachers run our schools, not well placed businessmen.

Is the general public (and taxpayers of NYC) aware that the son of a multi-billionaire (and said billionaire doesn’t pay NYC taxes) received $26 million dollars for his school, while students in the REAL public schools sit on splintery chairs and have antiquated equipment?
You don’t need this money Mr.Robertson. I bet a public school somewhere with dedicated, resourceful teachers could do wonders just on the interest alone that you are receiving from sitting on the $26mil…..
You need $6 million more???? Look in your holiday stocking….I bet it’s there…
PAVE…leave PS15…..as promised.

we need to get together and rally Pave is tryna take ova PS15. if you care about ya childs education meet us at the rally jan 19-2010 @430 on richards st

I’m a PS 15 parent and 3rd generation resident of Red Hook who was at both PS 15 – PAVE meetings. At both meetings, the PAVE administration lied about how long they would “co-locate” in our school; at both meetings the PAVE administration talked about how great their school is and all the opportunities it’s giving the children of Red Hook (as if PS 15 is a failing school); but at this meeting, the PAVE administration really showed it’s true racist feelings by saying “at least their children will go to college.” What the heck (would love to say something much harsher) kind of comment is that?!?!?

Many Red Hook parents were upset about having to shares space with PAVE, but this was the comment of the evening that “broke the camel’s back.” So many times rich people try to come into our communities and throw their money around to pretend to be “saving the poor Black children.” They have no idea what our children or community really needs….it’s certainly not a farce school like PAVE Academy. Unfortunately in this case, PAVE and the DOE are dividing our community right down the middle! And neither seem to care.

When will the PAVE parents wake up & see PAVE and its’ administration for what it really is: rich, prejudice, lying, brain-washers, who really think that Red Hook’s poor Black and Latino children come from uneducated families that need their “saving grace.” How many parents stood up at the January 20th meeting and talked about taking their children out of PAVE because of the lies. How does a school admit a child with special needs knowing that they don’t have the adequate services or setting to properly educate them? Is this what is meant by “at least our children will go to college?”

Out of the MANY PS 15 teachers and parents that spoke against the extension of PAVE at our school (I was one of those parents), there were only a handful of PAVE parents that spoke in support of their school – only 1 teacher – 1 rich board member and 2 prejudiced administrators. What does it say that PAVE allegedly has 130+ students and at least two dozen staff members yet I could count on both hands how many brave supporters they had speak on their behalf.

PAVE Academy has to be stopped from further expanding in PS 15′s building. Get more money from your rich friends and family and start construction now so you can end the DESTRUCTION of our school and our divided community. Things will only get worse if PAVE is allowed to stay and expand in our school!