GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The DOE announced Maura Keaney’s hire on the same day the city fined her $2,500.
• Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott says the NAACP’s decision to join the UFT’s lawsuit is “mind-boggling.”
• Hundreds of charter school parents are journeying up to Albany tomorrow to lobby lawmakers. (no link)
• Norm has video of Klein trying to make himself heard above the shouts at last week’s PEP meeting.
• Bloomberg’s offer to the UFT looks brazen, but another take is that it’s meant to avoid PERB’s decision.
• People who run schools like businesses have got it right, writes one blogger.
• Leo Casey says the DOE’s new grading system for next year ensures more schools will be closed.
• A teacher has concerns about the way New York’s RttT application alters removal hearings.
• Leonie Haimson: the school closure meeting was both inspiring and awful.
• Jay Mathews wants Rhee to stay, but he thinks she owes the city’s teachers an apology.
• Alyson Klein reports on the details of Obama’s new education budget.
• Illinois is preparing to cut funding for special education in Chicago.
• Andy Rotherham reminds Obama that he needs Congress to pass his $1 billion incentive plan.
• And today is the first day NYC parents can begin submitting kindergarten applications.

The city’s teachers union and the NAACP filed suit against the Department of Education today, claiming that the city lost the right to close 19 schools when it violated the law that governs school closures.

Those who have read the law — or the “carefully crafted multi-tiered public process,” as the lawsuit states —can testify that it is not a simple one to follow.

Part of the mayoral control legislation that barely made it through the state legislature last summer calls for the city to hold hearings at each of the public schools slated for closure, for “stakeholders” to be consulted, and for the city to study and report on the effects closing schools would have on their surrounding communities. All of this had to be completed a certain number of days before the citywide schoolboard, the Panel for Educational Policy, voted on the closings. (more…)

School officials outlined a plan to change the way city schools serve students with disabilities at a closed-door meeting this morning with special education advocates.

The plan’s first step: Telling schools they have to accept, and “embrace,” students with special needs.

“For too long, educating students with disabilities has meant separating them from their general education peers,” Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said in a statement. “Today we are building on the premise that every school must be able to educate the vast majority of these children.”

That premise represents a badly needed advance for the city schools, according to special education advocates.

“The principles in [the plan] are wonderful, but they’ve been law forever,” said Maggie Moroff, who coordinates the ARISE Coalition but was not speaking on the coalition’s behalf. “The overarching goals are exactly what they ought to be, it’s just that in my mind they’re not so novel.” (more…)

• The UFT is set to file a lawsuit today to stop the 19 school closures approved last week. (Daily News)
• The new NCLB could give districts funding based on progress, rather than demographics. (Times)
• Charter leaders say they’ll give up on New York if the state doesn’t get more supportive soon. (Times)
• A teacher found to have spoken lewdly to a student has sat in the rubber room for almost 10 years. (Post)
• The head of NYPD’s School Safety Division was promoted to another position. (Daily News)
• The Daily News says the many people who spoke at last week’s PEP meeting weren’t representative.
• The city wants to make it harder to get a top progress report grade. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News)
• A Daily News survey says school lunches in the city are still full of unhealthy components.
• The yummy lunches at Harlem’s Promise Academy Charter School continue to be healthy. (Daily News)
• A city program that gives summer jobs to more than 50,000 teens is at risk from budget cuts. (Daily News)
• A former member of Joel Klein’s team will lead Teach for America in Providence. (Providence Journal)
• More D.C. residents don’t like Michelle Rhee, even as they say the schools are better. (Washington Post)
• A study released last week says many states keep bad teachers and send good ones away. (AP)