GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Sen. Carl Kruger criticized Chancellor Klein for taking the legislature’s money, but not its advice.
• If Paterson’s cuts go through, the total budget gap for the DOE will be $1.2 billion.
• Arne Duncan apologizes for the Katrina comment.
• Diane Ravitch: the closing of neighborhood schools is the collateral damage of the DOE’s priorities.
• The DOE wants you to know the UFT filed a grievance over teachers having to write out students’ goals.
• Maura Keaney is “exactly the kind of woman we need at the Department of Ed,” Bloomberg says.
• A UFT blogger wonders why the city, state, and federal gov. all use different criteria to define failure.
• David Dashefsky: Seth Andrew and other charter operators shouldn’t just quit New York State.
• The DOE is hosting a new high school fair this weekend across the street from Tweed.
• Creative writing morphs into creative spelling in one class.
• The message from charter school parents to Albany today was: restore our funding.
• Jay Mathews isn’t betting Rhee will succeed if she remains unwilling to compromise.
• Kevin Carey says there are actually 3 movements within the school “reform” movement.
• And New Orleans may cancel school the day after the Super Bowl.

Principal Edward Tom unveiled the school's new library, which came after two years of lobbying for one.

When School Construction Authority officials first stepped foot in the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics to build a $1.1 million library, Principal Edward Tom had some specific instructions.

“I told them not to think about high school libraries,” Tom said at a ribbon cutting ceremony held at the school today. “I told them: ‘Think Starbucks.’”

That directive, and SCA’s apparent willingness to oblige, have made their mark. Along with having couches and frosted glass, the library’s walls are cappuccino-colored, the floor tiles look like they were dipped in half-and-half, and the bookshelves and chairs are a dark mocha.

Funded by donations from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. ($660,000), and City Councilwoman Helen Foster ($440,000), the library is also outfitted with desktop computers, printers, and a SMART Board. The one thing it’s missing — a librarian — is in the planning stages, a school official said. (more…)

Parents of students at Community Roots Charter School in Brooklyn boarded a bus for Albany before dawn, as school leaders checked in with other parents.

Hundred of parents of charter school students from all over the city climbed into buses bound for Albany in the pre-dawn hours this morning. Once they got there, parents and advocates are spending the day pressing legislators to change state law to allow for more charter schools and better funding and facilities access for them.

Some schools, like Harlem Success Academy and Democracy Prep, are each bringing hundreds of parents on multiple busloads. Others, like Brooklyn’s Opportunity Roots Charter School, pictured here, filled one bus, or shared a bus with other schools. All in all, 80 city charter schools sent a total of 60 buses to Albany today. (more…)

• The schools set to replace closing schools in Queens each have a specialized curriculum. (Daily News)
• The city is planning for all schools to serve students with disabilities. (GothamSchools, Daily News, Post)
• The city’s oldest Catholic school may be in danger of closing. (NY1)
• The ingredients of city school lunches will soon be posted online. (Daily News)
• More than 150 students protested cuts to student fare cards outside MTA headquarters. (Post)
• DOE and UFT officials disagree on whether the city will be eligible for more federal funds. (Daily News)
• A Queens teacher is charged with instructing students to resolve a dispute through fistfights. (Post)
• The Post decries the NAACP’s insertion in the UFT’s lawsuit to keep low-performing schools open.
• A study found abstinence education persuades a majority of students to delay sex. (Washington Post)