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City officials are planning to replace a struggling Brooklyn elementary school with an unusual charter school next year — the first in the city to give admissions preference to students stuck in the closing school.

If the citywide school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy, votes to phase out P.S. 114 in Canarsie, Brooklyn starting next year, two new schools will open in the building. One will be a typical zoned elementary school for all students in District 18. The other will be Explore Charter School — the first charter school in the city that will give admissions preference to students at the low-performing school it replaces.

When most New York City charter schools open, they typically give admissions preference to students who live in a certain district. These districts usually encompass several neighborhoods and a handful of public schools, allowing the charter to draw students from all over the region.

But Explore plans to operate differently.

Current kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students at P.S. 114 will be given preference in Explore’s lottery, which means they have the best chance of getting one of 224 seats. If there’s still room, second preference will go to students who are zoned for P.S. 114, but attend other schools (this is about half the students in the zone). After them, preference will go to students throughout District 18 who are attending schools that are being phased out for poor performance.

“What’s very different about this is we’re saying to parents and kids in a school that’s failing, here’s an option that does not ask you to relocate or leave your community,” said Morty Ballen, CEO of the Explore Schools network. “It’s about you and your community; we’re staying right here.” (more…)

• More than half of students took their own snow day yesterday. (GS, NYT, DN, Post, WNYC, NY1)
• Supporters of Ross Global claim the city is closing the school to give space to Girls Prep. (Times)
• Cathie Black toured John Adams HS with City Councilman Eric Ulrich this week. (Queens Courier)
• With his push to end tenure, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie moved to the center of the education debate. (Times)
• The second teacher caught in a classroom hook-up in Brooklyn yesterday was fired yesterday. (DN)
• L.A. officials will split a low-performing school into three campuses run by outside groups. (L.A. Times)
• Alumni of a Detroit school are trying to save their building after a new school was built nearby. (NPR)

• An experienced teacher offers media relations tips for educators. (Rick Hess Straight Up)
• A Park Slope rabbi says about the John Jay HS situation: “We can do better.” (Andy Bachman)
• Today might not technically have been a snow day, but it sort of was, Dana Lawit writes. (GS Community)
• The head of the Hechinger Report, Richard Colvin, is becoming the director of Ed Sector. (Russo)
• Small foundations are having a hard time finding a niche in post-Zuckerberg Newark. (NJ Spotlight)
• Ruben Brosbe: I know I’ve matured as a teacher by the way I handle puking students. (GS Community)
• Lisa Nielsen: Non-educators who run school systems shouldn’t have educators’ titles. (HuffPo)
• Mayor Bloomberg’s civil service reform proposal includes ending ”last in, first out.” (Daily Politics)
• A Queens student’s strategy to save up for college has made him enemies at Apple. (Daily Transom)
• All signs point to movement soon on reauthorizing the law known as No Child Left Behind. (Politics K-12)
• A student at the Bronx’s New Explorers High School was killed in a fight earlier this week. (WSJ)
• To fight anti-Semitism, Orthodox Jewish leaders are reaching out to Williamsburg schools. (Daily News)
• Along with her new group, Michelle Rhee appears to be cultivating a more feminine image. (Russo)

More than half of New York City’s public school students didn’t come to school today after Chancellor Cathie Black decided to keep schools open after a snowstorm.

Although most roads were plowed after nine inches of snow fell overnight, the Department of Education’s attendance figures show that only 46 percent of students came to class today. Students in elementary school had the highest turnout — about 50 percent of them showed up — but older students pulled the citywide average down.

Only 47 percent of middle schoolers and 37 percent of high schoolers came to school today. These numbers correspond to what we’ve been hearing anecdotally from teachers, who reported class sizes cut down by two-thirds or more.

“You can’t teach a real class with 30% to 50% of your students, so, what exactly was the point of this?” wrote one teacher in the comments section. Another said: (more…)

Yesterday I had my first vomiting incident of the year! I didn’t realize when I signed up for Teaching Fellows that this would be at least a yearly occurrence, but I’ve sure accepted that fact now. There are few experiences that can rival the mix of sympathy and horror when a student interrupts a conference or raises their hand on the rug. With a contorted look on their face and a telltale tone, they say, “I don’t feel so good.” I wonder why it’s always those exact words …

And yet, while classroom vomit stories are pretty much equally horrifying, I was able to look at this one as a small, but gratifying symbol of progress. This year I managed to get the student to the nurse as soon as he told me he wasn’t feeling well. When he came back because the nurse couldn’t get his mom on the phone, I sat him down with a plastic bag. By the time things erupted, the damage was minimal.

Contrast this with my first year of teaching. I was only a few weeks into it when one of my problem kids let loose all over his table. The classroom was sweltering, and the mess didn’t get cleaned up until after the kids went home. Back then, I was still proud I managed to teach (or what I considered teaching) despite the vomit. I think I would’ve been shocked to see how differently I handled it today (no vomit on the desks!). It’s amazing all the random things you learn to handle differently with just a little extra experience.

Chatting with my colleagues in the lunch room yesterday, we speculated about the likelihood of having a snow day today. One teacher put it at 45 percent, or “just under a coin toss.” Others thought “no way,” or “absolutely.” Snow day closure decisions are a mixture of weather and local politics, so it was anyone’s guess.

Snow days are a mixed blessing. For students and teachers, there’s the timeless thrill of discovering that a work day is suddenly a day off. But eventually the snow is cleared and we have to deal with the reality of missing a day of instruction. At this time of year — so close to the Regents exam — each day feels even more precious and snow days disruptive.

But, as it turns out, non-snow days are also disruptive. I taught about 30 students today total, if you add up all the students in the three classes that I teach. Such low attendance challenges teachers and schools. How do we honor the students who do attend while knowing that if we move on today, we’ll be playing catch-up tomorrow. (more…)

Students walk to school past PS 9, the Teunis Bergen School, in Prospect Heights this morning.

Bucking a regional trend, Chancellor Cathie Black announced early this morning that schools would open as usual this morning. She later added that after-school activities and sports will take place as planned.

But that doesn’t mean that today will be a regular school day. We’re hearing from teachers in our comments and on Twitter that snow is wreaking havoc on their schools. And in the Community section, high school teacher Dana Lawit writes that having low attendance is just as disruptive as having an actual snow day.  Send us your stories and pictures.

“Thanks Bloomberg. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to know how running a daycare felt. Today’s going to be chaos,” wrote BNiche, an elementary school special education teacher, early this morning.

A little later, he wrote, “Wow. 26 teachers absent. Wow.” Twenty minutes later, he updated that tally: “Scratch that. Make that 30. 30!” As the school day began, he wrote once more: “So far, 10 out of 32 students present.” (more…)

• Schools will be open today as usual, although field trips and possibly sports are canceled.
• Parents weren’t happy that the city planned to wait until 5 a.m. to decide about the snow day. (CBS)
• The UFT paid Randi Weingarten nearly $200,000 for unused sick days after she left. (WSJ)
• Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s dire assessment of the state’s education status was a little overblown. (WNYC)
• Students at Brooklyn’s John Jay HS campus rallied against restructuring plans. (GS, Brooklyn Paper)
• Teachers say their Cambria Heights principal unfairly threatens to give them U ratings. (Daily News)
• The Archdiocese of New York said it will close 13 more city Catholic schools. (Post, NY1, Times)
• Parents at Queens’ PS 101 were rewarded after they asked for less rigidity and more play. (Times)
• The Brooklyn teacher fired for hooking up with another teacher in her classroom is suing. (Post)
• A judge said a teacher caught falsely calling in sick can’t sue the city for disclosing her health. (Post)
• The Daily News says a state judge was right to rule in favor of releasing teachers’ ratings.
• In a major address, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie called for an end to teacher tenure. (WSJ,Times)
• Los Angeles’s new schools chief, John Deasy, doesn’t fit neatly into any education camp. (L.A. Times)

• The city has declared a weather emergency; a decision about whether schools are open is due by 5 a.m.
• A teacher says the last blizzard hid a media “snow job” around Joel Klein’s departure. (Answer Sheet)
• Courtney Ross says politics, not poor performance, is behind her charter school’s closure. (New Yorker)
• City Councilman Brad Lander offers a long list of ideas for restructuring the John Jay campus. (EdVox)
• Parents at PS 101 in Queens were rewarded after they asked for less rigidity and more play. (City Room)
• More kindergartners are classes of 25+ than in classes of 20 and under. (NYC Public School Parents)
• Arthur Goldstein says his students met Cathie Black and found her slick but staged. (GS Community)
• Edward R. Murrow HS students are advising the producers of “Skins” on teen lingo. (New Yorker)
• Former DOE deputies in two cities are teaming up to help dropouts. (New Haven Independent)
• Applications are due Thursday for a reporters’ seminar on teacher effectiveness. (Educated Reporter)
• Every $1 million in education stimulus money created 4.2 jobs, a new report says. (Campaign K-12)
• But that’s better than 2.7 jobs for every $1 million spent across all federal agencies. (Flypaper)
• An argument for why few reporters do a good job writing about education philanthropy. (Dissent)
• States can tweak their Race to the Top plans, but not about common standards. (Curriculum Matters)

Students from three Brooklyn high schools protested tonight the arrival of a new, selective school that will open in their building next year, arguing that the city has neglected their schools.

Students from the Secondary Schools for Law, Research, and Journalism marched up and down a Park Slope sidewalk this evening chanting and waving signs at startled passersby. All three 6-12 schools share the John Jay High School campus. The city has told them to make room next year for a fourth: the Millennium Brooklyn High School. (more…)