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Attendees lined up outside Brooklyn Tech for tonight's Panel for Educational Policy meeting.

We’re stationed right now at Brooklyn Technical High School, where the Panel for Educational policy is meeting to vote on the fates of 11 schools the city wants to close. The panel will also vote on whether to allow half a dozen new schools to open.

For an overview of the schools under debate at tonight’s meeting, listen to this WNYC appearance by our own Maura Walz. Maura discussed what the schools slated for closure are saying in their own defense and how the city has responded to their argument for remaining open.

2:06 a.m. End scene.

1:30 a.m. Anna sends more notes. We learn that when Sullivan asked Black about space at Brandeis, a question that elicited shouts from the crowd, the new chancellor had several responses.

“She first asked people to quiet down,” Anna reports. “Then they booed her.” Finally, Black mimicked the protestors, saying, “OOOOOOH.”

Also: “Mulgrew joined the UFT hecklers at the end,” Anna reports. As voting began, audience members hurled shouts at the stage. A NY1 Noticias reporter tells Anna that Mulgrew was one of the first to yell. “Puppets!” he shouted.

1:26 a.m. Who voted no? Some phase outs passed with support from non-mayoral appointees. The gradual closures of the School for Community Research and Learning and Monroe Academy for Business/Law High School both found support from representatives from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Panel members from Queens and Brooklyn also voted to support the closure of the Academy for Collaborative Education, which will not phase out over time but will close for good at the end of this year.

That was not the case for the Success Charter Network schools. All three proposals related to the schools (including two co-locations and a proposal to expand the K-5 school to include sixth grade) received support only from mayoral appointees, Anna reports.

Phase-out votes that were more controversial also fell along these lines. Only the panel’s eight mayoral appointees supported closing the Urban Assembly Academy for History and Citizenship for Young Men, which had a large turnout of teachers and students in its defense.

1:19 a.m. Every single proposal passes. The panel has voted to phase out or close 10 schools next year. Union activists stand up and yell, “fraud!” The meeting adjourns. (more…)

Governor Andrew Cuomo is suggesting that the state cut its contribution to New York City public schools by nearly $600 million from the level that schools received this year.

The budget, released today, proposes reducing statewide school spending by $1.5 billion from this year’s level. Activists said that would be the largest dollar figure cut to public schools in New York’s history.

The proposal would bring the state’s contribution to city schools close to the level received in 2007. That year ushered in substantial funding increases after a court ordered New York State to reduce historic funding inequities by pouring billions of extra dollars into the New York City schools.

Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget for fiscal year 2011, denoted with the asterisk, would reduce the state's spending on New York City public schools to $7.5 billion.

(more…)

Last night we received an email from a reader with a good memory:

Subject: Will Gotham Schools be blogging the PEP meetings 2/1 and 2/3?

Message: Last year you guys did a great job live blogging the entire 9? 10? hours of the PEP meeting where the closing schools vote took place. Am wondering whether you will be doing that again tomorrow and Thursday.

First, last year’s meeting did indeed last for 10 hours, and our coverage exceeded even that. And yes, we are intending to overcome bad weather and a seven-hour time difference to repeat the feat this year. We’ll be live-blogging both of the Panel for Educational Policy meetings this week, starting at about 5 p.m. today.

Our night could be shortened by today’s frightful weather, which could keep some would-be attendees at home. The city’s Office of Emergency Management yesterday issued a weather advisory encouraging people to avoid driving tonight, and the teachers union formally asked the Department of Education to postpone tonight’s meeting. But DOE spokesman Matthew Mittenthal just told us that the meeting is definitely still on.

Collin Lawrence is a former New York City teacher who is recounting his four years working at a Brooklyn high school. Read Collin’s previous posts.

The grade-level team leader meeting held on the day before Thanksgiving break, 2007, started mildly enough. There were four people present at this meeting: the principal, myself, Mr. G and the 11th-grade team leader, who held the American history position originally promised to me. The principal gave each of us a packet of demographic data about our students and proceeded to go over it. As it was right before the start of a long-anticipated four-day weekend, I felt both exhausted and elated.

So I mainly just sat in silence as the principal talked about what neighborhoods our students lived in and how this data could help us better understand them. After talking for a few minutes, he looked up and asked why no one was saying anything. I didn’t reply but Mr. G dismissively remarked, “We get it. We know who our kids are.”

The principal responded with an anger that did not seem warranted by the situation. He stood up, chest heaving, and flung his set of keys against the wall of his office. He exclaimed that we needed to support each other, and pronounced the meeting over. Mr. G got up and left but I stayed seated, my heart racing from the shock. “We support you,” I said, meekly, to my principal. He told me that if I wanted to be helpful I could fill out a paper giving my input about the school for the upcoming school quality review. I took the paper and left his office. (more…)

• Mayor Bloomberg won’t actually consider firing 21,000 teachers, for practical reasons. (Daily News)
• A veteran teacher (and go-to source) says he doesn’t see value in seniority layoff protections. (Post)
• The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on school closure proposals tonight. (WNYC, Daily News)
• Two dozen people, including City Council members, were arrested during a school closure protest. (NY1)
• The Parthenon Group report recommended closure as a way to change school demographics. (Post)
• The city will spend $3 million to renovate Brandeis HS so it can house a new charter school. (Daily News)
• Republican governors in five states have made ending teacher tenure part of their agenda. (Times)
• The amount missing from PS 29′s PTA is lower than first reported but still upsetting. (Times, Daily News)
• A visit to the two-year-old Cinema School in the Bronx reveals a serious school with lots of perks. (WSJ)
• Funding might be coming through to restore and preserve Erasmus Hall, the city’s oldest school. (WSJ)