GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Raising school lunch fees is one of the city’s proposed strategies for closing a budget gap. (Times, Post)
• One Far Rockaway family’s story shows how hard it is for storm-affected families to get to school. (NY1)
• More city schools will reopen in their own buildings on Tuesday. (GothamSchools, Daily News, NY1)
• Mayor Bloomberg is planning to dock the pay of city workers who didn’t report during Sandy. (WSJ)
• Families in some schools have had to weigh the value of school against a lack of heat inside. (Times)
• Among teachers that arbitrators declined to fire is one who let a second-grader get lost for hours. (Post)
• After cutting its test monitoring program, the city now seems poised to bulk it back up. (GothamSchools)
• The Times praises federal authorities for taking up the complaint against the city’s elite high school test.
• Nationally, school closures are up 60 percent in the last decade, angering some communities. (Reuters)

Last week on GothamSchools:

• Some city school board members said the city is getting back to business too soon after Sandy. (Friday)
• City attendance and enrollment data underscore a class divide on the Rockaway peninsula. (Thursday)
• A city high school that embraces the water was fortunate not to be flooded during Sandy. (Thursday)
• Attendance was low all week in schools that relocated sites because of storm damage. (Wednesday)
• Students in a building that was used as a shelter said they were nervous about returning. (Wednesday)
• Teachers at a Brooklyn school that got its building back quickly said many issues remained. (Tuesday)
• Students at democracy-themed charter schools spent Election Day trying to get out the vote. (Tuesday)
• Teachers and families also used Election Day to volunteer or raise funds for Sandy relief. (Tuesday)
• Schools across the city scrambled to create space-sharing plans, including in Red Hook. (Tuesday)
• City Council and union officials said they were worried about new co-location logistics. (Monday)
• The city reversed a short-lived ban on letting some charter schools open on Election Day. (Monday)
• Schools officials stood at each closed building to redirect families as schools reopened. (Monday)