GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• The UFT’s Delegate Assembly voted down a caucus’s call for a teacher evaluations referendum. (MORE)
• Two remarkable things: The vote happened, and a union official left the dais to oppose it. (NYCDOEnuts)
• A city teacher got an ethics warning for campaigning for union chapter leader during class. (GS Scribd)
• Dozens of all-white “segregation academies” continue to exist 40 years after desegregation. (Hechinger)
• A gas leak at Queens’ Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School caused the school’s evacuation. (DNAInfo)
• Breaking down Wendy Kopp’s claim of an eight-year average tenure for TFA teachers. (Gary Rubinstein)
• A recap about the students denied graduation pomp last year has a happy ending. (NYC P.S. Parents)
• A list of five misconceptions about contemporary students starts with their tech savviness. (eSchoolNews)
• A satirical review of actual scientific research explains why so many teens struggle in school. (Cracked)

President Bill Clinton was joined by AFT President Randi Weingarten (behind him) and other union and city officials today to announce a $1 billion investment of the city's teacher pension fund into Hurricane Sandy recovery projects.

One billion dollars of the city’s teacher pension fund will be used to finance construction and repair projects for city roads, bridges, and homes, President Bill Clinton and other officials announced Thursday.

Clinton joined UFT President Michael Mulgrew, AFT President Randi Weingarten, City Comptroller John Liu, and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan to announce the pledge, which Clinton called “a remarkable commitment” to “properly rebuild in the aftermath of Sandy.”

“This storm exposed weaknesses in our infrastructure that must not only be repaired, but we must rebuild in a different way,” said Donovan, who is now in charge of federal Sandy recovery efforts.

This will be the first time the city’s teacher pension funds are used for infrastructure projects, Liu said, even though the idea has been around for years.

“There’s always been apprehension about, is it going to work, is it potentially a vicious circle? So what I’ve seen is everybody is waiting for somebody else to do it, and therefore nobody does it. I’m very proud that, in this case, New York City is taking the lead,” Liu said after the announcement. (more…)

UFT President Michael Mulgrew (left) and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan toured a storm-swept area of Staten Island between school visits today.

After Hurricane Sandy devastated Staten Island, New Dorp High School sprang into action.

Under the leadership of Principal Deidre DeAngelis, the school turned into a command center for the area, hosting a school displaced by the storm, drumming up donations from alumni, and distributing food, clothing, and blankets to students and staff members who needed them.

On Thanksgiving, New Dorp hosted a dinner for 650 families. “Matt cooked until he couldn’t cook anymore,” DeAngelis said about the school’s culinary arts teacher, Matthew Hays.

“We were so appreciative that we got help when no one else was helping us,” said Amanda Delapena, the student body vice president whose home was heavily damaged.

“I thought the story of what this school has done needs to be told,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said during a visit to the school this morning. At his invitation, U.S. Secretary of Education also visited the school, along with Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and Ernest Logan, president of the principals union.

(more…)

• To stem costs, New York State’s public university system will move more courses online. (Times Union)
• Students in a crowded Bronx school who the city wanted to transfer midyear will stay there. (News)
• A parent says his twins’ diverging paths are evidence of the difference in teacher quality. (Daily News)
• Charter schools are ignoring the state’s demand to submit teacher evaluation ratings. (GothamSchools)
• The city is letting parents know that work to remove PCBs in their children’s school will begin soon. (NY1)
• Some high schools bar the away team’s student fans from attending games for security reasons. (Times)
• The fiscal outlook is improving, but lawmakers are taking a closer look at school funding. (EdWeek)