GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• Bronx students performed with the Lumineers, a hot band their teacher is not in. (WPLJ/YouTube)
• Some state legislators want Gov. Andrew Cuomo to turn evaluation systems into a pilot. (James Brennan)
• In many countries, girls do better on an international science test, but not in the United States. (Times)
• A Danish experiment found that students who bike to school concentrate better. (Atlantic Cities)
• A teacher argues that rubrics are inaccurately seen as objective measures, rather than guides. (Assailed)
• A PEP member wants the panel to un-approve of a troubled company’s contract. (NYC P.S. Parents)
• Michelle Rhee was on the Daily Show and got some pushback from Jon Stewart. (Answer Sheet)
• The principal of Brooklyn’s I.S. 228 says his school benefits from his business experience. (SchoolBook)

Students from Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, where Principal William Rodriguez faces discipline after an investigation, performed Friday at Grand Central Terminal.

A Bronx principal is facing discipline after investigators substantiated allegations that he played fast and loose with school funds.

The Special Commissioner of Investigation looked into allegations, first filed in 2011, that William Rodriguez, the founding principal of Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, billed the city for time he did not work. Investigators substantiated at least some of the allegations and delivered a report to Chancellor Dennis Walcott last month.

Asked about the report on Friday at Grand Central Terminal, where Celia Cruz students were performing to celebrate the station’s centennial, Rodriguez said he had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing. “Nothing has been substantiated,” he said.

But Department of Education officials were already deciding how to act on SCI’s findings.

“We are in the process of determining discipline,” Connie Pankratz, a department spokeswoman, said on Friday. A spokeswoman for the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators confirmed that Rodriguez met with the union’s grievance department on Monday, a standard step whenever a school employee is facing sanctions, which could range from a fine to termination.

Teachers, staff, and students at the school say that whatever misconduct investigators found would be merely a symptom of deeper leadership problems. They say Rodriguez, an accomplished musician himself, poured school resources into Celia Cruz’s award-winning music program while leaving students without adequate preparation for college. (more…)

Charter schools want to piggyback on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to expand pre-kindergarten across the state. But in order to benefit from Cuomo’s $25 million in pre-K grants, the schools first must win the right to offer pre-K classes.

Pushing for that right is at the top of charter school supporters’ agenda today as they convene in Albany as part of the charter sector’s annual advocacy day. The parents will meet in the Albany Convention Center with more than a dozen legislators, then spend the rest of the day visiting their district representatives.

They’re not the only ones lobbying lawmakers over pre-K this week. On Monday, police chiefs, principals, and education groups from around the state declared their support for Cuomo’s pre-K grants, which represent a fraction of the $385 million that the state spends annually on pre-kindergarten.

The charter sector’s lobbying efforts are not so straightforward, because the state’s 1998 law authorizing the schools grants them the right to serve students in kindergarten to 12th grade only. Legislators would have to change to the law — last revised in 2010 amid heavy controversy — to allow pre-kindergarten in charter schools.

“It’s our job to talk to lawmakers and say to them, ‘Hey, does it really makes sense to a have a program where some really good schools don’t have the ability to do full-day pre-K?’” said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter Center. (more…)

• Elementary schools are key in the city’s push to boost science, math, and technology. (Daily News)
• Examining the collapse of teacher evaluation talks, Michael Powell says the mayor looks worst. (Times)
• Investigators found that a substitute teacher at Boys and Girls High School tried to woo a student. (Post)
• The city wants to fire an administrator accused of setting off a smoke bomb he says was made up. (Post)
• A columnist says Mayor Bloomberg can “win” in his conflict with school bus drivers by sitting firm. (Post)
• Arlene Ackerman, who resigned in 2011 as Philadelphia’s schools chief, has died. (Times, Inquirer)
• A judge ruled that Texas’s school funding system is unconstitutional. (Times, Dallas Morning News)
• As Los Angeles gets its first Hebrew language charter school, familiar questions emerge. (L.A. Times)