GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi on the steps of the State Education Department building today

ALBANY — Nearly 200 teaching jobs across the state could be lost as a result of a decision to freeze federal funding to low-performing schools, according to the head of the state teachers union.

New York State United Teachers President Richard Ianuzzi detailed the potential job casualties this afternoon on the steps of the State Education Department building, where the Board of Regents was holding its monthly meeting. He was joined by union officials from six districts and superintendents from Albany and nearby Schenectady — but not from New York City, where he blamed politics for impeding progress on teacher evaluations.

The press conference was a response to State Education Commissioner John King’s decision last week to suspend federal funding set aside for the state’s lowest performing schools, known as School Improvement Grants, in all 10 districts that were set to receive the money. Some of the districts, including New York City, failed to negotiate new teacher evaluations for those schools by a Dec. 31 deadline, and King said the other districts’ evaluation plans didn’t meet state standards.

“What is happening here, ladies and gentlemen, is that the State Education Department has decided that being a bully and acting like a bureaucrat is better than meeting the needs of New York State’s most vulnerable children,” Ianuzzi said at the press conference.

The money still could be restored. King gave all districts a 30-day period to appeal the decision and revise their system to meet his concerns, which he spelled out in letters last week.  District officials at the press conference said that they planned to follow that process. (more…)

Parents from schools the city has deemed failing issued their own grade to the Department of Education today: an F.

About three dozen parents from schools the department might close gathered on the steps of Tweed Courthouse to decry the department’s policy of shuttering schools instead of offering them additional aid. They said the department has failed at everything from providing resources to struggling schools to engaging parents — even to showing compassion to schools and families working under difficult conditions to help children. (more…)

Protesters rally against state budget cuts

Things got personal on the steps of Tweed Courthouse today as parents, advocates and elected officials protested budget cuts by sharing stories and photographs of specific children affected.

Summer Lord said her two children were “sandwiched in like a sardine, elbow-to-elbow with 34 other students” in over-capacity classrooms at P.S./I.S. 217 on Roosevelt Island. Millie Vargas’s daughter is passionate about the violin, and according to Vargas, a looming cut of approximately $150,000 to P.S. 73 threatens her daughter’s music class.

And Angela Courtney told me her daughter came home two days ago crying that an after school baking class she had joined at P.S. 35 had been abruptly cut.

These mothers were among the crowd of protesters waving black and white photographs of their children and neon posters markered with sayings like “What happens in Albany doesn’t stay in Albany” and “School cuts hurt.” (more…)

The city should rethink the money used on outside consultants to save the jobs of the school aides, health workers, and parent coordinators who help schools function from the inside.

That was the message delivered by members of DC-37, parents, teachers, activists, and elected officials during a protest on the steps of Tweed Courthouse today against the impending layoffs of nearly 800 school workers, most of them DC-37 members. The cuts – announced Aug. 15 – are slated to take effect in October.

Noah Gotbaum, who is on the District 3 Community Education Council and a parent of three public school children, said the loss of parent coordinators is a significant setback. “One of the only things Bloomberg did right is creating the position of parent coordinator, and now he’s kicking them off,” he said.

Other parents said they were most concerned about how the layoffs would affect their children. “What about  the safety of our children in the lunchroom? In the courtyard? In the hallways? On the buses?” asked Muba Yarofulani, a parent activist who has a chld and the parent of an eighth grader. “Safety is very important and the less school aides we have, the less schools are safe for our children.”