GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

The city’s move to delay the first day of school rather than interrupt the first week back with a religious holiday  comes after weeks of a sustained email campaign by parents.

Since late May, parents have been circulating an email to Chancellor Klein calling on the city to begin the school year on Sept. 13. The current plan is for the first day of school to be Sept. 8, the Wednesday after Labor Day. But because Thursday and Friday are Rosh Hashanah, a major Jewish holiday, the schools will be closed. Students wouldn’t see their new teachers and classmates again until Monday.

Michelle Chiulla Lipkin, the PTA president at PS 199 on the Upper West Side, drafted the letter to the chancellor after realizing what she had to look forward to in September.

“I can imagine it now. Summer is over. My kids are ready with their backpacks and new haircuts and they go to school excited and nervous about the year ahead. And then they come home and stay there for four days until they go back to school and do it all over again,” she said. “We all know they won’t remember anything that their teacher said on Wednesday.” (more…)

Mayor Bloomberg's address, scheduled to begin at 1pm, is being broadcast online.

Mayor Bloomberg will give his annual “State of the City” address this afternoon. On the subject of education — you better sit down before reading this — Bloomberg is announcing his intention to lobby the legislature to preserve mayoral control of the public schools, according to a press release preview City Hall just sent out. Bloomberg’s other education-related announcements are two parent-outreach initiatives that seem designed to target one of the biggest concerns about mayoral control: that it’s left parents out of the schools.

One new program, called “Parent Connect,” will expand 311 services for parents, so that they can find information about admissions and transportation by calling the free city hotline. The other program is the fact that parents are going to have access to ARIS data some time this year (something we already knew from school officials).

You can watch the speech on NY1 or online here.

Learn NY also solicits parents' ideas on its web site.

The lobbying group that is campaigning to preserve the mayor’s control of the public school system is making good on its promise to reach out to parents. Today a staffer at the group, called Learn NY, sent an introductory message to e-mail lists run by public school parents.

The staffer explained the group’s mission, promised to send follow-up messages about the positive effects of mayoral control, and asked for feedback.

She wrote:

the more we hear from parents, the more we can improve the mayoral control law when it comes up for renewal next year. I would love to gather some feedback from you to help us better inform lawmakers in Albany of what’s working and what’s not.

The messages went out to at least two list-serves, one for parents in District 3 and one for parents of gifted and talented students, at about the same time today, 11:50 a.m. and 11:52 a.m, respectively. One list has already seen some responses, a mix of confusion and suspicion.

Here’s one parent’s reaction:

In the interest of fairness, I suppose this person should be allowed to post. (more…)

We don’t know how large voter turnout is so far, but it’s clearly impressive. As Mayor Bloomberg said this morning, “Anybody that thinks that democracy is not working in America just has to look today.”

Will the civic engagement be sustained?

One way for parents to stay engaged, of course, would be to get active in their child’s public school. The teachers union is holding its annual conference Saturday on how to do that. About 3,000 parents are expected to show up, and although formal registration has closed, a person at the union just told me that if parents still want to sign up, they can, by calling 212-598-9025.

At the conference, parents will find workshops on subjects including how to understand new standardized tests and how to deal with gang violence. Maybe parents could also discuss which PTA’s held bake sales and which didn’t.

Another incentive to show up: Philissa, who has attended the conference for the last three years (representing Insidechools.org — she’s not a parent yet!), says that last year Hillary Clinton made an  unannounced appearance. More details after the jump. (more…)