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Supporters and opponents of school closures were among those attending tonight's Panel for Educational Policy meeting.

For the second night this week, Anna is stationed at Brooklyn Tech High School, sending us dispatches from the meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy. The meeting is once again likely to be a long marathon of a night as the public lines up to comment on school closures and space changes proposed by the Bloomberg administration.

At the end of the night, or maybe the beginning of tomorrow, members of the panel — the latest version of the city school board — will vote on whether to adopt the proposals, which could close up to 12 schools and make significant changes in another nine. The panel is controlled by a majority of members appointed directly by the mayor.

School safety officers filling out overtime sheets after the PEP meeting.

1:20 a.m. One final update, with a visual: The last people left at Brooklyn Tech were about a dozen school safety officers submitting their overtime. The first bell rings at 8 a.m.

1:04 a.m. She won’t be speaking with reporters, but Chancellor Cathie Black did make sure to have the last word. “We all want to say a very large thank you to the parents, the teachers, and the students who came out earlier this evening,” she said. “These are never early decisions. A great deal of time and thought and  angst has gone into them. A big thank you to everybody.”

By “early,” Black probably meant “easy,” Anna notes. And with that, our reporter heads into the night.

1:02 a.m. All of the contracts under the panel’s review have passed.

12:51 p.m. Often, the panel makes quick work of any proposed contracts. But tonight, panel members are questioning a three-year, multi-million-dollar proposal for a package of 16 contracts to provide online coursework. The largest, a $4.5 million bid from Apex Learning, would allow schools to offer Advanced Placement courses virtually.

Investing in online learning would allow schools that are phasing out to offer advanced courses even as their student bodies and teaching rosters dwindle, says Deputy Chancellor John White.

But Lisette Nieves, one of the panel’s eight mayoral appointees, is challenging White’s logic. She says that would be true only if the department urged phase-out schools to challenge their students — but it doesn’t.

“I did vote for the phase out,” Nieves says. “But there’s a difference between saying leadership is committed to providing a basic service versus an advanced servive. I just want to make sure there’s an incentive. I don’t inherently buy into the idea that there’s an incentive.”

12:40 p.m. Despite pressure from reporters, Chancellor Cathie Black is “unavailable for comment,” DOE officials are saying.

This is a particular problem for television and radio reporters, who couldn’t hear a word of what Black said during her introductory remarks because she was being booed so loudly. The only journalist who can use the audio, Anna reports, is the Spanish-language NY1 Noticias reporter, who plans to translate Black’s comments and run the script.

Last year, then-Chancellor Joel Klein huddled with reporters after the school closure Panel for Educational Policy meeting ended — and that was at 4 a.m.

12:35 p.m. The voting is over, just 10 minutes after it started. The panel voted to close 12 more schools, bringing the total closures approved this week to 22. (more…)

Setting aside the fact that tomorrow night’s school closure vote will take place in the middle of a “crippling” ice storm, the citywide school board meeting could match last year’s chaos.

Last January, the city tried to push 19 school closures and 32 space utilization changes through the citywide school board in one night, leading to a 12-hour meeting that lasted until four in the morning. Students teachers, and parents showed up by the hundreds to defend their schools and the teachers union held a street-filling rally complete with a jumbotron.

Tomorrow night, the city has lined up only 11 schools for closure and six space utilization changes that include grade truncations and and co-locations. The remainder of the school closure votes will take place in a second marathon Panel for Educational Policy meeting on Thursday.

But if the work load is lighter, that may not be true of the turnout. Charter school advocates are planning to show up en masse to support the few charter school co-location votes before the Panel for Educational Policy. (more…)

Anna and Maura were on the scene of the Panel for Educational Policy’s meeting Tuesday night to decide on proposed school closures. They provided dispatches until the meeting’s bitter end, in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

The Panel for Educational Policy votes to close one of 19 schools slated for phase-out by the DOE, as school supporters look on.

4 a.m. After a two-hour protest that closed the streets in Fort Greene; nearly nine hours of testimony by concerned elected officials, parents, teachers, and students; and a series of votes that underscored the divide between Mayor Bloomberg and panel appointees from most of city’s boroughs, the Panel for Educational Policy determined early this morning that 20 city schools, both young and old, small and large, will begin to close this fall. We’ll have more about the implications of the panel’s decisions starting sometime tomorrow afternoon.

But for now, with Brooklyn Tech empty, at least for a few hours, and Anna and Maura safely in taxis, we’re closing the blog for the night. Be sure to scroll through all 70+ entries to see exactly how the marathon meeting unfolded.

3:43 a.m. Maura managed to corner mayoral appointee David Chang before he left the building. “These are tough decisions but I think they’re all thoughtful,” he said. “I’m convinced the change is for the better.”

3:42 a.m. City Hall just sent out a press release with statements from Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein. The release is dated Jan. 26 — the day the PEP meeting began, but not when it ended.

Here’s what Bloomberg had to say:

This morning, following a 45-day consultation period in which thousands of New Yorkers participated in dozens of hearings and parent meetings or registered their views online, the Panel for Educational Policy took the difficult but necessary step of voting to phase-out and replace chronically underperforming schools. I’ve listened to the arguments carefully, and I appreciate the traditions of these schools, but we cannot continue to send our children to schools that have failed them for years. (more…)