Report from C4E hearings; and how you can help!

Last night’s Contract for Excellence hearings at Fashion Industries HS were well-attended: Assembly members Deborah Glick and Linda Rosenthal were especially strong on the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the DOE re class size. Council members Gail Brewer, Eric Gioia and Robert Jackson focused mostly on the city’s proposed budget cuts.

Parent delegations from PS 116, PS 41, and PS 59 spoke about overcrowding and growing class sizes at their schools, and Philippa Schuyler MS parents protested the fact that the DOE is forcing a charter school into their building, making it difficult for them to reduce class size below 32.

Coalition for Educational Justice members were there in force, and exited chanting midway through the evening. Le Roy Barr of the UFT inveighed against the cuts; Patrick Sullivan, the Manhattan rep on the PEP testified against the city’s proposal, as did Susan Crawford of the Right to Read project, parents from La Guardia HS, PS 6, PS 290, Wagner and Lab, and several other schools whose names I didn’t catch.

Several commented on how the way DOE changed the dates several times had discouraged more parents from participating.

Here are links to our testimony, that of Council member Rosie Mendez, and CFE. If you’d like yours posted as well, email them to classsizematters@gmail.com

Note: You can send comments through June 27 to DOE : contractsforexcellence@schools.nyc.gov

Be sure to send copies to Commissioner Mills and Deputy Commissioner Duncan-Poitier at richard.mills@mail.nysed.gov and p16education@mail.nysed.gov. Thanks!