Sunday, December 29, 2013

Sullivan Thanks Scott Stringer for Support, Resigns from School Board

With Scott Stringer's inauguration as the Comptroller of the City of New York, my service on the Panel for Educational Policy as his appointee will come to an end.  I sent the letter below to formally resign and thank him for his years of support.   There are many others I owe thanks to as well.   As I had little experience of educational policy when I was appointed, I relied on many knowledgeable parents, students, teachers, administrators, journalists and academics to educate me on the issues and help me articulate the positions that were best for the students.  And finally, I'd like to thank my family for their patience and support.


December 26th, 2013


1 Centre Street, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10007

Dear Borough President Stringer,

Given the approaching end of your term as Manhattan Borough President and the fact that I serve at your pleasure on the Panel for Educational Policy, I wanted to formally resign in order to clear the way for Borough President-elect Brewer to make a new appointment. 

I also want to take a minute to thank you for your unique support for me as your appointee to the school board.  In an era when “government” was far too often assumed to be something imposed on the people by the city’s elites you preserved the democratic principle that ordinary people should have a role in how we are governed.   You encouraged me to serve as a conduit for input from the public school community, defended me when the administration asked for my removal for doing so and made clear you had only one absolute requirement – that I represent all the people.

Public education can only be successful when the families it serves share ownership in the schools and are engaged by the administration.   We are fortunate when we are represented by public officials like you whose leadership so clearly espouses these principles.

Thank you,




Patrick J. Sullivan
Manhattan Representative
Panel for Educational Policy, NYC Board of Education


Cc:
Hon. Gale Brewer
C. Bailey, Board of Education Retirement System



18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Patrick,

You, Leonie Haimson, and Diane Ravitch are my heroes. During the darkest days under the Bloomberg Administration, the three of you spoke out, held your ground, and gave hope to the millions of NYC public school teachers, parents and students. You are a courageous, intelligent, and principled gentleman and we are forever indebted to you for advocating, often as the lone voice on the puppet PEP, for NYC public school students and communities. I hope you are reappointed under the new Borough President or better yet, I hope that the DeBlasio administration finds some way to keep you involved in the NYC Department of Education. You're a treausure! A hundred million "thank yous" and Happy New Year!

ed notes online said...

I echo every word anon said. de Blasio shouldn't hesitate for a moment to appoint Patrick to the PEP. And shame on new Manhattan BPRes Brewer for not touching base with Patrick on continuing him in the post.

Anonymous said...

Typo. Sorry, it should have been treasure.

Anonymous said...

During the last 5 years that I have regularly attended the PEP meetings, Patrick has been the lone shinning star in a sea of darkness. Our songs of parody were directed to the panel of Bloomberg stiff’s and were never meant for Patrick’s ears. Our puppets were not for his eyes and our cries of despair over the destruction of the NYC public education system were not aimed at Patrick’s heart. Thank you for voting for the children, the parents, the teachers and the public schools.

Tory Frye said...

Dear Patrick, you are a hero to me and so many of us. I can only imagine the personal sacrifices you made year after year in order to represent us, average public school parents and students. You offered us hope and inspired courage; the intelligence and perseverance you brought to your work was and will continue to be our guide. In our local battles, we called on the image of you, the sole (almost always) voice of reason speaking out against the arrogance and destruction that passed for NYC's education policy for 12 years at Bloomberg's "PEP." Your service will go down in history as a turning point in the fight against so-called education reform in NYC. But for us average parents and students, you were the light in the darkness and the only evidence that sane and humane public education policy was possible. Thank you cannot express my personal gratitude, but it is all I can offer.

James Eterno said...

I think I can speak for the entire Jamaica High School community in saying thank you to Patrick Sullivan. Patrick supported our school from the start as we fought for survival and he never backed down in his advocacy for our 121 year old historic institution. He knew we were being treated unfairly. He made DOE officials look very foolish regularly at PEP meetings by asking probing questions that they had no answers to. We appreciate Patrick's service and hope to hear from him again on education policy.

Anonymous said...

Patrick is tops. He speaks the truth and has the spine to stand up to those that don't. When will I be able to vote for him for a public office? I hope it is soon.

catt55 said...

thank you Patrick for all you've done and for your invaluable service to the public school community during these darkest of years of BloomKlein et al...as a teacher and union rep (retired) I am most grateful for your consistent and courageous presence on the PEP, and your determination to be the voice of the people and of integrity, while the rest of the PEP, many who appeared to have little to no comprehension of what they voted on, hobbled in to cast their votes and further the sad deformation of our public schools...best wishes to you and your family and we hope to keep hearing from you in the cause of public schools in NYC and beyond.

Patrick J. Sullivan said...

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm not going away. For one reason, I do still have sons in public school. We've been through a lot of dark years but we've turned the tide at the ballot box. With Bill de Blasio, Tisch James and Scott Stringer we have citywide representatives who all took stands against the worst of the Bloomberg education agenda. Now we need to get them focused on fixing things.

Anna Dell'Olio said...

Thank you Patrick for being the voice of reason at all those incredibly infuriating PEP meetings. I attended quite a number of the PEP meetings and all your hard work and preparation for the meetings did not go unnoticed. You will be missed.

Leonie Haimson said...

I wanted to add my appreciation for the incredible job that Patrick has done for the last 6 1/2 years, ever since he was appointed in June 2007. If his sage advice had been listened to on the panel, we would have been spared so many divisive co-locations, so many damaging school closures, and literally hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain in wasteful and sometimes outright corrupt contracts as well. And Scott Stringer deserves credit as well for sticking with Patrick and allowing him to vote his conscience despite pressure from the Bloomberg minions. Let's hope de Blasio does appoint him to the Bd of Ed; that would be an important sign that he does believe in real checks and balances.

Anonymous said...

It had to be frustrating to speak and be officially ignored. But you were raising important issues. Thank you for keeping it up for all these years.

Jonathan

Laura Timoney said...

Patrick,

Thank you for being "our" voice when you voted on the PEP. Thank you also to the BP for letting "your" voice be heard. A lot of appointees had to vote they way they were told. You were a beacon of hope in the darkness. It was great to read your posts/emails and stay encouraged. We all trusted you because you earned that trust by your actions and words. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you as a parent. You are a local hero - whether you know it or not. Thank you...

richard barr said...

Congratulations, Patrick, on distinguished -- and unfortunately, too often unique -- service on the PEP all this time, and thanks to Scott for appointing and keeping you there.

If you're still interested in serving during what will hopefully be a better era, I hope Gale seriously considers asking you to stay.

Best,

Richard Barr

Anonymous said...

Dear Patrick,
As a parent who attended several PEP meetings, I thank you and applaud you for your work on behalf on NYC's children. I hope that you find a new role and continue to be a strong voice in conversations about education.
- Parent of a Queens G&T student

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Patrick, for the countless hours you put in on the PEP in order for the people's voice to be heard. Over the last few years, I attended a few PEP meetings and followed the others, and never failed to be impressed by your spine, your thoughtfulness and your attention to detail. I hope we'll see you back on the Board, whatever it is called!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Patrick, as someone said: You lit a candle where there was darkness. Thank you for your service, and for providing a stream of information to anxious parents.