The decimation of parent involvement in District 22

Presidents Councils are the collection of all PTA Presidents or their reps in each school district in the city. A little history: since the beginning of Presidents Councils, back in the 1990's and even before, when districts had PA President councils under various names, District 22 in Brooklyn has had an unbroken series of these councils. For those not aware, D22 was considered a leader in parent involvement, and not only by our own parents, but by parents throughout the city. Wherever we went if we said we were district 22 parents, we represented a high level of parent involvement.

We were one of the pilot districts for School Based Budgeting and for the Special Ed Inclusion program. Our district started School Leadership Teams when they were first rolled out under C100.11 under Chancellor Rudy Crew as School-based management and Shared decision making. The District went so far as to send a team including administrators, teachers and parents to Edmonton, Canada to learn more about it.

We met with our Superintendent on a monthly basis where no question, whether about budgets, curriculum, zoning, etc., ever went unanswered. When budgets had to be revised and/or cut in the middle of the summer, not only Principals but PA Presidents and UFT chapter leaders were called in, to meet with the Superintendent to decide collectively where those cuts would do the least harm to the students.

PA Presidents were included in every memo that went out to principals and UFT. Was it perfect? Not by a long shot, but parents knew they were in a cooperative effort and had a very real voice as well as the opportunity to have an impact.

I was involved from 1986 thru 2004, when my youngest went on to High School, but kept in touch with the parents in the district.

I have now heard that for the first time in all the years of active parent involvement, District 22 is now without a Presidents Council. Parents have been so disenfranchised, ignored, and frustrated in their attempts to have genuine input that they have basically just given up.

Let's hear it for this administration, for being able to decimate a quarter century or more of parent involvement in 7 short years. -- Dorothy Giglio

Charter school students as the "jewels" of the DOE

In recent days we are hearing a lot about Mayoral Control and whether it should be continued or not, changed or left the same. The Mayor said many times he wants to be judged on how he handles the schools.

Well right now, the parents and community of Marine Park in Brooklyn are involved in a real life struggle with the Department of Education. A struggle that would never have existed except for the current system of Mayoral Control.

In order to satisfy the whims of a newly established charter school, one whose founders clearly stated if they were allowed their charter would find their own space and would definitely not look to enter any public school building, has now shown their real colors as they attempt to force their way into an existing neighborhood junior high school, IS 278.

This would never even have become an issue if we still had Community School Boards that actually answered to the community and had some real power. Instead the DOE does as it wants. Against the will of the people, the elected representatives, the civic associations etc.

But worse of all, it became really apparent the contempt that the DOE holds the parents and students of New York City. Last night at a town hall meeting held by Sen. Marty Golden where this issue was raised at a packed house and the opposition of everyone there was apparent, Mr. John White of the DOE stated that the 150 children scheduled to be in the charter school are the "jewels" of the DOE.

I guess that means that the 1100 children currently attending IS 278 as well as the numbers of students that would attend this school in the future are just dross to the DOE. They are throwaways. Why care what happens to them, their education, their class sizes, and the programs that help them or the quality of their school day -- all of which will be sacrificed because of the forced entry of this charter school? Why care what happens to a neighborhood school that has worked for years to improve the success of their children? They don't matter because to the Mayor and the DOE they are not the "jewels".

Mr. White also stated those 150 families signed up in the charter are taxpayers who have rights. More rights, I guess, than the thousands of taxpayers that have already signed petitions against this placement throughout the community.

So that is what they think of our children and anyone not involved in their charter schools. That is the result of Mayoral Control.

--Dorothy Giglio, long time parent leader in District 22

For more on the Hebrew Language Charter school, which has announced an intention to take space inside IS 278, a Title One school in Brooklyn, see this Daily news article and Diane Ravitch's oped here.

Our forum on Mayoral control; check it out!

Here is the first part of our Oct. 17 forum on Mayoral control, with Steven Sanders, former chair of the State Assembly Education Committee, who helped created the changes in the governance law. Steve explains why these changes were made and is very frank in just what went wrong.



Part 2 has presentations from Esmeralda Simmons, former appointee to the Board of Education under Mayor Dinkins, explaining how Dinkins gave her complete independence (unlike the current Mayor who expects his appointees to be rubberstamps) and Dorothy Giglio, long time parent leader from District 22 in Brooklyn who relates how parents have now been completely cut out from having any input or even information under the current system.

Part 3, Council member Robert Jackson joins us, and they all agree that the Mayor and his minions ignore the intent and language of the state law in how the schools are run, and field questions from the audience.

Part 4 features more questions and discussion with the audience.

Forum on Mayoral control: don't miss it!

Spotlight on Mayoral control:

Lessons from recent history

Friday, October 17 at 6:30 PM at Judson Church

Speakers include:

Councilmember Robert Jackson

Steven Sanders, former Chair of the NY State Assembly education committee

Parent leader Dorothy Giglio

Dolores Schaefer, former president of Community School Board District 1

Esmeralda Simmons, former member of the Board of Education and Mayoral appointee under David Dinkins.

sponsored by the Parent commission

Don't miss this one! Click on the image to the right for a flyer to post and distribute in your school.

Why not try to improve Canarsie HS before shutting it down?

See this article in the NY Times about DOE’s plans to close Canarsie high school.

It goes without question that a 30% graduation rate is not acceptable. However, how is closing down the school a solution?

The students who are failing will only move on to other schools where the cycle will repeat itself. Canarsie itself started to fail, according to this article, when other large schools closed nearby and it became a “dumping ground” for the students that were excluded from the new schools started in their place.

Would not it be more reasonable to leave Canarsie intact, and improve conditions, as it seems the new Principal was attempting to do? Shuffling around students may make a difference on paper, but not in the likelihood of these students’ success, especially if it creates worse conditions in neighboring schools.

How about bringing in extra staff to work on the truancy problem? Extra staff to lower the classes so that students can receive the individual attention they need?

Creating five or six new small schools in the same space, which requires paying for five new principals instead of one, and support staff for each school is misusing money that would be better spent on more attention and direct services to kids. How is it that no one points out the numbers game that is being played?

-- Dorothy Giglio



Note: According to the recently released official DOE data (in excel), most general education classes at Canarsie ranged from 28-30 students this fall– hardly a formula for success – or evidence that anyone at Tweed really cared whether this school improved.

Why our kids need their cell phones by Dorothy Giglio

I recently received notification from my elder son's college that they were setting up an "urgent notification system" which would allow them to send out emergency information to students, faculty & staff in a variety of ways, like text messages, phone calls and instant messages.

This system was set up as a result of the Virginia Tech shootings and the recent gun incident on St. Johns Campus. The school recognized that we live in difficult times and that it was their responsibility to see that their students and staff were protected to the greatest extent possible.

While our colleges recognize the dangers today and the manner in which modern electronic communications can be used to try to minimize them, It is unconscionable that our Mayor and Chancellor continue their irrational ban on cell phones. It is not, as they are so fond of stating over and over, that parents just want to discuss with their children the dinner menu each day.

Though I pray that we never have a real crisis in any school, even for the purposes of the citywide train delays and shutdowns from flooding as occurred recently in Queens, or the gas line explosion in Manhattan over the summer, large number of traveling kids could certainly benefit from a message warning them of these emergencies.

We have tried so many ways, through the courts, the City Council, etc. to overturn the ban. Though our colleges and universities and private schools are all taking steps to ensure the safety of their students, the people who should most care about the welfare of our public school children seem to not care at all.

Dorothy Giglio

Co President James Madison HS
Former President President Council Reg 6 HS
Former President President Council District 22, Brooklyn