Please join us Saturday, June 20 for a conference: Sharing Ideas & Solutions for Reopening Schools: The Path Forward

Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC will be holding a conference via Zoom called Sharing Ideas and Solutions for Reopening Schools: The Path Forward on Saturday, June 20 from 11 AM to 1 PM.  A flyer you can download is here.

During this conference, we will collect ideas from parents, guardians, teachers, students and concerned New Yorkers about what precautions and programs should be in place next year, if and when schools reopen.

If schools are to reopen in the fall, it should be done the right way to ensure health and safety of students and staff and to maximize academic and emotional support. Though the Mayor and the Governor have their own advisory panels, few parents or educators have been appointed to these panels.

At the end of the conference, we will summarize the ideas of participants and present them to city and state decision-makers.

Please register here if you’d like to attend this conference, and we will send you the Zoom link beforehand. Space is limited so please do it now. 

On the registration page, we are also asking you to select your first, second, and third choices of break-out groups, so we can assign you to the appropriate one. These groups' discussions will form the major portion of the conference. If you do not have a preference, you can leave that part of the registration blank.

Co-sponsored by CEC 4, CEC 8, CEC 14, CEC 17, and CEC 32.

thanks so much, Leonie 

PS Also if you haven't already, please fill out the survey here, to help us structure our discussions in advance.

Today's "Talk out of School" - removing School Safety Agents from police control, saving youth jobs and ending admission screens

Today on "Talk out of School," I spoke to Matt Bromme, former NYC principal and Superintendent of District 27 in Queens and former HS student Cat Oteng of the YA-YA Network about the need to remove School Safety Agents from the NYPD control, and add school counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other ways to defuse tension at schools.

Then we spoke to Alex Rodriguez of Teens Take Charge on the campaigns to restore the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and end school admission screens.

For more information on ending the school to prison pipeline, check out this letter signed by hundreds of NYC school leaders urging the Mayor to transfer School Safety Agents to the supervision of principals rather than the NYPD, and the websites of the YA-YA Network and Dignity in Schools campaign.  See also Matt Bromme's blog post on this issue, from the perspective of a former principal and Superintendent.

To find out about the campaign of Teens Take Charge to end school admission screens, check out their website; see also their proposals about how the SYEP could be reconfigured to meet the needs of youth and the community at this time.

Save the date! and please respond to our survey on Reopening Schools

 

Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC are holding a conference on Saturday, June 20 from 11 AM to 1 PM called Sharing Ideas & Solutions for Reopening Schools: The Path Forward.

During this conference, we will seek ideas from parents, guardians, teachers and concerned New Yorkers about school reopening. If schools reopen this fall, it must be done the right way to ensure health and safety of students and staff and to maximize academic and emotional support. We will present our proposals at the end of the conference to city and state decision-makers.

The Governor and the Mayor have appointed advisory boards on reopening schools, but with few parents or NYC educators.

We want to gather ideas from you before the conference, to collect questions, concerns, and suggestions to help frame our discussions at the conference. To do so, please fill out our brief survey no later than Monday, June 15 at 5 PM.

Thanks!

Why School Safety Agents should return to the supervision of principals for the safety of students and staff by Matt Bromme

Matt Bromme is a former principal and Superintendent of District 27 in Queens.

When I first became a school Principal at  P.S. 88 in District 24 , School Safety Agents were employees of the New York City Board of Education. They reported to the Principal or his designee. The School Safety Agents would meet with the Principal, discuss their assignment, the time they would take lunch and their break.  This was especially true in the elementary schools where there was only one School Safety Agent usually assigned to the building.

Then when I became a Middle School Principal at MS 210 in District 27, I had multiple School Safety Agents assigned to my building because of prior incidents,. They were still employed by the Board of Education and so the rules of engagement were still the same.  We worked out schedules and assignments together.

I was still Principal of MS 210 when Rudy Giuliani was elected Mayor. He pushed for the School Safety Agents to become part of the NYPD. As a union representative of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, I opposed that move. 

Due to political pressure on Chancellor Rudy Crew and Deputy Harry Spence, the Central Board of Education agreed and in late 1998, the School Safety Agents were overnight assigned to the NYPD and became civilian NYPD employees. The New York City Charter was also amended to require reporting of crimes by school employees to the NYPD. The Mayor kept feeding the tabloids with any and all stories of how the NYPD would improve safety in the schools and how weak we Principals were on discipline.  He had already forced Ray Cortines out as Chancellor, and in a short time he would do the same to Rudy Crew.

I had some really great SSA officers.  However, I was also assigned some that I could not trust. To get them moved, I had to deal with the local precinct that had no loyalty to my school.

The transfer of SSA to the NYPD also changed their roles in the school dramatically. They now were reporting to a Precinct Lieutenant or Sergeant. They no longer would leave their post which was assigned by their Sergeant, so there was no crossing of streets to stop incidents from occurring. The patrol, break and lunch schedules were no longer discussed with the Principal. They made the final decision regarding arrests and whether or not an emotionally challenged student would be put into handcuffs, even if the professionals believed he/she should go to the hospital instead. Another issue was that there was no one responsible for their training in developing relationships with students, parents and staff. 

I will give you an example: I had a student try to commit suicide. He was going to jump out of the fourth floor window. We stopped him, but because he was so agitated, he struck one of the officers. I had to argue for sending him to the hospital instead of arresting him for assault.

Second example:  When I supervised my SSA, and there was a fight among students across the street, when I crossed the street, they crossed with me. Once they were placed under NYPD, SSAs could not move from their predetermined post unless this was agreed to by a Lieutenant who never visited the school. So if there was a fight outside the school building or school yard, I and my staff were on our own.  It made the situation far more dangerous. 

Although I believe there are many schools where the School Safety Agents work professionally with the students, parents and staff, I will always insist that the Principal, based on input from everyone, should be the decision maker on how to address student discipline and safety issues in the school. At the end of the day, the Principal is responsible for everyone in the building. Therefore, he or she should have the ability to supervise, train and schedule School Safety Agents, for the safety of students and staff.