Wednesday's Town Hall discussion

Prospect Heights Patch published a report on the District 13 Community Education Council Town Hall Meeting at M.S. 113 on April 12. At least a dozen P.S. 9 parents attended and asked questions of Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg.

Colin Weathersby wrote the story, which noted that Mr. Sternberg didn't directly answer many questions. Mr. Weathersby also took the photo at left showing (from left) parents Christina LaBrie, Faye Rimalovski, Catherine Jhung , Ivana Espinet, Maria McGrath, Maggie Adonis and Penelope Mahot. One standout comment included in the Patch story:

Several parent speakers noted that the Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School does not currently provide full services for special needs students. Deputy Chancellor Sternberg quickly responded that charter schools are mandated to provide equivalent resources under state law, citing that anything less “is a serious violation and needs to be brought to the attention of the DOE.”

We'll include other accounts of the evening as we get them.

Co-location update

On Friday April 8, the DOE published its revised documents for the co-location of BECCS at 80 Underhill Avenue. These revised documents (public notice, educational impact statement [EIS] and building utilization plan [BUP]) are intended to bring the DOE into compliance with the law, as stated in the March 31 decision of NYS Commissioner of Education, David Steiner. This basically restarts the process for the co-location proposal. (The M.S. 571 phase out is not affected by these developments.)

Read the DOE's updated documents here:

http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/leadership/PEP/publicnotice/2010-2011/May182011Proposals.htm

The DOE will hold another public hearing at P.S. 9 on the revised co-location proposal; date is not set. We need the P.S. 9 and Prospect Heights community to come out in force and to make comments for the public record. The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) will vote on the proposal on Wednesday, May 18^th (6:00PM, Long Island City High School, 14-30 Broadway, Queens, NY 11106).

Those interested in joining the discussion or helping out with lobbying or legal activities can email the P.S. 9 Parent Advisory Council (PAC) at ps9pac@gmail.com

Commissioner's decision: what does it mean?

Dear Parents:

Today, the New York State Commissioner of Education (at right) upheld our appeal of the DOE’s decision to co-locate Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School (BECCS) in the PS9 building. While the decision's immediate effect is clear, many questions remain about what happens from here and how the DOE will proceed. Some of these questions will not be answered for some time, but we will learn much more in the near future.

What does the decision say?
The Commissioner upheld our appeal and annulled the February 3 vote of the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) approving the co-location plan. While the Commissioner rejected some of our arguments, including those based on the deficiencies in the Educational Impact Statement (EIS) and in the proposal and voting process, he agreed that the DOE’s Building Utilization Plan (BUP) did not propose an equitable use of shared space such as the library and gym. The Commissioner also noted that the BUP did not assess other issues such as the effect on PS9’s after school program and the impact of the school yard closure. Although the DOE argued that the BUP could be refined, the Commissioner found that the law requires more than just a proposal for the use of shared space and that the defective BUP was a “substantive failure to analyze the impact…on the affected students.”

What does the decision mean for the DOE?
The co-location approval has been annulled, so the DOE is prohibited from proceeding with the co-location plans until it complies with New York State education law. In effect, the decision puts the DOE back where it was before the vote took place. In order to proceed with the co-location, the DOE would have to issue a revised BUP and hold a new vote of the proposal. It is difficult to know whether the DOE would be able to issue a BUP that includes a fair and comparable allocation of space, as required by the Commissioner’s decision.

Can the co-location still happen?
Yes. If the DOE issues a new BUP and the PEP approves the proposal again, the co-location could proceed. PS9 parents would again have the opportunity to appeal the decision to the NYS Commissioner of Education and would be able to take legal action if the appeal were dismissed. If those challenges did not succeed, the co-location could go forward for the 2011-2012 school year.

What happens next?
First, we celebrate! But not for long; much more work must be done. We need to complete the K-8 expansion proposal, as planned. Our other next steps depend somewhat on how the DOE decides to proceed. We will alert P.S. 9 parents to any future developments.
-Christina LaBrie and the P.S. 9 Parents Advocacy Council

State Commissioner grants P.S. 9 parent appeal!

P.S. 9's squeeze has been stopped! Today, State Commissioner of Education David Steiner blocked the 2011-2012 move of Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School into P.S. 9's building. In a 16-page decision, Commissioner Steiner (at right) concluded that the DOE failed to justify that three schools could fairly share common facilities at 80 Underhill Ave. He annulled the February 3 majority vote of the Panel on Educational Policy (an 8-4 decision) approving the co-location. He directed DOE to stop all planning for the co-location and properly detail how the schools could fairly share the building in a brand-new Building Use Plan.
You can read the Commissioner's decision at this link (To download, go to "File" menu, click "Download original.")

A short take: P.S. 9 won its appeal on the numbers. Starting on page 13, the commissioner cited P.S. 9's curtailed access to the library and the gymnasium, and agreed with parent advocates that DOE had not adequately addressed the apparent, embarrassing imbalance in how the schools would share the building. P.S. 9 students now have room to breathe.

Does this mean that the co-location definitely will not happen? No such luck. DOE may try to sue in the courts to overturn this decision. Or DOE may try to meet the Commissioner's conditions (his determination of what the state's Education Law requires) and re-introduce the co-location plan for P.S. 9's building. It appears that the PEP will have to vote again for Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School to move into the building.

Does Brooklyn East Collegiate need to move?

The DOE's proposal doesn't consider the question, yet moving next year doesn't look necessary in the least. Thanks to Theo Stewart-Stand for the insta-illustration.

[Click on it to see larger.]

Just because Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School wasn't originally meant to be at 1485 Pacific St. (building K343) doesn't mean that the Pacific St. building is an inappropriate place for it to remain until September 2013. Brooklyn East Collegiate's current building was built in 2008 and has two high-school gyms and other dividable facilities that two schools can use at once. One of the schools in the building is a sister school, Uncommon Charter High School, with which it can easily share resources. None of this is true at 80 Underhill Ave.

Postponing BEC's move would allow time for P.S. 9's enrollment growth to become clearer. It would also allow the PEP to grant M.S. 571 its full opportunity, under the Chancellor's Regulations, to improve its performance. And it would allow P.S. 9 a fair chance to present an expansion plan —which this co-location proposal denies it — should M.S. 571 not turn around.

What goes on at a DOE public hearing?

District 13 superintendent James Machen likely will host Jan. 24's joint public hearing to discuss the proposal to close MS 571 and co-locate P.S. 9, M.S. 571 and Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School. To get a flavor of what goes on at these hearings, here are a few transcripts from recent hearings:

Brooklyn Millennium's controversial placement in John Jay HS

Expansion of PS 45 to K-8 school

Expansion of PS 157 to K-8 school

Closing of Global Enterprise HS

Charter Choice: Think you might send your P.S. 9 student to Brooklyn East Collegiate? Think again.

The DOE wants Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School to relocate into P.S. 9's building as a replacement for M.S. 571. Wouldn't this middle school be a great—and nearby!—opportunity for your child after they outgrow P.S. 9? With rare exceptions: No, it would not. The admission lottery of Brooklyn East Collegiate is not accepting any new sixth graders for September 2011. In fact, the proposed co-location is not designed to serve our neighborhood, but rather the entire borough. (Brownsville was its original planned location.)

More importantly, Brooklyn East Collegiate is not a good fit for most P.S. 9 graduates. It runs a very strict program for under-performing students (for example, 5th graders who are reading at a 3rd-grade level). Its young, idealistic teachers are doing a great job to help their students advance. But otherwise, P.S. 9 parents who visited Brooklyn East Collegiate discovered an environment that is markedly different from P.S. 9’s. The labor-intensive work of bringing students up to grade-level performance leaves no room for art or music programs. In the hallways, children are seen and not heard. They stand in straight lines, and everyone wears a uniform. Discipline is based on a stringent system of merits and demerits. For example, a student may receive a demerit for falling off task.

Brooklyn East Collegiate has no PTA, nor does the charter leave room for one. Its "Family Involvement Committee" is allowed to make suggestions. The board of trustees has much more say than the parents. By contrast, P.S. 9 is a barrier-free school that serves a wide range of students in our community, including special needs and gifted and talented. Principal D’Avilar has worked hard to forge ties with the Prospect Heights community, which has welcomed her efforts. The narrow focus and rigid philosophy of Brooklyn East Collegiate is not inclusive enough to serve the broad needs of the baby boom in Prospect Heights.

--Karen S Fein, Michelle French, Maria McGrath, and Kirby Pulver