PS9 Proposed Changes Causing Unrest
After the controversial proposal to move a Manhattan school in Park Slope’s John Jay, there’s been talk about a similar proposal from the DOE to locate Brooklyn East Collegiate Middle School in Prospect Height’s PS 9 while it phases out the existing middle school, MS 571. As a parent writes to us, “This situation reflects…
After the controversial proposal to move a Manhattan school in Park Slope’s John Jay, there’s been talk about a similar proposal from the DOE to locate Brooklyn East Collegiate Middle School in Prospect Height’s PS 9 while it phases out the existing middle school, MS 571. As a parent writes to us, “This situation reflects a larger trend of schools facing problems when DOE shoehorns charter schools into their buildings.” The proposal cuts P.S. 9 access to the library, cafeteria, gym and schoolyard, with 4.5 hours a week of access to the Book Hive Library, which local parents helped create. It also looks like East Collegiate won’t cater directly to the neighborhood, but all of Brooklyn. Parents’ concerns, which you can read more about here, focus on the already-exiting problems of over-enrollment, the lack of resources to support three schools for the three years before MS 571 is phased out, and the environment at East Collegiate which runs “a very strict program for under-performing students,” according to the PS 9 blog. In The Brooklyn Paper today, a spokesman for DOE is quoted as saying that “[MS 571] has done horribly.” The public hearing on the proposal is January 24th, 6pm at 80 Underhill Ave. You can take a look at the flier after the jump.
Famous, if we’re not friends we should be 🙂
Progressive education is not something I really understand, when it comes to parent-speak. Is every parent but myself an expert on progressive educational philosophies? Is there some class I missed where progressive education is explained? I have never really been sure. And what’s weird is, I am a product of a progressive, seventies-style public school education. What it meant for us was, all the kids whose parents taught at Penn, or went to Penn, or who were — well, fairly white — were educated in a separate building with several grades in one room. Most of the other kids who didn’t test as well or who didn’t have anyone to lobby for them went to the ordinary classrooms in the main building. And we never saw them.
This may be one reason I am a little cynical about the concept.
I think everyone is a bit of a selfish hypocrite when it comes to their own kid, and where they go to school. If we weren’t zoned for a good neighborhood school, I might not be so bullish on neighborhood schools. Although, I also think if everyone went to their neighborhood schools, some of these issues would not exist. I was, originally, willing to send the moppet to a less well-regarded school. Now, however, I want to keep her where she is.
No NYC public school teacher here makes 40k. Starting salary for a teacher with no experience and a BA is 45k. Have your MA but no experience and it’s 51k. Say you get your masters and start teaching at 22. At 30, you’d be making 75K. And teachers who work after-school or during summer school can earn about 40 bucks an hour on top of their salary.
There’s a lot of bad things happening in education, but I think we pay our teachers pretty fairly in NY.
famous: i probably am not enough of a purist to make anyone really happy with my positions(except myself – ha!). i’m not against charters per se, and i’m not against co-location per se, i’m ambivalent about unions, etc. i’m willing to admit that i probably don’t understand enough about how the public education system really works, from an economic and business and performance perspective, to make blanket statements. i would love to have long philosophical conversations, supported by data points, about this! but in the absence of being able to do that, i just look at each case with a relatively long-term view to see whether it makes sense to me, whether the costs seem to outweigh the benefits. and i admit that my conclusions are sometimes based on surface impressions of the quality of the schools at issue, which may not, at the end of the day, be correct.
in any event, it is beyond clear that the DOE’s processes for school planning are deeply dysfunctional and reliant on people (parents, taxpayers) just accepting the decisions that come down from on high. so whatever the merit, i am hoping that all of these recent protests will encourage more people to speak their minds, sooner and louder, with respect to both what the DOE is doing and what is happening at the schools in their communities.
@well PHed, That’s great, though, that something has changed in the proposal! This is at least some acknowledgement. You’re right, though, that it makes no sense to give a school a temporary location. It is hard though because if they stick some other school with the charter, then you feel badly about that too, right? I really, really want 9 to win this, because you’re right, but if (when!) you do, there will also be the depressing fact that because you guys have the political capital–the parents who are lawyers and journalists, etc, and I know the majority of the parents at your school aren’t–you have a chance against the DOE. But schools like 20 and 15 who don’t have these resources don’t stand a chance. I hope that, whatever happens, parents at 9 will show up for other schools being equally screwed.
@heather, I hear you about teaching philosophy, but 2 things: 1) some parents have run from our school flying the “not progressive enough” banner and I sort of think that’s code for something else because I see tons of progressive stuff happening in our school, and 2) I can’t see putting teaching philosophy above a basic philosophy of human rights and equity in education.
the DOE yesterday amended all of its documents concerning the MS 571 phase-out and charter school proposals. it’s interesting that they chose to do this one business day prior to monday’s meeting. i haven’t looked at them all or that closely, but i noticed the following interesting points that i believe are revisions:
-revised PS9’s enrollment figures to reflect that PS 9’s enrollment has grown over the past year, not decreased as they’d previously incorrectly stated
-revised the projections for the charter school’s maximum capacity down to 300 (despite the school’s own website says 320) from previously 300-350
-most interestingly, they seem to be acknowledging that they are lowballing the extent to which PS9 will grow, and explicitly contemplating moving the charter school.
They’ve added this provision (at least I think it’s new): “In the future, if there is an increase in student enrollment resulting from demand greater than current projections for the zoned elementary school or an increase in the number of families residing in the zoned area, the Chancellor reserves the right to relocate Brooklyn East Collegiate to an alternate location geographically proximate to K009. The Chancellor shall certify in writing that in her judgment, the need of the school system requires the re-acquisition of the charter school space for DOE use.”
All of these changes seem to make clear that the objections of PS9 are valid and not simply based on “territoriality.” But it seems so cynical to try to mollify people with this likely illusory “escape hatch” when, in actuality, they aren’t making any changes to the actual proposal or giving anymore input to the community. Instead they are “reserving rights” to the Chancellor alone to move the school at will sometime in the near future.
I don’t see how this makes any sense – just move the charter school once, to a place that actually has room for it, and to a place where its mission might actually have a chance to fully flourish. It’s a borough-wide school, and it can function just as well and perhaps better, elsewhere.
In contrast, the community of PS9’s zoned families ought to be able to feel secure in the knowledge that the public school we are zoned for (the only one that is assuredly available to us) will be allowed every fair chance at continuing to improve and continuing to be a viable option for our kids.
Famous, our kids may. And why do I have this sense of impending doom, that our school is next up in the target hairs?
I agree with you about Community Roots hurting d13 admissions though. And A&L will only continue to do so. However, I can see the appeal of their teaching philosophies. I’ve heard lots of great things about both of them. Were we not zoned for the excellent neighborhood school we are zoned for, I’d probably be interested in them, even as, morally, their existence is depressing.
I am not quite sure I could do it though– send my kid in through a different entrance to a separate, but unequal, school.
@mfarugee, I will be there. I was there for 20 and the John Jay schools and will be there for 9. You’re right. The plan is insane. You’re lucky to have a tenured principal and many parents with political capital. So many schools that don’t have these things don’t stand a chance.
@Heather, I think our kids go to the same school. I can’t muster your understanding for the school choice side though. I think CRCS has really, really hurt D13 zoned schools and bet Arts and Letters will have a similar effect. People assume that lotteries are by their nature fair, when in fact they are not. They create less integrated schools.
I have a son at PS 9 and I agree that parents need to come together to support neighborhood schools, which are under assault by the DOE. PS 9 is a strong neighborhood school that serves a wonderfully diverse student body. The DOE’s plan to co-locate the Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School would clearly harm PS 9. I would feel the same way if Community Roots or Arts or Letters were to come in because the DOE’s plan does not provide for a fair use of shared space. How is it fair for PS 9 students to have only 4 hours a week in a library that the school community created – while the charter with a third less students will have twice as much time in the library? And how is it fair for the DOE to turn PS 9 students away at 5th grade? Where are children supposed to go for 5th grade? Even if we wanted our children to go to the charter school they would not all get through the lottery. Simply put, the DOE plan makes no sense. Please come to the hearing on Monday night to support neighborhood schools.
Yeah, famous, it is a strange dichotomy.
The sad thing is, I can understand the opposing sides. I can agree, that yes, Collegiate and PS 9 don’t seem like a good fit. I can agree that yes, Arts and Letters looks like a great school. I can even see why charters and lottery options can be great resources and why we’re lucky to have so many choices.
And yet… yes, what the hell? Why should PS 9 be encouraged to flourish in its own building and ps 20 discouraged?
I really do not understand how any of this saves money. I also do not understand why it needs to be so complicated. It was someone at my school who said in a yahoo message group that the DoE was pitting parents against parents, teachers against teachers, educators against educators — and while I don’t think that is anyone’s intention, it sure is the result.