SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Sheepshead Bay High School students protesting the city’s closure attempts in the last school year. (Photo: Robert Fernandez)

The third time’s the charm? New York City’s school administrators seem to hope so.

For the third time in three years, the Department of Education has again set its sights on closing Sheepshead Bay High School (3000 Avenue X), including it in a list of 24 high schools slated for closure as early as the end of this school year.

The “early engagement” list, reported on yesterday by Gotham Schools, is comprised of schools that the Department of Education says comes up short on student test results, attendance rates, graduate rates and college preparedness. In addition to high schools, it contains 36 elementary and middle schools.

Sheepshead Bay High School is one of seven high schools on the list that the city tried to close last year using the “turnaround” plan, which mandates closing the school, firing the staff, reopening under a new name and hiring a maximum of 50 percent of the teachers from the previous administration. Courts threw the brakes on the plan, though, after the teachers’ and principals’ unions successfully sued, claiming that it violated their collective bargaining agreement with the city.

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After deciding last month to shutter Sheepshead Bay High School, as well as 23 other high schools, the Department of Education chose a name this week for the new school in the old building: Academy of Career Exploration of Sheepshead Bay.

John Dewey High School – also slated for closure – will be renamed Shorefront High School of Arts and Sciences at John Dewey Campus.

Both schools will close doors in June as part of a federal “turnaround model” – which requires firing at least half the staff. The plan has spurred condemnation from parents, teachers and students as we’ve previously reported.

The schools will reopen under the new names in September, flooded with as much as $1.5 million each in federal funds to get the schools back on track.

We didn’t think the DOE could make it any more difficult to report on school issues, but, alas, they found a way to nearly double the number of characters to type. That’s city efficiency at its very best!

Regardless, we think it’ll be known colloquially as Sheepshead Bay High School and John Dewey High School for years to come. What do you think?

Sheepshead Bay H.S. students protest the DOE's plans before a March hearing (Photo by Robert Fernandez)

Sheepshead Bay High School and John Dewey High School will close doors in June, a city panel decided last night despite objections from those closest to the schools.

The schools are both targeted for reform using a federal “turnaround model” – which requires firing at least half the staff. The plan has spurred condemnation from parents, teachers and students as we’ve previously reported.

The Panel for Education Policy made the final decision last night, when they voted to close all 24 high schools on the agenda at the five-hour meeting.

The schools will reopen under new names in September, flooded with as much as $1.5 million each in federal funds to get the schools back on track.

Students protest the DOE's plans before a March hearing (Photo by Robert Fernandez)

The plan to reform Sheepshead Bay High School using a “turnaround model” – which requires firing at least half the staff – has spurred condemnation from parents, teachers and students as we’ve previously reported.

It’s not a matter of whether the school needs work or not – most agree it does – but rather that the school was already enrolled in a reform process and had made great strides. Now the change in direction is wreaking havoc on the progress made, and teachers are losing faith in a system that has already pulled the rug out from under them.

Such undermining of teacher morale is setting any future reforms up for failure, one teacher told Gotham Schools:

Robin Kovat, social studies teacher at Sheepshead Bay High School

What changes have the School Improvement Grants brought to your school so far?

“Well, they instituted [the "restart" reform model], and we started it, and then they threw this wrench into our works, so the morale now is really going down because part of it involves a buy-in for the staff but nobody knows if they’re going to be here next year. I think dividing it into academies would really be wonderful if we keep the people here who can actually make a difference, who have been shown to make a difference, who have already made a difference.”

Gotham Schools has been asking a set of questions of teachers and students at some of the 26 high schools slated for closure. Here’s what another Sheepshead Bay High School teacher had to say about how the additional funds from reform have helped in the past year:

Alona Geller, English teacher and Cheerleading coach at Sheepshead Bay High School

What changes have the School Improvement Grants brought to your school so far?

“I started here when I was 22 years old. And I’ve been teaching for seven [years]. I think a lot of improvements have taken place. Any money granted to us is used for trips and programs and supplies, the kids have everything tha they need, and I know friends of mine in other schools don’t have those things.

This year in particular, we have City Year in the building, the ninth graders have a lot of support, and they’re thriving in away I haven’t seen before. City Year greets the kids at the door, they provide tutoring services, they’re in our classrooms, they follow the kids all day long and see what subjects they’re struggling with. They really keep up the morale for the students and for the teachers.”

Those funds will continue to flow while half the staff that have helped find the most efficient use for them will be dismissed if the turnaround model gets approved, as is widely expected.The Department of Education will decide whether to close the schools on April 26.

A rally to save Sheepshead Bay High School when it faced closure in 2010.

Parents, teachers and students at Sheepshead Bay High School are poised to fight back tonight against the Department of Education’s plans to close the school and fire up to half the teachers, as the school’s supporters organize a rally in front of the building before heading into a public hearing on the matter.

The Department of Education is proposing to reform the Sheepshead Bay High School using the “turnaround” model. This means the city will rename the school and replace the principal and 50 percent of its teachers. The school stands to gain $1.55 million in federal funding from the School Improvement Grant program using this model. William E. Grady High School, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School and John Dewey High School are other local schools slated for turnaround.

The turnaround model has been criticized by opponents as a politically motivated stab at the teacher’s union, after negotiations to implement a new teacher evaluation system stalled. Reforming teacher evaluations was a prerequisite to receive federal Race to the Top grants, and the failure to strike a deal cost the city a chance at hundreds of millions of dollars.

It’s not the first time the school has been on the chopping block, most recently protesting in November 2010 to stay open – a battle it won. The school’s principal also vowed to fight for her job.

Today’s rally kicks off at 4:00 p.m. The public hearing begins at 6:00 p.m. at the school (3000 Avenue X). Written comments can be submitted via e-mail to D22Proposals@schools.nyc.gov, and oral comments can be left at 212-374-0208.

The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal on April 26.

A rally to save Sheepshead Bay High School when it faced closure in 2010.

The Department of Education is proposing to reform Sheepshead Bay High School, William E. Grady High School, John Dewey High School and Franklin D. Roosevelt High School using the “turnaround” model, which includes renaming the school and replacing the principal and 50 percent of its teachers. But the city’s justification for the proposal remains in question, and community members continued to express doubt at a Brooklyn “turnaround” forum where DOE officials offered little to address their concerns.

Those from the Sheepshead Bay High School community addressed the panel, expressing agreement with the need to reform the school – but not using the turnaround model.

Gotham Schools reports on some of the statements made, as well as gives Sheepshead Bay High School’s recent backstory:

“We’ve got to have some discrimination here, because we’re closing down 33 schools because we don’t like something that happened between our union rep and the mayor,” said Bruce Sherman, a guidance counselor at Sheesphead Bay, referring to the deadlocked city-union negotiations over teacher evaluations that the city has blamed for the turnaround plan. “The staff is not the problem.”

Sheesphead Bay High School was named a federal “restart” school in 2011, meaning it would receive millions of school improvement dollars and be run by an Educational Partnership Organization. But a legal dispute with the city and the nonprofit EPOs stalled reforms at Sheesphead and other restart schools. In December, Principal Reesa Levy unexpectedly announced her retirement—a move that worried staff and students who knew the leadership change would hold up school improvements even more.  Sherman said the new interim principal, John O’Mahoney, “has his act together,” and has kept teacher morale from dropping further since he arrived at the school earlier this year.

“We believe that restart should still go into effect,” said Thaddeus Russell Jr. a father of three Sheepshead alumni and one current student. “The reason I disagree with turnaround is because the model says only 50 percent of the staff can be re-hired. I don’t believe that’s to the benefit of any students. How can the current freshmen, sophomores, juniors, how can we continue with the academies that have been instituted, if half the staff is not there next year?”

Parents, students and administrators from Brooklyn schools lined up to ask a series of questions to bring transparency and community participation into the process including, as Gotham Schools reports, the following:

Will parents be placed on any turnaround school personnel committees? What will happen to the “magnet” grants that some schools are already receiving? Can a new school choose not to keep on its EPO? How will students be able to ask former teachers for college and job references? Several teachers from different schools also noted that parents and teachers had been given conflicting information about their public hearing date—and asked how the problem could be fixed.

The answers from the DOE? We’ll have to get back to you on that.

There will be a public hearing on this proposal on March 28 at 6:00 p.m. at the school (3000 Avenue X). Written comments can be submitted via e-mail to D22Proposals@schools.nyc.gov, and oral comments can be left at 212-374-0208.

The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal on April 26.

Congressman Bob Turner will appear on the steps of a Queens Catholic school today to announce his sponsorship of a new bill providing tax relief to families with children in private schools.

The congressman introduced the Tax and Education Assistance for Children (TEACH) Act of 2012 on February 17. If passed, the bill will provide an annual $5,000 tax credit to parents with children in private or religious schools. Congressmen Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island) and Peter King (R-Long Island) are among the co-sponsors of the bill, formally known as H.R. 4075.

If approved, any taxpayer with one or more dependents in a non-public school will get the credit beginning in 2014 (for tuition paid in 2013). The credit amount does not increase with the number of dependents in private school.

You can read the full text of the bill here.

What do you think of diverting taxpayer money to private and religious schools?

A rally to save Sheepshead Bay High School when it faced closure in 2010.

You may have heard rumors that Sheepshead Bay High School is closing down to be replaced by four smaller academies operating under one principal. That is not the case, and no decisions have been made, but the school still faces a major overhaul.

The Department of Education is proposing to reform the Sheepshead Bay High School using the “turnaround” model. This means the city will rename the school and replace the principal and 50 percent of its teachers.

(There will be a public hearing on this proposal on March 28. The full information on the hearing can be found at the bottom of this article.)

The school stands to gain $1.55 million in federal funding from the School Improvement Grant program using this model.

Unlike other reform models, this does not mean they’ll be a flood of students pushed out of Sheepshead Bay High School and into other schools. All students will be automatically re-enrolled in the new school, which will also stay in line with Sheepshead Bay High School’s current programming of five Career and Technical Education programs and special education services.

The turnaround model means a dismissal of all of its teachers, who are then invited to reapply and interview for their jobs. The new administration is permitted to rehire up to 50 percent of the old teachers.

It’s not the first time the school has been on the chopping block, most recently protesting in November 2010 to stay open – a battle it won. The school’s principal also vowed to fight for her job.

We recently wrote about how the same model will soon be deployed at nearby William E. Grady High School, despite drastic improvements in recent years.

Similarly, Sheepshead Bay High School has been improving – though not as severely – in certain areas. The school’s overall grade dropped from a C to a D in the most recent progress reports. However, the school has demonstrated steady improvements over the past three school years in its first-year student achievements, graduation rates, regent diploma rates and attendance.

There will be a public hearing on this proposal on March 28 at 6:00 p.m. at the school (3000 Avenue X). Written comments can be submitted via e-mail to D22Proposals@schools.nyc.gov, and oral comments can be left at 212-374-0208.

The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal on April 26.

Courtesy of Allie_Caulfield via Flickr

From the Brooklyn Eagle:

BROOKLYN — Twenty-six businesses and 76 community groups sent letters in support of the restoration of funding for the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, the Bronx Zoo and all Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) members.

In Brooklyn, this also includes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, although not the Prospect Park Zoo, which is funded from a different source under the state budget.

These organizations are vital to their communities as they provide jobs and business for local merchants.

More than 56,000 petitions were collected in support of these vital city institutions. Petitioners have flooded the city government to help prevent a 42 percent or $3.9 million cut. These cuts would threaten jobs at cultural institutions around the city and would have a devastating effect to the 114-year-old New York Aquarium in Coney Island, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Bronx Zoo.

“We appreciate each and every petition, letter, and e-mail sent to City Hall on behalf of all the cultural organizations and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bronx Zoo and New York Aquarium,” said WCS Executive Vice President of Public Affairs John Calvelli. WCS is the parent body for both institutions as well as the Queens and Central Park zoos.

If you believe the aquarium and New York City’s other cultural institutions are worth saving, sign the petition.

It’s been a terrible year for New York City schools. It kicked off when the city announced $405 million worth of cuts back in May. Then, the summer’s charter application season saw more attempts by private contractors to funnel off money and talent from the public school system, including two heated battles in our own district. They’ve begun discussing removing caps on the number of charter schools allowed in the state, and last month the state proposed an additional mid-year cut of $686 million from the education system. And today marks the last day of employment for 500 New York City public school aides.

Yes, it’s shaping up to be a terrible school year, and we’re not even halfway through it. That’s why, over in Manhattan Beach, leaders of the Manhattan Beach Community Group are organizing a letter-writing campaign to the state representatives in order to battle the $686 million mid-year cut. About a third of that, $223 million, is slated specifically for the city’s school system. MBCG writes:

Our children will be losing out again. Please take a moment and call our Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz and ask him to vote against these cuts … Don’t let our children get short changed. Cut the fat. Cut the waste. Leave schools alone. Let our children learn.

We agree. That’s why we’re joining them in asking all of our readers to contact your state senator and state assemblyman. Contact information for representatives in our area are below. If you need to know who represents you, click here. Remind our representatives to protect our children and their education. Tell them hands-off on schools.

State Senator Martin J. Golden
718-238-6044 - golden@senate.state.ny.us

State Senator Carl Kruger
718-743-8610 - kruger@senate.state.ny.us

State Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz
718-743-4078 - CymbroS@assembly.state.ny.us

State Assemblyman Alan Maisel
718-968-2770 - MaiselA@ assembly.state.ny.us