TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2014 • 26 Parents & Educators Decry Charter School Plan At CEC 24 Meeting -CONTINUED FROM PG. 3- Dromm, chairperson of the Council Education Committee, attended the meeting and said he is opposed to any new charter schools in the districts. “I was a New York city public school teacher in District 24, at P.S. 199 for 25 years, and I am a supporter of our public school system, and not of our charter school system,” he said. “The New York City Council Education Committee which I chair has gone on record as opposed to any expansion of charter schools until we have some oversight over the expansion and what goes on in charter school’s.” “There are so many differences between what every charter school does and very, very little accountability. This is an outrage. It is an outrage to our district and it must be stopped,” Dromm added. Members of the other district councils were also frustrated that no Success Academy representatives would be speaking. A tape recorder was left running to provide feedback instead, Paul Yen, a facilitator from the Department of Education said. “I should stand over by the tape recorder since that’s who we are speaking to,” CEC District 30 member Deborah Alexander said. “The comments will be submitted to the authorizer, which is the State University of New York,” Yen said. CEC 24 member Carl Chiaramonte said his children attend school in the district and he doesn’t want the limited space to be taken by charters. District 24 is the most overcrowded in the city, several speakers noted. “I’m hoping co-location will not be considered,” he said. He was frustrated that no presentation or details were provided as well. “To not even send a power point, we have no idea what they are thinking or looking at,” Chiaramonte said. CEC 24 Vice President Peter Vercessi said the lack of details or a presentation reminded him of “a show about nothing.” “My comments are going to be basically questions,” he said. “What is Success Academy? What is their educational philosophy?” Only one speaker, Charlie Vavruska of Maspeth, said he has heard anything positive about charter schools. Vavruska attended a meeting with parents from a Success Academy school in Harlem where the parents said their children’s reading skills were greatly improved after attending the charter school. Every other speaker, including Dromm, who went further and criticized Success Academy outright, expressed frustration. “Success Academy is about privatizing education, and making profits for hedge funds,” he said. “My job is to hold the NYC Department of Education accountable.” Comaianni was contacted by Successs Academy in the summer, and received a follow up email from the Department of Education Charter School Division in August asking for time to make a presentation at a District 24 meeting, he told the Times Newsweekly last Thursday. “The email was a little deceiving,” he said. When Comaianni arrived at the meeting last Tuesday, only to learn from colleagues that no details would be given, “I was very disappointed,” he said. “Just a hearing in general, which makes no sense to me. There was no clarification. Nothing,” Comaianni added. Concerning where in the three districts Success Academy may be looking to locate charter schools, or any other details of the plan, Comaianni said he doesn’t know much. He believes any approved charter’s will be co-located within public school buildings. “What they told us is they are looking at multiple locations,” he said. “They said multiple; that concerns me. We asked that they make a presentation and we thought they would make one. And that was disappointing.” “What are we giving you input on. There was no specific plan, it was very badly organized,” Comaianni added. Public school teacher Brandon Melendez asked, “As someone who works in District 24, who works in one of the most overcrowded elementary schools in this public school system of New York, what exactly is the benefit for the students to have co-habitation? What is the benefit for the students who are now underesourced.” Charter school operator Success Academy was criticized by several members of three district councils and City Council Member Daniel Dromm (above) at the Community Education Council District 24 meeting at P.S.. 128 in Middle Village. CEC 30 President Vera Daniels doesn’t want any colocated charter’s approved in the three districts. “No more co-locations should be approved until every New York City student is provided with the space needed for a safe, well-rounded education that allows for small classes and individualized attention,“ she said. Daniels wants the city to “require charter operators to find their own space in private facilties,” she said “Then at least, the damage to our public schools student’s education will be minimized,” she added. Daniels noted data on overcrowding to make her points. “School utilization rates are at a critical level in Districts 28, 24, as well as District 30. More than 480 students city-wide are in (photo: Noah Zuss) extremely overcrowded buildings. The elementary school average building utilization target rates at 97.4 percent, median at approximately 102 percent,” Daniels said. “There are 25 elementary and middle school buildings in District 28 that are at 100 percent utilization or perhaps higher. So the seats needed in these schools are over 1,600 students,” she said “We’ve successfully fought every charter school coming in here, and we’ll definitely continue to fight that,” Comaianni added. Phone calls and an email to Success Academy for comment were not returned by press time. Community Education Council District 24 meeting generally meets on the fourth Tuesday each month at various public schools in the district. Call 1-718-418-8160 for information. walking in the middle of the main street in Ferguson, blocking traffic, when officer Darren Wilson confronted him. Did Wilson shoot Brown in a racist rage? Or did Wilson, face battered and eye socket smashed in a fight with the 290-pound, 6’4” Brown, empty his gun in self-defense? We do not know. And neither does Barack Obama. For weeks, a grand jury in St. Louis County has been hearing testimony, trying to sort it out. But by implying the shooting was done for racial reasons, that Brown may have been “targeted” for “walking while black,” Obama is stoking the fires of racial resentment. Why is he parroting a party line about America that he knows is more myth than truth? White cops are not the great lurking danger, nor the leading cause of violent death, of black teenagers and men. That role is fulfilled by other black teenagers and other black men. And the statistics on the ugliest forms of racial violence in America—interracial assaults, rapes, murders—reveal that such crimes are overwhelmingly black-on-white. Obama said that “young men of color” are too often “judged by stereotypes.” But behind those stereotypes are FBI statistics that show that black males between 16 and 36, two percent of the U.S. population, commit a vastly disproportionate share of all violent crimes. Where are the stats to sustain Obama’s stereotype of cops? And what did the Ferguson police do to deserve to be invoked as exemplars of what is wrong with law enforcement in America, while the Ferguson protesters get a presidential pass? Since Michael Brown was shot in early August, rocks and Molotov cocktails have been thrown at Ferguson cops, stores have been looted and smashed, police have been cursed and threatened, and a mob tried to shut down I-70 at rush hour. And what are the outrages perpetrated by Ferguson’s cops? After a riot in Ferguson, the next night St. Louis County cops showed up in riot gear, helmets and body armor, with an MRAP. Now some Ferguson cops are wearing wristbands reading, “I am Darren Wilson,” to show solidarity with their fellow cop who is in hiding for fear of his life. This set off Eric Holder’s minions in the civil rights division at Justice, whence one Christy Lopez fired off a letter to the Ferguson police chief saying the bracelets “upset and agitated people.” So what. If police baiters can raise hell in solidarity with Brown, cannot cops peacefully wear wristbands in solidarity with Wilson? Last week, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released a video, apologizing to Brown’s parents for their son’s death, and for not moving the teenager’s body from the street for four hours. Unartful, perhaps, yet it seemed sincere. The response: The Ferguson mob cursed the chief and Brown’s father brushed him off saying, “an apology would be when Darren Wilson has handcuffs, is processed, and charged with murder.” Understandably, this is what Michael Brown’s father wants. And this is what the protesters demand. But that is not the way the law works in America, where crowds get the indictments and convictions they demand under a threat of civil disobedience or violence. Saturday night, a Ferguson cop was shot in an incident unrelated to August. But Chief Jackson and State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson have told the Washington Post their officers have been repeatedly threatened and, since August, have come under gunfire. If a St. Louis officer is wounded or killed in revenge for Brown, President Obama will deserve a full share of the moral responsibility. It is time he started acting like a president of all the people, and dropped this role of outside agitator. * * * Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.” Pat Buchanan News & Opinion -CONTINUED FROM PG. 4-
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