6 times • NOVEMER 5, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com City Council passes legislation ensuring state-mandated physical education BY ANTHONY GIUDICE agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com @A_GiudiceReport Public school children across the city can jump — and run and play — for joy after the City Council unanimously passed legislation on Oct. 29 to further ensure that they are receiving statemandated physical education (PE). The legislation, introduced by Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, will require the Department of Education (DOE) to report the number of minutes and frequency of PE at each grade level, the number of full-time and part-time certified instructors at each school and information on the on-site and off-site spaces used for instruction. The DOE would then have to submit this data to the City Council speaker and post on its website, allowing parents, teachers and others to monitor how much PE is given at NYC public schools. The first report will be released by Aug. 31, 2016, and will reflect the conditions for this school year. “Comprehensive, quality PE during the school day has been shown to improve children’s health, focus and academic performance. This bill is about fairness; by knowing which schools are falling short, we can provide resources to help them meet the state’s standards,” Crowley said. “Currently, the DOE does not report on whether schools comply with the minimum standards for physical education. As a public school parent, I was frustrated when my son’s school substituted gym class with test prep; and sadly, I have heard worse stories from parents — their children are without a PE teacher, class space or simply just the time for physical education.” This bill came after City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report based on studies conducted by his office and the Phys Ed 4 All Coalition, which discovered that hundreds of thousands of public school students are without quality PE, and 60 percent of schools citywide only offer PE one to two times a week. “In May, I released ‘Dropping the Ball,’ a report that found that New York City’s students do not have equal access to state-mandated physical education curriculum and resources,” Stringer said. “We need to level the playing field in order to combat obesity, keep our kids healthy and give them the tools they need to succeed. The bill passed this week is a major step toward greater accountability and transparency that will allow parents and advocates to determine which schools have appropriate physical education services and which are lacking.” PE is an important aspect of overall education for students, especially in the grade school level, explained Brian Semonian, founder of Phys Ed Plus and certified PE teacher in three states: “PE in schools helps raise body awareness, fitness and understanding what makes you healthy. We know there is an obesity problem and we are not being given the tools to stop it.” “All young people deserve a robust physical education taught by licensed professionals in a gymnasium or other large space suitable for physical activity,” said Councilman Daniel Dromm, chair of the Education Committee and co-prime sponsor of the legislation. “For too long, our city has failed to meet the basic physical education needs of our public school students, thereby violating state education law.” RIDGEWOOD TIMES/Photo by Anthony Giudice Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and Councilman Daniel Dromm with physical education advocates outside of the Tweed Courthouse prior to the vote on the PE legislation. Ex-Queens Library boss files wrongful termination suit BY ROBERT POZARYCKI rpozarycki@ridgewoodtimes.com @robbpoz Nearly a year after being ousted, former Queens Library President and CEO Thomas W. Galante filed a lawsuit against his former employer, claiming he was fired without just cause. Galante was dismissed from the Queens Borough Public Library last December amid allegations that he wrongfully spent library funds on personal expenses, including a sixfigure renovation of his Jamaica office, at a time when the library reduced its staffing and services due to funding cuts. The allegations dogged Galante throughout 2014, a year when Queens Library underwent tremendous upheaval as a result of the situation. Amid calls to remove Galante, the Queens Library board of trustees deadlocked on a resolution in April to put him on indefinite leave, prompting local lawmakers to draft legislation allowing the Queens borough president and mayor — the two officials responsible for appointing trustees — the authority to remove trustees from office. Soon after the state legislature passed the reform legislation, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz removed eight Queens Library trustees who voted not to suspend Galante and filled the vacancies with new appointees. The reconstituted board then suspended Galante in September before firing him in December. Tom Rohback, a partner at Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider representing Galante, maintains that the trustees’ decision to terminate Galante was a matter of politics rather than any wrongdoing on the former president’s part. “If you look at the background here, you have Tom Galante, who worked at Queens Library for the last 20 years, somebody who, by all accounts, did a remarkable job,” Rohback said. “Then in January 2014, Katz and City Comptroller Scott Stringer come into office, the Daily News starts these attack articles” alleging misconduct on Galante’s part, “and by April, Katz is calling for his resignation.” Though published reports claimed that Galante’s annual salary of nearly $400,000 was excessive, Rohback contends, the former president’s compensation was comparable to that of leaders of other nonprofit organizations around the nation. The lawsuit is also critical of Stringer’s audit of the Queens Borough Public Library, which claimed Galante and other ranking library officials spent lavishly while the system was mired in debt and forced to deal with reduced funding. According to Galante’s attorney, the expenses were for “fundraising activities” and business/ award dinners that representatives of the comptroller, mayor and borough president attended. “These were dinners attended by the board of trustees after board meetings,” Rohback added. “It’s not something that should shock the conscience.” Stringer’s report pointed out that Galante used the library’s credit card to make multiple fuel purchases on the same day, but Rohback maintained that the funds were used to buy gasoline for generators powering libraries in the storm-stricken Rockaways following Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Galante is seeking damages in an amount to be proven at trial should he win, as well as compensation for legal fees, including for costs associated with his defense against investigations RIDGEWOOD TIMES/File photo Former Queens Library President and CEO Thomas W. Galante is suing his former employer over what his attorney calls wrongful launched by the U.S. Attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation. “This is somebody that has been attacked and vilified and hasn’t been able to fight back and defend himself,” Rohback said. “He’s going to defend himself now.” The Courier reached out to the Queens Library for comment; the board of trustees in a statement defended its decision to remove Galante from his post. “After reviewing the complaint brought by Mr. Galante, we believe his claims are without merit and our actions to remove him were completely justified,” according to the board’s statement. termination.
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