for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com february 21, 2013 • The CourieR SUN 3 Students can transfer out of failing schools BY MELISSA CHAN [email protected] Students in failing city schools will be allowed to transfer, the Department of Education said. The city is in the process of phasing out 39 struggling schools. The Panel for Educational Policy will vote in March on whether to phase out another 22, including three in Queens. The transfer option will give students a chance to succeed at better schools. This is the first year all students at phase-out schools have been given the choice. “We believe in providing good school choices for all students and families, and this new transfer option will enable families in low performing schools to gain access to higher performing ones across the city,” said DOE spokesperson Devon Puglia. Transfer applications with a list of high-ranking schools will be sent to about 16,000 eligible students in March, the department said. Priority will be given to students with the lowest scores and “greatest need.” Students who are granted the transfer would be able to start at their new school in September. The three Queens schools proposed for phase out this year are P.S. 140 in Jamaica; Law, Government and Community Service High School in Jamaica; and the Business, Computer Applications & Entrepreneurship High School in St. Albans. P.S. 156 in Laurelton faces a possible truncation, which will eliminate its middle school. One grade would be eliminated at a time from the troubled schools under the phase-out process. BOOK DRIVE TO HELP STUDENTS AFFECTED BY SANDY BY ADJANI SHAH [email protected] What started as a class project for Melissa Levin’s second graders at P.S. 108 soon escalated into a community service effort. The destruction of homes during Sandy also meant the loss of books for many children, including two of the school’s own students. The kids of Levin’s class want to help. A book drive will be held from March 4 to March 8 at the school. It is a collaboration of teachers, school officials, parents, and, of course, the second grade students. They are collecting boxes, hanging posters, and handing out flyers to the community to raise awareness. The school is asking for any genre of children books ranging from pre-k to fifth grade reading levels. “Any book, new or old,” Levin said, is accepted. Books can be dropped off at the school, at 108-10 109th Avenue in Ozone Park. Several drop boxes will be located throughout the school where teachers, parents and students will be posted to receive them. The donated books will be distributed to several other elementary schools whose students were also victims of Sandy. Second grader Sophia Sookram said children cannot practice their reading at home since they lost all their books. “With your help, kids will have a story to read every night,” she said. Specific times for drop offs are: Monday, March 4 and Wednesday, March 6 from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. and Thursday, March 7 and Friday, March 8 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The staff at Madelaine Chocolate was given a $250,000 check from National Grid to help recover after Sandy. (Below) A significant amount of equipment at Madelaine was destroyed by the storm. SWEET GRANT $250G to help biz recover from Sandy BY TERE NCE M. CULLEN [email protected] Normally, the staff of Madelaine Chocolate makes Valentine’s Day sweet for countless couples. But this year, because of Sandy, their holiday was sweetened thanks to National Grid. The gas company presented owners at Madelaine with a check for $250,000 on Tuesday, February 12 to help the Rockaway Beach-based confectioners continue their recovery. The money will go toward getting at least one leg of the Madelaine factory producing chocolate again, said co-owner Jorge Farber, and the staff back to work for Halloween candy. “It’s a beginning for a long, long road that is ahead of us,” Farber said. “This grant from National Grid is the first substantial outside grant and resources we have received. It’s a very concrete first step because it helps us rebuild one of our 14 molding lines that produce chocolate.” This is the first of several grants National Grid will give to companies in its flood zone that suffered severe damage from the storm. National Grid president Ken Daly said the power company has a $30 million fund, with roughly 100 companies applied. The amount of grant money will vary based on the company, he added. Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said the grant would be a boost to Madelaine and the workers who live nearby. “It’s going to help re-employ some of the workers who have been out of work since October, and probably will be out of work through the summer,” Friedman said. “And it’s going to help the community of Rockaway because most of their workers come from the local area.” Madelaine, the largest Queens small business with about 450 employees, was the first on National Grid’s list, Daly said, because of the long working relationship between the two. The executives at National Grid are committed to getting Madelaine back and making candy as soon as possible. “For many, many years, they’ve been supporting us as a company,” Daly said. “Today, it’s really our opportunity to return that support and help them get back up and running.” Farber said the factory had already lost two seasons — Valentine’s Day and Easter — of candy production because of the damage from the storm. The combined cost of the damage and cost of doing business is still unestimated, he said. The first of the eight kitchens, however, has been almost restored. That kitchen had a staff of 42 and produced about 46,000 of 100,000 pounds of chocolate per day. The grant from National Grid was the first step in getting the staff back to work, as the company awaits potential loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. As more loans and donations come in, the staff can begin making chocolate goodies for distribution. “We cannot lose another season,” Farber said. “We need to be back by Halloween.”
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