that her school shares with Mosaic Prep Academy. She is apparently making another one of her moves on public school buildings.
There is a hearing about it next week.
Another illegal move: expansion of Harlem Success Academy 3The below letter from Rose Jimenez, member of the CEC in D4 in E. Harlem and head of the PTA at PS 375, (Mosaic Prep Academy) is addressed to Jonas Chartock, the head of the SUNY Charter Institute, as well as Pedro Noguera, head of the charter committee for SUNY, about the expansion of Harlem Success Academy 3 in the PS 375 building. This SUNY committee has to authorize any such expansion, and hearings on this matters are taking place Monday, June 21 at 141 E 111 ST at 5:30 PM; come by 5 PM if you want to speak.
Dear Mr. Chartock and Prof. Noguera:
As a parent at Mosaic Prep Academy (PS 375) and a member of the Community Education Council in District 4 in East Harlem, I do not understand how the SUNY Charter School Institute could consider allowing Harlem Success Academy 3, a school that is co-located in our building, to revise its charter to substantially expand from 363 students to 468 students next fall.
Any such expansion would obviously require a significant change in our school building’s utilization, without any of the public procedures outlined in the school governance law having been implemented. As I’m sure you are aware, the governance law, A8903, requires that any significant change in public school utilization in New York City must be preceded by an Educational Impact Statement issued at least six months before the start of the new school year, as well as a joint hearing of the DOE, the CEC and the School Leadership Team at the affected school; and finally, a vote of the Panel for Educational Policy.
None of these events have occurred in this case, and in fact, it is too late for the DOE or SUNY to allow any expansion of the school to occur without warning so late in the school year, unless these additional students would attend classes elsewhere in a non-DOE building.
Moskowitz usually gets what she wants because of her close relationship with Joel Klein, the school chancellor.
Harlem charter school head emails show very special access to NY school chancellor
Lombard for News
Success Charter Network founder Eva Moskowitz and NYC Chancellor Joel Klein sharing a laugh during an event.On Oct. 3, 2008, Eva Moskowitz, a former city councilwoman and head of four charter schools in Harlem, e-mailed schools Chancellor Joel Klein for help. Moskowitz wanted more space to expand her Harlem Success academies and she had two specific public school buildings in mind.
"Those schools are ps194 and ps241," she wrote to Klein. "It would be extremely helpful to move quickly on."
Less than two months later, the Department of Education announced plans to phase out those schools and use the space to expand two Harlem Success academies.
So she has a history of moving into and expanding her charters within public buildings...often fighting battles with the parents of the public school.
Unfortunately at least one of her schools prefers not to accommodate special education students.
Harlem Success Charter leader: “I’m not a big believer in special ed"Based on available statistics, however, charter schools have fewer of these families, including the poorest of the poor. One problem with “school choice,” as writer-activist Jonathan Kozol noted, is that the “ultimate choices” tend to get made “by those who own or operate a school.” At stake is not just who gets in, but who stays in. Studies show “selective attrition” in the KIPP chain, among others, with academic stragglers—including those seen as disruptive or in need of pricey services—leaving in greater numbers. In one flagrant local example, East New York Preparatory discharged 48 students shortly before last year’s tests, among them seven poor-scoring third-graders. (Citing financial mismanagement, the Department of Education plans to revoke the school’s charter in June.)
At Harlem Success, disability is a dirty word. “I’m not a big believer in special ed,” Fucaloro says. For many children who arrive with individualized education programs, or IEPs, he goes on, the real issues are “maturity and undoing what the parents allow the kids to do in the house—usually mama—and I reverse that right away.” When remediation falls short, according to sources in and around the network, families are counseled out. “Eva told us that the school is not a social-service agency,” says the Harlem Success teacher. “That was an actual quote.”
Just for fun from the WP blog.
Bloomberg, Moskowitz, Duncan and Klein....a parodyAs the reporter was hustled out of the room by the Mayor’s security detail, Mr. Bloomberg continued, “Good teachers can make up for problems in children’s environment, like poverty, poor nutrition, lack of parental involvement, absenteeism and drug use. If their unions weren’t blocking reform, c’mon, teachers would certainly be able to deal with a little environmental problem like oil in the Gulf.”
Reaction to the Mayor’s statement was swift. A NY Post editorial praised the Mayor’s stance towards the teachers unions as “courageous”, and went on to say that, “If the teachers had spent as much energy capping the well as they did on capping the charter schools, this whole thing never would have happened.”
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Arne Duncan suggested that Mr. Bloomberg’s statements point up a bright side to the oil spill. “This situation might be even better for our school system than Katrina,” Mr. Duncan told GBN News.
“Because now the teachers unions will finally have to stop making excuses and realize they can’t avoid true accountability.”
In a related story, newly released e-mails suggest that at the urging of charter school magnate Eva Moskowitz, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has reportedly promised to relocate some New York City public schools to offshore oil rigs to make room for Ms. Moskowitz’ Harlem Success Academy schools.
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