Photo Courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
The first of the two bills passed by the Assembly would extend mayoral control of the New York City School District for an additional two years, until June 30, 2024; the second bill would ensure the New York City School District is working towards achieving smaller class sizes.
By Michael V. Cusenza
After returning control of City schools to the mayor and passing legislation to renew the City’s School Zone Speed Camera program and expand hours of operation from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays to 24 hours, seven days a week, City and State lawmakers recently praised Albany and NYC for working together towards several goals.
“After months of advocacy, New Yorkers achieved major victories in Albany,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “The creation of a NYCHA Trust will funnel billions of dollars to residents for critical repairs. Legislation facilitating the conversion of vacant hotels to housing will deliver much needed relief to our homelessness crisis. And keeping pedestrians on our streets safe and allowing life-saving 24/7 speed cameras is a victory for us all. We’ve delivered for New Yorkers over and over again, but we will continue to fight to remove guns from our streets, protect our communities, and create a safe, prosperous, and just city for all New Yorkers.”
“Our life-saving speed cameras have proven to slow drivers down – but we can’t operate this program when reckless driving occurs the most: overnight and on weekends,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “We thank Mayor Adams, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Heastie, Senator Gounardes, Assembly Member Glick, and the tireless advocates who have helped us secure this crucial victory for safe streets. We are using every resource available, from enforcement to street redesigns, to curb senseless traffic violence and we look forward to the Governor’s bill signing.”
The first of the two bills passed by the Assembly would extend mayoral control of the New York City School District for an additional two years, until June 30, 2024, while ensuring greater parental input and participation at the school level, community district level and citywide level.
Under the bill, the Panel for Education Policy (PEP) would be expanded from 15 to 23 members. Of the 23 members, one would be appointed by each of the five borough presidents, another five would be appointed by the presidents of the Community Education Council (CEC) and 13 would be appointed by the mayor. Of the mayor’s 13 appointees, four must be a parent of a New York City School District student, including at least one parent of a student with an individualized education program (IEP), at least one parent of a student who is enrolled in a bilingual or English as a second language program and at least one parent of a student in a District 75 school or program. This bill would also require that a PEP member only be removed by the appointing authority for good cause and clarifies that voting against an appointing authority’s direction would not be considered cause for removal.
The second bill would ensure the New York City School District is working towards achieving smaller class sizes. Under this legislation, the chancellor together with teacher and principal unions would be required to approve a class size reduction plan with specific class size targets based on grade level that must be met for all classes by September 2027. The plan would be required to include any exemptions to the targets and would be limited to space, over enrollment of students, teacher license shortages and severe economic distress.
