Category Archives: Education
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott defended the turnaround program and special education reform at a town hall meeting in Ozone Park Tuesday night. Community Education Council 27 hosted the event to give parents and teachers a chance to ask face-to-face questions of the Department of Education’s highest official, and they took their chance. Although most of the meeting was civil and respectful, emotions peeked out when parents started asking about a citywide reform of the special education system. The reform lets … Continue reading
The city’s teachers union and principals union are suing to stall the turnaround plan that was approved last month to close 24 schools citywide and seven in Queens. On May 7, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA) went to New York Supreme Court seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction that would send the issue to arbitration. At issue is the Department of Education’s (DOE) plan that closes the 24 schools and … Continue reading
As part ofthe controversial turnaround plan, the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) voted eight to four on Thursday, April 26 to close 24 schools across the city, including seven in Queens. The 24 schools will cease to exist in the fall, and a new school will be opened in each building with new leadership, new PTAs and the same students. A committee, including a new principal, Department of Education (DOE) representatives and teachers union representatives will then hire a faculty … Continue reading
Hours before the vote to determine the fate of 26 schools citywide, Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood heard news that it had been pulled from the list of schools scheduled for closure. On Thursday, April 26, a cheer went up from classrooms as the principal announced over the loudspeaker that the school would remain open instead of being put into the controversial turnaround plan. The decision was announced the same day that the Panel for Educational Policy voted … Continue reading
For the past eight years, a Woodhaven-based school has offered women a second chance to better their educational skills in hopes of improving their lives and the lives of their families. The center will have a dinner and fundraiser on Tuesday, May 8, so that it can keep running for another eight years. The School Sisters of Notre Dame Education Center, located at 87-04 88th Avenue in Woodhaven, hosts GED, or General Educational Development and English as a Second Language … Continue reading
Students, teachers and school leaders at John Adams High School in Ozone Park squeezed in some final words last week about the turnaround program before a vote scheduled for Thursday, April 26. Like the seven other Queens high schools on the list, John Adams took the cathartic moment to blast the plan that could replace half the teachers and rename the school to claim grant funding. The bottom level of John Adams auditorium was packed with hundreds of students … Continue reading
Chants of “save our beacon” “no more cuts” and “we won’t stop!” echoed loudly outside of Queens Borough Hall on Thursday, April 19, as several Queens schools rallied to protest the possible closure of their Beacon after-school programs. Eight schools across the five boroughs are slated to lose their Beacon programs at the end of the school year in June, which will be chosen from a list of sixteen schools. Half of those 16 schools on the list are in … Continue reading
Residents at last week’s Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association meeting (WRBA), raised concerns about kids from Junior High School 210 causing trouble, including standing near moving cars in the street, after they get out of school. Two politicians in the running for a seat in congress also stopped by to speak with residents, who they would represent should they win that seat. Suzanne Catoggio and Sharisse Sexton, two school safety officers from the 102nd Precinct, spoke to residents regarding problems after … Continue reading
After getting no response from the Department of Education (DOE), Community Education Council 24 (CEC 24) is going rogue. The council is urging parents to put their kids on a bus that they are not authorized to ride. It’s an attempt to avoid a problem intersection at Laurel Hill Boulevard and 61st Street in Woodside that parents say is too dangerous to walk. But, after a walkthrough of that intersection, the DOE has been completely mum on the problem. “This … Continue reading
The School Construction Authority (SCA) is considering tearing down the building that used to house the St. Aloysius parochial school in Ridgewood and building a new 444-seat primary school. The building, which was constructed in 1966, has been unused since the Catholic school closed in 2009. Now the Department of Education wants to turn the lot at 360 Seneca Avenue into a public primary school. Because the building is so old, it would have to be completely demolished. As … Continue reading
Members of Community Education Council 27 (CEC) discussed changes to how special education will affect the way a child with special needs will learn in school at their latest meeting on Monday, April 16. Michele Lloyd-Bey, the community superintendent for district 27, presented the special education reform plan to CEC members and residents, which will affect all schools citywide. She spoke about the plan as how it affects district 27, which covers Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, … Continue reading
Construction will start on a new elementary school in Ozone Park, which will take the place of a catholic school that is there now. The new school, Public School 316, will be on 90th Street and 101 Avenue and will hold about 416 seats. According to Councilman Eric Ulrich (D-Ozone Park), the school will be for students in grades kindergarten through 6th grade and is expected to open in September 2014. The actual construction of the school, Ulrich said, will … Continue reading
Ten students riding in a special education bus were taken to Elmhurst Hospital for observation Wednesday morning after a crash in Maspeth. Department of Education (DOE) officials said the bus was making a right turn when a car cut in front and hit the bus. The crash happened just before 7:30 a.m. on a service road of the Queens Midtown Expressway near 68th Street. An FDNY spokesman said 12 people—including the 10 students—were injured in the crash. Parents were notified, … Continue reading
Grover Cleveland High School got a glimpse of hope that they might be able to save their school Monday, and during a public hearing in the school’s auditorium that night, it showed. That day, the Department of Education (DOE) announced it was taking seven schools off the list of those scheduled to be closed and reopened under the turnaround plan. Grover Cleveland remained one of 26 that would replace their names and half their teachers under the plan, but … Continue reading
Students and parents clamoring to save the Beacon program at a Forest Hills school got a boost Tuesday from local politicians. Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills), Senator Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing), Council Member Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), and Assemblywoman Grace Meng rallied at Russell Sage Junior High School because it’s at risk of losing the popular after-school service. The Beacon program is an after-school and evening program and serves people from ages 8 to 21. Teachers, parents and students … Continue reading