CEC District !4 Meets Harlem Success Academy - Principal Brian DeVale

April 26, 2011

Diane Ravitch commented on yesterday's post:

Something I have puzzled over: why do hundreds of charter school parents and students show up for public hearings to demand more charter schools? The children are already enrolled in a charter school. They can only attend one school. How will it help them if there are more? They can't enroll in two schools. For whose benefit are they there? What would happen to a regular public school principal if she or he hired buses to send children and parents to demonstrate at a PEP meeting?

Diane 

Yes, Diane. In District 14 we saw 2 HSA Harlem parents shlep to Williamsburg to "sell" HSA. They are being used as a political force. I'd love to see Eva bring buses full of parents in to District 14. They will get some reception.

And another comment:

Just finished watching the D14 CEC meeting video on your blogspot.  It is wonderful to see principals and teachers speak up on behalf of their schools.  Why wasn't that auditorium filled with D14 parents and community members??

Amazing how HSA reps side stepped questions asked by the former school board president.  One of the most important questions I have been asking for years as a D6 parent, former D3 employee and now a D4 employee and am still waiting for an answer is WHO asked HSA to come into the district???  Answer: NOT parents or the community as they claim, but the DOE.  Deceiving parents and communities by presenting HSA as the "great white hope" has done nothing but caused parents to loose faith in and discredit many of the wonderful traditional public schools in our communities.  One of the HSA reps (I cant remember her name) at the D14 meeting talked about the wonderful partnership and relationship HSA has in Harlem with PS 241 and Opportunity Charter School.  I can tell you as first hand that her statement is so far from the truth and a down right lie!  Children at PS 241 have now been pushed into the basement of the building and are not allowed to use the main entrance which is reserved for use by HSA students and their parents only.  There is nothing but infighting between HSA, Opportunity Charter ans PS241 in that building.   The same goes in other buildings in Central and East Harlem where HSA is co-located with other schools.

 

The reality is that decisions about co-locations with charters in traditional public school buildings are being negotiated and made way before the proposals are presented to CEC and to parents.  Parents and communities are not involved in the decision making process.  For the sake of our children, this has got to change.

 

That's all for now.

 

All the best,

N.

For today's video:
Brian DeVale compliments parents from HSA for being concerned. But why are they coming to Brooklyn to sell their school? He isn't going up to Harlem to tell them where to go to school. Choice? "If you built a crack house people would come."  And lots more. 



http://youtu.be/m-8zAvtY814

Previous posts:
Monday, April 25: Harlem/Brooklyn Success Academy Video Week

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