Tonight PEP Votes on Budget Without Info and Charters Expand - Work already started at IS 33 for Eva before the vote tonight

We discovered at IS 33 this morning that work has been ongoing to prep the space for Eva Moskowitz' Brooklyn Success school in the fall despite the fact that the PEP vote tonight has not taken place yet. A local/activist lawyer on the scene told us this work may be illegal.

Meanwhile, expect a somewhat raucous Panel for Educational Policy meeting tonight over charter co-locos. The rubber stamp PEP will vote on a budget they haven't seen yet. We will try to be there to capture the follies on tape. Here is Leonie Haimson's take:

The PEP will be voting on the budget tonight; as well as several controversial charter co-locations, and the public is supposed to give informed comment beforehand.


Yet we still have no information about what this budget deal actually means for our schools.


We know that at least 2600 teachers will be lost to attrition, which will mean sharp increases in class size. In grades K-3, class sizes will likely rise to their largest level in 12 years, despite promises by Bloomberg when he first ran for office to reduce them to twenty or less. We are told that principals are being briefed today, and being warned that the cuts will still be large.


If budgets are cut sufficiently, many schools will also likely to be forced to “excess” some of their teachers into the ATR pool, so the impact on classrooms and kids and schools would be the same as if there were actual layoffs.


Here is the information about tonight’s PEP meeting:


When: Monday June 27, 2011 at 6 PM (sign up between 5:30 PM -6 PM if you wish to speak.)


Where: Prospect Heights Campus, 883 Classon Ave, Brooklyn (take the 2,3 , 4, 5 S trains to the Eastern Parkway/ Brooklyn Museum Station); map here.


It’s really unbelievable that they haven’t even bothered to update the link on the PEP page on the budget since May 6.


I’ll let you know if I get a response from the Chancellor; pl. do the same and let me know if you hear back from him.


The City Council will vote on the budget either Tues. or Wed., am trying to confirm the date and time and will let you know that as soon as I hear back from them.




Thanks, Leonie

Dear Chancellor:

The PEP is voting on the budget tonight and the public is supposed to give comments beforehand.

And yet this  link to the total DOE budget has not been updated since May 6. 

The information  provided in the first place is entirely inadequate, stating only overall dollar amounts and not how much will be allocated to schools and how much spent on other Tweed priorities, including the central and mid-level bureaucracy, testing, data systems, charters, contracts, consultants and the like.

But most egregiously, this information also is no longer correct, since the budget deal was announced Friday night that supposedly eliminated the need for 4100 teacher layoffs.

When are you going to provide parents with the real numbers?  Any time before the budget is voted upon tonight?

Thanks,

Leonie Haimson