high school parent coordinators

NY 1 reported that School's Chancellor, Joel Klein, will allow high "school principals to lay off parent coordinators and abolish the position as a way to combat the city's money woes." This policy only affects high school parent coordinators. The budget situation is extremely serious and it is seen as a way to give principals move room to adjust their budgets. "A spokesman says the Department of Education feels high school parents may have less of a need of the services provided by parent coordinators."

No one wants to see teachers laid off or budgets slashed, but on a purely personal level I know in my heart that my daughters success in two large public high schools was due in large part to the efforts of their parent coordinators. In a million ways, they have given our family crucial support and now that we are heavily into the college search, their efforts have greatly enhanced the talented but limited resources of the schools' college office. I just sent off two very heartfelt letters to the principals of my daughters' schools. It is the least that I can do in thanks for service above and beyond the call of duty.

middle school letters

Well, at least the waiting is over. I will say congratulations to those of you who are happy with your choices. For those of you that are interested in an appeal, you should talk to your guidance department right away. If your child got one of their top few choices an appeal will very likely be futile. The DOE will rightly argue that if your child placed the school high on the application and they gave it to your child that there is no reason to appeal. If your child got their fifth or sixth ranked choice or they were placed in a school that they didn't rank or they were given no choice at all, you should appeal. There will be some movement even in the most popular programs. Parents will opt for a "school based application school", a private or charter program and that will leave a few seats for a student making an appeal.

Now that you are not elementary school parents anymore, I recommend that you check out the blog parentsofnyteens.blogspot.com and join the fabulous yahoo group of the same name. This incredibly caring group of mostly Brooklyn parents (tell your "otherborough" friends because they are welcome too) is the support group we all need - answering questions about Axe deodorant, alcohol use, school reviews, coed sleepovers, places to buy prom dresses, tutors, testing and all things college.

State test scores will be out in July

The New York State Board of Regents approved a recommendation to move the release date of scores on the Grades 3 - 8 ELA and Math tests from the origional date, June 24 to the week of July 26, 2010.

"School districts and teachers were notified last spring that the tests would change this year and, in the case of math, address more material.  Students took the exams this year in late April and May, after many more weeks of instruction than in previous years...

The additional time spent in the analysis of the assessments will also allow student performance on this year’s revised assessments to be appropriately incorporated into the state’s 2010-2011 school accountability determinations."

musical chairs for private school heads

St. Ann's has a new headmaster, Vincent Tompkins, the deputy provost of Brown University. The New York Times, mcbrooklyn, and the Brooklyn Eagle each have their own spin on the story.

The former head of St. Ann's, Larry Weiss, is moving to Brooklyn Friends just down the street where he began his career in the 70's. In the intervening years he was the Director of Chinese Studies at Sidwell Friends School and Head of the Upper Division at Horace Mann in Riverdale.

PS 133

I went on a tour the other day (this blog is starting quietly enough). I saw a lovely school that is being temporarily housed for 3 years in a former parochial school on 8th St. and 4th Ave. in Park Slope. PS 133 has a relatively new principal (former teacher at 29, former VP at 11) who is full of energy and ideas, particularly to develop their science program with an urban ecology focus. The school is small and comfy (two classes on a grade one of which is CTT). It has wonderful expressive artwork, a full piano lab, a class full of new guitars. I watched a Studio in the Schools dance class and a school wide reading celebration. They will move in 2012 to a brand new 935 seat school that is being built on Butler and 4th Ave. at the edge of District 13.

I also went to a meeting this morning about the future of PS 133. It was sponsored by the 5th Ave. Committee. The Office of Portfolio Planning, SCA, Community Board 6, the Butler/Baltic Block Assoc., the 78th Precinct, the PS Civic Council, Councilman Steve Levin and other local government reps including D13 CEC members and representatives from PS 133 were in attendance. They discussed construction issues that will impact local residents and then the DOE rep announced that PS 133 would remain a single school community in the building. The school population would be made up of students from the current 133 zone and 2/3 of the population would be from a rezoned section of District 15. The school will be administered by District 15. This did not go over well with the representatives from District 13 and Mr. Levin who felt that this was new information that had not been previously discussed. Mr. Levin asked that the Office of Portfolio Planning revisit this decision. I just condensed a two hour discussion to a paragraph.

There will be another meeting to follow up on these issues on Mon. June 21 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Contact the 5th Ave. Committee for confirmation and location.

So, this is an issue in flux, but a very important one for local parents. Watch this space for more information. I am curious what the District 15 CEC thinks of this? I imagine this issue will shortly be at the forefront of many D13 and D15 parents' minds. However this turns out, I recommend that any interested parents tour 133. Call their Parent Coordinator, Ahmed Dickerson 347-563-5321 to find out the date of their next open house. You may really like what you see.