What's new with public school Pre-K

Here is some early news about the Pre-K registration for 2008-2009. From a memo to Principals.

• All applications for public school Pre-K will be handled in a centralized process through the Office of Student Enrollment. (CBO process is unchanged)
• Applications for the DOE process will be available in schools and at the Enrollment Offices the week of March 24.
• Any schools that have already made offers or accepted applications for Pre-k seats must notify parents that these offers are voided. Parents must submit a new Pre-K application to be considered for a seat.
• April 11: all applications for public school Pre-K seats must be postmarked by this date.
• Week of May 19: Parents will receive notification about their child’s placement in a public school Pre-K
• Parents should apply directly to CBOs for spots in their programs. The CBOs will notify parents directly about their application status.
• For Kindergarten and 1st grade apply directly to your zoned school.
• For Unzoned schools such as The Brooklyn New School, The Children’s School and Charter Schools, apply directly to the schools for their lotteries.
• Parents applying for a variance (placement exception request) should get the form from the Enrollment Office in the summer and submit it by the end of Sept. (the deadline was Sept. 28 this year) with lots of supporting documents. You will hear sometime in Oct. whether you receive a placement or not. You do this the year you are attending school, which means that your child will be attending classes at your zoned school while you wait for word about the PER.

  So it looks like this is bad news if you have been given a seat already in a Pre-K for next year because you go right back into the lottery. This is obviously an attempt to make the whole process fairer to the population at large because not all schools have Pre-Ks and if you were out of the zone for a prized Pre-K you had no chance of getting in. There have never been enough seats for everyone who wants one, but keep in mind that the DOE doesn’t have to provide Pre-K at all, and they are the first programs to be cut to make more room for the mandated grades. As the schools get more and more crowded (look no further than the giant sprouts going up all down 4th Ave.) I wonder how long the existing Pre-K classes will last. I don’t see many new elementary schools in the works.

The DOE is giving a cellphone "incentive"

What gives! The DOE which has been fighting parent's reasonable need to contact their middle school age kids on cell phones is now giving away phones, minutes and texting time as a bribe for increased test scores! The Million Program, announced last week will also have product "discounts" offered in text messages according to a report in nycpublicschoolparents. Yeah, yeah, you have to fund the program somehow, but why this program in the first place. The idea is that in some schools, students need an incentive to improve their performance. Ok, I am naive and too idealistic (my children roll their eyes at me everyday) but knowledge is the reward, not a cheap piece of plastic that will suck their attention away from the true prize. And do you think that those 11 year olds are not informed or cynical enough to see this as the disingenuous bribe that it is. What are we telling them? Stand behind your policy until someone offers you a million dollars to ignore it. Shameful.
The phones are being offered to 4 schools in Brooklyn, JHS 234, Ebbets Field Middle School, IS 349 and KIPP AMP Charter School.
On a basic level in general, doesn't paying for grades act as a disincentive to self motivation and altruism? Just asking.

The 14th St. Armory may be open by the spring

The 14th Street Armory Field House has finally been completed and has a sponsoring organization, which seems to have been the biggest holdup. The Prospect Park YMCA is partnering with the Field House in one of the city's largest community recreation and education centers. At the ribbon cutting, Bill de Blasio said, "by spring school groups and people in the community will be using the space." It has been said that local schools will get priority time in the facility. There are plenty of schools in the neighborhood without gyms that need a space for their phys. ed. programs.

Free Ice Skating

To celebrate the Independence Community Foundation's grant to help underwrite design costs for the new Lakeside Center, the Parks Dept. and Prospect Park Alliance is having a free skating day on March 7 at Wollman Rink. The skating season always gets by me. The fall is too full of the holidays and then in a blink it is too warm and the rink is closing for the season on March16. Get out and skate before the crocuses come up. The Lakeside Center is supposed to have two new ice skating rinks
For info 718 965-8999 or 718965-8960 www.prospectpark.org

Fight the school budget cuts

I just got an e-mail from the friends of Bill de Blasio. They are having a meeting to strategize about stopping the DOE school budget cuts. It is a community wide event including groups of teachers, parent advocates, union leaders, members of the CEC, PTAs and others.
Thursday March 13, 7-9pm
St. Francis College, Callahan Center
180 Remsen St. 1st floor (between Court and Clinton)
rsvp to Phil Jones 212 788-6969 or email deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us

Techno-challenged

I would like to thank everyone who helped me get this blog online. My husband, who finds it hot that I can sign up for a free service and remember the password for 3 days. My brother who keeps e-mailing me great advice in small manageable snippets, and talks me down when I start going mental. Britt Bravo at havefundogood.blogspot.com who totally filled me in on "how to start your basic blog" and the good folks at www.commoncraft.com who make everything so clear even I can understand it.