In 2002, Mayor Mike Bloomberg won the right to control New York City public schools for seven years. The state law is due to expire on June 30, and unless the New York State Legislature acts, the mayor will lose much of his ability to direct the school system, including the all-important power to appoint the chancellor and to control votes on the Panel for Educational Policy. As the deadline looms, legislators are vetting different proposals while opponents of mayoral control continue to rally for changes to the existing system.

Prior to mayoral control, public schools were run by a seven-member Board of Education (BOE) typically composed of prominent New Yorkers, some of whom were professional educators and education activists. Each borough president appointed one BOE member, and the mayor appointed the remaining two. Under the current system, a Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) has 13 members, eight appointed by the mayor, and one by each borough president. The PEP members serve at the will of the mayor or the borough presidents who appointed them. The mayor also chooses the chancellor, and all superintendents of the 32 community school districts. There are also 32 local school boards, called Community District Education Councils (CECs) and citywide special education and high school education councils, which are elected by a school’s PTA officials.

The issue has mobilized education stakeholders to testify and rally in support of their point of view. While most educators and school advocates don’t want to return to 2002, many want to tighten the reins on the mayor’s power and restore parents’ role in policy making. What and how much should be controlled by the mayor depends on which mayoral control coalition you speak to, but there is consensus on the need for more parent voice and more transparency about achievement data and Department of Education finances. Below is a round-up of some of the most active advocates on the issue, with a sampling of their recommendations. You can read their full reports and agendas at their websites. (more…)

Taking a page from the District 3 playbook, yesterday parent representatives of Manhattan’s District 2, joined by the United Federation of Teachers, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education and schools Chancellor Joel Klein, charging violations of state law by DOE reconfiguration of neighborhood schools and programs without Community Education Council consultation or approval.

State education law mandates CEC participation in decisions that affect local schools. Yet “the DOE fails consistently to consult with the CEC,” according to the lawsuit’s lead plaintiff, District 2 CEC president Rebecca Daniels. “CEC members have an obligation to take action to right this wrong, to ensure that the voice of New York City public school parents is never silenced.”

The DOE backed down from the District 3 lawsuit in April, backpedaling on its plan to close traditional zoned public schools in Harlem and replace them with charters. The current suit lists a litany of DOE actions at elementary, middle, and high schools in the district; click here for more information.

Space for pre-kindergarten classes shut out of PS 3 and PS 11 in Greenwich Village because of kindergarten over-crowding will be available next fall at 27 Barrow Street, the home of the Barrow Street Nursery School, according to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Department of Education officials who have been working this week to find a home for the displaced students.

Speaking to an auditorium packed with parents at the District 2 Community Education Council meeting last night, John White, of the Department of Education, said that the siting is a temporary solution “that will allow the [kindergarten] waitlist to completely disappear.” There are 79 kindergarteners now on the waitlist for the shared PS3/41 zone, he said, and moving the pre-K classes will allow one new class at PS 41 and two new classes at PS 3. White also anticipates that many of the 63 zoned students who qualified for gifted & talented programs would choose that option, freeing up more space in the crowded neighborhood schools.

Regarding a new site for a new PS 151, White indicated that the Our Lady of Good Counsel school would be the likely site; a formal announcement is expected on Monday.

White also said that new sites will be found for two middle schools now sharing elementary-school buildings, Greenwich Village Middle School and the Clinton School for Writers and Artists, for the 2010-2011 school year.

Parents fired questions at White and DOE enrollment chief Elizabeth Sciabarra about kindergarten waitlists and challenging DOE statistics. A CEC member asked parents: “Are you happy with what you are hearing tonight?” Parents, some carrying placards, responded with a resounding “NO!” (more…)

How gerrymandered can an election get? Parents inquiring why the Community Education Council advisory vote results were not yet posted have discovered — once again — that the Department of Education has unilaterally decided to change the rules of CEC elections midstream.

Originally, the result of the parent advisory vote was to be posted publicly on the powertotheparents website in early May, according to that site’s home page. Instead, last week the DOE instructed the election vendor to withhold results of the parent advisory “straw poll” vote, which was intended to guide the real vote, until after the official selectors cast their votes, according to a Power to the Parents staffer.

The official CEC voting process is already convoluted: three PTA officials from each school each cast only two votes for candidates for the 12-member CECs. Deadlines for candidate sign-up, the straw poll, and the official voting have all been changed repeatedly this year at the DOE’s direction. In the latest change, the CEC voting deadline was extended to midnight tonight.

Still, I look forward to finding out who will be elected to my CEC for the coming two-year term. As the new mayoral control law is considered, it will be up to next year’s crew to promote parents’ voices in the system. Preventing the DOE from manipulating community elections is one of many reasons why parent advocates would like to see administration of the CECs be made independent from the DOE — perhaps placed under the Public Advocate’s office.

As part of the rewrite of mayoral control legislation, CEC3 supports a public November CEC election held alongside other public elections. The current system is devised, controlled, and constantly changed in a murky and undemocratic manner by DOE. “Power to the parents,” it’s not.

EDITOR’S UPDATE: Representatives of other CEC’s are also speaking out about issues surrounding the election. Here is a letter sent on May 19 from the District 31 CEC to Jacqui Lipson, the CEC administrative coordinator at the DOE, raising concerns similar to those Jennifer wrote about in this post:

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It’s Friday, and time for the Insideschools community poll. This past week, we asked about bullying in school, and the majority voice was clear — zero tolerance for any kind of bullying, actual or virtual, with strong consequences and required parent meetings for students involved in bullying. That’s one kind of parent involvement — the kind few parents ever desire.

This week, we’re curious about the Community Education Council straw poll vote. Response to the Department of Education’s initiative — and maiden cyber-efforts at recruiting potential candidates — has been less robust than the planners hoped. Has it inspired you to step up as a candidate, or to take the time to vote on the upcoming CEC nominees? Let us know if you’re in or you’re out. And let us know why, too, in your comments.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to our readers and their families — and happy vacation to the 1.1 million schoolchildren of New York City. (We hope their teachers and all who work with the city’s kids enjoy a good week off as well.)

District 2, which encompasses some of Manhattan’s prime development turf, has chronically overcrowded elementary schools. Middle schools, often housed on the top floors of primary schools, add to the population pressure.

In a long letter to the Community Education Council, the DOE proposed short- and long-term responses to grade-school crowding — including moving fifth-graders at jammed schools to less-populous schools two miles uptown, strictly limiting zoning variances, shifting classes to underused space at local middle and elementary schools, as well as plans to add thousands of new school seats and (possible) zoning changes. Safe to say, the issue won’t be resolved in the next month, before school begins. For schools like PS 234, which is at 150% utilization, or PS 59, at 192%, close quarters doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Local parents and school advocates want the DOE to consider another short-term option not outlined in their D 2 ‘blueprint,’ which focuses on grade school crowding. A state-owned building at 75 Morton St., in the thick of the overcrowded zone, is on the auction block. Parents, teachers, principals, and local pols want the DOE to acquire the building for a new public middle school. (It’s fully ADA accessible, to boot.)

Today at 5:30pm, parents and activists will rally in front of 75 Morton. We hope the DOE’s School Construction Authority and Office of Portfolio Development are paying attention.

Last night’s Town Hall in Brooklyn was the first of many, according to City Council member Bill deBlasio, that will address issues raised by mayoral control of the city’s schools — a state law that’s slated to sunset in 2009.

Most speakers described the erosion of public influence on public education due to mayoral control: Community Education Councils as weak substitutes for elected school boards; policy decisions (and PR disasters) enacted by remote DOE leadership; and the mayorally-appointed (and thus beholden) Panel for Educational Policy in lieu of the former Board of Education, whose antagonism to the Mayor — any mayor — was legion.

Parents brought specific and legitimate complaints about the high-school admissions process and the exclusion of special-education parents and students from many policy-level conversations. Martine Guerrier, head of the Office of Family Engagement, was present; more than a few charged her office with “Orwellian” practices and a dismissive, “we’ll get back to you” philosophy. Notably, veteran school leaders said that parents are reluctant to step into leadership roles because of fears that their questions will lead to repercussions for their children.

In a practical reflection of the Mayor’s corporate ethos, small-business providers of resources for English Language Learners said their bids were no longer welcome at the DOE, which restricted some bids to businesses worth $5 million or more. The irony is particularly stinging given that Local Law 129 provides preferential bidding practices for small businesses, especially those headed by minorities and women — and that the DOE is apparently exempt from that ruling.

The UFT, ICOPE, ACORN/the Alliance for Quality Education, the Council for Economic Justice, Time Out From Testing and other advocates promise to keep the mayoral-control dialogue going.

It’s been a full week since Philissa passed along the coordination of the InsideSchools blog — and like so many other weeks in the world of New York City public education, there’s been no shortage of news to report and ponder. But it wouldn’t be right to close up shop for the week without a proper thanks to Philissa, whose hard work and astonishing dedication served as the blog’s (virtual and actual) foundation. Salut!

As we move forward, we’ll continue to hear from familiar voices, like Liz Willen, who’ll be writing about high schools, and Jennifer Freeman, who’ll be covering Community Education Councils. We’ll also welcome a new writer from the nycstudents blog, as our previous contributor, Seth Pearce, heads up to Harvard, and hope to add additional voices to the mix.It’s an honor and a challenge to be part of this thoughtful, provocative community. Thanks to all for their thoughts, inspirations, frustrations and wee-hours obsessions — for the willingness to take that leap of faith, and connect.