District 2 CEC Parents Sue NYC Department of Education

 For Violating State Law by Opening, Closing and Rezoning Schools

Without Mandated Community Input

 

Parents serving as elected representatives of Manhattan’s District 2 Community Education Council filed suit against the New York City Department of Education today for violating state education law by making changes that affect neighborhood schools without the council’s required approval or consultation, effectively denying parents a voice in the process.

Community Education Councils (CECs) are the local bodies created by the State Legislature to ensure that parents and the public retain some oversight over education under the mayoral control system. State education law requires the Department of Education (DOE) to get the approval of the community through its local CEC when it wants to make zoning changes that affect neighborhood elementary and middle schools. The law also requires the DOE to consult with the CEC before instituting certain new programs or expanding or reducing high schools.

The suit filed today in State Supreme Court in Manhattan alleges that the DOE and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, both named as defendants, have taken neither of those required steps while repeatedly making zoning changes affecting schools, including the opening and closing of schools. The suit also claims that the chancellor and the DOE have disregarded the District 2 CEC’s statutory role despite the group’s efforts to communicate with them.

“Despite this clear mandate, the chancellor has repeatedly failed to consult with CEC District 2 before closing schools, moving schools, reducing programs and creating programs,” the suit alleges.

“First and foremost, CECs are representatives of the parents, and our role is to reflect the community’s needs and wishes regarding the education of its children,” said plaintiff Rebecca Daniels, president of the District 2 CEC and mother of a student enrolled in the Lab Middle School (MS 312). “When the DOE fails consistently to consult with the CEC on school closings and sitings, on new and eliminated school programs, and on education policies and objectives generally, as required by law, 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,” she said.

Daniels is joined as a plaintiff by the other parent members of the District 2 CEC, including Jody Seki, Loren Chodosh Harkin, Anne Daniel, Mary Silver, Shino Tanikawa, Elzora Cleveland and John Scott as well as Randi Weingarten, president of the 200,000-member United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the labor union representing public school educators in New York City. The CEC members voted in March to authorize the lawsuit.

“The DOE is once again not paying heed to parents’ concerns and to the law,” said Weingarten. “We said it when parents in Harlem and Brooklyn filed a similar lawsuit against the DOE in March and forced them to comply with state law, and we’ll say it again here: Parents should have a voice when it comes to their children’s education. And by its unilateral actions in District 2, the DOE is taking away that voice,” she said.

 

“This situation is all about the age-old competition for space,” Weingarten added. “The city Administration for Children’s Services is closing day care centers and pushing an additional 5,000 kindergarten kids into the public schools at the same time that more and more charter schools are seeking space in zoned schools. That’s why we need to make sure there’s enough money in the city’s capital budget to accommodate all these students. But no matter what the circumstances, the DOE should comply with the law and involve the CEC before making any decisions.”

 

            The lawsuit involves DOE actions pertaining to the following schools:

 

PS 89 and PS 234

 

According to the suit, the plaintiffs learned in June of 2008 that the DOE established two new public schools in Tribeca, namely the Spruce Street School and the Battery Park City Schools. According to the DOE Web site, the Spruce Street School, currently located in the basement of the Tweed Courthouse behind City Hall, will soon move to 77 Gold Street, and priority admission will be given to children currently residing in the area zoned for Public School 89 and Public School 234. The Battery Park City School, also located in the Tweed Courthouse basement, will be moving to 55 Battery Place.

 

By moving students out of their zoned schools and into the newly created schools, the suit argues, the DOE and the chancellor have created new school zones and altered the zones of existing schools, and the District 2 CEC “was never consulted or given an opportunity to approve the zoned districts.”

 

“Although petitioners-plaintiffs are still unaware as to how respondents-defendants will alter the school zones to reassign students, it appears that most parents living in the PS 234 and PS 89 zones have recently received new school assignments for the Fall 2009 school year,” the suit continues. “Thus, in March 2009, some families of entering kindergartners previously zoned for either PS 89 or PS 234 have been assigned – despite their stated preference for their zoned elementary school – to one of two Tweed basement programs for new schools.”

 

Coalition School for Social Change

 

            The suit notes that state education law requires the chancellor to consult with CECs before substantially expanding or reducing an existing high school within a community district. However, the suit says the DOE recently announced plans to unilaterally move the Coalition School for Social Change from inside District 2 to a location outside the district without discussion or consultation with the CEC.

 

New High School Openings

 

            The DOE also unilaterally opened Gramercy Heights High School and NYC iSchool in or around last September and recently announced plans to open the Business of Sports School, Manhattan Business Academy and the Emma Lazarus School of English Language Learners in September of this year, all without discussion or consultation with the CEC.

 

Bayard Rustin High School

 

            The plaintiffs claim that the DOE is phasing out Bayard Rustin High School in Chelsea by not admitting a new 9th-grade class in September and is putting new schools in its place without consulting or communicating with the CEC.

 

The High School for Language and Diplomacy

 

            The plaintiffs claim that they received a February 20, 2009, e-mail from the DOE announcing the opening of the High School for Language and Diplomacy near Union Square but were never consulted about it before a decision was made.

 

School for the Physical City

 

            The suit notes that the DOE held a town hall meeting with parents and the District 2 CEC on April 16, 2008, where it announced that the School for the Physical City, a high school on East 25th Street, would close. However, the DOE did not consult with the CEC before the announcement.

 

Quest to Learn School

 

            On February 6 of this year certain members of the District 2 CEC received an e-mail from a junior DOE specialist announcing new school sitings and closings that were never discussed with the CEC prior to the announcement, including the addition of the Quest to Learn School planned for middle and high school students, the suit says.

 

 

MS 312

 

            On January 28 of this year the District 2 CEC learned for the first time that MS 312, the Lab Middle School, which currently shares space with Museum High School on West 17th Street, will “incubate” three 6th-grade classes of a newly created school for 6th through 12th-graders. Incubation means they will start with one grade and slowly add other grades year by year. This was done without consulting the CEC or getting its approval.

 

PS 3 and PS 41

 

            The suit alleges that the DOE is proceeding with plans to move students from PS 41 on West 11th Street to PS 3 on Hudson Street about 10 blocks away without consulting or seeking approval from the CEC. The suit contends that the DOE is altering the PS 41 zone and that students previously zoned for PS 41 are no longer guaranteed a seat at their school on West 11th Street.

 

PS 151

 

            The DOE closed PS 151 on East 91st Street in June of 2001, forcing students in that zone to attend nearby schools. In recent years, the suit alleges, the DOE has reserved roughly 100 spots per year for PS 151 students at the other six Upper East Side elementary schools to be assigned by lottery. That means students from the PS 151 zone are competing for seats with students already zoned to the other respective schools and they are given spots after the DOE has placed the zoned students for that school. In essence, the suit argues, the DOE has eliminated the PS 151 zone and expanded the zones of the other six Upper East Side elementary schools that are severely overcrowded.

 

            On December 8, 2008, a DOE official promised District 2 parents at a public meeting that students zoned for PS 151 would be assigned to a new school to be located in the building that currently houses the Richard R. Green High School on East 88th Street. The CEC was not aware of the meeting or the decision because the members were never consulted by the DOE.

 

PS 116 Gifted Program

 

In a May 16, 2008, letter to the District 2 CEC, the DOE wrote that it would begin phasing out PS 116’s gifted and talented program. The school is located on East 33rd Street and its gifted and talented program serves students throughout the district, but the DOE never discussed the action with the CEC prior to the announcement.

 

Kindergarten Wait Lists

 

Last month dozens of families of children eligible for kindergarten in September of this year were advised by the DOE that their children do not have a place in their respectively zoned schools. The DOE has told parents their children are on waiting lists for their zoned schools without explaining the procedure for devising the lists or for selecting which students are selected and in what manner, the suit contends.

 

Plaintiffs ask in the lawsuit that the court rule that the DOE’s policy in these cases is a violation of state education law, order the DOE to stop it and reserve such zone alterations to Community Education Councils.

 

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