The first assignment for NYC School Chancellor nominee Cathie Black ought to be fixing District 13 schools -- one of the lowest performing districts in all of New York City --  and specifically addressing the middle school nightmare within it.  As far as I’m concerned, if she can formulate a credible plan forward for D13 right now, perhaps she can earn the waiver Mayor Michael Bloomberg seeks as this is the fundamental task of “managing”  a school system.  Having hunted for a job recently, I have found that a sample presentation can be part of the application process at more serious organizations, why not for the largest school system in the United States? Read more ...

To provide some background, there was a little announced town hall meeting on October 26 at Borough Hall about the welfare of District 13.  The meeting was sponsored by Council Member Tish James and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.  Although it is no secret that D13 is tragically broken, you wouldn’t have known it by the turn out.  Perhaps it was because few politicians are making a fuss, except for CM James.  Heck, BP Markowitz didn’t even show up to say, “I care.”  But then again, the press didn’t make it either and almost nothing was written.  It was like a tree falling in a forest, a sad but telling story for D13 students for sure.

I would like to finish what I started that October night before I was cut-off at my three minutes.  For starters, I thanked CM James for taking the first step then I got right into it.  As a parent in the application process, there are three steps to middle school recovery:

1. Utter confusion.  The process is overwhelming.
2. Outrage.  Once you dig into the application process and start visiting schools, you realize that D13 is broken beyond your wildest dreams, yet you are only guaranteed a seat in D13, probably at a minimum 40 minute commute to add insult to injury.
3. Acceptance.  You realize that many PS 8 families, my own included, have the means and grades to seek other options to get out of D13 alive.  I emphasize “many,” not “all” by any means.

So I asked, “But what of the thousands of students left behind in D13?...”  It is time we heed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s warning that a society that spends trillions of dollars on military defense instead of programs of social uplift approaches spiritual death.  We see Dr. King’s point manifest in D13, haunting us like a scarlet letter 13 upon our chests.  The district should not exist as it is today, not ever, like the 13th floor in a hotel.  The decades upon decades of head in the sand political neglect that has persisted in D13 is a dereliction of duty from President Barack Obama, Congress, Albany, right down to City Hall, the DOE and our own community members at large.  And I mean no disrespect to all the dedicated individuals throughout the district trying to make a difference every day.

Therefore:

1. First and foremost, our political body needs to get its house in order and set priorities in this fiscal crisis.  Good education is a question of political will. Redirect our resources.
2. City and State elected officials need to treat EACH AND EVERY SCHOOL like an Atlantic Yards (AY) or a Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP).  Bend over backwards for our schools like they’re an AY or BBP.  For example, use eminent domain to take busted developments if space is the issue.  Expend political capital.  Build a political legacy on our schools.  Don’t play political football with student Metrocards.  NYC Economic Development Corp. find $15 million in stimulus money for our “shovel ready” schools.
3. MAKE A FUSS! Elected officials, City through Federal, get us the money and show up at the schools like it’s a ball game or a junket to Afghanistan.  Show up often.  CM James call up Washington, call President Obama.  And if they don’t answer, call Oprah.  Call Rachel Maddow. MAKE A STINK!
4. Create a reason for kids to show up every day.  Build the facilities like the suburbs  and develop the programs like Mark Twain.  Make great sports, instrument, language, drama and other programs available at every school to every child.
5. We know the broken schools.  Just walk through the front doors.  We do not need to spend $57.3 million per year in testing.  Instead, use this money to build great programs and teachers.
6. Elected officials rethink your pet projects.  BP Markowitz please reconsider your $64 million controversial amphitheater and redirect the capital funds to build the needed D13 school facilities.  How many more schools need a real gym?
7. Charter schools can be part of the solution.  Now that I see 20-20, waist deep in the big middle school muddy, nothing should be ruled out (not long ago I decried them).
8. Hold more of these town hall meetings.

My first round of this match was cut off by the three minute bell at about step six and I never got to make my most important point.  This message is directed to every school parent and concerned citizen in not only D13 but all of Brooklyn and all of NYC.  People, MAKE A FUSS!  MAKE A STINK! And keep stinking it up until you get the results you want.  Fight for it.  Go 15 rounds and 14 grades.  Show up in your school classrooms (i.e. drop-off, pick-up, homework time and publishing parties), at your PTA meetings and events, and in the political arena.

In theory, your elected officials and the press will mirror your political concern.  Taken to the opposite limit --  if you don’t care they won’t -- as is the case in D13.  Get organized and, if your elected officials don’t answer your calls, vote them out.  Don’t accept their complacency.  Losing a seat is the only thing incumbent elected officials understand.  This means not only showing up to vote in party primaries in September but finding, funding and promoting alternative candidates who will make “a fuss and a stink” long before, a year or more actually.  That’s when it’s won.  This takes serious commitment and heavy grassroots lifting.

Yet, we have this great opportunity before us with Mayor Bloomberg requesting a waiver for Ms. Black.  People are protesting all over NYC.  Elected officials are lining up to knock her down every chance they get.  In fact, our Assembly woman inappropriately beat us over the head with Ms. Black at our PS 8 Book Reading event just the other night, showing a complete disconnect with what is really on parent’s minds.  Political will is stirring in a most negative and uncalled for way at the moment.  Elected officials and voters alike, why not redirect this energy into something constructive like vetting Cathie Black now.   Instead of protesting MS. Black outright, demand that she produce a credible plan to fix D13 before she gets the job.

Ms. Black will you apply for your waiver by presenting a comprehensive plan to fix D13, from elementary school, middle through high?  This is your first school assignment.  A credible plan can be replicated for other failing districts elsewhere.  To show you’re serious, you can withdraw your application for a few weeks until you make your plan public. Work on nothing else.  And please don’t ignore us.  Our children are waiting.

Sincerely,

Doug Biviano

PS 8 Parent of Three

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