BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

The next Community Education Council (CEC) 21 meeting will be held September 12, 6:30 p.m., at Intermediate School 303 – Herbert S. Eisenberg, 501 West Avenue.

Public comment is encouraged at this meeting. Guest speakers will include representatives from the Office of Pupil Transportation, who will discuss variances, and Family Solutions of New York, who will talk about services provided for all adults with disabilities.

To learn more, “like” CEC 21 on Facebook, email them at cec21@schools.nyc.gov, visit them online at www.cecd21.org or call (718) 333-3885.

Source: Mattes via Wikimedia Commons

Students and staff at P.S. 48 in Mapleton received accolades for their environmental initiatives to conserve energy, increase recycling and reduce their carbon footprints.

The project, called the Green Cup Challenge, is an annual student-led competition to measure and reduce school-based electricity use for one month. The competition, which ran from March 2 to the 30, was created by the Green Schools Alliance (GSA), a nonprofit organization of public and private schools whose aim is to meet the Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC target of cutting carbon emissions 30 percent by 2017, according to a release by the Department of Education.

“My hat goes off to our students and staff this year for a terrific job preserving our natural resources and reducing the carbon footprint for future generations,” Chancellor Dennis Walcott said. “I also want to thank our city agencies and non-profit partners for helping to cut energy use in school buildings-which, as a whole, consume 25 percent of the electricity used in New York City public facilities.”

P.S. 48 was able to reduce their electricity by 28 percent. They received a $4,000 grant sponsored by the Department of Education and the City’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services for their hard work.

Source: Wordbuilder via Wikimedia Commons. Will this be Dewey's fate too?

Councilman Dominic Recchia, a graduate of John Dewey High School, is pleading with the Department of Education to keep his Alma mater open. On his Facebook page, Recchia posted this status on Wednesday: “Proud to speak in support of John Dewey at last evening’s public hearing. As an alumnus of this school, I want to see John Dewey High School flourish.”

In January, Councilman Domenic Recchia wanted to clean house at John Dewey High School and have Principal Barry Fried removed. Fried resigned last month, however, the fate of the school is still unknown.

As for the rest of the staff, they may be let go as well if the Department of Education decides that Dewey will be the next school to participate in the federally-funded turnaround program. The program’s stipulations demand that failing schools change their name, replace most of the teachers, and break the school up into several smaller schools in exchange for over a million dollars in funding.

The Department of Education labeled Dewey a “failing school.” It has received low scores on the lat three city-issued report cards. the high school is just one of 52 New York City schools facing major changes or closure soon.

According to Courier Life’s Brooklyn Daily, Recchia is not interested in the turnaround plan. Rather, he blames the school’s education and safety problems on the former principal and believes that since his departure, Dewey students are on the right track.

“Let’s bring back the school, let’s bring back the arts. Let’s bring back the auto shop,” Recchia said. “Come down here and see what a wonderful school this is, how wonderful the students are, and how wonderful the staff is.”

Though teachers and students protested against the proposed changes last month, the Department of Education will still have a meeting to decide the outcome for the school. The meeting will be held at Brooklyn Tech High School  at 29 Fort Greene Place between DeKalb Avenue and Fulton Street on April 26 at 6:30 pm.

After a New York Times Op-Ed ignited controversy about the NYC Department of Education’s new middle school sex ed curriculum last week, local pols are speaking out against it and demanding an alternative.

From rhrealitycheck.com:

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) joined Representatives Bob Turner (R-Queens/Brooklyn) and Michael Grimm (R-Brooklyn/Staten Island) today in calling the program “explicit and graphic” and demanding the school system provide an abstinence-based alternative.  

In a written statement, Malliotakis acknowledged the need for sex ed but argued that this particular curriculum is being forced on children by the New York Department of Education.  Turner added that parents had no say in the mandate and that, “The Archdiocese of New York, Orthodox Jewish groups, Muslims, many are saying this is a sensitive and delicate subject, and they want more say in what is taught.”

The event yesterday was largely informed by a group called the Parents Choice Coalition, which is adamantly opposed to the mandate.  The group’s executive director is a former Democratic Assemblyman from the Bronx, Michael Benjamin.  He argued: “New York is a multicultural city whose residents hold a variety of deeply held beliefs and social traditions. It’s wrong to force them to choose between what the city is planning and no sex education at all.”

According to silive.com, State Senator Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) was at the Monday press conference with Turner and Malliotakis while Grimm, who sent a representative, was in Washington.

Much of the controversy stems from accusations by the Parents Choice Coalition, whose website includes curriculum samples, such as workbook activities like mapping out routes to abortion clinics and sample answers from Colombia University’s Go Ask Alice website – a site which includes discussions on foot fetishes, pornography and swing clubs.

For his part, Department of Education Chancellor Dennis Walcott is not backing down. “Abstinence is a very important part of the curriculum,” he told reporters. “But we also have a responsibility to ensure that teenagers who are choosing to have sex understand the potential consequences of their actions and know how to keep themselves safe.”