Community Education Council 24 P.S. 91 Room 119 68-10 Central Avenue Glendale, New York 11385 Phone: 718.418.8160 / Fax: 718.418.8168/
[email protected]
New York City Department of Education Nick Comaianni President
Dmytro Fedkowskyj 1St Vice President
Council Members Cecilia Chavez Bill Kregler
Lelani Bomani 2nd Vice President
Ernest Cury Treasurer
Marge Kolb Secretary
Department of Education Region 4 Officials Reyes Irizarry Regional Superintendent Charles Amundsen Deputy Superintendent Catherine M. Powis Community Superintendent
FINAL BOARD APPROVED MINUTES Minutes of Calendar Meeting October 24, 2006 At PS 58, Maspeth, New York 1) Call to order and Roll Call -- The Calendar meeting convened at PS 58 at 7:00 PM Roll Call – Present Cecilia Chavez Nick Comaianni Ernest Cury Daniel Creighton Dmytro Fedkowskyj Marge Kolb
• • • • • •
Roll Call – Absent •
Lelani Bomani
Roll Call – Late •
Bill Kregler
Also in attendance Catherine Powis, Community Superintendent; Sandy Brawer, Director of Regions 4 and 5; Gregory Bracco, Manager, School Facilities
2) Approval of Minutes On motion duly made and seconded, the minutes of the September 26, 2006 meeting were unanimously approved. 3) Report of the President Mr. Nick Comaianni welcomed the public as well as Mr. Sandy Brawer, Director of Operations, Region 4 and 5 as well as various custodians who were in the audience. The custodians were specifically invited to discuss various matters regarding improvements to their schools as well as their budgets. Mr. Comaianni pointed out that the last time a meeting was held regarding facilities the council was unclear as to what work would fall under capital improvement and what work would not. He stated that all work under $35,000.00 is not considered capital improvement and therefore cannot be included in the 5 Year Capital Plan. Out of Order 5) Guest Speaker Mr. Gregory Bracco, Manager, School Facilities Mr. Bracco explained that he is not familiar with all the schools as he has only been manager for a short time. He began his report by explaining that Facilities is now a regional structure. Facilities routinely does maintenance and repair, and rarely do they engage in new work unless it is an emergency. New seats are created with capital dollars and do not fall under Facilities. He explained that he depends on custodians very much as they are in the schools on a daily basis and know their schools very well. Mr. Bracco stated that the custodians describe the problems they encounter and help him prioritize the needs of the buildings. He works together with the regional manager, custodians and principals. He further stated that there is no shortage of work and that there are many reasons that drive how he prioritizes the work. He looks at whether the problem is a health hazard, or an educational hazard, or if it is simply maintenance. He stated that work orders no longer fall into a black hole. He further stated that the budget was recently cut and money dictates what Facilities is able to do, as the budget is finite. Mr. Comaianni stated that many schools need repairs and one wouldn’t think the budget would be cut. Mr. Bracco commented that Facilities is under funded but pointed out that they are in a better place from where they were yesterday to where they are today. There is still a back-log which is looked at every day and every day something is done to ease that log. Mr. Bracco stated that he has two or three funding streams and gave an example of the general funding line. He stated that the funding is decided by dividing the square footage of the building. Marge Kolb asked if each schools custodial budget covers cleaning supplies, etc. to which Mr. Bracco responded that it not only covers cleaning supplies but minor repairs as
well. Ms. Kolb explained that the city had recently reported that it cut $11 million from the custodian budget, to which Mr. Bracco that each custodian deals with a specific budget. If a custodian has extra activities in the building and it is paid for by outside programs the custodian does not see that money for 1 to 2 months. Marge Kolb asked Mr. Bracco how the Department of Education justifies cutting the budget to which Mr. Bracco stated that he cannot answer that and he does not want to see budget cuts. Custodians in the audience praised the work of Mr. Bracco and one custodian engineer in general, Joe San Fillipo of PS 33Q and also a custodian union representative stated that the questions relating to budget cuts need to be answered on a higher level. Nick Comaianni asked Mr. San Fillipo to let all custodians in D24 know they could come to the Community Education Council and they would be assisted to the best of the ability of the council. They need to let parents, via the PTA president know how budget cuts are affecting their ability to take care of their schools. Dmytro Fedkowskyj stated that the higher level that Mr. Fillipo referred to would be Chancellor Klein and added that unfortunately that gets no one anywhere. Unfortunately you have to work with what you get not what you need and that is that the downfall. Budget cuts affect everyone, especially our kids. We are never going to change the system, it must change itself. Mr. Fedkowskyj further stated that he appreciates the custodians as they work with what they have and do a great job. Nick Comaianni then addressed the parents in the audience and asked them to take back control and have the mayor ease up on controlling the schools. Dmytro Fedkowskyj then stated that the council will follow up with custodians by sending them a letter asking them to tell the council what it is that they need. Custodian Engineer from PS 68 stated that Mr. Bracco has been very accessible and he thanked him for such. He echoed the sentiment of Mr. Fedkowskyj by stating that the budget cuts would definitely affect everyone. Custodian Engineer from PS 58 stated that Mr. Bracco is a great person to work with. He also pointed out that the recent cut is retroactive to July 1st. He further stated that if he had spent normally and did not have a deficit, he would now because the retroactive cut is going to affect his 2007 budget. Dmytro Fedkowskyj asked if custodians get budget training to which Mr. Bracco stated that custodians had indoctrination training which was 16 hours. Two custodians from the audience offered up the amount of their budget cuts, one school was cut $37,000 and had to let go of 5 part time workers and the other was cut by $6,500.
Dmytro Fedkowskyj asked how many managers were responsible for D24 to which Mr. Bracco responded that 2 managers are responsible and added that Central approves each budget. Mr. Fedkowskyj asked if there was a budget for emergency work to which Mr. Bracco responded in the affirmative. Mr. Fedkowskyj asked what the time-line was for emergency work to which Mr. Bracco answered that critical work is done within 24 hours, non-critical work with in 35-45 days and regular work within 120 calendar days. Dan Creighton asked how routine, preventative work is getting done to which Mr. Bracco responded that it depended on the severity of the work and the state of the budget at that time. He then asked if the age of a school is taken into consideration to which Mr. Bracco responded that only the square footage is taken into consideration. Mr. Creighton then confirmed his response by adding that if a building is 100 years old it gets the same funding per square foot as a building that is new to which Mr. Bracco agreed that he was correct. Nick Comaianni thanked Mr. Bracco and then introduced Mr. Sandy Brawer, Director of Regions 4 and 5. Mr. Brawer stated that our schools are in better shape than ever. There is now a more ‘building friendly’ team, including the School Construction Authority, School Facilities and the ROC working together to ensure the quality of our buildings. Things no longer fall into a black hole. There is a facilities website, specifically designed for custodians and principals. By using this website you can see the status of a specific work order. Further, no emergency work is ever turned down. He further stated that the New York City Department of Education does not want to depict our schools as gloom and doom. Our schools are not falling down, they are being built up. Ms. Powis added that the schools in D24 are in very good shape and she thanked Mr. Brawer, Mr. Bracco and the custodians in the audience for attending. 4) Report of the Community Superintendent Ms. Powis stated that as a result of the district not meeting its targets for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students and Students with Disabilities (SWD) on the Assessments for English Language Arts (K-12) for 3 consecutive years, District 24 has been identified as a District in Need of Improvement (DINI) Year 3. As such, the New York State Department of Education (NYSED) in accordance with NCLB regulations has mandated that the district participate in a Curriculum Audit for English Language Arts. To this end, the New York City Department of Education in consultation with NYSED has contracted with the consulting group Learning Point Associates to conduct this audit during the 2006-2007 school years. A total of 21 schools in D24 were randomly selected to participate in the audit. Ms. Powis announced that PS 128 has been selected by the US Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, as a 2006 NCLB—Blue Ribbon School.
Ms. Powis also announced the Region 4 Professional Development Choice Program which recognizes the notion that professional development is differentiated and selfselected. She stated that professional development in Region 4 will be by choice. Individual principals will now customize and select professional development activities. Ms. Powis ended her report by discussing the D24 Gifted and Talented Program for the 2007-8 school year. She stated the following:
Students in grades K-5 will be tested Parents nominate students for assessment/testing Parent information night will be held on October 30th at PS 153 at 6:30 PM Applications will be available at CSD 24 Schools, Regional Offices and District 24 Office Applications are due to Cheryl Quatrano, Director of Gifted and Talented by December 1st 2006 at IS 145, 33-34 80th Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Testing will take place during late December 2006 and January 2007 There will be no zoned priority given—students can be placed in any of the three program sites (PS 16, PS 91, or PS 153) Parents may also select programs in three city-wide schools offering the program – those schools are noted on the application Further information about the Gifted and Talented is available at http://school.nyc/gov/TeachLearn/OfficeCurriculumProfessionalDevelopemen t/GiftedTalented/default.htm
Ms. Powis took questions from the council. Marge Kolb asked about recent test scores stating that at PS 153 the level 1’s went up by .6% and at PS 229 the level went down by .5%, almost a full point difference between these two very similar schools. She stated that perhaps PS 229 has more English Language Learners and asked why there is this kind of variation between two similar schools to which Ms. Powis stated that these are the conversations she is having with the principals. They were asked to come up with a list as to possible reasons the scores came out the way they did. Dmytro Fedkowskyj asked Ms. Powis for the test scores from the last few years in order to be able to compare them. He stated that perhaps there may be certain situations between 2005/6 that are not visible on the report. Nick Comaianni stated that his worry is that the lower numbers may deter principals in accepting the special education population and so special education should be separated from general education when considering the numbers. Ms. Powis stated that one of the reasons schools are evaluated and assessed with all students taken into consideration is because of the Federal law, No Child Left Behind.
Marge Kolb stated her concern over the invitation to sit in on the District’s meeting with the audit firm -- parents were invited at the last minute and the meeting was held during school dismissal time. She then asked if 2 groups, ELL and Special Education, are causing the whole district to be in non-compliance, then why aren’t the first schools being audited those that have a high ELL and Special Education population? She further inquired as to why the Department of Education is auditing the whole ELA curriculum knowing that the above mentioned populations affect the test scores to which Ms. Powis replied that the question posed was one of the questions raised at the meeting. She added that the audit will roll out for all schools. Built into this audit there will be several focus groups made up of parents who will speak directly with the auditors. She further stated that this is not a two week process, rather a 2 year process. Ms. Powis took questions from the audience. Mr. Comaianni introduced Mr. Sandy Brawer. Mr. Brawer stated that 5 additions are planning to be built at: PS 128, PS 13, PS 113, PS 49 and PS 102 and will be completed by September 2008. These buildings are in the design stage and when it’s solid the DOE will update this council. There are a lot of new seats and better facilities in place of old facilities. Mr. Brawer then took questions from the council. Dan Creighton asked if there was any progress on the Metropolitan Avenue site to which Mr. Brawer replied that Region 4 is not really involved in that site anymore because it may go over to the other region (5). The seats will be built however. Marge Kolb stated that she read in various local newspapers that at the recent Borough Cabinet Meeting, Lorraine Grillo stated that the 4,000 seats being built in D24 will solve the District’s overcrowding issues. She asked Mr. Brawer if he agreed with Ms. Grillo’s statement to which he said that he believes D24 is growing everyday and the need for more seats is and will be ongoing. Ms. Kolb further asked about the numbers in the Blue Book states the target capacity in grades K-3 is 20 students per classroom yet the SCA when figuring capacity for new construction puts that number at 25 students per classroom to which Mr. Brawer stated that Ms. Kolb is mixing up capacities and design through how we get funded by the state. We do not receive all the money from the state for early class size reduction. Ms. Kolb stated that her son’s kindergarten class has 21 students and inquired as to why schools in Corona have 26 or 27 students per class. She further stated that Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have stated that the 5 Year Capital would fully fund all the new seats we need in this city. She feels strongly that itt will not, the formula the DOE is using to determine capacity is not correct. Mr. Brawer replied that the Capital Plan is a floating, fluid plan and changes all the time. The money simply is not available to have 20 students per class in K-3 in this city at this time.
Dmytro Fedkowskyj stated that he and the parents of District 24 fought hard with Albany to get this capital money and now we have no idea what’s going on with this site. District 24 depends on those seats. We need to do a better job in finding out what’s going on with that project. We need information by the next meeting. Sandy Brawer took questions from the audience. In conversations regarding the conversion of schools to K-8 Ms. Kolb stated for the record that she opposes these conversions unless and until all overcrowding throughout the District is addressed. Mr. Comaianni reminded Ms. Kolb that this board approved the Five Year Capital Plan by majority vote of which included extensions and conversions so schools can become K-8. 6) Resolutions – None 7) Report of the Committees Special Education Committee Chair Bill Kregler announced a City Wide Special Education Conference in Brooklyn on Claremont Street at 6pm as well as a Family Support Conference on November 3rd. Curriculum Committee Chair Marge Kolb stated that there was nothing new to report at this time. Building, Zoning and Maintenance Chair Dmytro Fedkowskyj stated that there was nothing new to report at this time. English Language Learners Committee Chair Ernest Cury stated that there was nothing new to report at this time. 8) Old Business Mr. Dmytro Fedkowskyj stated that the busing issue between IS 119 and PS 49 and 128 is still being discussed with Mr. Scarpa and at this point there is still not an answer. 9) New Business – Marge Kolb asked that Patricia J. Safina administrative assistant to CEC D24 check to see how many meetings member Lelani Bomani has missed. 10) Public Agenda Session The council took questions from the public.
11) Adjournment – Dmytro Fedkowskyj motioned to adjourn, Nick Comaianni seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 PM.