Portelos Hearing: DOE Legal Invalidates Chapter Leader Election at IS 49SI

Imagine a union allowing the employer to invalidate an election for building rep and remaining mute.  

Multiple contract violations involved in principal's refusal to meet w. elected CL on a regular basis, consult committee, etc. Not that they ( union bureaucracy)  care.... observer at Portelos hearing

How absurd. They've had 500 +days to investigate him and they are just *now* "checking" his "in-laws' wi-fi"? WHILE the hearing is underway?  And for what purpose? Are his in-laws Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? Are they looking for H-bomb diagrams? WTF ! Last week that investigators were there... or at his *own* parents' house ....  THE NIGHT BEFORE THE OPENING HEARING. They were talking to HIS CHILDREN. I was appalled..... observer

I am adhering to a non-mandatory request from the hearing officer not to go into the details of the charges and the hearing. But what follows occurred before the hearing formally resumed on Monday (Sept. 23) with an objection from the DOE attorney – there were 2 of them plus an assistant -- when will the press begin to question the astronomical cost of this case where not one negative word about how this teacher taught children is mentioned?

The DOE lawyer,  Jordana Shankman, objected to Portelos standing outside the school from which he has been banned since April 26, 2012 and claimed he was doing it to intimidate witnesses. The fact that he might have been there as a way to address issues that some staff members might want to raise with their chapter leader lead to the bizarre DOE claim that he was not the chapter leader.

We were all shocked to learn that IS 49SI principal Linda Hill's refusal to recognize Francesco Portelos as the duly elected chapter leader was ordered by DOE legal.

In other words, the DOE has interjected itself into a chapter election by unilaterally declaring the election for chapter leader as null and void. When questoned by NYSUT lawyer Chris Callagy, Principal Hill said it wasn't she who made the decision not to deal with Portelos but the order was issued by DOE legal. Later on in the hearing, the DOE attorney made a point of reiterating this. Callegy managed to get Hill to confirm that the Staten Island UFT maintained that Portelos was still the elected chapter leader.

DOE lawyer Jordana Shankman also outrageously asserted that Portelos had no right to be in front of his school even on his own time and that he should be in the "place he was assigned."

In the meantime, since last year, the principal's cronies have initiated 3 failed attempts to recall Portelos.

My question to the UFT is: What will you do about it when the DOE, looking to paint a teacher as dangerous and threatening to a staff as grounds for dismissal must suffer the inconvenient truth that said staff elected this "threat" as their union rep and then the DOE declares that he is not their union rep as a way to make their case?

In fact it is hard to decide who to be more pissed off at: the DOE or the UFT for standing by while this farce continues. Imagine a union allowing the employer to invalidate an election and remaining mute. Wouldn't one expect the Staten Island UFT borough office to take a strong stand here? To consistently affirm that Portelos is the official school chapter leader? To go into the school and address the principal's attempts to foment recall votes? To join Portelos in holding meetings outside the school grounds to show support instead of letting him stand there alone and be accused by the DOE of acting like a terrorist while trying to serve the people who elected him?

In fact, information sometimes filters out of the UFT inner sanctum that UFT officialdom would be perfectly happy to see Portelos be found guilty and just go away. I'll leave the "why" to speculators.
 
There were 4 MORE retirees at the hearing. The next hearing date will be Monday, Sept. 30, 10AM.

Afterburn
Principal Hill testified how she consulted with DOE legal, network legal, her union's legal and goodness knows how many "legals"? The major "educational" innovation of Joel Klein has been the number of lawyers he added to the payroll.
Imagine the costs of this attempt to get rid of Portelos.

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Teacher Insurgency in Mexico - TONIGHT - REPORT BACK From Mexico City to NYC:

REPORT BACK

From Mexico City to New York City

Teacher Insurgency

in Mexico

Tuesday, September 24, 6 p.m.
CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Ave. at 34th St. Room 5409
B, D, F train to 34th St.; 6 train to 33rd St. (photo identification needed

Since mid-August, teachers in Mexico have electrified the country, striking against unionbusting educational “reform” laws that threaten to throw tens of thousands out of their jobs while privatizing and potentially eliminating schools in impoverished and indigenous areas.

This is not your usual protest: the teachers drove the Mexican Congress out of the capital, and twice blocked Mexico City’s airport. Up to 40,000 strikers are camped out in the capital’s main square, the Zócalo, in front of the National Palace, refusing to accept the anti-teacher laws.
 

Their example is an inspiration to us in New York and elsewhere as we face a global offensive against public education.
 

Come to a reportback and discussion with NYC educators who were
present in Mexico City and Oaxaca during this struggle.

*Gloria Brandman, NYC teacher, UFT Chapter Leader, MORE (Movement of  Rank and File Educators)

*Tami Gold, professor and filmmaker - PSC Hunter College Chapter 

 *Marjorie Stamberg, NYC teacher, UFT delegate, CSEW (Class Struggle  Education Workers)

 

Video Reports from Oaxaca and Mexico City

Light refreshments
For more information, call (212) 460-0983

 

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New Content at SusanOhanian.Org, Sept.

As usual, Susan can keep you up all day reading her collection of stuff. Have fun.

I just received another birthday party invitation--this one from student about to celebrate her 40th birthday. She was in my 3rd grade class in 1982-83--10 years removed from the other student. She is the student to whom I gave more of my heart than any other. . . and the love continues to be returned. My only gratitude to Facebook is that's where she found me.

Cartoon: It may mean jail.
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=825

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Early Childhood Standards of Common Core are Developmentally Inappropriate
Truth in American Education with Ohanian comment
American Principles Project
2013-09-18
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=588

Thank you, Conservative Common Core bashers! May some Progressives follow your lead. Dr. Megan Koschnick makes some on-target observations about how inappropriate the kindergarten standards are. I very much appreciate her use of specific examples.

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 Common Core Standards: Conservative Victory or Debacle in the Making?
Anthony Cody
Education Week: Living in Dialogue blog
2013-09-23
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=587

Anthony Cody puts Michael Petrilli's feet to the fire.

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The Common Core money war
Nirvi Shah and Stephanie Simon with Ohanian commen
Politico ProEducation
2013-09-20
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=586

It's interesting that David Coleman is trying to reassure religious groups about the Common Core.

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Is it 'Parents Uneducated' or Press complicit in Misinformation About the Common Core?
Susan Ohanian
comment on NPR
2013-09-23
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=585

NPR's Claudio Sanchez says In Push For 'Common' Standards, Many Parents Left Uneducated

. I'd say the focus should be on he and his fellow journalists.

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New Buzz Words for Learning Common Core Vocabulary
S. Krashen & S. Ohanian comment on Marlene Sprenge
Edutopia
2013-09-20
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=584

11 Tips on Teaching Common Core Critical Vocabulary ignores reading; instead we get Critical verbs as a 3-act play.

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No More Carrots, Lots More Stick: The increasingly imperious Arne Duncan
Frederick M. Hess and Max Eden
Weekly Standard
2013-09-30
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=583

Duncan's increasingly imperious behavior may be our best hope for defeating Common core. As Hess and Eden point out, 'In legislating by fiat, Duncan is ensuring that partisan fissures over the Common Core are likely to grow and that conservatives will have to step in to push back on this supersizing of the federal role.'



Go, Arne!

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Parent Arrested After Asking Questions at School Meeting
Ann Miller
TruthDig
2013-09-22
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=582

Yours is not to reason why,

Yours is to do or die.



And get kicked out of a public meeting for asking uncomfortable questions about the Common Core.

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To the editor
Stephen Krashen
Columbus Dispatch
2013-09-23
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1606

Krashen points out their IS a magic bullet to close achievement gaps.

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To the editor
Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus USC
Hartford Courant
2013-09-21
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1605

As people feel the economic stress, cost for implementing the Common Core tests is definitely something they can understand.

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Merryl Tisch: Chosen By God
Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-09-23
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1698

Your refrigerator doesn't work? Call the president of GE. Problem with schools. Call on God's appointee.

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A Toddler on 3 Different Psychiatric Meds? How Drugging Kids Became Big Business
Enrico Gnualati
AlterNet
2013-09-10
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1697

Big pharma has discovered a lucrative new market in kids.  The monetary price of the pills is staggering, the physical cost to children much more staggering. As Common Core works to further standardize children,and parents worry about their children 'measuring up' to standard, there will be more demand for drugs to aid this process.

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Underpaid 83-Year-Old Professor Died Trying to Make Ends Meet by Working Night Shift at Eat an' Save
Daniel Kovalik
Pittsburgh Post=Gazette
2013-09-18
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1696

The final days of an adjunct professor reveals how badly adjuncts are treated--but the university involved won't admit it.

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Private Schools Jettison a Key Test: Concerns That Test Preparation Rendered Results Invalid
Sophia Hollander
Wall Street Journal
2013-09-20
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1695

You can bet your bippy that wealthy parents will find some other way to spend $568 (plus test prep grooming) to help their preschoolers perform.

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That’s not autism: It's simply a brainy, introverted boy
Enrico Gnaulati
Salon.com
2013-09-21
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=532

Autism spectrum diagnoses are up 78 percent in 10 years. We're dramatically overdiagnosing it in everyday behavior. Here's a provocative excerpt from a new book on the topic.

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Youngest Kid, Smartest Kid?
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/201
The New Yorker
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=531

Very interesting research on red shirting here.

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It may mean jail


2013-09-23
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=0

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Where Are Rhee, Kopp, Klein, Moskowitz, E4E, DFER When it Comes to Defending Food Stamps Program (SNAP)?

.....you might think that ensuring adequate nutrition for children, which is a large part of what SNAP does, actually makes it less, not more likely that those children will be poor and need public assistance when they grow up. ... Paul Krugman, NY Times

You mean SNAP might actually be more effective in fighting poverty than charter schools or TFA teachers? Yes it is.

economists Hilary Hoynes and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach have studied the impact of the food stamp program in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was gradually rolled out across the country. They found that children who received early assistance grew up, on average, to be healthier and more productive adults than those who didn’t — and they were also, it turns out, less likely to turn to the safety net for help.

 So all these people claim to be fighting the civil rights issue of our times by building political machines to fight teacher unions, tenure, urge teachers be evaluated by test scores, pour loads of money into defending the common core.

... almost two-thirds of SNAP beneficiaries are children, the elderly or the disabled, and most of the rest are adults with children.... 

You might think that ensuring adequate nutrition for children, which is a large part of what SNAP does, actually makes it less, not more likely that those children will be poor and need public assistance when they grow up. 

Where is the outrage from those intrepid ed deformers on this issue? Not one dime to fight a real struggle against the Republican assault on hungry children. What better example of their true agenda than to see Eva Moskowitz close schools for half a day to march against De Blasio's plan to make them pay the damn rent? (City charter school advocates plan to reprise a 2012 political rally. GothamSchools, Daily News, Post)

Conservatives seem, in particular, to believe that freedom’s just another word for not enough to eat. Hence the war on food stamps, which House Republicans have just voted to cut sharply even while voting to increase farm subsidies.

Hey Paul. It ain't just conservatives.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/opinion/krugman-free-to-be-hungry.html?ref=paulkrugman&_r=0&pagewanted=print

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Reign of Error on Brian Lehrer - 30 Issues: Diane Ravitch on School Reform

Sometimes I'm down on Brian over his ed coverage but he gave Diane quite a good platform. But did I have to hear him play yet again a clip from Merryl Tisch? When I hear her it sounds like she's slurping milk between syllables. Diane pretty much covers most issues on charters -- except she didn't point to the attrition rate. Like how the numbers drop in each cohort as it marches on through the grades (no replacement like in public schools). As we showed in our film (see tab at top of this blog) the scores go up as the number of kids goes down through the grades.

The Brian Lehrer Show
http://www.wnyc.org/story/30-issues-diane-ravitch-school-reform/#commentlist

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Contents of Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School in Newark, NJ Auctioned Off

Contents of Newark, NJ Charter School

Tuesday, September 17th 11AM

Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School

15 James Street

Newark, NJ 07102

ABSOLUTE AUCTION
Charter Revoked.  Trustee Ordered Auction
Apple & HP Computers
DLP Projectors, Smartboards
Schoolastic Furniture & More

The tip came in this email from a teacher in NYC:

Norm,
They now hold auctions to sell the contents of closing CHARTER SCHOOLS.  I saw the add in the NY TIMES paper edition Sunday and I looked up the address and it is explained in the link.
http://www.ajwillnerauctions.com/auctions/contents-newark-nj-charter-school.  So this is where our tax money is going.... from a NYC teacher.

We passed the story on to one of the teachers we know in Newark for follow-up. And I won't even go into detail about school namesake Adelaide Sanford who was a principal in Bed-Stuy and then a NY State Regent. During the 1975 strike over the drastic budget cuts which led to the cut of 13,000 teachers and a shortened school day she was one of the only principals to break the strike and keep her school open, thus in essence choosing to support the cuts. Teachers from other schools in District 16 marched over and picketed her school.

On September 17th contents of Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School in Newark, NJ were auctioned off by A. J. Willner Auctions. Featured items included in the loot were computers, office furniture, teaching aids and musical instruments. How did a charter school end up in this pickle?

Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School was closed by the Christie administration in June 2013 due to its repeated failure to comply with state regulations and its poor academic performance. Opened in 2007 by Fredrica Bey, the school had been on probation for more than a year.

The US Attorney’s Office was concerned with a potential conflict of interest regarding the school’s agreement to lease space from Women in Support of the Million Man March (WISOMM), a non-profit organization founded by Bey.

The school had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past year to rent space from WISOMM, despite the lack of a lease between the charter school and the non-profit.

To further complicate matters, Fredrica’s daughter, Amina Bey served as Adelaide Sanford’s school board president. Both Fredrica and Amina serve on the executive board of WISOMM. Adelaide Sanford was the fourth lowest performing charter school in Newark and a plan submitted to the state last year to improve its academic performance was deemed unsuccessful.

Bey faces two federal lawsuits. The first contends that Bey took $345,325 in federal grant money for at-risk kids and instead used the money to pay WISOMM’s bills. The second lawsuit alleges that Bey favored employees who assisted her in misusing Adelaide Sanford’s funding and fired others who threatened to expose her actions.

In layman’s terms, Adelaide L. Sanford’s contents were auctioned off due to the alleged misconduct of Fredrica Bey in misappropriating federal and state funding to pay charter school rent for space owned by an organization she founded and expenses of that organization. Surprise! Surprise! The school had very low academic performance.

A selection of the goodies. Nothing like fine executive furniture or a plush conference room.

Here is the article in the Star-Ledger

Christie administration closing Newark charter school founded by city activist Fredrica Bey 

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2013/06/christie_administration_closing_newark_charter_school_founded_by_city_activist_fredrica_bey.html

Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School located on James Street in Newark's Central Ward appears in this photo. Yesterday, state education officials announced plans to close the school next week at the end of the school year. (Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger)

Print

By Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger
Follow on Twitter
on June 18, 2013 at 6:30 AM, updated June 18, 2013 at 6:33 AM

RELATED DOCUMENTS

• Adelaide Sanford charter revocation letter
• OFAC Report on Adelaide Sanford June 2013
• OFAC Report on Adelaide Sanford March 2012

The Christie administration said Monday it will shut down Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School in Newark next week because of its repeated failure to comply with state regulations.
In a letter to school officials obtained Monday by The Star-Ledger, assistant Education Commissioner Evo Popoff also cited the school’s poor academic record as a reason for closing the school.
State officials "lost confidence" in Adelaide Sanford’s school board because school officials repeatedly did not comply with Education Department officials’ requests for various documents and information over the past year, according to the letter.
"A charter school must demonstrate to the Department not only an ability to provide students with a quality education, but the capacity to effectively govern and manage the school’s finances," the letter states. "The Department has lost confidence in (Adelaide Sanford’s) ability to meet the basic requirements to serve its students’ best interests."
Opened in 2007 by longtime activist Fredrica Bey, the K-7 school had been on probation for more than a year before the Christie administration announced its plans Monday to revoke the school’s charter before it is up for review, a rare move that has only happened once before in the last five years.

Students and parents of Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School stand near the school's entrance at the corner of Washington Street and James Street in Newark. State officials announced Monday that the school will close next week at the end of the academic year. Noah Murray/The Star-Ledger 

Neither Bey nor officials from the school board responded to requests for comment on the state’s decision.
Parent Keisha Seagle said the state’s decision seems like the best thing to do considering the school’s problems, but she said the timing of the announcement hurts Adelaide Sanford students like her 6-year-old son, a kindergartner. It’s too late to enter other charter school lotteries, she said.
"I’m not sure where my son will go to school next year," Seagle said. "I don’t want him at a regular public school, so I may enroll him in a Catholic school where I know he’ll be safe and receive a quality education."
The worst part is that the closure could have been prevented had the school’s leaders had complied with the state Education Department’s requests, Seagle said.
"This is all about someone’s ego," Seagle said. "Fredrica Bey could have walked away and done what was necessary to fix the problem. Instead, now she ends up with no tenants and that huge mortgage to pay. She loses and the kids lose, too."
Much of the state’s concerns, according to the letter, centered on conflicts of interest among Adelaide Sanford’s leadership and the school’s agreement to lease space from Women in Support of the Million Man March (WISOMMM), a non-profit community group Bey founded in 1995.
Over the past year, state investigators determined the school spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent space from WISOMMM even though a valid lease between the two groups did not exist and some of the space the school paid for was not used for classroom instruction.
Bey brokered the lease agreement, the investigators found. When state officials asked Bey and her daughter Amina Bey to disclose their ties to WISOMMM and remedy any conflicts of interest, the Beys provided conflicting accounts, the letter states. They resigned from their positions at the school months later.

In this 2005 file photo, Fredrica Bey comforts a student at WISOMMM's preschool, which is known as the Holistic Childcare Center. Classes used to be held on 15 James Street. Now, they are held on 53 Lincoln Park.File photo 

Amina Bey had served as Adelaide Sanford’s school board president. Both women continue to work for WISOMMM and serve on its executive board.
In an accompanying report released Monday and referenced in the state’s letter, state investigators said they also found Adelaide Sanford’s board violated its own charter when it allowed black studies professor Leonard Jeffries and Elizabeth Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste, two of Fredrica Bey’s longtime acquaintances, to join the school’s board earlier this year without proper board approval.
On top of the compliance issues, a plan the school submitted to the state last year to improve its academic performance has been "unsuccessful," the letter states.
Adelaide Sanford is the fourth lowest performing charter school in Newark and its students’ math and language arts test scores have only grown marginally in recent years, state education officials found. "By all measures used by the State of New Jersey to assess the academic quality of a charter school – absolute, comparative and growth measures – the data demonstrate that (Adelaide Sanford) comes up short in delivering on the fundamental objective of providing a high-quality education to its students," the letter states.
The state’s decision to close Adelaide Sanford comes six weeks after The Star-Ledger reported that millions of dollars in state and federal aid the school received have helped finance real estate holdings controlled by Bey. Parents quoted in that report described a chaotic school with too few textbooks, insufficient classroom space and rowdy, sometimes violent students.
Bey already faces two civil lawsuits filed in federal court.
A complaint filed last year by the U.S. Attorney’s Office contends Bey took $345,325 in federal grant money earmarked for programs to keep "at-risk" youths off the streets and instead used much of it to pay WISOMMM’s bills, then falsely reported how the money was spent.

Lisa Johnson, one of the many parents who voiced displeasure with Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School, located on James Street, counts off the many reason she is not happy with the way the school is run. Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger 

De Lacy Davis, a former Adelaide Sanford administrator and a co-defendant in the fraud lawsuit, used some of the grant money to pay other bills, the Justice Department said. But last month, Davis, a retired East Orange police officer, filed a lawsuit of his own that pits him against Bey, his former longtime friend.
Davis’s suit against Bey and members of the school board alleges Bey favored employees who helped her raid Adelaide Sanford’s coffers and fired others who threatened to expose her illegal and unethical behavior. Neither Bey nor an attorney for the school had comment on Davis’ lawsuit.
Adelaide Sanford is the second charter school state officials have closed in the last five years whose charter to operate was not up for renewal. Typically, charter school performance is formally evaluated by the state every five years, and Adelaide Sanford’s last renewal came in 2011.
Last year, Department of Education Commissioner Chris Cerf shuttered Schomburg Charter School in Jersey City because of budget problems, declining enrollment and low academic performance. That school had been open more than a decade before the state moved to close it.
Since 2010, the Christie administration has placed 21 charter schools on probation and has closed 10 schools, including Adelaide Sanford and Schomburg. The other schools closed were scheduled to have their performance reviewed and did not measure up.

Related Coverage

• Special report: Born in hope, Newark charter school now embroiled in controversy
• State Department of Education investigators visit Adelaide L. Sanford Charter School
• Newark community rally decries Star-Ledger investigation
• Lawsuit: Newark charter school founder fired employees who threatened to expose illegal acts

 

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Today: Back to Portelos Hearing

It is game 2 of the Portelos vs the DOE et al and we expect some retiree MOREs to be there. We agreed not to reveal details until the case is over but we can write generally about the hearing. Transcripts are available which I assume can be published one day.

See my reports from the last session.

• Portelos Hearing: NY Post Reporter Reuven Fenton C...
• Heading to Portelos Hearing (Sept 12) This Morning...

And Protect Portelos

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