NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION PUBLIC HEARING ON GOVERNANCE OF THE NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT Queens Borough Hall 120-55 Queens Boulevard Meeting Room 213 120-55 Queens Blvd. Kew Gardens, New York Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:06 a.m. EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 2 A P P E A R A N C E S: CATHERINE T. NOLAN, Chairwoman, Assembly Standing Committee on Education MICHAEL BENEDETTO, Member of Assembly AUDREY I. PHEFFER, Member of Assembly RORY I. LANCMAN, Member of Assembly ANDREW HEVESI, Member of Assembly MARK WEPRIN, Member of Assembly DANIEL J. O’DONNELL, Member of Assembly BARBARA M. CLARK, Member of Assembly MICHELLE TITUS, Member of Assembly MARGARET M. MARKEY, Member of Assembly JEFFRION L. AUBRY, Member of Assembly EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS HONORABLE HELEN MARSHALL, Queens Borough President. .11 HONORABLE BETSY GOTBAUM, Public Advocate for the City of New York . .17 DENNIS M. WALCOTT, Deputy Mayor for Education, City of New York . .40 MARTINE GUERRIER, Chief Family Engagement Officer, Department of Education. .55 JOHN WHITE, Chief Operating Officer, Office of Portfolio Development . 77 ELIZABETH SCIABARRA, Chief Executive Officer, Student Enrollment. 77,128 KIM SWEET, Executive Director, Advocates for Children. .149 MARIA DAPONTES-DOUGHERTY (By Rose Marcus) President, District 30Q Presidents’ Council. .163 ROBERT CALORAS, President, Community District Education Council 26 . .170 ALICIA HYNDMAN, President, Community District Education Council 26 . .178 ABIODUN BELLO, President, Community District Education Council 32 . .183 REVEREND CALVIN RICE. 189 ANA MARIA ARCHILA, Co-Executive Director, Make the Road New York. .207 ALEJANDRA VASQUEZ, Parents in Action . .217 FRANK SOBRINO, Director of External Affairs, ASPIRA of New York. .221 NATALIE CHAPPA, Education Reform Advocacy Associate, New York Immigration Coalition. .223 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 4 LIST OF SPEAKERS KENNETH COHEN, President NAACP, Northeast Queens Branch. .234 LEO FAHEY, Member, Queens Borough President’s Education Council. .238 DAN JACOBY, Organizer, Democracy for New York City. 246 STEVE ZIMMERMAN, CEO, Founder, Booklinks Publishing Service. .252 GERALDINE NEARY, PTA President, Renaissance Charter School . 260 NICHOLAS TISHUK, Director of Programs and Accountability, The Renaissance Charter School. .263 BRETT PEISER, Managing Director, Uncommon Schools. .266 JAMES MERRIMAN, CEO, New York City Charter School Center . .270 MICHAEL KIRKBRIDE, Treasurer, VOICE Charter School. .274 FRANKLIN HEADLEY, Principal, VOICE Charter School. .277 YOLANDA TASSO, President, PTA of Our World Charter School . .280 YOLANDA IDARRAGA, Parent, VOICE Charter School . .300 LESCHELLE BOVIAN, Parent, PTA Co-Chair. 301 MAUREEN O’TOOLE, Parent, VOICE Charter School . 304 ERIN ACOSTA, Parent, VOICE Charter School. .304 STEVEN BELL, Member, Independent Commission on Public Education. .312 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 5 LIST OF SPEAKERS MARK DUNETZ, Principal, Academy for Careers in Television and Film. 318 ANTHONY LOMBARDI, Principal Public School 49. 323 MONIQUE AMBROSE, Region 3, District 25 . 340 DAVID QUINTANA, Parent, Community Board 10 Education Committee member . .345 DMYTRO FEDKOWSKYJ, Queens Representative, Panel for Educational Policy . .358 QUEEN MAKKADA, Member, Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council. .369 MONIQUE MINNUS, Community Activist. .374 GRACE DALTON, Parent/Grandparent . 379 MARIA DAPONTES-DOUGHERTY President, District 30Q Presidents’ Council . .392 MARGE KOLB, Parent, former school board member. .398 BOB CERMELI, Parent, former president and school board member. .406 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 NYS Committee on Education – 1-29-09 6 2 CHAIRWOMAN NOLAN: Good morning. We have 3 a very nice crowd here today, so let me 4 officially welcome everyone and convene this 5 hearing of the Assembly Committee on Education. 6 My name is Catherine Nolan and I’m an 7 assemblywoman and I’m the chair on the Committee 8 on Education and I’m here today with a number of 9 my colleagues and a number of very important 10 witnesses and parents and others. 11 I want to just briefly, for the record, 12 note that this hearing will review the impact of 13 governance changes which granted mayoral control 14 of the New York City school system. It is the 15 first of five hearings on this topic, and one 16 will be held in each borough. There is a hearing 17 notice available at the desk out front. I want 18 to thank Deb McDonough and the team who handles 19 our hearings for making sure that all this 20 information is available and of course you can 21 check any number of websites and other things. 22 I just want to say by way of a quick 23 opening, many of you are more familiar with these 24 things than I, even though I’ve been fortunate to 25 have been a member of the legislature for many EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 NYS Committee on Education – 1-29-09 7 2 years and a parent of a fifth grade student, it’s 3 a complex subject, and in the short time that 4 I’ve chaired the committee, I feel very 5 privileged and grateful for the assistance of so 6 many of you and my colleagues, all of whom are 7 quite expert, but just for those that need the 8 review, in 2002 and 2003, after many many years 9 of a so-called decentralized system, the state 10 legislature took action to create a number of 11 changes which would, in the common phrase, grant 12 mayoral control – grant control of the New York 13 City school system to the mayor. 14 Both the laws that do that expire June 15 30th, 2009. We hope to have an extensive review 16 of this critical topic. We just ask as we start 17 that everyone have patience and mutual respect. 18 We’re going to try to accommodate everyone. I 19 would ask that people leave the cell phone use to 20 a minimum or go outside with it. We’re going to 21 try, as I said, to continue to work together in a 22 common way. 23 I just want to acknowledge first, we’re 24 going to have a word of welcome from our borough 25 president, but we’ve also been joined by a number EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 NYS Committee on Education – 1-29-09 8 2 of members of the assembly. From the Education 3 Committee and the chair of our recently formed 4 subcommittee on special education is Michael 5 Benedetto from the Bronx. Thank you, Michael, 6 very much, and an expert teacher in his own right 7 for many many years. 8 Also with us is the woman who was 9 actually on the task force in 2003 that moved 10 forward with a number of recommendations 11 regarding parents involved within the school 12 system and that’s our good friend and colleague, 13 Assemblywoman Audrey Pfeffer. 14 We’ve also been joined by a newer member 15 of the legislature who has been very dynamic on 16 this issue, Rory Lancman, we thank you very much, 17 and, in the audience, Assemblywoman Vivian Cook, 18 a great friend of many of us for many years. 19 We’re glad that she’s here as well. 20 One of the things that I do want to point 21 out that many members of the legislature has had 22 individual meetings with their community, with 23 their CDCs, with the PTAs to generate comment on 24 this issue. So we will try to hear everyone in 25 one way or the other. You can submit written EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 NYS Committee on Education – 1-29-09 9 2 testimony, you can send us an e-mail, you can 3 participate. I know that Assemblywoman Deborah 4 Glick, for example, had over 70 people at her 5 roundtable in Manhattan, so there are going to be 6 many ways for people to comment and voice their 7 concerns. 8 I do want to point out that the New York 9 Times in June of 2006 talked about “Where are we 10 Now?” and that was two years ago. Longstanding 11 problems in special education, entrenched failure 12 in most middle schools, severe overcrowding in 13 many high schools, persistently large class sizes 14 citywide, a widespread feeling of disempowerment 15 among many parent groups. 16 This particular hearing, although we 17 can’t make it a perfect match, we’re trying to 18 have a focus on that last sentence, parent 19 groups. Where do we feel parents are with this 20 system? What do parents want to see? 21 We’ve been joined, and I’m very happy, by 22 a number of people, including Assemblyman Danny 23 O’Donnell, who came in from Manhattan who is a 24 member of the committee, Assemblyman Andrew 25 Hevesi, and Assemblyman Mark Weprin. So we will EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 NYS Committee on Education – 1-29-09 10 2 have everybody acknowledged. 3 I just want to make one comment about 4 parental control issues if I could. Full 5 governance reform in New York City did 6 significantly change the way that parents 7 interacted with local schools, community school 8 districts, and citywide school governance. 9 The 2003 law created something called 10 community education councils. The 11 responsibilities were integrated into the local 12 school district, and this new structure was 13 designed to give parents a meaningful role, with 14 accountability, transparency, accessibility and 15 partnership. So that is what this hearing will 16 attempt to discover and discuss today.