NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION PUBLIC HEARING GOVERNANCE OF THE NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT New York City Technical College Klitgord Auditorium Brooklyn, New York March 20, 2009 10:15 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, Member of Assembly HELENE E. WEINSTEIN, Member of Assembly JAMES F. BRENNAN, Member of Assembly DANIEL J. O’DONNELL, Member of Assembly JOAN L. MILLMAN, Member of Assembly ALAN MAISEL, Member of Assembly MICHAEL BENEDETTO, Member of Assembly MARK WEPRIN, Member of Assembly DARRYL TOWNS, Member of Assembly WILLIAM COLTON, Member of Assembly HAKEEM JEFFRIES, Member of Assembly KARIM CAMARA, Member of Assembly N. NICK PERRY, Member of Assembly EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS WILLIAM C. THOMPSON, JR. NYC Comptroller. 11 CARLO SCISSURA, Chief of Staff Borough President Marty Markowitz. 24 HON. MAJOR OWENS, Former Member United States Congress . 31 KATHRYN WYLDE, President & CEO Partnership for New York City. 37 REVEREND DAVID BRAWLEY East Brooklyn Congregations. 53 JOSEPH VITERITTI, Executive Director Public Advocate’s Commission on School Governance. 59 DAVID JONES, Co-Chair Public Advocate’s Commission on School Governance. 65 ROBERT TROELLER, President & Business Manager IUOE Local 891 . 82 GREGORY FLOYD, President Local 237/Teamsters. 87 DAVID BLOOMFIELD, Parent Member Citywide Council on High Schools . 100 PATRICIA CONNELLY, Member Citywide Council on Special Education. 109 ANTHONY WEINER Congressman. 141 DEPUTY MAYOR DENNIS WALCOTT . 148 MARCIA LYLES Deputy Chancellor for Teaching & Learning New York City Department of Education. 149 ERIC NADELSTERN, Chief Schools Officer New York City Department of Education. 164 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 4 LIST OF SPEAKERS CHRIS CERF New York City Department of Education . 176 DAVID ROSS New York City Department of Education. 178 MARTINE GUEREIER New York City Department of Education. 191 JENNIFER BELL-ELLWANGER New York City Department of Education. 207 JAMES LIEBMAN New York City Department of Education. 251 CHARLES BARRON NYC Councilmember. 298 JENNIFER STRINGFELLOW, President Community District Education Council 15. 300 MELISSA PLOWDEN-NORMAN, President Community District Education Council 13. 307 VICTORIA LUGO, Secretary Community District Education Council 32. 314 CARLTON RICHARDSON, Member Community District Education Council 18. 316 JIM DEVOR, 1st Vice President Community District Education Council 15. 321 CHRISTOPHER SPINELLI, President Community District Education Council 22. 330 OLAIYA DEEN, Member Community District Education Council 13. 337 MORTY BALLEN, Founder & Executive Director Explore Charter School . 348 HOWARD SCHOOR . 354 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 5 LIST OF SPEAKERS RICHARD GREEN . 359 GLYNDA CARR, Executive Director NY Education Voters. 377 NANCY VILLAREAL DE ADLER, Executive Director NYS Association for Bilingual Education. 383 SAM ANDERSON Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence . 390 SANDRA RIVERS Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence . 398 MICHAEL HOOPER Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence . 401 LESLIE ESTERS REDWINE . .. 405 LETRICIA ALANS La Union . 418 ALDA ARIAS La Union . 419 GUATALUPE CIROS La Union . 419 MARGARITA PAVON La Union . 420 BENITA LOVETT-RIVERA, Member Parents Commission on School Governance. 422 CARLA PHILIP, Member Parents Commission on School Governance. 428 ELLEN BILOFSKY, Member Parents Commission on School Governance. 430 CHARMAINE PHILLIP, Member Parents Commission on School Governance. 433 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 6 LIST OF SPEAKERS ROSA FLORES Parents Commission on School Governance. 434 DAYSI CUEVAS . 436 JOHN DIPAOLO Beginning With Children Foundation . 437 KRYSTAL BONISABO . 442 SERRANI SOTO . 444 LORRAINE GITTENS-BRIDGES . 447 LENORE BROWN . 451 LISA NORTH, Teacher. 453 JAMES ETERNO, Teacher Jamaica High School. 457 LINDA GAVIN. 462 NICOLA DEMARCO, Teacher. 463 PHILIP NOBILE, Chapter Leader IS 259 United Federation of Teachers . 465 VICTORIA BOUSQUET Campaign for Better Schools . 467 MARIE PIERRE ACORN . 470 SHALANDRA MATTHEW. 472 JOANN SIMON. 474 DAVID GREENWICH. 476 MR. LANSEN . 477 GAIL GATSDEN . 479 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 7 LIST OF SPEAKERS KIM URBY . 480 SOL MCCANTS. 482 RODRICK DALY . 485 PHILIP DELAHUSA. 487 TYLER WILKINSON. 487 EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 Public Hearing on Governance – 3-20-09 8 2 CHAIRWOMAN NOLAN: Let me just say again 3 good morning and ask everyone’s patience because 4 we know people will be filtering in to this very 5 large auditorium over the course of what we 6 expect to be a very lengthy day. 7 I want to again introduce myself. My 8 name is Cathy Nolan, and I have the privilege and 9 the honor of chairing the Assembly’s Education 10 Committee. We do try to expedite the hearing as 11 much as we can. We always have a work in 12 progress with the slips; that changes as the day 13 goes on. 14 What I’d like to do, normally we have a 15 welcome often from the borough president or 16 whoever the senior person is. The borough 17 president couldn’t be here but sent a rep and we 18 do want to hear from him in a minute. But what 19 I’d like to do, given the busy stretch of his 20 schedule and how pleased we are to have him with 21 us, is call the Comptroller of the City of New 22 York, the Honorable William Thompson. 23 Bill we’d like to hear from you first, 24 and we appreciate your coming. Let me just, 25 while you’re coming up, acknowledge the presence EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 Public Hearing on Governance – 3-20-09 9 2 of a number of colleagues and say this is the 3 fifth and final hearing, in theory, one in each 4 of the boroughs of the counties of our great 5 City. 6 As I’m sure many of you in the audience 7 know, the Legislature changed the process that 8 that New York City School District was governed 9 under in 2002 and 2003, and actually had a number 10 of changes even earlier than that, but all the 11 legislation sunsets June 30th. What that means is 12 it has to be either renewed, discarded, 13 reinvented or in some way refreshed; the 14 Legislature does do that routinely on a number of 15 issues. So one of the things that we wanted to 16 do on this critical issue was hear from as many 17 different voices as possible and so we had 18 hearings in each borough. 19 One of the things that we have really 20 benefitted from – and our speaker, Sheldon 21 Silver, wanted very much to give everyone the 22 opportunity, is that in addition to the members 23 of the Education Committee, Assemblyman Danny 24 O’Donnell from Manhattan who has been with us at 25 every hearing or Assemblyman Mike Benedetto from EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 Public Hearing on Governance – 3-20-09 10 2 the Bronx who will be here and has also been at 3 every hearing. We have a number of committee 4 members from Brooklyn and a number of Brooklyn 5 colleagues. So at each of the hearings – Staten 6 Island, Queens, the Bronx, etcetera – members of 7 the delegation came, as well. 8 So we are joined today by Assembly member 9 Alan Maisel, who does serve on the Committee and 10 has a distinguished career as a teacher and 11 assistant principal; Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who 12 is a very long serving member of the Education 13 Committee who has issued a number of reports; a 14 great leader from Brooklyn, a great friend of 15 mine, a long-serving member of the delegation and 16 the Chair of the Assemblyman Judiciary Committee, 17 Helene Weinstein, who is here at my left. And at 18 my right, another member of the Education 19 Committee, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, who 20 represents this district, in addition to having 21 served a long career as a teacher, and I 22 mentioned Assemblyman Benedetto from the Bronx. 23 I am sure that we will be joined by other members 24 of the Brooklyn delegation and other interested 25 committee members as the day goes on. EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 Public Hearing on Governance – 3-20-09 11 2 But I would like to start with our 3 comptroller, and we’ll get everybody’s testimony 4 as we move forward. But I think in the interest 5 of time, I would like to do that. Unless my 6 colleagues would like to say something quickly, 7 I’d like to go right to the comptroller. 8 While you’re doing that, I should also 9 say I want to thank New York City Technical 10 College, President Russell Holster and all the 11 staff of the College and our stenography staff, 12 Deb McDonough and the team that put this 13 together, thank you very much. 14 Thank you. 15 COMPTROLLER THOMPSON: Thank you. Thank 16 you, Chairperson Nolan and to the member of the 17 Education Committee and to the other members of 18 the Assembly, good morning. Let me thank you for 19 giving me this opportunity to testify once again 20 regarding governance of the New York City School 21 District. 22 This is a subject of great concern to me, 23 not only as a New Yorker and a product of the New 24 York City public schools, but as a former 25 President of the Board of Education. Throughout EN-DE REPORTING SERVICES 212-962-2961 1 Public Hearing on Governance – 3-20-09 12 2 my tenure at the board I aggressively pursued 3 accountability in our public education system, 4 beginning with a series of reforms in 1996.