Job Openings at Lefferts Gardens Charter Schools

While messing around on the web, I just happened upon this job listing. The Lefferts Gardens Charter School is looking to hire kindergarten and first grade teachers. A bachelor's degree is required; New York State Teachers' Certification is strongly recommended but non-essential. Salary is between $35,000 and $55,000. More info at Idealist.

Purim Party at K-Dog This Weekend

This Saturday night marks the start of Purim, the celebration of the Jews' reversal of fortune in the face of a for their eradication in 4th Century BC Persia. Not surprisingly, this holiday is the Jewish Halloween, where kids dress up and eat sweets.

K-Dog & Dunebuggy (43 Lincoln Road) is hosting a party to celebrate and tell the story of the holiday, originally found in the Book of Esther (the Megillah).

The party will start at 7:30 and will include a reading from the Megillah at 7:45 sharp. After the reading there will be a party with food and music. Costumes are encouraged (like I said, "Jewish Halloween") - it is the most kid-friendly Jewish holiday this side of Hanukkah. And it's free!

Brooklyn Jews and non-Jews alike are welcome. To RSVP call 718-513-9726 or email plgrsvp@gmail.com.

City Approves Co-Location of Charter School at PS 92

Last night, as expected, the NYC Panel for Educational Policy voted to approve plans for Lefferts Gardens Charter School to co-locate at PS 92. (See the Daily News.) For supporters of the charter school, it's a huge victory; if the vote didn't go their way, the school could have ended up being sited some distance from the neighborhood.

So what now? Certainly some celebrating is in order. But the charter school leaders need to also dig in their heels and get started on seriously building support in Afro-Caribbean communities around here. If the charter school student body is overwhelmingly white and relatively affluent (as it was at Monday's public hearing), it's going to make the tensions between the two schools at 601 Parkside all that more tense, particularly if the school draws a bunch of kids from out of the district.

There's been a lively discussion on the Lefferts Yahoo group about the local school situation. If you're not already on that list, you may want to sign up and read the archives. (Reading archives requires a Yahoo account but subscribing to the email list does not.)

One standout item was a post by Johnny Kline, a neighbor on Hawthorne, including a list of suggestions for building community support for the school. We like them so much that we're copying them here:

Our Educational Consultant Weighs In

Following up on our local schools discussion, I asked educational consultant Joyce Szuflita to comment on the possibility of parents working with local public schools to reform them, as well as considering the new charter school. Commenter Babs cited PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights as a possible public school model, writing:  "Ten years ago PS 8 was not a desirable school; the kids in Brooklyn Heights attended private schools… With the increase in real estate prices, however, private school tuition became less affordable and parents turned their attention to PS 8, resulting in a remarkable turnaround for the school.”

This is what Ms. Szuflita had to say:

Even though the school is called “Lefferts Gardens Charter School,” priority is given to all families living within District 17... If there are seats vacant, families from outside of the district may fill them. It is very likely that in the first couple years at least that there will be a sizable number of students from outside the neighborhood and the district (perhaps even the borough).

Board Members Resign from Lefferts Gardens Charter School

We regret to inform you that several key members of the Lefferts Gardens Charter School have resigned from the school's board: Michelle Dees, Allison Jack, and Clark Dees. Another board member (though one who has never been active), Tolonda Tolbert, has also asked to leave.

I asked LGCS board member Mark Dicus about the resignations, but he said he didn't know why the members had resigned, with the exception of Tolbert, who has too many prior commitments.

As some of you may know, I was on the steering committee of LGCS for most of last year. I resigned in November, but Charles and I continued to support the school on the blog, despite our serious reservations with the leadership.

With the departure of the Dees and Jack, however, the future of LGCS isn't looking as supportable. No one who was actively involved in steering committee meetings last year (except for board chair Renee Ciccone and her mom, Elaine) remains with the group.

None of the board members who have left were willing to discuss their decision publicly. As someone who made the same decision to go quietly in November, I'm not exactly surprised. My hope for LGCS is that the remaining board members — Renata Gomes, Martin Mohabeer, and Brad Choyt, not to mention Dicus and Renee and Elaine Ciccone — see the resignations as a wake-up call and start seriously examining why they keep losing good people.

RELATED:

Public Turns Out for Charter School Hearing

Public Turns Out for Charter School Hearing

Those of us who expected the public hearing for the Lefferts Gardens Charter School last night to be a love-in for the new environmental science school were in for a surprise: the opposition to placing the school at P.S. 92 was passionate and vocal.

Most of the opposition stemmed from parents of students at P.S. 92. The overwhelming concern was that sharing the space would create problems for kids already attending the school. "If your child can't take the seat next to my son, find another spot," said one of the charter school's critics.

To my mind, the most persuasive argument against locating the school at PS 92 was one raised by a few people who spoke at the hearing: though the Department of Education and LGCS insist that the charter school will only be at PS 92 for a few years while they raise money to build a permanent site, odds are that the permanent site will never materialize, the DOE won't kick LGCS out, and PS 92 will become overcrowded as LGCS continues to grow. At least, that's the typical pattern.

There were lots of positive things said about the charter school, too, but I was too busy chasing my toddler to write them down… and, frankly, I'd be preaching to the choir here.

In the end, the supporters of the school outweighed the opposition by a sizable margin: 21 pro, 10 against, and 3 neutral (arguably positive) by my count. That said, it was hard not to be troubled by the racial dynamic at play, with white people tending to support the school and black people opposing.

If the DOE elects to locate LGCS in the same building as PS 92, LGCS needs to seriously step up its community outreach beyond the Manor. The PS 92 student body is 0%  (yes, that's zero percent) white and 83% black. The Lefferts supporters are about as white as the PS 92 students are black, a situation that's bound to create tensions. As one friend of mine who attended the hearing wondered, "Are they planning on hiring bodyguards for all the rich white kids so they don't get beat up?"

LGCS also needs to do serious fundraising to raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary to build their promised "green" permanent facility. All the more reason for LGCS to get its house in order and rebuild its flagging board of directors.

A flyer posted on apartment buildings along Winthrop Street by one of Lefferts Gardens Charter School's critics

RELATED:

Board Members Resign From Lefferts Gardens Charter School
Update on the Lefferts Gardens Charter School

Cops Acquitted in "Subway Sodomy" Case

Officer Richard Kern was acquitted of the alleged assault of Michael Mineo and Officers Andrew Morales and Alex Cruz were acquitted of covering up the crime.

Mineo claimed that Officer Kern shoved a baton in his rectum during an arrest in the Prospect Park subway station. Without making any independent evaluation of whether they were "actually" guilty - since I have no idea - some of what may have hurt the prosecution include: A police officer testified that he saw Kern stick his antenna in Mineo's rectum - though not entirely consistently with Mineo regarding the severity of the attack. The witness said "about a half-inch," whereas Mineo was arguing that it went in deep. Mineo's credibility was already going to be weak - he is an admitted gang member (Crips) and has a multi-million dollar suit pending against the City and the officers - and this didn't help. The testifying officer was also not charged for participating in the early stages of the cover up and, if I remember correctly, was dropped from the lawsuit. Additionally, medical experts for the two sides disagreed about whether the injuries were consistent with the accusations or preexisting conditions.

The civil suit is still pending. The acquittal doesn't change anything about the civil suit except to the extent that the City is less willing to settle.

PLG Theater News

We are late coming to all of these, but we're going to blog them all the same.

First of all, there is word (again) that the city is going to provide funds for the refurbishment of the grand Loew's Kings Theater on Flatbush and Tilden. The $70 million renovation project being undertaken by Houston's ACE Theatrical Group (which apparently doesn't have a website?) is expected to be completed by 2014 and, when completed, host 250 events a year.

If you don't want to wait until 2014 to see a show, however, Midwood Street resident Jeremy Shamos is currently appearing on Broadway in Clybourne Park at the Playwright's Horizon Theater. Of particular relevance to PLG, the play covers the issue of gentrification in the neighborhood where Raisin in the Sun took place. Jeremy himself scored an interview in Playbill, where he gave a shoutout to PLG.
(UPDATE: The New Yorker gives the show a rave, including a shout-out to the "delightful" Jeremy Shamos. Congratulations!)

Finally, much to our embarrassment, we forgot to blog about the performance of Lefferts Avenue's Gwynne Watkins musical Tea With Chachaji, which was at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center earlier this month. There is still a chance to see the show, as Stanford Lively Arts is having three shows on February 28th.

Lincoln Road Residents and Merchants Forming New Block Association

Here's some good news to start of the week: residents and merchants along the commercial strip of Lincoln between Flatbush and Ocean are organizing a block association. The new group, which is calling itself Lincoln Road Between Flatbush & Ocean Residents and Merchants Association (LinRoFORMA), will hold its first meeting this Thursday, February 18, at K-Dog, at 7 pm. Organizer Dynishal Gross tells me, "Anyone who lives or operates a business on this block, plus residents of 99 & 115 Ocean Avenue are welcome to attend and to join. Questions and comments should be directed to linroforma@gmail.com."

Here's hoping the group really takes off. As home of the Prospect Park subway station, the entrance to Prospect Park, the Maple Street School, and several bus lines, this block is not only important for the residents and business owners along it but to everyone in the neighborhood.

Park Slope in the LaGuardia Flight Path

The Brooklyn Paper reports that the people in Park Slope complaining that there seem to be a lot of low-flying planes roaring over their heads aren't crazy. A change in flight paths to increase efficiency has led to a 52% increase in planes flying over Park Slope and Prospect Park.

I think this puts to rest the idea that the marching bands and Big Apple Circus are somehow "dumped" on our side of the park to protect the gentle ears of Park Slopers from the noise.