FIGHTBACKFRIDAYS

Fight Back Friday - January 27th

2012-02-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

Schools Around New York City Participate In Fight Back Friday

John Dewey H.S. Faculty & Staff Fight Back By Wearing Stickers With Slogans

John Dewey H.S. To Fight Back Against Bloomberg Attack - January 20th

2012-01-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

Photographs & News Coverage of the Protest Actions

http://gothamschools.org/2012/01/20/students-staff-defend-john-dewey-in-face-of-turnaround-plans/

Photographs

https://picasaweb.google.com/113455396360021548056/FightBackFridayJohnDeweyHSFightsBackAgainstBloombergAttack12012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIiIj6iS2vfZuQE&feat=directlink

Press Release

The NYCDOE Memo To Students' Families

The Panel(Puppets) for Educational Policy-Newtown High School

2011-12-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

Occupy DOE Uses Mic Check to Open the Meeting

NYC Public School Parents Want Eva Moskowitz Out Of Our Public Schools

2011-12-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn says NO to Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy Charter School

Occupy The DOE

2011-10-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

Occupy Wall Street (Rally & March) - 10/5/11

2011-10-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Photographs & Video From The Occupy Wall Street (Rally & March) - 10/5/11

Photographs

https://picasaweb.google.com/113455396360021548056/OccupyWallStreetRallyMarchOctober52011?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7t4_-Gv7Tz7gE

Video

Fight Back Friday - on Tuesday, Oct. 4

2011-09-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

Have your co-workers sign the petition-link: http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-michael-r-bloomberg-stop-the-layoff-of-essential-dc37-school-staff-on-oct-7th to stop the layoffs.

DOE-Verizon Contract Protest

2011-08-17T19:52:00.001-07:00

Rally before the Panel for Education Policy(PEP) vote was held.

Verizon Strikers Rally Before Panel for Ed Policy Vote on Verizon Contract from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

Video and related article are by Geoffrey Decker (Gotham Schools)

http://gothamschools.org/2011/08/17/masses-of-verizon-strikers-gather-at-meeting-to-protest-contract/
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/145207/educational-panel-approves-doe-verizon-contract-following-protest

Images from The Rally

Tell Verizon: Stop Attacking the Middle Class- Sign Petition

2011-08-12T15:02:00.001-07:00

SIGN THE PETITION

Protest Verizon DOE Contract at PEP/Support Verizon Workers on Strike

On Wednesday, August 17, the Department of Education's Panel for Education Policy will vote on a $120 million two year contract with telecom giant Verizon to wire our schools. There are at least five good reasons to strongly oppose this contract ( see below.)

At the same time the PEP will be voting on a spending plan that will sharply cut our school budgets - for the third year in a row - and lead to even larger classes.

Join us at the PEP meeting near City Hall to protest this immoral and possibly illegal contract.

Whether you can join us or not, please send the message below to the members of the PEP.

What: Picket and Protest

Where: Murry Bergtraum HS, 411 Pearl Street, Manhattan (4/5/6 or N/R to City Hall / Brooklyn Bridge)

When: Wed. August 17, 2011 at 5 PM

Why? Verizon is shortchanging their own workers and stealing from schoolchildren! Say no to more giveaways to private contractors and more wasted spending on technology while are class sizes are increasing! Tell the PEP to vote down the Verizon contract with the DOE!

Take a stand against the increasing portion of our education budget that is wasted on private contractors and for-profit vendors, like Rupert Murdoch's Wireless Generation.

Sponsored by: BYNEE, Class Size Matters, CPE-CEP, Grassroots Education Movement, New York City Parents Union, New York Charter Parents Association, NYCC, NYCORE, S.E.E.D.S, Teachers Unite, Independent Community of Educators, The MANY, Teachers for a Just Contract (list in formation)

And please send the following email to the PEP; feel free to change wording and/or add details about the conditions in your child’s school:

Dear PEP member:

Please vote no on the $120 million contract with Verizon. Here are five good reasons:

1.    45,000 Verizon workers are currently on strike, as management has demanded a long list of concessions, cutting their health benefits, pensions, and sick time – givebacks amounting to $20,000 per worker. Meanwhile, the company has $100 billion in revenue, net profits of $6 billion, and Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company a $10 billion dividend. The top five company executives have been paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the last four years. This is yet one more corporate attack on the middle class. Why should the city be contracting with such a greedy and unethical company?

2.    Verizon is seriously implicated in the recent scandal in which the Special Commissioner of Investigation found that a consultant named Ross Lanham in charge of school internet wiring stole $3.6 million dollars from the city through a false billing scheme, and that Verizon “facilitated this fraud.” Though DOE admits that “Verizon is in discussion with the DOE regarding repaying of the overcharges,” the company has not yet agreed to pay back any of this money, and the case has been referred to the US attorney’s office for possible prosecution.   Why should DOE reward Verizon by paying the company more millions?

3.    In the same document in which the DOE outlines the contract, there are twenty other instances listed of suspicious or illegal behavior on the part of Verizon, triggering numerous investigations.

4.    All NYC public schools are already wired for the internet; but according to the DOE, this second round of wiring is for high-speed internet and hi-definition video  to facilitate the expansion of online learning and computerized testing. This is occurring at the same time as budgets are being cut to the bone, schools are losing valuable programs, and class sizes are rising to the highest level in over a decade. A quarter of our elementary schools are so overcrowded they had waiting lists for Kindergarten. It is outrageous that in the midst of this budget crisis, the DOE should be spending $120 million for unnecessary technological upgrades when children do not have seats in their neighborhood schools.

5.    Finally, this contract with Verizon began on January 1, 2011, and DOE is only now asking for the PEP to approve it “retroactively.” But there is no allowance for retroactive contracts in state law, unless the chancellor finds that due to an emergency, it is necessary for “the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare” and provides a written justification. This was never done in this case. Thus, this contract with Verizon is likely illegal on the face of it.

I I hope you will vote your conscience, and reject this outrageous contract,

( (name, address)

Send this message to: llbryant@inwoodhouse.com; jchan@dbpartnership.org; pepofqueens@yahoo.com;FFoster@schools.nyc.gov; thernandez@samvill.org; patk.j.sullivan@gmail.com; okotieuro@yahoo.com;JKay3@schools.nyc.gov; EMarti@schools.nyc.gov; Dperuggia@schools.nyc.gov;majorm766@gmail.com; gittepeng@yahoo.com; Lnieves01@gmail.com

Thanks, and please forward this message to others who care,

Grassroots Education Movement

Photographs & News Coverage of the SOS Rally & March

2011-08-01T14:50:00.003-07:00

GEM & The New York City Contingent Heading Towards The SOS Rally & March

News Coverage of the SOS Rally & March

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-march-on-washington/2011/07/30/gIQAz48zjI_story.html

http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/sosrally/index.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0730/Save-Our-Schools-March-a-teacher-revolt-against-Obama-education-reform

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-30/us/us.teachers.sos.march_1_teachers-standardized-testing-rallies?_s=PM:US

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/matt-damons-powerful-educ_b_914420.html

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/07/30/37rally_ep.h30.html?tkn=YVRFUJcg2N4yicgNzbtJMSPvdf72iF2K%2B8%2F9&cmp=clp-edweek

http://www.americanindependent.com/196416/thousands-come-out-to-teacher-rally-in-washington-protest-obama-and-decade-of-bad-policies

http://dailycensored.com/2011/08/01/teachers-as-radicals-after-sos-what-now/

http://gothamschools.org/2011/08/01/matt-damon-criticizes-eva-moskowitzs-charters-at-d-c-rally/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/matt-damon-rips-debt-deal_n_916618.html?ir=Entertainment

Matt Damon on debt limit: 'I'm so disgusted,' 'it's criminal' the wealthy are not paying more from Nicholas Ballasy on Vimeo.

Photographs of the Rally & March

https://picasaweb.google.com/113455396360021548056/SaveOurSchoolsRallyMarchSOSJuly30thWashingtonDC?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN_orJTslIClKg&feat=directlink

Rally & March for Justice in Education

2011-07-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Join with GEM as we participate in the Save Our Schools Rally & March.

Meet at Freedom Plaza, at the fountain, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 30th. Stay tuned for updates, pictures and video for what is sure to be an exciting and inspiring week!

Freedom Plaza

The fountain is located at the western end of the plaza.

“The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman” is being shown around the country this week as part of the Save Our Schools March and Movement!

Here is a sampling of some SOS screenings:

Salt Lake City: July 28th, 3-5 pm at the Salt Lake City Main Library Auditorium as part of the Save our Schools Teach-In and Rally.

Washington DC: July 29th, 7:30 at American University, Ward Auditorium 1 and/or 2, part of the SOS March Film Screening Series (saveourschoolsmarch.org).

Las Vegas: July 30th at First Christian Church of Las Vegas, 101 S. Rancho

St. Louis: July 30th at 10:00 AM at the Schlafly Branch Library at 225 North Euclid. The film will accompany a rally and workshop.

Videos & Photos From The June 10th Fight Back Friday

2011-06-12T20:00:00.001-07:00

Fight Back Friday Press Conference

Lehman High School

John Dewey High School

Lyons School

Fight Back Friday Coverage :

http://carrollgardens.patch.com/articles/the-education-mayor-some-local-schools-think-not-4

http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/park-protest-over-teacher-layoff-plan/

School Communities Across the City to Participate in Fight Back Friday

2011-06-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE

Date: Friday, June 10, 2011

Contact:

Sam Coleman, Teacher, PS 24, NYCORE/GEM: 646-354-9362

Lisa Donlan, Parent, President CEC1: 917-848-5873

School Communities Across the City to Participate in Fight Back Friday

The City Council must hold Bloomberg and the DOE Accountable:

No school-based budget cuts and no educator lay-offs!

Cut middle and upper management, outside contracts, technology, legal and public relations budgets, the charter school budget, which is set to increase by $139 next year, and a portion of the monies spent on standardized high-stakes testing instead.

On Friday, June 10th, school communities across the city will take differentiated actions to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies, including the elimination of 6,000 teaching positions, 4,700 through lay-offs. Individual schools will hold rallies, sign postcards directed at City Council representatives, disseminate flyers to spread awareness about where Mr. Bloomberg’s spending priorities lie, and they will wear black to, “take our schools back” as well as stickers proclaiming the Real Reforms our Mayor should be fighting for.

According to Yelena Siwinski PS 193, “will be protesting the destructive practices of the New York City Department of Education including the proposed layoffs of thousands of teachers (in addition to failure to replace teachers lost through attrition), the inadequate funding for intervention services for students, after school programs, and arts programs and the narrowing of the curriculum through increased emphasis on testing. We will be handing out literature and having informational picketing on Friday, June 10th and June 17th. Our action on June 17th will also include forming a human chain around our school building.”

Educators at the Pan American International High School have been taking their anger at Mayor Bloomberg's impending layoffs out into their Elmhurst neighborhood, asking parents and other community members to sign postcards against Bloomberg's budget. "Response from parents has been amazing," said Math teacher Peter Lamphere, "They really understand the impact that reduced services and higher class sizes will have on their students, especially for the English Language Learners we serve. Despite Bloomberg's comments to the contrary, these parents very much understand what it takes to provide a good education for their children, and that means they know we need the resources that the Mayor would like to cut."

Representatives from at least ten of the participating schools will visit Christine Quinn’s office located at 30th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues at 5:00 PM on Friday. Parents and educators will deliver some of the more than 5,000 postcards collected at city-wide Fight Back Fridays over the last three weeks and will hold a press conference demanding the City Council reject any budget that includes further cuts to school-based budgets and teacher lay-offs.

“We are participating in Fight Back Friday because the Mayor's proposed budget cuts will directly hit the most vulnerable New Yorkers while millionaires continue to profit,” said Ariela Rothstein, Teacher at East Brooklyn Community High School. “Some of our school's greatest teachers could lose their jobs to the severe detriment of my students. My job is on the line just as I am seriously considering a long career in teaching. The political maneuvering around lay-offs is damaging to our children and could mean that I and more than 4,000 educators cannot stay in the profession. Given the steady increases in class sizes over the last nine years and the high teacher attrition rates, lay-offs should be off the table if we really want to put children first.”

Joanna Rich from PS 503 continued, "Our school community is participating in Fight Back Friday because the budget cuts would derail so many of our efforts to provide the children in this neighborhood with a rigorous and thorough elementary education. Under the proposed budget, PS 503 would lose over ten percent of its teaching staff, all of whom have been teaching for at least three years. These layoffs are unnecessary, and threaten to diminish the intervention and enrichment opportunities we currently provide our students."

$350 Million dollars is needed to prevent educator lay-offs and prevent disastrous consequences for our children including increased class sizes and loss of programming. Mayor Bloomberg’s budget allocates $700 million for charter schools, $542 million in new technology, and hundreds of millions on testing. Parents, educators, children, and community members stand united in demanding our City Council reject the Mayor’s budget and call on Mr. Bloomberg to stop wasting our money and start to prioritize public education and local community public schools. Added Steve Quester, “The mayor continues to prioritize tax breaks for Wall Street while class sizes balloon all over the city. At our school, we have a full-inclusion program in which 25% of the students are dyslexic, while 2/3 of our Reading Department is on the mayor's layoff list. How does Bloomberg dare call himself 'The Education Mayor'?”

Fight Back Friday began just over a year ago as a campaign effort to bring to life school-community-based education, organization and mobilization. According to Michael Solo, a teacher at John Dewey High School, “Fight Back Fridays allow teachers, parents and students to have a voice in the pushback against the ongoing attack against public education. The John Dewey High School community is greatly concerned with the continued attacks against our schools, our students, our colleagues in the teaching profession, and our unions. John Dewey’s basic premise, that a quality education is necessary to perpetuate our democracy, is under attack. Mayor Bloomberg’s threat of budget cuts and teacher layoffs is unnecessary and unfair. They say budget cuts, we say fight back !”

Sam Coleman, whose school held the first ever Fight Back Friday and launched the city-wide campaign concluded, “Fight Back Friday is about people power. The time has come for us to collectively say, "Enough!" Our children deserve the same quality education that Bloomberg chose for his daughters. We must come together and demand equitable and just learning conditions for all children. This begins with prioritizing the school budget to reflect an emphasis on teaching and learning rather than a budget that favors millionaires and billionaires and overemphasizes testing and technology.”

Additional Contacts:

Steve Quester, Teacher, PS 372: 347-683-6188

Ariela Rothstein, Teacher, East Brooklyn Community High School, 781-412-4084

Yelena Siwinski, Teacher, PS 193, 917-628-3588

Liza Campbell, Teacher, Academy for Environmental Leadership, 518-852-2337

Joanna Rich, Teacher, PS 503, 973-632-2476

Michael Solo, Teacher, John Dewey High School, 917 750-7510

Peter Lamphere, Teacher, Pan American International High School, 917-969-5658

Next Fight Back Friday is June 10th

2011-06-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

FBF gives every school community a chance to stand up and say NO to the cuts and lay-offs at whatever level the community can be organized.
Everyone wears black (Wear black, take our schools back!). It can be as simple as just that.
We have stickers people can print out with messages about the cuts and the kinds of changes we would all like to see in education that folks can wear and give out.
We have fliers that you can adjust to fit your school, which you can use on the day of.
Many schools have a picket outside of school either before or after the school day. We have fliers you can use to publicize the picket during the week leading up to the 20th.
The fliers will be in at least English and Spanish, and if we can, Chinese.
We have post cards that we are asking people to get signed that will then be delivered en-masse to city council members. You can print those out, or come get them at a couple of different locations.
We ask everyone to take pictures to send in that then go on our fight back friday blog and face book page.
We will be putting out a press release and press statement and pushing the press to cover as many school events as we can. And the more schools participating the more coverage we will get.
Please, even if it sounds hard or overwhelming, consider pushing your school community to join in. Email Julie Cavanaugh (juliereed15@hotmail.com) with any questions. We will send you the tool kit with all the fliers and stickers and such. We are happy to help you think through all the steps.
This is a way for your whole community to work together, parents, students and staff, to build solidarity within and across schools. These actions are great for training ourselves to do the organizing that we need if we are to turn the tide of the destruction of public education. In order to fight for the transformations we all want to see in our education system, we need to do the grassroots educating, organizing and mobilizing that it takes to move whole communities.

They Say Budget Cuts. We Say Fight Back!!!

2011-05-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

Photographs from the May 20th Fight Back Friday

https://picasaweb.google.com/108122375451944539262/FightBackFriday52011?authkey=Gv1sRgCMCKyYvbr9GTpgE

John Dewey High School : Rally & Postcard Signing

Next Fight Back Friday is May 20th!

2011-05-10T18:07:00.001-07:00

FBF gives every school community a chance to stand up and say NO to the cuts and lay-offs at whatever level the community can be organized.

Everyone wears black (Wear black, take our schools back!). It can be as simple as just that.
We have stickers people can print out with messages about the cuts and the kinds of changes we would all like to see in education that folks can wear and give out.

We have fliers that you can adjust to fit your school, which you can use on the day of.
Many schools have a picket outside of school either before or after the school day. We have fliers you can use to publicize the picket during the week leading up to the 20th.
The fliers will be in at least English and Spanish, and if we can, Chinese.
We have post cards that we are asking people to get signed that will then be delivered en-masse to city council members. You can print those out, or come get them at a couple of different locations.
We ask everyone to take pictures to send in that then go on our fight back friday blog and face book page.

We will be putting out a press release and press statement and pushing the press to cover as many school events as we can. And the more schools participating the more coverage we will get.

Please, even if it sounds hard or overwhelming, consider pushing your school community to join in. Email Julie Cavanaugh (juliereed15@hotmail.com) with any questions. We will send you the tool kit with all the fliers and stickers and such. We are happy to help you think through all the steps.

This is a way for your whole community to work together, parents, students and staff, to build solidarity within and across schools. These actions are great for training ourselves to do the organizing that we need if we are to turn the tide of the destruction of public education. In order to fight for the transformations we all want to see in our education system, we need to do the grassroots educating, organizing and mobilizing that it takes to move whole communities.

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

Please join us for the premiere of our movie, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. The official premiere will be held at Riverside Church in Harlem on May 19th, 2011 from 6-10 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Diane Ravitch, among others, will be our honored guest. The evening will include a panel featuring a NYC parent, teacher, and student as well as Dr. Ravitch and a few other prominent education advocates. Great thanks to the Mission and Social Justice Committee at Riverside Church for sponsoring the event.

For more information please see the movie website http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/

Grassroots Education Movement Official Statement Regarding the Resignation of Cathleen Black, David Steiner, and the Appointment of Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott

2011-04-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

It is Time to Break the Cycle

Since 2003, public school parents, children, educators, and community members have endured a dictatorial public education reform agenda that has ignored and marginalized their voices and has undermined and destabilized the schools they depend on, love, and serve. The departure of Cathleen Black highlights the incompetence, arrogance, and political nature of Bloomberg’s educational agenda; this is not about children first, but rather a blind belief in the corporate reform movement propelled by a centralized, top down system that has been destructive for our schools and our children.

It is time for a break in the power structure that has a strangle hold on our public education system; it is time for parents, children, educators and communities to have a say in the education of their 1.2 million school children.

The departure of four Deputy Chancellors in the last 100 days along with the admission by Mayor Bloomberg that the appointment of Black as Chancellor was a mistake, followed by the announced departure of the State Commissioner of Education on Thursday, makes it clear that the almost decade long mayoral control and corporate reform experiment that has ignored the voices of parents, teachers and community has been a failure for the entire educational community.

In the coming months our schools face severe cuts, testing is raging out of control, dedicated educators are under attack, and our children’s education is at stake. Decisions about the lives of children should not be made without their parents, their communities and their teachers. It is time for Mr. Bloomberg and the Department of Education to engage with parents, treat them as partners and provide the leadership and policies that truly do put children first.

The Grassroots Education Movement supports the Deny Waiver Coalition in their preference for a transparent and nationwide search process for a qualified Chancellor to run our school system. We believe that Mr. Bloomberg and our future Chancellor should fight for real reforms that will transform our public education system. These reforms include parent and teacher empowerment, more teaching, less testing, and the equitable funding needed to make sure our schools are responsive to, and the centers of, the communities they serve.

The Bloomberg ship is sinking. The last nine years under Mayor Bloomberg has been a sea of destructive and misguided educational policies. It is time for our children to be thrown a life raft. It is time for Bloomberg to be held accountable. It is time for a sea change.

Cathie Black Is Out as City Schools Chancellor

2011-04-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/cathie-black-is-out-as-chancellor/?hp

Fight Back Friday Press Conference : 3/25/11 @Tweed

2011-03-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

Press Release

Date: Friday, March 25, 2011

Contact:

Sam Coleman, Teacher PS 24, NYCORE/GEM: 646-354-9362

Lisa Donlan, Parent and President CEC1: 917-848-5873

Julie Cavanagh, Teacher PS 15, GEM/CAPE: 917-836-6465

Fight Back Friday: After More Than a Week of Protests and Outrage, School-Communities Mobilize to Demand Our Governor and Mayor Put Our Children First

Today parents, students, teachers, and community members across the city took differentiated actions to demand our Mayor and our Governor put our children first. Education stakeholders city-wide protested Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies, including his threat of over 4,000 teacher lay-offs and his attacks on our experienced educators, as well as Governor Cuomo’s devastating proposed education cuts. Individual schools picketed, signed petitions and letters, held teach-ins, engaged in teacher appreciation activities and disseminated flyers to spread awareness about budget cuts, proposed lay-offs, teacher protections, and what our Mayor and Governor should be fighting for if they were really interested in putting children first.

"On Thursday, March 24th thousands of average New Yorkers expressed their outrage against Bloomberg, a failed public ed system, Cuomo, Wall Street banksters, and the 'givebacks' and job losses being set in motion with the help of city and state legislators. One day later, during another Fight Back Friday, parents, teachers, students and community members around the city continued that struggle at their respective schools, more confident than ever, that in unity there is strength." Muba Yarofulani & Akinlabi Mackall Co-chairpersons,Coalition for Public Education / Coalicion por la Educacion Publica.

Tory Frye, parent at PS/IS 187 said, "Last year my son's elementary school lost the art teacher and the science teacher to budget cuts. The music teacher has no music room or instruments; there is no dedicated room for art and class sizes are uncomfortably high. We lost 7 faculty members altogether last year and now we are being told that we will lose another 5 teachers? There is no one left at my son's school to cut! I cannot begin to understand how we can allow budget cuts like the ones proposed by Governor Cuomo and supported by Mayor Bloomberg to occur, this is not putting our children first. There is a solution; we can maintain the tax on millionaires and billionaires, which would mitigate the impact of these budget cuts and simultaneously address the growing income disparity that sadly has come to characterize New York City."

Continued Sam Coleman, teacher, “My elementary school, PS 24, has lost over $1 million in the last year to budget cuts. Our school is made up of largely immigrant, working class and poor students of color. Due to budget cuts, students in our school have lost after school programs, arts programs, teachers and materials. It is morally and ethically unjustifiable for the mayor and governor to take these resources away from our families while granting millionaires and billionaires tax breaks. Poor and working class families of color and immigrants should not have their children's education short-changed in order to pay for a new yacht, or a new summer home for the wealthiest citizens of our city and state. Fight Back Friday's are a way for school communities to come together - parents, teacher and students - to say enough is enough. We are united in this fight, and we are not going to sit by quietly anymore.”

“We have witnessed the privileged few dominate the education conversation over the last year and we have seen our elected leaders capitulate to their interests over the needs of the more than 95% of us who are not millionaires and billionaires, most notably our children, more than 20% of whom are living in poverty. This week we have learned that Governor Cuomo accepted tens of thousands of dollars from the Koch brothers, individuals who seek to dismantle our democracy and protections for the average American. We have seen our Mayor spend millions of his own money to promote his own policy interest against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who want the millionaire tax left in place and who support experienced educators. We do not live in an oligarchy or a plutocracy where the privileged few get to make decisions for the rest of us, we live in a democracy where representatives are supposed to serve those who elected them. We will fight for our children, for public education, for workers rights, and for the promise of a democracy and an elected leadership that truly represents the will of the people,” said Julie Cavanagh, teacher at PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Casey Fuetsch, public school parent at the Earth School added, "It's ironic and disturbing that, on this 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, we are still fighting to keep the most basic rights of mostly female workers intact. One hundred years ago it was a safety issue; this year it is common respect and job security for teachers.”

Fight Back Fridays began last June when school communities united to fight proposed budget cuts and other disastrous educational policies. Over the course of this school year, Fight Back Fridays have continued throughout the city.

“John Dewey H.S. is continuing our Fight Back Friday actions to unify our school community in the face of a city-wide and national campaign to discredit teachers, destroy seniority rights, and sabotage our public schools. Labor rights are civil rights and these are rights that we must fight to protect for the sake of our students and the future of public education. Our goal is to make our school better and stronger by keeping teachers teaching and helping our students receive a dynamic and quality education,” said Michael Solo, Dewey teacher.

Rosemarie Frascella of NyCORE and teacher at Prospect Heights High School said, “Fight Back Fridays give educators the agency to design their own way of organizing around the issues that are directly affecting our students, classrooms, and communities. We are organizing Fight Back Fridays to educate and organize our communities around the issues directly affecting our school communities. From Wisconsin to New York City teachers are coming together to stand up for quality education for every student across the United States. Our working conditions are our students' learning environments.”

Added Stefanie Siegel, teacher, Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn, “The Coalition for Public Education (Brooklyn Chapter) has been meeting with students and staff on Tuesdays for the past two months. Their consistency and resiliency keep us engaged and believing that justice will prevail after all. The work has empowered, politicized and raised the consciousness of students and we hope, if nothing else, the teach-in on Fight Back Friday spreads the word and broadens our impact. The presence of the CPE at Robeson has made us feel as if we are part of a bigger picture, a larger cause as well as a global community.”

Participants in Fight Back Friday and parents, educators, and students across the city have expressed immense frustration with the Bloomberg administration for attacking teachers and seniority rights, using parents and teachers as political footballs with threats of massive layoffs rather than seeking to find a solution to Governor Cuomo’s misguided budget cuts. Fight Back Friday participants and stakeholders across the city have demanded an end to wasteful city contracts such as CityTime and ARIS, for the state to continue the fair tax on Millionaires and Billionaires, for the DOE to cut middle and upper management at the DOE instead of further cutting school-based budgets and to prevent teacher layoffs, to stop wasting money on over-testing and for our local and state elected officials to do the hard work of putting our children first, by protecting and preserving public education.

“Our community believes in high quality education. However, over-testing has not proven to be effective. We need local community engagement and control that requires high standards for our schools,” Harvey Epstein Denise Soltren The Neighborhood School PTA Co Presidents.

Lisa Donlan, President of CEC1 concluded, “Parents and teachers have come together to send a message in their school communities and to the city at large that the budget cuts, the attacks on teachers, the misuse of high stakes testing and increase in class sizes MUST STOP if we are to deliver on the promise of tomorrow that is our children's education TODAY. Cheating these kids, schools and communities hurts all of us, now and in the future. We will fight back today and every day until our city gets what it deserves- adequately funded and staffed, good, public schools in every neighborhood!”

More than twenty-five school-communities city-wide participated in Fight Back Friday including:

The Academy for Environmental Leadership, Brooklyn

The Academy of Urban Planning, Brooklyn

Bushwick School for Social Justice, Brooklyn

James Baldwin High School, Manhattan

Humanities Prep High School, Manhattan

PS 307, Brooklyn

Pan American Internnational HS, Queens

PS 24, Brooklyn

PS 15, Brooklyn

PS 157, Brooklyn

The Earth School ( PS 364 Manhattan)

The Neighborhood School (PS 363 Manhattan)

Lehman HS, Bronx

PS 193, The Gil Hodges School, Brooklyn

John Dewey HS, Brooklyn

Lyons Community School, Brooklyn

PS 368, Manhattan

The Green School, Brooklyn

PS 347, Manhattan

PS 187, Manhattan

Alfred E. Smith high school, Bronx

PS 230 Brooklyn

International High School at Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

PS 254, Brooklyn

PS 134 Manhattan

Rafael Hernandez School of the Performing Arts IS 217, Bronx

Banana Kelly HS, Bronx

PS 3, Brooklyn

PS 3, Manhattan

Additional Contacts:

Tory Frye, Parent and SLT Member PS/IS 187: 646-418-6435

Stefanie Siegel, Teacher Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152

Michael Solo, Teacher Dewey High School: 917-750-7510

Wisconsin-New York: Same Struggle, Same Fight!

2011-03-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Teacher Protections Protect Children

2011-03-13T19:57:00.001-07:00

Put Children First

2011-03-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

Lay Offs Hurt Children

2011-03-13T19:52:00.001-07:00

Budget Cuts Hurt Children

2011-03-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

2011-03-05T18:16:00.001-08:00

Wisconsin "Budget Repair Bill" Protest

2011-02-22T19:06:00.001-08:00

Union Busters: The War on the Middle Class (KILL THE BILL!!!)

2011-02-22T12:49:00.001-08:00

RALLY MONDAY, JAN. 31 AT TWEED: FIX OUR SCHOOLS, DON'T JUST CLOSE THEM!

2011-02-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

Rally Opposing NYC School Closings Leads to Civil Disobedience from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

Video & Images From The January 27th Rally

2011-01-29T08:17:00.000-08:00

January 27th: City-Wide Rally from 4:30-6:30 @ City Hall Plaza

2011-01-25T05:42:00.001-08:00

Friday, January 21st - Join Public Schools Across The City To Advocate For Real Reforms That Will Transform Our Public Schools

2011-01-17T19:05:00.001-08:00

Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back!

View January 21 Wear Black, Take Our Schools Back in a larger map

Friday, January 21st - Join Public Schools Across the City to Advocate for Real Reforms that Will Transform our Public Schools.

2011-01-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

-Please Share With Those Who Care-

To Particpate/Endorse (groups, schools, PTAs, CECs, chapters, individuals): email capeducation@gmail.com

Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back!

Fight Back Friday

Stand Up For Public Education!

School Based Actions to Fight the Attacks on Public Education

Friday, January 21^st Join Public Schools Across the City to Advocate for Real Reforms that Will Transform our Public Schools.

Press Conference @ 4:30 on the Steps of Tweed

Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back!

Stop the Attacks on Public Education:

· Stop Closing Schools, Fix Them.

· Stop Charter School Co-Locations.

· Stop School-Based Budget Cuts.

· Stop Increases in Class Sizes.

· Stop the Overemphasis on Standardized Assessment: More Teaching, Less Testing.

· Stop Teacher Data Reports Based on Narrow Tests and Faulty Data.

· Stop Ignoring the Voices of Parents, Educators, and Students: More Parent, Educator and Student Empowerment, Not Less.

· Stop the Dictatorial Governance of Our School System: Mayoral Control is Out of Control!

· No Layoffs of Teachers or School Personnel: Reduce the Bureaucracy and Fire the Middle Managers Instead!

Choose one or more issues that are important to your school community and take action:

· Wear black and/or black arm bands

· Hold a rally before or after school

· Craft a form letter or petition on an issue important to your school

· Pass out literature and education material before and after school

___________________________________________________________________

If you, your school, or your school community plan to participate in Fight Back Friday, let us know @ capeducation@gmail.com so that we can include you on our list of participants/endorsers and interactive map as well as provide you with a Fight Back Friday Toolkit! The Toolkit will include literature and educational material, media information, stickers, and sample materials to assist in your school organizing efforts. Visit our Blog @www.fightbackfridays.blogspot.com, visit and post to our Facebook page @ fightbackfridays, and post and send in your school’s perspectives, testimonials, videos and pictures of Fight Back Actions.

****Fight Back Friday will culminate with a press conference on the steps of Tweed @ 4:30. If your group or a member of your school community (especially if you are a school facing closing or co-location) would like to speak, contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you. Let’s stand up for public education together, and make our voices heard!****

Sponsored by: Grassroots Education Movement: www.grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com, gemnyc@gmail.com

2011-01-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

Don't forget the City-Wide Rally to Fight School Closings and Charter Takeovers on January 27th @ City Hall Plaza. To Endorse email gbran289@aol.com.

Join The Real Reformers at the Upcoming Panel for Educational Policy Meetings (all at Brooklyn Technical High School @ 5:30):

January 19th: Greet Cathleen Black and tell her and the PEP to Defend Public Education and end the historic inequity in funding, particularly for schools that serve Black and Latino children.

February 1st: Support schools facing closing and co-location. Join us in telling the PEP that Co-Locations only divide and hurt our public school communities.

February 3rd: Support schools facing closings. Join us in telling the PEP that the current school closing policy is misguided and destructive, they should be supporting and fixing our schools, not closing them.

March 1st **(note changed from 2/15)**:   Support schools facing co-locations and Join us in declaring our schools are not for sale; say NO to the privatization agenda.



   Real Reform:  Transforming Public Education, School Governance, and Teacher Unions

Real Reform #1: Smaller Class Sizes

Real Reform #2: Excellent Community Public Schools for ALL Children

Real Reform #3: More Teaching – Less Testing

Real Reform #4: Parent and Teacher Empowerment and Leadership

Real Reform #5: Equitable Funding for ALL Schools

Real Reform #6: Anti-Racist Education Policies

Real Reform #7: Culturally Relevant Curriculum

Real Reform #8: Expand Pre Kindergarten and Early Intervention Programs

Real Reform #9: Qualified and Experienced Educators and Educational Leaders

Real Reform #10: Democratic and Social Justice Unionism

2011-01-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Participants of Fight Back Friday 6/4/10

2011-01-06T21:05:00.001-08:00

View Stop the School Budget Cuts in a larger map

Fight Back Fridays Rally 12/17/10 7:15-8:00 a.m.

2010-12-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

Now that we have avoided the possibility of closure, the Dewey community must fight for the "transformation" model that we deserve. Anything less than "transformation" could result in the downsizing of our school and having a new school co-located within our building. This, of course, would be highly disruptive to our students and could possibly rob our school community of the resources that we require to reinvigorate Dewey. We can only prevent this from occurring if we band together, in a concerted effort, to fight for the opportunity to take back our school from the negative forces that have prevented us from moving forward. Now is the time to make our voices heard. The Fight Back Fridays rallies will continue until we are granted the "transformation" model.

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/12/11/brooklyn/courier-yn_brooklyn_front_page-bn_deweysheepsheadsaved_2010_9_12_bk.txt

Directions To Dewey For Fight Back Friday Rally 12/03/10 : 3PM

2010-12-01T17:31:00.001-08:00

From Sheepshead Bay HS: Knapp St. to Belt Parkway West. Get off Belt Parkway at exit 6N (Cropsey Ave.& Stillwell Ave.). Do not continue straight ahead but make first right turn onto Ave. Z - Continue on Ave. Z until you reach Stillwell Ave.- Make left turn onto Stillwell Ave.- John Dewey H.S. will be on your left, just after Stillwell Materials and under the elevated D train. Turn into the parking lot and join our rally.

View Larger Map

News 12 Brooklyn coverage of Fight Back Fridays

2010-11-30T18:42:00.000-08:00

Dewey Faculty Members Lend Support At Sheepshead Bay High School Rally On Friday, November 19th

2010-11-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

SCHOOL CLOSINGS PUSHBACK BEGINS

Let Us Spread The Word To Every School On The PLA List!!!

3rd Fight Back Fridays Rally A Huge Success

2010-11-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/fighting-closure-of-a-high-school-on-the-brink/

http://www.indypendent.org/2010/11/22/school-closings-pushback-begins/

2010-11-17T15:02:00.001-08:00

WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

2010-11-13T19:59:00.000-08:00

In an effort to thwart the unfair attacks by the New York City Department of Education and the New York State Education Department against our school community, we have chosen to fight back.

JOHN DEWEY HIGH SCHOOL AND JANE ADDAMS HIGH SCHOOL SUFFER SIMILAR ATTACKS

2010-11-13T19:39:00.001-08:00

Jane Addams Teacher Chronicles How NYCDOE Destroyed School With Poison Pill

Glenn Tepper gave this testimony at the GEM Oct. 26 meeting on school closings.

With this narrative, I bear witness to how, within the span of a decade, a school can go from being so good as to be a finalist in the national New American High Schoolcompetition, to being named by the New York State Education Department as one of the “Persistently Lowest Achieving” schools in the entire state.

I worked for 36 years, teaching English at Jane Addams High School for Academics and Careers in the South Bronx for the last 21 of those years. I immersed myself in the life of the school, and had the opportunity to serve as conflict resolution specialist, coordinator of student activities, recruiter, teacher mentor, chair of the school-based management team, professional developer, dean, and HIV/AIDS resource provider, and I was a member of my union’s chapter committee.

Addams is a CTE — Careers and Technical Education — school, what used to be called a Vocational High School. By state decree, the students all must qualify for the same Regents diploma as students in every other high school in the state.

So how does a school lose so much, so fast? By a series of deliberate decisions and acts — poison pills— by the New York City Department of Education, to cause the school to fail.

In the Brave New World of the NYC school system, all high schools are in competition with one another for students, especially competent students. As long as a school had something unique to offer, it could compete. Addams had certification programs for Nurse Assistant and for Cosmetology, and one of the first Virtual Enterprise business programs in the city. The school also had Advanced Placement, Honors, and remedial programs. For a decade, I served as the school's recruiter. Every school year during October, November, and May, I sought out prospective applicants, at high school fairs, and by going to the middle and junior high schools, speaking to students, speaking to their parents — during school, after school, sometimes nights and weekends.

Addams would attract students from throughout the city, looking for a safe school, a school that had a documented track record of graduating its students, prepared for both college and the workplace.

But then the DoE unleveled the playing field, putting Addams at a severe disadvantage.

Addams was a medium-size school. Under the influence of big money from the Gates Foundation and others, new little schools were created, in the borough and throughout the city, offering programs very similar to those offered at Addams.

The DoE organized so-called “small high school” recruiting events, to which Addams was not invited.

Enticed by real appealing-sounding, yet somewhat misleading names of some of these new schools, and promised the sun, the moon, and the stars, prospective students and their parents were lured into applying to these schools, over Addams.

Then the application process was changed. Under the former process, half of our students were those who actually indicated a high preference, listing us #1 or #2 on their applications, and the other half were randomly assigned to the school. It worked. We had a critical mass of students who were glad to be Addams students, and their enthusiasm rubbed off on many of the others.

But under the new application rules, most of our students turned out to have notchosen to attend Addams; they had been rejected by their schools of choice. For the last several school years, the DoE has admitted ever-smaller incoming 9^th grade classes to Addams, causing the school’s enrollment to drop. However, while other so-called “traditional” schools were closing and/or being reorganized, Addams became ade facto dumping ground — the DoE’s place for low-performing, difficult, students.

Down the road, the Addams staff is going wind up as ATRs— day-to-day substitutes at other schools, maybe a different school every day. Many of them are never going to find permanent jobs with the DoE— Some have licenses that no other school will need, like Cosmetology, and Stenography, and Typing. And there is nothing the union can — or will be able to — do about that. In hindsight, these Addams people should have gone for recertification when they had the chance and the time.

Because for years Addams had a loyal staff in both the academic and the career license areas, many of these veteran teachers will find that they are either too old, or too experienced, or too high up the salary scale, to be attractive to other schools. One former colleague, with over twenty-five years with the DoE, has resigned herself to spending the last years of her career as an ATR.

The school will probably hang on as a dumping ground for three to five more years, with smaller and smaller enrollments and fewer and fewer staff on board.

And eventually, the DoE, in its infinite wisdom, will install three — or four, or five — new smaller schools where there once was one. Yet, neither individually nor collectively will these schools have the diverse experienced staff and the wide-ranging resources and programs that were the benchmarks of Jane Addams High School for Academics and Careers.

-Glenn Tepper

Retired, 2009

Borrowed from ednotesonline.blogspot.com