A new slate of parents just elected tothe Community Education Council for District 2 (CECD2) will make for a balanced crop of rookie and veteran council members tacklingeducation issues for this vast district, running from the tip of Manhattan up to 59th Street on the West Sideand 96th Street on the East Side. Overcrowded schools will continue to drive the agenda, with the 5-year capital plan and new teacher evaluation system also on the upcoming docket. Deliberating on these heady topics toformulate action plans and policy positions makes for a challenging job description for CECD2 members:
- Patience and diplomacy to ferret through the needs, desires, and viewpoints of local communities, from Chinatown, to the Village, to the Upper East Side.
- Working knowledge of City and Stateeducationlaw, policies, and budgets.
- Street smarts to navigate the Department of Education (DOE) bureaucracy and pressure politicians to advocate for students, families, and school communities.
Hours can be long, with meetings and hearings often running late into the evening on top of a day job. There is nopay, strictly gratification from fulfilling this key role as the linchpin between the public and the City’s intricate education system.
Despite the prospect of such a heavy work load, an impressive 25 parents, including 4 incumbents,ranfor election this spring for the 9 parent seats on CECD2. The council has a total of 12 seats: 9 parents selected by district school PTA/PA officers, 2 members appointed by the Manhattan Borough President, and 1 high school senior appointed by the District 2 Superintendent. Upper East Side parent John Keller said he got the itch to run when he started attending CECD2 meetings about a potential new middle school for his daughter. “I saw how the DOE was presenting data in an obtuse way, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m a data guy, I can do this…’” Simon Miller, an attorney and certified mediator, ran for another term, saying “my legal skills dissecting complex issues have been put to good use,and CECs are really the only government body of parents.”
Recap of a Packed Year
CECs were established in conjunction with the 2002 restructuring of the City’s education system abolishing locally elected school boardsand replacing the Board of Education with thePanel for Educational Policy (PEP), with the Mayor in firm control appointing 8 of the 13 PEP seats. CECs are advisory bodiesto the DOE to ensurecommunity input is incorporated into DOE decisionsand they have no authoritativepowers, with the exception of altering school zoning lines where CEC approval is required. In 2009, the NY State Legislature acknowledged the need to strengthen checks and balances between the Mayor and the public, and required the DOE to hold CEC hearings when proposing school closings, co-locations, and other major actions.
The CECD2 was swamped this past yearwith just these types of critical decisions, approving several zoning changes thatimpacted existing schools and created zones for new schools. As departing CECD2 member Cheryl Darlene Glover remarked, “I thought zoning would be boring until I realized how complicated and important it is to schools and families.”One CECD2 decision that struck a nerve here in the Village was creating separate zones for PS 3 and PS 41, thereby breaking the legacy of Village families having a choice between these two revered elementary schools. Other recent CECD2 initiatives includeda new middle school on the Upper East Side,a newly zoned elementary school at 35th Street and First Avenue,a newly zonedelementary schoolon Sixth Avenueand 17th Street (the Foundling School), expansion of the Clinton School for Writers and Artists (grades 6-8) to add a high school and relocate to a new building on 15th Street, and a new middle school at 75 Morton Street planned for opening in 2015.
Concurrent with this flurry of activity around zoning lines and new schools, the CECD2 also weighed induring the year on pressing issues facing all schools. Through its resolution process, the CECD2made formal recommendations for a slower phase-in of the Common Core curriculum and testing, less weighting of standardized tests in school progress reports and teacher evaluations, and more accurate enrollment data from the DOE.
A Moment for Reflection
At the final meeting of the school year in June, CECD2 members, together withDistrict 2 Superintendent Mariano Guzman and Family Advocate Jennifer Greenblatt, shared tributes to departing members and reflected on the strong collegiality that helped driveCECD2’saccomplishments over the last year. At the reception following the meeting, CECD2 members, both old and new, mingled with DOE officials and community members. The atmosphere was one of celebration and gratitude, but not without an occasional conversation among colleagues recalling times of frustration. One departing CECD2 member commented, “There were times I felt like our resolutions were just lost on someone’s hard drive, but otherCEC members would convince me we had to keep going and that this work really matters.”
Change on the Horizon
Virtually all the Mayoral candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, have vowed to lessen Mayoral control over City schools and increase parent and community input into decision making. Some have proposed explicit changes to the appointment process for PEP so it does not function as a rubber stamp for the Mayor, which could include CECs being able to appoint one member. Other candidates are less committal, promising to “engage indialogues” with the community before traumatic decisions like school closures and new charter schoolstake place.
Even though the next Mayor may initiate substantive changes soon after taking office in January, all bets are off in 2015 when the current law expires and the NY State Legislature determines whether theMayoral-control structure is renewed, tweaked, or even overhauled.There is little momentum to go back to pre-2002 days of electing over 30 community school boards, but CECs are pushing for more power, often pointing to the ineffective public hearing process that has only undermined the public’s trust in the DOE. One District 2 parent expressed her exasperation, “The DOE’s idea of process is showing up at a hearing for two minute open mic sessions from community members so they can go off and do what they want.”
TheCECD2 has called out the DOE, along with the Mayor and Chancellor, on multiple occasions, asserting in a March 2012 resolution that “public input is actively solicited…but universally ignored.”Indeed, in that same resolution, the CECD2 boldly requested that the NY State Legislature amend the law to require CEC approval for school closures, phase-outs, grade truncations, and co-locations. Mayoral candidates have been asked where they stand on such a proposal, and none of the front-runners have stepped up to make that commitment. Although such a significant increase in CEC authoritymay be a long shot, the next Mayor will nonetheless have to come up with a more effective system thatbolsters the voice and leverage of the community in shaping the City’s schools.
