Megan McGibney - Bklyner

Department of Education Technicalities Invalidate Election Results For Two Community Education Council Seats, Frustrating Parents

This election promised a more democratic approach to electing members of the “education policy advisory bodies”. However, technical issues have resulted in confusion for two of Brooklyn’s CECs.

Education

Mark Treyger Looks Back On Eight Years In City Council Advocating For Students

“Our schools need to be community schools, and they need to meet the needs of the whole child. They’re not just a place for passing state exams and graduating on time. Our schools are so much more than that. Schools are lifelines, and students are not robots; they’re human beings.”

Should There Be A Permanent Remote School Option?

There are many kids for whom remote learning worked really well. Why should it not be offered going forward?

Education

Advocates For Secular Education In Yeshivas Hope 'Mayor Adams Will be Different From Candidate Adams'

The next mayor of New York City, current Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, will be tasked to handle the many education issues facing the city’s 1.7 million schoolchildren. Advocates for secular studies hope that Mayor Adams will enforce the state education guidelines across all the schools, despite what

Education

Non-profit Providers And Parents Question Prohibitive And Opaque Afterschool Fees

Education

BELA - Bed-Stuy's All Girl Charter School Graduates Its Inaugural Class

“You need five people who play a different role in your life. I don’t believe in the concept of being self-made. None of us are self-made; we all need someone else. So that’s really what my speech was about.”

Education

Parents on NYC School Survey: “There is a strong feeling that none of it matters.”

“My personal feelings on this survey,” she says, “Is that it really did not even begin to ask questions about remote learning, about complications with technology or remote classrooms."

Education

Brooklyn’s Newest Teachers Are Determined To Help Their Students Succeed In A Post Pandemic World

“Reaching children through the screen requires a unique set of techniques,” Norcliffe told Bklyner. “The result was far richer than it was before we all began working together. The student-teachers brought additional facets to our classroom and the children have benefited greatly.”

Education

“How would you feel if your community was being targeted by your neighbors?” Sunset Park’s M.S. 936 Rallies Against Anti-Asian Hate

Students gather at the schoolyard of Mafalda DiMango Complex of the Arts. Megan McGibney/BklynerTuesday afternoon saw nearly 35 students at M.S. 936 in Sunset Park [https://www.ms936artsoff3rd.org/] gather in its schoolyard for an afterschool rally to denounce anti-Asian hate. The event was created by the school’

Education

School Safety Agents Upset Over Oversight Transfer from NYPD To DOE

Governor Andrew Cuomo talks to NYC School Safety officers who were deployed to hand out hand sanitizer, masks and gloves to subway riders during the COVID-19 Pandemic while the schools were not physically in session. Photo via Governor’s office.When school safety agent Quiann Simpkins of East Flatbush learned

Education

Advocates Urge To Make Someone Accountable For Educating Foster Kids in NYC

Photo by Anthony Fomin [https://unsplash.com/@aginsbrook?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText] on Unsplash [https://unsplash.com/s/photos/brooklyn?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText] There are about 6,000 foster care children who attend DOE schools each year, a report

Education

Residents Push For Asian-American History To Be Taught In Schools

Mayor Bill de Blasio delivers remarks at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s Holi Festival. Brooklyn Children’s Museum on Saturday, April 24, 2021. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.On Monday, over 2,500 Asian-American New Yorkers, most of them parents, signed an open letter [https://bklyner.s3.us-east-1.

Bay Ridge

Bay Ridge To Get Another Elementary School

When City Councilmember Justin Brannan first ran in 2017 to represent District 43 (CD-43), he hoped to find a location for at least one new school for the area, particularly because it is home to one of the most overcrowded school districts in the city – School District 20. District 20,

Education

Budget Amnesty For Public Schools, and More Education News

Earlier today, both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter made a series of announcements regarding the future of public schools, as well as the upcoming summer for the city’s youths. One announcement that was made is that New York City’s public schools will no

Central Brooklyn

Frequent COVID School Closures Frustrate Parents At Co-Located School Buildings

With COVID19 still active in Brooklyn, random weekly tests [https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-year-20-21/return-to-school-2020/health-and-safety/covid-19-testing] in the borough’s public schools have been the norm since December. But so have school building closures, whenever two unrelated cases are found. This has been particularly frustrating where more than

Central Brooklyn

Parents And Educators Brace For Exodus From The Department of Education

Mayor Bill de Blasio at City Hall. Tuesday, February 2, 2021. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.When Bay Ridge resident Paullette Ha Healy learned that Paul Forbes, the Department of Education’s (DOE) executive director of Educational Equity, Anti-Bias, and Diversity, was leaving his position [https://nypost.com/2021/

COVID-19

“Suicide Rate Amongst Our Students Is Rapidly Doubling,” Schools Chancellor Shares At CEC21 Town Hall

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza at CEC21 Town Hall, January 2021. Zoom Screenshot.Wednesday night Southern Brooklyn Community Education Council (CEC) 21 hosted a town hall with Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza. Originally, the event was meant for March 2020, but was rescheduled due to the pandemic, and done via a Zoom

Central Brooklyn

Why You Should Run For A Seat On Community Education Council – Fellow Parents Tell All

Tevina Willis, lead community organizer for the nonprofit Red Hook Initiative, listened to officials explain rezoning plans for District 15 at a meeting that was held at P.S. 676.Are you a parent concerned with the future of public school education [https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/

Bed Stuy

Middle School Screens and G&T Hot Issues at D16 Town Hall With Schools Chancellor Carranza

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza during D16 Town Hall. Zoom screenshot. Tuesday evening, January 26, saw Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza take part in a town hall with School District 16, which covers the eastern part of Bedford-Stuyvesant. The Chancellor is required to hold town halls with each district in New York

brownsville

Chancellor To Appoint Trustees To Restore Order to Brownsville’s CEC23

Community Education Council 23 [http://www.d23rising.nyc/] (CEC23) which covers Brownsville, Ocean Hill, and parts of East New York, has only four members out of six required to have a quorum and thus find themselves in the peculiar position of being unable to even restore quorum. The Schools Chancellor

brownsville

Letting Kids Down: Dysfunctional Brownsville Community Education Council Has Lacked Quorum Since October

CECs, which are part of the Department of Education’s governmental structure, are meant to be the parent advocates for their districts. The Councils are “charged with promoting student achievement, advising and commenting on educational policies, and providing input to the chancellor and the Panel for Educational Policy,” [https://www.

Borough Park

Southern Brooklyn Parents React To Ending of Gifted & Talented Screenings

When it was announced Monday afternoon that the Department of Education (DOE)’s Gifted and Talented (G&T) exams would cease after this school year, many parents were outraged, particularly those who live or have children attending schools in Southern Brooklyn. Carrie, a single mom who’s son attends a

Education

“Dog-and-Pony Show” – Brooklyn Parents Criticize The Search For New Schools Superintendent

Entrance to D20’s headquarters. Megan McGibney/BklynerWhen Karina Costantino, the longtime superintendent of District 20 (D20) in Southern Brooklyn, retired late last summer [/exclusive-school-district-20-superintendent-karina-costantino-to-retire/'], the search for her replacement was imminent. However, Alan Aja, the IEP representative on the district’s Community Education Council (CEC), noticed he was

Central Brooklyn

Wiley’s Gun Violence Prevention Plan Sees All Kids As “Worthy And Deserving”

Mayoral hopeful Maya Wiley (Flatbush) unveiled her gun violence prevention plan [https://mayawileyformayor.com/gun-violence-prevention/] yesterday. The announcement comes as citywide shooting incidents [https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-city.pdf] have doubled this year, as well as across both North [https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/

COVID-19

Educators And Activists Hold PPE Drive Ahead Of School Reopening

An attendee holds a poster that says, “Dear Mayor, Divest from NYPD, Invest in Children & Humanities and Humanity.” (Photo: Megan McGibney/Bklyner)GREENWICH VILLAGE – As public schools begin reopening today, several public school teachers and activists gathered Friday evening to protest the reopening while holding a PPE drive and a