CDEC26 President says Klein ducked meeting

While Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was basking in the warmth of a visit to an “A-rated” school in Bayside recently, the Community District Education Council (CDEC) was left out in the cold, according to CDEC26 president, Rob Caloras.
In a letter to The Queens Courier, Caloras expressed a belief that the Department of Education is unwilling to “allow parents and the various Educational Councils any meaningful participation” in school planning and activities despite statements by Klein and Mayor Bloomberg over the years.
In a letter to Klein dated Thursday, January 3, the day the Chancellor visited P.S. 46, the Alley Pond School, Caloras suggests that the trip was kept secret from him. The school is in district 26.
He charges that upon hearing a rumor that Klein was coming to a school in Bayside, he called the Department of Education (DOE) and was told there was no visit planned. Caloras complains, “I received a phone call from a reporter asking me why I was not at the press conference.”
In a thinly-veiled suggestion that he was lied to, Caloras concludes, “It is obvious that this visit was not a spontaneous one.”
When the New York City school system was being overhauled by Mayor Bloomberg, one of the changes was to eliminate the old elected school boards and create the Education Councils, whose parent-members are selected by the DOE.
Caloras has long complained that assurances by the Mayor and Chancellor that parent participation was both important and desired were no more than lip service.
On the DOE website, the Chancellor’s message to Community and Citywide Education Councils is delivered by a subordinate, Tom Huser, the Educational Councils director.
“(W)e encourage you to attend the Education Council meetings in your Districts,” the message reads in part. “Thanks again for your participation and dedication to helping make all of our schools better for children throughout the City,” it concludes.
In his letter to Klein, Caloras said, “It was my understanding based on representations that you made to all of the Education Councils, that every effort would be made to not only inform Councils of events being held in their respective Districts, but to invite Council members to attend.”
Caloras called the failure to notify them “an insult” and “another impediment to our being able to function as representatives of the District 26 education community.”