By Ivan Pereira
The city once again postponed the vote to phase out PS 30 because parents and students have still not been properly informed about the reasoning behind the decision the city Department of Education announced Monday.
The change in schedule came less than a week after the city Panel for Educational Policy postponed the vote for the closure of IS 231. The PEP votes for IS 231, at 145-00 Springfield Blvd., and PS 30, at 126-10 Bedell St., were supposed to take place in February when the fates of Jamaica and Beach Channel high schools were decided. But the city rescheduled those measures after inclement weather in January canceled the mandated school hearings with parents at the schools.
A representative from the DOE said it has had trouble properly scheduling a make-up hearing for PS 30 and finally settled on April 14 for the school hearing and April 28 for the PEP vote.
“Despite the DOE’s attempts to reschedule the hearing within the time frame prescribed by applicable statutes and regulations, the PS 30 community was not able to come to an agreement on such a date,” DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said in a statement.
The two schools were among 24 institutions across the city that the DOE said needed restructuring due to a large number of student failures and poor school report card grades.
Last year a lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers overturned the PEP’s vote to shut down Jamaica and Beach Channel and one of the institutions at Campus Magnet High School. A State Supreme Court civil judge ruled that the DOE did not properly inform parents about the reasoning behind the closures and did not take proper feedback from them during meetings.
The union so far has not gone to the courts for another action against the DOE.
City Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica), said he is also mulling issuing an injunction against the DOE to stop the school closures.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
