Parents, Pupils Rally In Ridgewood Against DOE Proposal
Determined to thwart a plan by the city Department of Education (DOE) that could result in the dismissal of its principal and at least half of its staff, the Grover Cleveland High School community marched in a chain around the Ridgewood campus before class last Thursday morning, Feb. 16.
Organized by students at Grover Cleveland with the support of its Parents Association and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the rally featured scores of pupils, parents, union delegates and representatives of elected schools calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the DOE to scuttle the “turnaround” model they plan to implement at the high school before the new school year begins this September.
As previously reported, Grover Cleveland is one of a number of public high schools across the five boroughs slated to receive the “turnaround” plan to improve overall academic performance after being declared by the state Education Department as being “persistently low- est achieving.” The “turnaround” model would result in the dismissal of Grover Cleveland’s principal, Denise Vittor, and at least 50 percent of the school’s faculty and staff.
Last year, the city DOE had planned to “phase out” Grover Cleveland, replacing it gradually with several smaller, specialized high schools. After students and parents at Grover Cleveland voiced their displeasure with the plan, the DOE opted instead to enact a “restart” plan in which the school partnered with an educational partner organization (EPO) to create a plan to improve the school curriculum and provide academic support to both teachers and students.
The “restart” method is supported by funding from the federal government, but the money was lost after the DOE and the UFT failed to reach an agreement on a required teacher evaluation system by a Jan. 1, 2012 deadline. Thereafter, the DOE announced that it would abandon the “restart” model and instead enact the “turnaround” method for Grover Cleveland and 32 other high schools across the city.
Under the turnaround model, the new principal would be given greater budgetary and “operational flexibility” to enact “a comprehensive approach to substantially improve student outcomes,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.
But students and parents at last Thursday’s rally insisted that the changes proposed by the DOE would do more harm than good to the over 2,000 pupils who attend the Ridgewood high school. They charged that Grover Cleveland, as a whole, has made great strides in improving education and the graduation rate over the last several years, owing much of it to the school’s teachers and administrators.
Many of the marchers carried signs accusing Mayor Bloomberg of “holding Grover Cleveland High School hostage” and urging the public to call 311 to implore the city to stop the proposed changes. Others held banners declaring “Leave politics out of our schools!” and “We are not invisible!”
“It’s wrong for our school it will hurt our kids and it will hurt our school. It’s wrong to blame our teachers and our staff for the graduation rate,” said Kathy Carlson, president of Grover Cleveland’s Parents Association. “We have a high percentage of English as a second language students … we have students who are special ed. And it’s wrong for them to punish us because these students need more than four years to graduate.”
Carlson added that the current slate of teachers at Grover Cleveland are passionate and dedicated, often arriving early, leaving late or forgoing their lunch hours to tutor students who need assistance.
“You couldn’t find a more dedicated group of teachers and staff members here,” she told the Times Newsweekly. “We have kids who love this school, and it’s wrong to take 50 percent of our staff away.”
Diana Rodriguez, a student at Grover Cleveland and one of the organizers of the march, added that over a quarter of the student population at Grover Cleveland is comprised of English language learners. She stated that making managerial changes won’t be enough to address the educational challenges each student at the high school faces.
“We need a better solution instead of avoiding the problem,” she said.
Varda Verstandig, a special education teacher at Grover Cleveland, noted that she and others in her department work on an individual basis with students, and in doing so, have helped to “transform” the lives of struggling youngsters.
“We have changed lives and transformed our students from being shy and introverted into being involved in different activities,” she said. “We have seen on an individual basis that these kids have turned around.”
She went on to note that many of the special education students “are integrated into the classrooms and perform hand in hand with the classes. They’re able to overcome these learning disabilities because of the strategies that we have instilled.”
A parent of a special education student at Grover Cleveland, Danny Vargas, noted that his son is “getting the proper tools and materials” to make him “prepared for the working field.”
“The teachers are very good. I have no complaints from guidance counselors to principals. They’re doing their job. The students listen to their teachers. They’re interested in what the teachers are teaching them,” he said. “[Mayor] Bloomberg should stick to his politics and leave the schools alone.”
Hours after last Thursday’s rally in Ridgewood, the state and city Departments of Education and teachers unions across the state reached a deal on a teacher evaluation program. However, Mayor Bloomberg indicated in statements made thereafter that the turnaround plans for Grover Cleveland and the other schools previously designated for the change by the city DOE would continue.
The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) must approve the turnaround model at an upcoming meeting before it can be enacted.
