On Tuesday, January 26, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz addressed a rally outside the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) monthly meeting at Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene, and called on the panel to table the proposed closing of selected city public schools until more analysis is conducted.

“I am not in favor of keeping failing schools open, but I am in favor of giving failing schools the appropriate resources they need to succeed,” said BP Markowitz. “I have listened to the community—I wholeheartedly support the community, and I say we must create public schools that reflect the needs and wishes of the community.”

In addition to introducing a resolution to put off the proposed school closures, Brooklyn’s PEP representative, Gbubemi Okotieuro, will vote against a proposal to extend the PAVE Academy Charter School’s temporary stay at PS 15 in Red Hook.

“I have received more than a thousand signatures from the PS 15 community asking that the DOE live up to the original agreement, yet the DOE continues to change the ground rules whenever they want,” said BP Markowitz. “The agreement arranged between PAVE and PS 15 is a textbook example of how not to go about placing a charter school in an existing school.”

Resolution Regarding Significant Changes in School Utilization

WHEREAS, pursuant to Educational Law § 2590-g the Panel for Educational Policy has the power and duty to approve proposals for all school closures or significant changes in utilization including the phaseout, grade reconfiguration, re-siting, or co-location of schools; and

WHEREAS, the Chancellor recommends that the Panel for Educational Policy approve the phaseout of twenty schools listed in Appendix A, attached hereto; and

WHEREAS, the mandated Proposals for Significant Changes in School Utilization for each of the twenty schools listed in Appendix A use different sets of school closing criteria; and

WHEREAS, year-to-year comparisons of school Progress Reports have been rendered impossible due to changes in scale score cutoffs from 2007-08 to 2008-09; now therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Panel for Educational Policy table the aforementioned twenty school phaseout resolutions until the Chancellor provides the Independent Budget Office with the phaseout criteria and description of  efforts to help these schools avoid closure, at least three months prior to requesting Panel for Educational Policy vote; and be it further