So Much For Putting Children First

Bloomberg and Walcott like to say they're all about the kids while the teachers union - and more pointedly, the teachers themselves - are just about perpetuating their own interests.

And yet, somehow these self-annointed Carers of Children continued to send students to a school building (PS 51) that they knew was contaminated with cancer-causing toxins.

Cuomo likes to say he is a lobbyist for students, that teachers do not care about them, only he does.

And yet Cuomo is sitting on a report about PS 51 and keeping it from the public.

The Daily News says parents want that report released:

It’s been more than two years since the Department of Education found unsafe levels of a cancer-causing chemical inside a Bronx school.

But parents of children who attended PS 51, the Bronx New School, on Jerome Ave. said they’re still waiting for a report from the state Department of Health detailing the health impacts from exposure to trichloroethene, or TCE, inside the school.

“We’re at a stalemate, we really are,” said Kelly King-Lewis, whose two daughters attended the contaminated school.

“We’re trying to move this consultation report forward and get the state to release it - but it seems like we’re pulling teeth,” she said. “It’s very, very frustrating for us.”
...

 One PS 51 teacher is suing the city Department of Education for birth defects her unborn child suffered while she worked at the school.

Last week, City Councilman Fernando Cabrera submitted a resolution that the state Department of Health release PS 51’s health consultation report.

Cabrera also submitted a legislative amendment that the School Construction Authority notify parents faster once it learns a school site is contaminated. The DOE waited months to tell PS 51 parents about the TCE contamination.

The DOE shuttered PS 51’s site--a former lamp factory--in 2011 after test samples revealed TCE vapors indoors were 10 times the state’s limit Last March, representatives from the DOH met with students’ parents and told them they were investigating the health effects of TCE exposure at the school, and they’d publish a report detailing the health impacts of spending time in the contaminated school.

A DOH spokesman said he had no information to provide on the report’s release.

Even if it’s made public, the report still may not give parents answers because TCE-contamination symptoms may not show up right away, said Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight.

“The chronic health risks could manifest themselves in the long-term,” Siegel said. “That’s one of the difficulties in studying it.”

Parents picking up their children Monday from the relocated PS 51, in the former St Martin of Tours school building on E. 182nd St., said they were concerned about how the toxins were affecting their kids.

Anna Jimenez, whose nine year old son went to school in the Jerome Ave. building for two years, wondered whether her son’s health would get worse in the future.

“There’s no guarantee that something might come out later on,” she said.

And another mother questioned whether the colds, headaches and behavioral problems her second grade daughter suffered while at the old site was related to exposure to TCE.

“I am very, very outraged,” the woman said. “We don’t know the long-range effects of this.”

Why is the state DOH sitting on the report and keeping it from parents and public?

Why did Bloomberg and Walcott knowingly send children and adult staff to a building contaminated with cancer-causing toxins for at least six months after they knew about the contamination?

Why won't Cuomo force the DOH to release the report?

The fix is in once again, folks.

These self-appointed Carers of Children and Lobbyists for Students are in the business of covering their own asses rather than protecting the children in their care or holding themselves accountable when they fail to do that.

How many children and adults will get sick because of Bloomberg and Walcott's callousness?

How many will die?

Who will hold Bloomberg and Walcott accountable?

Certainly not Cuomo, who doesn't seem to be forcing the DOH to get that report out ASAP.

So much for putting children first.

So much for being a lobbyist for students.

Charter Schools Destroy Catholic Schools Too

The Daily News takes a look at what the charter school movement has done to Catholic schools:

Emotional students and teachers packed up years’ worth of belongings as their beloved school, St. Augustine, closed its doors forever last June. A charter school moved into the building.

The conversion reflects a sea change happening throughout the state, said Abe Lackman, who is presenting new research in April to the National Conference of Catholic Educators.

Lackman, a scholar-in-residence at Albany Law School, told the audience that Catholic school enrollment in the state has been on the verge of collapse in the last decade, and that transfers to charter schools account for 37% of the decline. About 180 charter schools in the state have drawn roughly 32,000 students away from the Catholic school system.

“Without some type of relief, those charter schools will draw another 50,000 students over the next decade,” said Lackman, who started researching K-8 schools last August. “I think it’s the tip of the iceberg.”

Lackman said about 200 new charter schools are opening in the state in the next several years. Nine are opening in the Bronx next school year.

His initial findings have generated buzz in the city, propelling a panel discussion titled “The Tension Between Catholic Schools and Charter Schools” at St. Francis College in Brooklyn last week.

Of the five borough Catholic grammar schools that closed last year because of financial woes, two are now charters: Harriet Tubman Charter School at St. Augustine, and the Bronx Charter School for Excellence at Our Lady of Solace. St. Martin of Tours now houses Public School 51.

Rev. Thomas Fenlon, pastor at St. Augustine - which recently merged with Our Lady of Victory in Claremont - said losing students to public and charter schools also means losing a moral curriculum.

“(The school) was an important part of our church, our parish, our mission, to try to help the children and talk about the values that are important to us,” Fenlon said, “and we’re not able to do that.”

Make no mistake, charter schools sell a moral curriculum as well - it is the Gospel of Work, Shop, Obey.

And make no mistake, a few more years of unbridled charter school growth and almost every Catholic school in the city will be gone, replaced with a Moskowitz "Success" Academy or some other charter that preaches the Gospel of Work, Shop, Obey that is supported by hedge fund managers and other Wall Street criminals.

For years, Catholic schools and traditional public schools have co-existed peacefully in this city, but now the Catholic school is being killed by the very cancer that was created by the free marketeers to kill off the traditional public school.

It is time to rid this city of the charter school cancer.

I used to think that charter schools could peacefully co-exist beside traditional public schools the way Catholic schools have, but the last ten years has shown me this is not the case.

Charters really are a cancer and the industry and its entrepreneurs will not be satisfied until they have killed off every traditional public and parochial school.

Bloomberg Replacing Popular Day Care Centers With Charter Schools

The charterization of New York continues unabated:

Two beloved Brooklyn day care centers are closing Friday, slated to get replaced by a controversial charter school, the Daily News has learned.

Three other centers - one in Queens and two in Brooklyn - are also shutting down because of city budget cuts, affecting about 250 kids citywide.

Parents at Strong Place Day Care Center and Bethel Day Care Center along Hoyt St. are particularly outraged because they learned only Thursday morning their year-round classes are getting cut off.

"I feel the system is failing our kids," said Christina Nieves, 26, whose son, Sandro, 3, attends Strong Place. "Why are they doing these budget cuts in urban neighborhoods where parents need the most help?"

Day Care administrators say they were blindsided. They knew closure was a possibility, but not on such short notice.

"There was this timeline for closure I had heard a long time ago, but I thought it was shelved. Then yesterday I'm told by ACS to follow this old timeline and hope for the best," said Strong Place's furious director Loraine Pennisi, who is planning a protest for Friday.

A burgeoning charter school has snatched up the space and signed a lease, which means that even if last-minute funding is found to keep the centers open, there is nowhere to operate.

Brooklyn Prospect executive director Daniel Rubenstein declined to comment, but sent a letter to parents June 7 outlining the switch.

"The Brooklyn Prospect Board of Trustees and staff have together made the decision to sign a lease that provides for private interim space at 238-242 Hoyt Street," he wrote.

This news came as a shock to Councilman Stephen Levin, who had been trying to help the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School find a home and save the centers at the same time.

"I'm very hurt," said Levin, who has a soft-spot for the issue because his staffer, Hope Reichbach, dedicated herself to saving the center before she died in April. "This was done without the involvement of the local community...(or)local officials and despite the fact that we were trying to save these day cares."

...

Brooklyn Prospect Charter School has been jammed into Sunset Park High School since 2009, angering parents and politicians as it searches for temporary space until their new Park Slope building is completed.

Administration for Childrens' Service officials said the agency notified parents about the closures months ago, providing a list of city day cares nearby.

"We will work with any families who are currently in need of help identifying alternative arrangements," ACS spokeswoman Elysia Murphy said.

Now they're closing day care centers and replacing them with charter schools.

What's next?

How can people question the NAACP's role in a lawsuit against charter school co-locations and expansions when this is how the process is carried out?

Bloomberg uses charter schools like cancer - he sticks them into places where they bore deep down, then expand and expand and expand until they kill off whatever they were "co-located" with.

It used to just be public schools.

Now it's day care centers too.

Bloomberg Poisons Schoolchildren

And doesn't give a shit about it - that's the only possible way to read this:

Federal inspectors say they have found toxic PCB chemicals leaking from light fixtures at a public school in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The Environmental Protection Agency says all 19 aging fluorescent light fixtures tested at P.S. 45 showed abnormally high levels of the toxins. Most samples far exceeded government regulations and require removal.

The government and the city Department of Education are in a standoff about how to handle the issue.

DOE officials say the city cannot afford to repair all fixtures in all of its schools and insists the PCB leaks pose no immediate health risk.

The EPA and environmental activists say the contamination is a serious long-term health threat to children and school staff.

A DOE spokesperson said in a statement about P.S. 45, "All leaking ballasts and/or light fixtures that exhibited signs of PCB staining that were inspected by the EPA have already been removed. The remainder of the ballasts or light fixtures in the school will be replaced in the near future."

Six schools, including P.S. 36 on Staten Island, have tested positive this year for the toxin.

PCBs were commonly used in construction materials from the 1950s until the late 1970s, when they were banned. They have been linked to immune and reproductive system disorders.

The Daily News reports that ALL nine city schools spot-checked for dangerous levels of cancer causing PCB's were found to contain elevated levels of toxins.

ALL NINE.

Not some.

Not a few.

ALL NINE.

The Daily News says these nine schools are just the "tip of the iceberg" because the DOE told the EPA in a letter that there are "564,000 of the outdated "T12" lights in 772 school buildings across the city."

772 school buildings with 564,000 lights that are KNOWN to cause cancer when they leak PCB's near children.

But the city says it doesn't have the money to do anything about these.

And we just cannot take money from the accountability and performance sectors and use it to, you know, make the schools safe.

I wonder what Shael thinks about this.

Didn't his second wife die of cancer?

Ah, well, what does he care.

His allegiance is ALWAYS to the test data.

Not to the children who he, along with his bosses Cathie Black and Mayor Bloomberg, are in danger of killing by refusing to deal with this health risk problem.

DOE Hides PCB Contamination From Parents And School Staff

If it's Tuesday, another city school must have tested positive for PCB's:

The Environmental Protection Agency says an East Harlem building that houses three city schools has tested positive for PCBs.

The agency says it took a total of 14 samples of lighting ballasts from the building located at 508 East 120th Street.

It currently houses PS 206, PS 37 and PS 112.

The EPA says 12 of the samples came back above the regulatory limit of 50 parts per million.

Parents and teachers say they are shocked because the school did not tell them the EPA discovered the PCBs, which have been linked to cancer.

"It's their safety and the staff that's in there too. It's not just the children. Everyone that's in the building is at risk so I would think people should voice their opinion to get something done," said Parent Tyra King.

"Was it already tested a second time, to make sure it was at acceptable level? I don't know. I never knew the problem in the first place. This is the first I'm hearing of it so I'm hoping the school did the right thing, did the tests, fixed it, corrected it and now the problem is good to go," said Parent Decarlo Stroud.

The EPA says federal law requires immediate removal of the lighting ballasts.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education says the EPA and city Department of Health indicate there is no immediate health risk for students and staff at the buildings.

The DOE also says it took corrective action during the same weekend as the EPA inspection by replacing ballasts as necessary.

The EPA has been checking one city school per week for traces of PCBs. For the past five weeks, a city school has tested positive.

They're hiding the size and scope of the problem to save money and face for Bloomberg.

So what if people die of cancer?

This is money and Bloomberg's face we're talking about.

Maybe the public advocate of NYC could, you know, get off his ass and do something to point out the problem?

Or maybe the state attorney general could take these murderous bastards to court and force them to clean the toxins out of schools?

Because left to their own devices, Shael, Cathie, Moneybags and the rest of the DOE brain trust are going to ignore the problem and spend all of the DOE money they can on test prep and other no-bid contracts for bullshit.

And as usual, the UFT is useless doing anything about this.

How about a commercial that shows all the schools that have tested positive for PCB's that asks how many people will DIE FROM CANCER as a consequence of Bloomberg's refusal to CLEAN UP THE SCHOOLS!!!!!

Bloomberg's Education Reforms: PCB's First

Nothing is MORE important that testing and accountability.

WE MUST HAVE ASSESSMENTS!!!

So says Deputy Chancellor/Wanker Shael Polakow Suransky.

But removing dangerous toxins from schools?

Yeah, not so much on that:

As the father of an 8-year-old attending Public School 36 on Staten Island, Richard P. Ghiraldi was alarmed to learn that students were being exposed to a known carcinogen in the classrooms.

Last month, Mr. Ghiraldi and hundreds of other parents kept their children home from school for four days after tests showed that lighting ballasts — the devices that convert current into electricity for fluorescent lights— were leaking the highly toxic chemical compounds known as PCBs onto the light fixtures and floor tiles.

“I was surprised they still had these old ballasts in schools,” Mr. Ghiraldi, a 40-year-old paralegal, said. “You’d think the custodians and the teachers would think it’d be a danger.”

Yet as he and other worried parents in New York City press doctors and government officials on the specific risks that their children face from toiling beneath the aging classroom fixtures, which remain in some 800 of 1,200 city school buildings, the answers have been frustratingly vague.

There is no immediate health risk from PCBs lingering in schools, all are told, yet with one important caveat: the longer the exposure, the higher the risk.

...

Widely used in electrical products and construction materials like caulk before a federal ban took effect in the late 1970s, PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, have been linked to cancer, impairment of immune and reproductive functions, and other illnesses, as well as lower I.Q. levels.

The challenge, as with exposures to many other contaminants, medical researchers say, is that linking the health problems to a specific type and length of PCB exposure with certainty is difficult if not impossible. Some toxicologists note that the risk depends on variables like intensity and duration of exposure.

And just because a light ballast is leaking, they say, it does not mean that PCBs have gotten into the air and that children are being exposed to them.

“It does tell you about the potential, and that’s why you want the ballasts out of there,” said Dr. Bruce Kelman, a toxicologist whose company, Veritox, in Seattle, provides assessments of exposure to contamination in schools, workplaces and homes. “One ameliorating factor is that the kids don’t live in the school, and each room won’t have the same levels of PCBs.”

Adding to the parental stress in a strained budget year, the Bloomberg administration has disputed the urgency of replacing all of the aged T-12-style fluorescent lighting, estimating it would cost about $1 billion. Its negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency continue.

Anxiety about the dangers posed by PCBs began rising last summer after the city undertook a pilot testing program with the E.P.A. that revealed levels of air contamination exceeding federal guidelines for safety. It soared after the agency, effectively overruling the Bloomberg administration, said further tests could not wait until summer 2011 and began its own spot inspections to identify leaking ballasts last month.

So far, the E.P.A. inspections, which test PCBs in the light fixtures but not in samples of indoor air, have revealed PCB levels above federal regulatory limits in all three buildings tested: P.S. 11 in Brooklyn; P.S. 53 on Staten Island and a building housing both P.S. 13 and P.S. 358 in Brooklyn. (The furor at P.S. 36 on Staten Island arose after a teacher called attention to brownish stains under a light fixture and the city performed tests.)

In December, testing financed by two environmental advocacy groups also found high levels of PCBs in caulk at P.S. 56 in Brooklyn.

“You don’t send your children to school thinking, ‘My kid is going to be exposed to a chemical that’s toxic enough that they ban it in building materials,’ ” said Celia Green, whose 10-year-old son attends P.S. 56.

You see, your problem Ms. Green, is not being aware that Mayor Bloomberg does NOT give a shit about your kid or you.

Neither did Joel Klein and neither does Cathie Black.

Neither does testbot Shael.

What they care about is a) saving money b) making money for their corporate ed deform buddies and c) privatizing the system.

Now if you could prove that it was ATR's, teacher pensions or seniority rules causing the cancer, then these people would be all over this stuff, screaming to high holy hell about the dangers.

But because you cannot do that, and because it costs money to remove cancer-causing toxins from school buildings that they would rather spend on "assessments," your kid goes to a school that may give him/her cancer in the future.

Welcome to Bloomberg's New York.