To those who think we only dig negative stories, please follow our coverage of the Park House School House, which we think is a model of creative people in a community coming together to create something wonderful from what could have been a disaster. Yesterday, we bemoaned the lack of a logo for the new […]

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There is so much happiness in so many workplaces that it sometimes warms the heart. For instance, here’s a rant we found on Craigslist that was post by someone working in an unnamed NYC public school: MY STUPID FUCKING G-DDAMN SACK OF SHIT BOSS (The toilet) Yep, I’m still pissed. So are my colleagues, but […]

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Over the weekend, the Times ran a story about the likely closing of the Montessori School’s “Little Room” at Court and Bergen Streets. The highly-regarded facility serves children with special needs and “has become a nationally recognized program for 3- and 4-year-olds with speech and language delays across Brooklyn and Manhattan.” Someone forwarded us a […]

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Yesterday we noted that a number of people–Park Slopers prime among them–were directing people to an online petition urging President-Elect Obama not to name NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein as US Secretary of Education. Since then, the number of signatures has more than doubled and is approaching 2,000. Among other things, the petition says that […]

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To say that NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein has enemies in Brooklyn and elsewhere in the city is an understatement. He has been mentioned as a possibility for Secretary of Education in an Obama Administration, and Brooklyn groups are busy trying to direct people to an online petition against a Klein nomination directed at President-Elect […]

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The city’s annual School Report Cards are out and, overall, more schools got “A’s” this year. To find the rundown of Brooklyn schools, click here. Reports are also available here on the Dept. of Education’s website.

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There should be plenty of reaction to the news that PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights, a very popular school with local parents, has gotten an “F” in the city’s school grading system. “This year, at a July 29 news conference announcing plans for an annex to accommodate the flood of students wanting to attend P.S. […]

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There’s a “Town Hall Meeting on School Governance” coming up next week on Wednesday, July 16. An email we received says: Please Join Councilmember Bill de Blasio, elected Officials and Education Advocates for an informational town hall session on Mayoral Control. Come share your opinions and learn how to continue to have your voice heard […]

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There’s a 5K Run/Walk for Public Elementary Schools sponsored by the Brooklyn PTA tonight. Here’s a bit from the release: Parents, students, and teachers come together to run, raise funds, and protest budget cuts. Hundreds of parents, students, and teachers will meet up in Prospect Park to run, walk, and stroll 5k for Brooklyn’s public […]

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Today’s Daily News deals with an important part of the Anarchy in the Pre-K situation: the fact that affluent parents in Park Slope and other neighborhoods haven’t been the only ones impacted by the partial meltdown of the selection and admission system. The troubles are hitting parents of modest means in less privileged neighborhoods too […]

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Outraged city parents whose children were mistakenly rejected from public prekindergarten programs were still waiting late last week for a fix. The application mixup meant children with older siblings in school weren’t given first priority, as is Department of Education policy. But the problem may be more widespread – with parents charging that children from […]

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The reverberations of the Anarchy in the Pre-K situation continue, with a protest at City Hall this morning and calls for more protests and email campaign by disgruntled parents. One parent writing via the Park Slope Parents email list offers an interesting look at how a private contractor in Pennsylvania contributed to the mess: I […]

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Given that we’ve been following the Anarchy in the Pre-K situation in which children all over Brooklyn and the city has been randomly rejected from pre-school due to snafus which appear to rest with a contractor hired by the city, we will note that a rally sponsored by the City Council is taking place at […]

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Here’s another response to what we’re calling the Anarchy in the Pre-K situation. Yesterday, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Councilmember Bill de Blasio had a press event “calling on the Department of Education (DOE) to correct mistakes made in the pre-Kindergarten admissions process and improve the appeals process for parents who have experienced problems.” (The […]

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Brooklyn schools are about to get swamped by a wave of overcrowding as the effects population growth and residential development hit dozens of neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the Education Department has done little to anticipate growth. The summary in today’s Daily News is grim. Take Williamsburg and Greenpoint: “…the City Planning Commission projects a general population increase […]

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A new charter school was approved for Park Slope on Monday. The Brooklyn Prospect Charter School will open in 2009 with a sixth grade and will add classes until it reaches 12th grade by 2015. The school will accept students (via lottery) that live in Park Slope, Gowanus, Sunset Park, Red Hook, Windsor Terrace, Cobble […]

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A proposed Park Slope charter school, which was turned down the first time around, has gotten the okay to open in the 2009-2010 school year. It would be a middle school and serve neighborhoods including Park Slope, Gowanus, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace, Red Hook, Cobble Hill and parts of Downtown Brooklyn.–Sun

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There’s another press conference coming today to call on Mayor Bloomberg to avoid projected cuts of $539 million in the education budget. The budget is probably coming on Thursday, so this morning City Council Member Bill de Blasio (who is running for Brooklyn Borough President) along with Council Member Robert Jackson and other elected officials, […]

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There is a long, long, long story behind Brooklyn’s Khalil Gibran International Academy and its former principal Debbie Almontaser. “Since the school opened in Brooklyn last fall, children have been suspended for carrying weapons, repeatedly gotten into fights and taunted an Arabic teacher by calling her a “terrorist,” staff members and students said in interviews. […]

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There were many comments left yesterday on our post about the parking sign outside PS 38 in Boerum Hill that was mysteriously altered to expand the parking off-limits to residents during school hours. Residents say a school employee tampered with the sign to reserve an entire block for school employees and, then, said that those […]

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Here’s one way to alter parking regulations without going through the cumbersome Dept. of Transportation procedure: change the signs yourself. This, apparently, is what an enterprise staff member at PS 38 in Boerum Hill has done, at least, according to some Boerum Hill residents. Per the Boerum Hill email list: Arrived home tonight to discover […]

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Few New York City schools have gotten the volume of bad press and controversy as the Khalil Gibran School. It has been booted from Park Slope, embroiled in an ugly principal controversy and not embraced in Fort Greene, where it will go next year. Now, it’s current location in Boerum Hill is being slammed, per […]

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Council Members Bill de Blasio and David Yassky are cutting the ribbon on a new Computer Lab at MS 447 on Dean Street today. Per an email: “grants were awarded to the school upon learning that the school would be moving from one location to another. The total cost of the technology lab which includes […]

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“Despite concern from some parents, Brooklyn’s controversial Arabic-themed school will move into a Fort Greene elementary school next year, officials said. Public School 287 parents were told at a meeting yesterday that the Khalil Gibran International Academy will move into the school building next year after growing too large for its current Boerum Hill location. […]

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As we reported yesterday, PS 154 in Windsor Terrace became the first school in New York City to ban the use of styrofoam trays and substitute eco-friendly trays made from a sugar cane fiber known as Bagasse. Whereas styrofoam is a petroleum-based product that takes tens of thousands of years to break down, the cane […]

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