Lawsuit attempts to stop 19 New York school closings

The United Federation of Teachers, joined by other plaintiffs including the NAACP, the Alliance for Quality Education, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, other city and state elected officials, parents and members of the community, today filed a lawsuit charging that city school officials “studiously ignored” key provisions of the school governance law in its campaign to close 19 New York City schools.

LBN New York correspondent Sherry Karabin reports with Scott Drake

Press Release

February 1, 2010           

Peter Kadushin    Dick Riley

(212) 510-6463 (O)   (212) 598-9220 (O)

(917) 453-8684 (C)   (917) 880-5728 (C) 
 
 

Teachers, Elected Officials, Parents, Community Groups

Sue Board of Education to Overturn Decision on School Closings 

Accuse Board of Ed and Chancellor Klein of ignoring law,

failing to analyze impact of closing schools on students and communities  
 

The United Federation of Teachers, joined by other plaintiffs including the NAACP, the Alliance for Quality Education, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, other city and state elected officials, parents and members of the community, today filed a lawsuit charging that city school officials “studiously ignored” key provisions of the school governance law in its campaign to close 19 New York City schools.  The suit asks the court to overturn the vote by the Panel for Education Policy that “unlawfully rubber-stamped” the closings.  

The suit charges that the department violated state law by failing to do the required analysis of how school closings would affect the more than 13,000 students who would potentially be displaced, particularly special needs students; by failing to analyze the effects of the closings on other already overcrowded public schools nearby; by failing to give communities and interested groups appropriate notice of local public hearings; and by failing to answer questions at public hearings.  

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said, “Last year we worked with the Mayor and the Chancellor in Albany to craft a renewal of mayoral control legislation that would address the needs of the community to be heard in important Department of Education decisions.  The Mayor and the Chancellor publicly embraced those changes.  But now, when faced with implementing its plan for school closings, the Department failed to follow the law.”  

“Thousands of parents and students went to local public hearings with very little notice, only to get fragmentary information, boilerplate analysis and meaningless platitudes about these school closings.  Thousands more joined us last week at the PEP meeting where the Mayor’s appointees rubber-stamped the decision the Chancellor had already made.”  

“The revised school governance law clearly calls for community input in decisions that affect children’s lives.  It lays out a series of requirements – ignored by school officials -- for analysis and public notice.  We are asking the court to make sure that no one is above the law, and to overturn the vote that approved the closing of these schools.”  

“Last week, the Department of Education closed classroom doors all across the city,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer.  “It is now nine weeks since we learned of the proposed closures, and we still have no explanation for why these schools were chosen and no role for the community in a decision that will forever uproot their children. I applaud the UFT for stepping in to challenge this disregard for a real community process. We must protect the educational welfare of our schoolchildren and if this battle needs to be fought in the courts, then that’s exactly where you’ll find us.”  

“It’s just plain wrong when the rules of the game change in the last quarter and DOE did not play by the rules in this game,” said City Councilmember Robert Jackson.  “I stand with the students, teachers, principals and families who are challenging the arbitrary way the school phase-out decisions were imposed. What is the point of a public process if Chancellor never listens?  Let’s tell it to the judge!”  

“For the past seven years the members of our 15 metropolitan NAACP branches in all boroughs, along with other advocates, parents, teachers and community members have been constantly meeting, receiving and fielding complaints and having open forums on ways to be included in the decision making when it comes to policies implemented in our schools. Too often those policies have had damaging affects.” said NAACP New York State Conference President Hazel N. Dukes. “The NAACP respects parents’ rights to make decisions on the choice of school for their children. Brown vs. Board of Education is proof that the NAACP has been the lone champion for equality in public education and we remain committed to that goal; we believe that quality and equality is a right and public schools must be given the resources needed so students aren’t shortchanged.”  

"Shuttering the doors on these schools is not a solution, shunting aside the voices of parents and students in these schools is a real problem," said Billy Easton, Executive Director, Alliance for Quality Education.  "The DOE has shown a real disregard for the communities where these schools are located and for provisions of state law that regulate the closure of these schools. This lawsuit is asking the courts to ensure that the law is followed, that educational impact statements are treated as real and important documents.”  

The vote to close the 19 schools was taken January 26, 2010 at a meeting of the Panel for Education Policy at Brooklyn Tech high school.  The suit was filed this morning in New York State Supreme Court.  

Petitioners include:  Michael Mulgrew, as President of the United Federation of Teachers, Local 2, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO;  the Alliance for Quality Education; the New York State Conference of NAACP;  Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer;  State Sens. Eric Adams and Bill Perkins;  Assembly Members Hakeem Jeffries and Alan Maisel;  City Council Members Robert Jackson, Charles Barron, Erik Martin Dilan, Mark Weprin and Lewis A. Fidler;  and individuals Theodore Garcia, Vanessa Wallace, Hector Nazario, James Devor, Belinda Brown, Stefanie Siegel and Dan Simoes.  

BACKGROUND  

The lawsuit says that “Recognizing the potential impact on a community when a school is closed or its utilization is significantly changes, the Legislature was concerned about the vast power wielded by the Chancellor and the DOE in directing school closures and was determined to curb abuses.”   

Prior to the recent amendments to education law, the Chancellor was required only to “consult” with the affected Community Education Council prior to unilaterally closing a school.  In order to “guarantee that parents, students, staff and interested community participants are afforded ample opportunity to review and comment on any proposed school closing,” the Legislature amended the law to require the Chancellor to conduct a substantive study of the potential impacts of such closing on current and prospective students as well as the community, and report that underlying analysis in an Education Impact Statement that was to be publicly available and also filed with the affected stakeholders.  

These statutory requirements must be satisfied for each individual proposed school closing.  

"For far too long the City has targeted our neighborhood's schools without regard to the impact it will have on our children,” said City Councilmember Eric Martin Dilan. “Maxwell High School and PS/IS 332 are schools that in the past three years have shown improvement in student development. The solution is not closing schools that with a little support could have continued to improve, but to target resources in the right areas to ensure academic success."  

“When your proposals can affect the futures of so many, you can’t just go through the motions and ignore the letter and spirit of the law,” said City Councilmember Lewis Fidler. “Unfortunately, that’s what has happened here. We’re talking about public education. The Department of Education should be listening to people, investing to fix schools they feel are broken, not abandoning them.”  

“I support this action because closing schools is unconscionable, unnecessary and will cause real hardship for hardworking families in these neighborhoods. We must fight to keep public education alive in our communities,” said City Council Member Charles Barron.  

Among the requirements of the EIS were an analysis of the current and projected pupil enrollment of the affected school, the prospective need for such school building, the ramifications of such school closing or significant change in school utilization upon the community, initial costs and savings resulting from such school closing or significant change in school utilization, the potential disposability of any closed school. The amendments further require that any such proposed closing not be considered final until and unless the statutory analysis, notice and joint public hearings are completed and the PEP votes to approve them. The lawsuit says that “Respondent’s failure to comply with its statutory obligation is, on its face, arbitrary and capricious pursuant to CPLR 7803(3) and any vote should be annulled.”