QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 10, 2014 Page 24
SQ page 24
DOE changes school utilization document Includes trailers, excludes smaller rooms; Stringer reveals audit on overcrowding by Domenick Rafter Editor
The cit y Depar t ment of Education announced last month that it was making changes to its Blue Book — the annual document that outlines school organization and utilization — based on suggestions from a panel created earlier this year by Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña. The Blue Book has been the focus of several education-related debates in the city in recent years, from trailers in schoolyards to co-locations. Critics allege the Bloomberg administration’s Blue Books underestimated how much space schools need and overestimated how much space was available to make co-locations politically palpable. Among the critics at the time were Mayor de Blasio as a council member and later public advocate, who promised a moratorium on co-locations in his mayoral campaign due to the issues. Though he reneged on the promise to stop co-locations, the mayor did establish a panel, the Blue Book Working Group, to study changes to the document. The group was made up of parents of public school students, including charter schools, advocacy organizations, principals and community education council members. Under the new rules established by the
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Liu endorsement continued from page 22 Liu had expected to be endorsed by the Working Families Party, with his name on its line on the November ballot. Avella has the support of the Communications Workers of America, District 1. Despite his lack of endorsements, Avella is popular with his constituents and has a strong base in the Bayside area. He beat longtime Republican incumbent Frank Padavan four years ago in large part because of the support of the United Federation of Teachers, which has not yet endorsed anyone in the race. It has 7,000 members in his district. In addition, Liu may be hurt by the illegal campaign finance tricks some of his workers used in his run for the comptroller’s seat. Although he was never implicated, a key staff member and a fundraiser received jail sentences. Avella’s campaign office said Monday that he has also been endorsed by the League of Humane Voters, the International Union of Elevator Constructors and is the recommended candidate by political director Kevin Finnegan and President George Gresham, for 1199SEIU, which will hold its council vote on formal endorsements soon. As far as the UFT is concerned, Avella “had a very productive meeting with them, and we expect that they will be announcing their decision shortly,” Q spokeswoman Heather Sager said.
group, there will be two separate Blue Books. One will outline the historical capacity of a school, while the other will include future projections that will outline in real numbers plans to reduce class sizes and expectations for future co-locations or total school utilization should co-located schools close or move. It will also have two totals — one for an entire building, and all the schools inside of it, and one for a school that may have multiple campuses. The Blue Books will, for the first time, include space for instr uction will not include rooms in schools that are designated as lunchrooms, offices, libraries, gymnasiums or auditoriums. All rooms less than 240 square feet are also excluded from possible classroom use. Rooms between 240 and 499 square feet used for noninstructional purposes are not counted and are assumed to be available for support or administrative use. The Blue Books will also for the first time count trailers as classroom space. The DOE says that change will help communities better understand what steps need to be taken to eliminate trailers while not creating more overcrowding. The news of the Blue Book’s changes was met with a positive response from some educators and officials.
“Any effort that is made to better serve our students is welcome,” said Deb Dillingham, Queens representative on the Panel for Educational Policy, the DOE’s policy-making body. “Given the overcrowding issues that come with living in New York City and the programming difficulties that come with colocations, changes to the Blue Book calculations are welcome. The Blue Book Working Group should be commended for its efforts on behalf of the children of our city.” Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), chairman of the Education Committee, also praised the changes. “Breaking down information two ways — by school and by building, including all co-located schools — will improve transparency,” he said. “Including students taught in trailers in the main building’s enrollment figures will provide a more accurate picture of overcrowding.” In the meantime, City Comptroller Scott Stringer released the results of an audit on school overcrowding Wednesday, which blasted the city’s response to the problem, saying that the agency failed to keep appropriate records and respond to overcrowding concerns. “With significant overcrowding in schools across New York City, the DOE simply wasn’t interested in finding out what policies worked to reduce class sizes and help our
Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced FILE PHOTO the Blue Book changes June 27. children achieve their full academic potential,” Comptroller Stringer said. “What gets measured gets managed and in this case, DOE didn’t keep records of the remedial actions it took to reduce overcrowding, let alone what worked and what didn’t.” Some of the proposed changes Stringer suggested in his audit, including counting trailers as classroom space, were already part of the Blue Book changes announced Q last month.
Beltrani at Queens GOP helm Jackson Heights judge takes over after death of Phil Ragusa by Domenick Rafter Editor
Q ueens Republica ns have a new chairman. After the death of Phil Ragusa last month, the county party’s executive vice chairman, Robert Beltrani of Jackson Heights, was automatically elevated to chairman. Beltrani, a judge with the New York State Division of Parole, will serve as chairman for the remainder of Ragusa’s term, which will expire in September 2015. Ragusa was re-elected chairman last September, according to Queens GOP spokesman Robert Hornak. A loyalist of the late chairman, Beltrani ran for state Senate in the special election to replace Hiram Monserrate after the senator was expelled from the Legislature following his conviction for assaulting his former girlfriend. Beltrani entered the race after an unsuccessful attempt by Queens Republicans to lure former Democratic Councilwoman Helen Sears, who had just been ousted a few months earlier, onto their ballot line. Beltrani lost the race to then-Assemblyman Jose Peralta. He has also ran several times for state Supreme Court, most recently in 2012. Despite winning two Council seats in
Queens Republicans say Robert Beltrani of Jackson Heights, a judge on the New York State Division of Parole, is the new county GOP chairman, taking over for the late Phil FILE PHOTO Ragusa. 2009 and a congressional special election in 2011, the county GOP has been in a state of civil war for nearly half a decade. Ragusa’s chairmanship has been marred by ongoing strife between his wing of the party and a rebel faction led by former Councilman Tom Ognibene and more
recently by Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), the only elected Republican in the borough. The split came to a head in 2011, when Ragusa was re-elected chairman. Ognibene held his own meeting on the same night where he got himself elected chairman with the support of Ulrich and several Republicans from Central and Southern Queens. But the state GOP rejected Ognibene’s election. Ragusa’s re-election in 2013 over former Rep. Bob Turner, who was backed by Ulrich, after Ragusa’s faction lost two district leader races, was petitioned in court after questions were asked about the way the vote was handled. A move to overturn the vote failed. A source aligned with the rebel faction questioned whether Beltrani, who is also a district leader, could be a chairman at all due to his position as a judge. Hornak did not respond to requests for comment on those allegations before press time. A state GOP spokesman would not comment on Beltrani, but said the chairmanship selection is up to borough Republicans. Not offering any comments on Beltrani, Ulrich said only that he is “focused on carryQ ing out my duties as councilman.”