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Volume XIX • Number 29 • August 2 - 8, 2012 •
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Red-faced parent leaders confront PS 24 music cuts By MIAWLING LAM THE heads of the P.S. 24 parents association have broken their long silence over the school’s controversial decision to excess both of its music teachers and shut down its music department. The Riverdale Review can reveal Farrah Rubin and Ingrid Jaen sent an email to parents last weekend that some feel paid lip service to their “commitment” to retaining the school’s music program. It is the first time the two new incoming PA co-presidents have publicly commented on the issue. In the email, the pair report they have been working in collaboration with P.S. 24 principal Donna Connelly and interim acting assistant principal Emanuele ‘Manny’ Verdi to restore the staffing cut. “We are diligently working on re-hiring our instrumental music teacher,” they write, a compromise already in the works according to public officials who have been lobbying Connelly. “While this process has been in the works for some time, we need to still wait for the official confirmation. We hope to have good news to share with you before the start of the school year.” The email came several days after another group of parents stepped up their efforts and pleaded with Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott to save the long-standing music program. In a toughly worded editorial (see page 18), Riverdale Review Editor and Publisher Andrew Wolf said that any compromise was “unacceptable.” Wolf charged the decision to cut the music program “is totally at the discretion of the principal.” He pointed out that “there is no budget shortfall or loss of funds. The school has lost no resources, no money or positions. This is not a mandated cut from above. The principal decided, unilaterally and unnecessarily, to excess both of the music teachers at the school.” Wolf suggested that internal political considerations were driving these personnel decisions, perhaps the specter of yet another “F” grade on the school environment section of the annual report card issued by the Department of Education.
Local parent and P.S. 24 School Leadership Team member Eugenia Zakharov said more than 80 concerned parents and residents have now signed the letter protesting the move. When asked whether the PA’s email came as a surprise, Zakharov sidestepped the question and said it wasn’t clear if it was sent in response to the group’s petition. “I don’t know if it was prompted by the letter or if they were planning it,” she said. “But I trust whole-heartedly that they’re doing something and they’re working hard in figuring something out. It’s not the easiest thing to do. It’s a big task and it’s not an enviable position.” Meanwhile, Zakharov denied her group was behind a series of fliers being circulated around Riverdale urging residents to contact their elected officials to convey their concerns. The unsigned one-page, double-sided flier lists the email addresses of State Senator Adriano Espaillat, Councilman G. Oliver Koppell and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and urges locals to contact the elected officials to air their grievances. The fliers have been left at local supermarkets, bodegas and community organizations. As of press time, Koppell’s office had received five emails, while Espaillat and Dinowitz each received one email. “I think honestly, parents would have rallied behind the PA,” Zakharov said, when told of the flier. “There are so many musicians in the community that if they reached out to parents, they would have been willing to help.” One parent even suggested hosting a benefit concert to raise money, she said. “I don’t know how much money it would bring but it would be a great thing,” she said. “It would bring the community together.” As the Riverdale Review reported last month, the future of P.S. 24’s music curriculum came under threat after three staff members, including one instrumental teacher and one vocal teacher, were excessed on June 15. At the time, P.S. 24 interim act-
ing assistant principal Emanuele ‘Manny’ Verdi said officials were forced to let go of the teachers because three staffers—with seniority—were returning from leave. However, as word of the music department cuts spread, many in the community bemoaned the decision. “The cuts could have come
from the bottom of the seniority list of the faculty as a whole,” one veteran educator who is familiar with the teachers’ contract. “This was a deliberate, very Bloombergian effort to sidestep the seniority list, and has nothing to do with budget cuts. It’s Connelly’s call. You don’t see her eliminating the conflict resolu-
tion teacher’s position, or that of any of her favorites.” Outraged parents were concerned the downsizing effort would adversely affect their children and rob students of a rich music education, while others questioned the appropriateness of retaining other programs such as conflict resolution and theater.
Engel: Mark anniversary of ’72 Olympic massacre
Reps. Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey mark the 40th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. They are demanding an appropriate moment of silence at this year’s games. By MIAWLING LAM The International Olympic Committee rejected his request for a minute of silence, but that didn’t stop Rep. Eliot Engel from commemorating the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The local elected official joined 14 other members of Congress and marked the 40th anniversary of the massacre by holding a moment of remembrance on the House floor last Thursday. Engel, whose request for a moment’s silence before the Opening Ceremony in London on Friday, July 27, was denied,
said the anniversary deserved to be commemorated. He said the moment of remembrance was “not a political issue, but a matter of human decency. “By rejecting multiple requests to hold a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the 1972 Munich Massacre, the IOC has blatantly disregarded the very ideals on which the Olympics are predicated—international friendship and fraternity,” he said. Engel also charged that IOC officials had double standards. “If this were any other nation but Israel, there would have been
a moment of silence a long time ago,” he said. In May, Reps. Engel, Steve Israel, Richard Hanna and 21 other members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge urging the group to hold a moment of silence before the opening ceremony of this year’s games. However, their request was not met. The 11 Israeli victims were David Berger, Ze’ev Friedman, Yossef Gutfreund, Eliezer Halfin, Yossef Romano, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Yakov Springer and Moshe Weinberg.