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Volume XIX • Number 36 • September 20 - 26, 2012 •
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Educrats at PS 24 defend 50% cut in music program By MIAWLING LAM Officials at P.S. 24 continue to defend their controversial decision to downsize the school’s cherished music program. Despite widespread outcry from local parents, elected officials and community members, P.S. 24 interim acting assistant principal Emanuele ‘Manny’ Verdi last week said he stood by a move to excess the school’s vocal music teacher. Verdi acknowledged that music education was important, but said retaining classroom instructors and reducing class sizes were higher priorities. “I stand by my guns,” he said, while addressing the matter at last week’s School Leadership Team meeting. “From our standpoint, these are the cards we were dealt. We had five days to react to it and this is what we did. “We were told the budget was the same…but when the budget came in, it wasn’t the same. It just wasn’t.
So we had to hustle.” As a result, school administrators said they were forced to excess the entire music department—one instrumental teacher and one vocal teacher—just days before the end of the last school year. At the time, Verdi said officials were forced to let go of the teachers because three staffers—with seniority—were returning from leave. Critics say the loss of the music teacher was a ploy to “work around” seniority rules in the United Federation of Teachers contract and save the job of a newly hired regular classroom teacher described as “loyal” to the principal. The school is again at risk of receiving an “F” grade in the school environment portion of the school’s report card, a direct result of a vote of the teachers, a majority of whom “don’t trust the principal” at her word. Others have criticized devoting a full time teacher to work on “conflict resolution,” rather than teach an academic subject. “This touchy feely stuff comes at a
cost,” noted one observer. “In this case you are trading off music for conflict resolution.” However, after the community bandied together and protested the cuts, administrators last month confirmed that instrumental teacher, Maryellen Shepley, would be rehired. Controversially though, the vocal teacher still remains excessed. Despite the downsizing, P.S. 24 principal Donna Connelly reiterated her commitment to arts instruction and pointed to her introduction of a theater program as evidence of this. “We were the ones that expanded the (music) program. When we came into the school, we made it bigger. We didn’t make it smaller. Everybody forgets that,” she said. The comments come a week after around a dozen parents bemoaned the devastating cuts and called on Continued on Page 9
Skating rink details: Recycled shipping containers; loss of parking
By MIAWLING LAM Around six parking spaces along Broadway could be temporarily lost during the winter months every year so that a designated drop-off zone can be established at the Van Cortlandt Park ice- skating rink. Concessionaire officials announced plans to submit an application for a street activity permit during last Wednesday’s Community Board 8 parks committee meeting. The move, which is subject to approval from the Mayor’s Street Activity Permit Office, would create a temporary drop-off area for cars and buses visiting the rink. If approved, the permit would allow around six metered parking spaces to be sequestered along the teeming Broadway corridor, just south of West 242nd Street. The zone would also encompass a small area currently designated as a no-parking zone. Van Cortlandt Park ice rink project manager Ronald Kraut said the removal of parking spaces was necessary to ensure guest safety. “It’s a very easy solution to the parking and congestion problem along Broadway,” he said. “It would enable us during the November, December, January and February time period to barricade off an appropriate amount of space for bus and customer drop-offs.”
Kraut vowed to work in tandem with the community to reach an agreement over the number of parking spaces to be taken away, but said six would be an ideal number.
“To me, it looks like six parking spots,” he said, “but I’ll ask the Community Board 8 traffic and transportation committee to get involved and to determine what they think is a safe amount
of space to enable mom and dad to drop their kids off without interfering with traffic. “We just want to do what’s right, so I imagine we’ll get together down at the site after
construction is done (to discuss) how many spaces we want to reserve for customer pick-up and drop-off.” Construction on the $600,000 Continued on Page 9
Thirteen recycled shipping containers will be used to construct ‘temporary’ guest services pavilion at the Van Cortlandt Park skating facility scheduled to open by Thanksgiving. ‘Temporary,’ in this case, can mean as long as 15 years.