ps 9 fights city hall and wins

By Joyce Szuflita
PS 9, located at 80 Underhill Ave. has spent the past several years rallying the community and becoming the "go to" program in Prospect Heights for new families. All of this momentum seemed to be doomed when the city announced that they were phasing out MS 571, colocated in the building (not bringing in a new 6th grade in 2011), and adding Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School from outside of the district to the building. Since schools need to share facilities but don't use them at the same time, it would mean that strained facilities would now need to be shared between 3 programs, instead of 2. The DOE's plan was a very strangely inequitable allocation of space. From what I saw, the time allocated to the common spaces didn't correspond in any way to the numbers being served. What followed was months of contentious meetings.

A few days ago a group of parent advocates from PS 9 won an appeal to the New York State Commissioner of Education, David M. Steiner, requesting an annulment of the vote by the Panel on Education Policy (PEP). "The Commissioner found that the DOE did not comply with NY Education Law, and ordered that 'the resolution of the PEP approving the co-location of the Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School in the K009 building is annulled.' The Commissioner further ordered the 'DOE to be prohibited from moving forward with any aspect of the proposal regarding the co-location until the DOE complies with the requirements of the NY Education Law. Specifically, the Commissioner found that the DOE's Building Utilization Plan for the co-location failed to address 'how the proposed allocation of shared spaces ensures equitable and comparable use of impacted students.'"

Essentially, the DOE is back to square one. It would have to substantially revise its Building Utilization Plan and hold a new vote for proposal, which could still happen. What PS 9 now needs to do is to complete their plan for a k-8 expansion.

update on PS 133

By Joyce Szuflita
I have been anxiously following the progress of PS 133. A new building is going up to accommodate the 300 seat K-5 school as well as 600 additional seats on 4th Ave. and Butler St. It is very unusual for the School Construction Authority to be late with a project, but the bad winter weather as well as drastic capital funding cuts have conspired to delay the opening until fall of 2013. This is a grave disappointment for the neighborhood which desperately needs more seats in both District 13 and 15 (the School Districts which provided the capital funds to build the school).

PS 133 is currently being housed in the St. Thomas Aquinas School building on 4th Ave. and 8th St. The good news is that the Archdiocese which had not been willing to discuss extending the lease on the St. Thomas Aquinas School building has agreed to extend the lease for an additional year. They have also said that they will negotiate for an ongoing lease to the building. Parents - now is the time to lobby for this building to become the Prek/Kindergarten Early Childhood Center that the district so desperately needs!

You should also contact the District 15 and District 13 CEC (Community Education Council). These are the community organizations that control zoning and are the parents' official voice to the DOE.

107 wait-list

By Joyce Szuflita
Parents of prospective PS 107 kindergarteners in the south slope have been waiting on pins and needles to find out if their children will have a seat in the school in fall of 2011. There has been a wait-list of over 40 families who have actively been lobbying for relief and assistance in finding appropriate seats for their kindergarteners. Parents feel that they were blindsided and weren't able to prepare for this last minute wait-listing. If they had some warning, they could have gotten on the wait-lists at nearby programs (which are currently closed), applied for lottery or independent programs and lobbied for changes that could helped the population at the school. They are not the only ones, according to different reports, PS 39 and 196 among others are over capacity with in-zone families. In the past the children from PS 196 have been the only District 15 population that the DOE has had to place in other schools. Last year they were sent to PS 172, PS 124, PS 32 and PS 94.

One of the points that the community has been making is that the school had petitioned to remove the one prek class in the building to accommodate the k overflow with a new kindergarten classroom. The request was denied, but it appears now that it may be moved to a separate location. There was movement a couple days ago when 25 children came off the list. Reports are unclear about whether the school consolidated an upper grade class to open up a new classroom or whether the prek will be moved. So far there has not been much movement from parents enrolling their children in private school. There may be some relief when the gifted and talented placements as well as lottery schools (BNS, the Children's School and the Charter schools) are made.

Because of capacity laws (only 110 children can occupy the cafeteria at a time) the kindergarten classes will eat lunch in their classrooms. Lunch shifts run from 10:30 to 1:10. Unfortunately, this is not unusual.

Dillon Child Study Center

By Joyce Szuflita
Dillon Child Study Center is a long standing (75 years), child centered preschool program in Ft. Greene Brooklyn. This school has large and sunny classrooms and a well equipped outdoor play space where kids can ride bikes and scooters. Their age cutoff is Dec. 31 like NYC public schools.

One thing that sets Dillon apart from other fine preschool programs is their association with St. Joseph's College. They are a "laboratory preschool" with the full complement of long time, full time, paid teachers and a multitude of college students getting their field work experience in the classroom. The college students are not counted in the official student:teacher ratio, which averages to about 6:1 (those numbers are dependent on age). They are required to do 5 hours a week. When they graduate from this 4 year program, they will have both Special Ed and General Ed certification for Birth through 6th grade. The kids often call them "my college student".

Dillon has a 5 day a week schedule but depending on the age of the preschool students it may be a part time or full time schedule offered. The Director, Susan Straut-Collard, said that they believe that the consistency of a daily schedule is important for the children's development. A Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule may look like it makes sense to you as a parent, but to a child who doesn't know the days of the week, it just may appear to be random.

I asked her, "how would you describe 'child centered'?" And she told me a story about a child who was interested in Jackson Pollack. The other kids in the class didn't know who that was, so the teacher showed them examples of his paintings. The kids thought that the paintings looked pretty easy to do, so when they came in the next day, the floor was covered with paper and the kids were immediately put into smocks to try it for themselves. They wanted to see what a real Jackson Pollack looked like so they went on a trip to visit one in person. From this little seed, grew 8 months of "inquiry", many trips to museums and the study of lots of other painters. Child centered means following the interests of the class to enrich the embedded learning. Dillon is not an academic program in the preschool years and current progressive studies have shown that enriched play is extremely important for children's academic development. Another thing that is a little unusual about Dillon is that they have a kindergarten class, which is the first academic year and prepares students for both public and private first grade placements.

If you have arrived late on the scene and missed the regular admissions season, all the Preschool Directors recommend contacting them and staying in touch through the spring and summer and you may very well be lucky if there is last minute attrition, which happens more often than you think.

Lovin' 5th ave. from 11th to 25th St.

By Joyce Szuflita
It is the last day of the month and I had to go get the car inspected. Usually, I grab a coffee at the Red Horse (6th Ave./12th St. - they also have great scones I think from Baked in Red Hook), drop the car with the St. of Ancient Silver Hondas (Mohammed at Bartroni on 5th Ave./24th St.) and go up the hill across the street to sit by Minerva in Greenwood

Cemetery to watch the ferries go back and forth. But today we needed more work and I walked home, discovering and remembering some wonderful things along the way.

Officially the second best pizza in the USA is in a tiny ordinary looking store front named Luigi's (according to them, the first best pizza makers eat at Luigi's) on 5th between 21/20th St. Get the "grandma" pizza. If you don't enjoy watching them make it one pepperoni at a time go two doors down to Laurntino's for pastry (supposidely a former baker from Veniero's owns it). We heard that there were great empanadas along that strip and I think that I found them at La Boulangerie Lopez (20/19th St.). We have always taken out of town friends for a vodkha tasting at Adam's Liquors (corner of 17th St.). Don't go in asking for Grey Goose..."unless you are using it to kill rats". Try the Sobieski, Bull Grass or Honey Vodkha. Skip Eagle Provisions and go straight to Jubilat Provisions for your local Polish sausage fix (they smoke it in the back, or get the fresh which is garlicy and wonderful) - also great poppy seed loaf. Kumon has opened a new bigger location (15/16th St.) right across the street from the beautiful new home of Park Slope Schoolhouse (they should be moving in any moment now). I have been missing the Salvation Army that moved out of the big corner space on 13th St. years ago and was surprised to see a groovy new second hand store there, Life. They accept donations and give tax receipts for all clothes and furniture. It is staffed by volunteers and the proceeds go to Pediatric Cancer Research as well as other programs for children with serious illnesses. My daughters did all their tween budget fashion shopping at Rainbow and Mandees (12/13th St.) but Fresh (11/12th St.) is still the only place to get your skinny jeans. I was surprised at how many new little interesting bars have popped up like crocuses on the avenue and I am making a May 1st date with my husband. We will send off the first college check and then go for a pub crawl down 5th Ave.

the dinnersteins of park slope

By Joyce Szuflita
Simone Dinnerstein is a local mom, but she is also a world class classical pianist, the guiding force behind "Neighborhood Classics" coming to a local school near you, and the daughter of two amazing parents. She has just released a new album,"Bach, A Strange Beauty" which I find is a welcome alternative to the Jingle Bell Rock that has invaded my house.

The "Neighborhood Classics" concerts "help build relationships at the local level between neighborhoods and musicians. These one-hour, family friendly performances are hosted by Simone and feature musicians she has admired and collaborated with during her career. The concerts are open to the public and raise funds to benefit the schools' students. Musicians performing donate their performances to the program and the  concerts are organized and administered by PTA volunteers and faculty members."

Simone is currently working with PS 321 in Brooklyn and PS 142 in lower Manhattan, but if you are a school that would like to find out how to participate you should contact her at simoneny@earthlink.net

Simone's talented parents are Renee Dinnerstein, a gifted educator who is currently blogging on the importance of inquiry and play within the classroom. She is hoping to open a dialog among parents and teachers in her blog "Investigating Choice Time". If you check out the album, you will also see the work of her father, Simon Dinnerstein, the wonderful painter. His painting "The Fulbright Triptych" is represented in Simone's CD and in a new book, called "The Suspension of Time" which is coming out in April.

Why live in Brooklyn? The people make the place.

Millennium Brooklyn

By Joyce Szuflita
New High Schools are always coming online and are usually announced shortly before the New HS Fair in Jan. but news of Millennium II has leaked so Lisa Gioe made an announcement to her parents at MS 447 Math and Science District 15 last night.

Millennium 2 will be opening in the John Jay HS complex on 7th Ave. and 4th St. in Park Slope in Sept. 2011 with Lisa Gioe as principal. It will be a replication of the popular Millennium HS with the addition of an ASD NEST program like the one that has been instituted at 447. I believe that this may be the first program of its kind in a HS. It will also be an "advanced Exploratory Program supporting internships". It will not be a choice on the Main Round application. If you would like to add the school to your list of HS you can do it during the short period after the New HS Fair in Jan. when you are allowed to resubmit the application and add new programs that will be starting in fall. 

Currently MS 447 has two very experienced Assistant Principals, Sharon Mahabir, who has been with the school since its founding and Dawn Faraj who had also been the Math Coach and a long time asset to the school. One of them will likely be tapped for the 447 principal's job.

It will be interesting to see if the Millennium brand will draw more local families to the John Jay building. I am also concerned for the lovely and focused students from Research that I heard speak recently in support of their school. A co-location is always a rocky process, but it doesn't necessarily have to be one that harms the existing schools. I hope that all the programs will grow in strength with the attention that will be directed to the building.

PS 133 gets a French dual language program

By Joyce Szuflita
I just got word through a parent that PS 133 (which is getting a new school building in 2012 on 4th Ave. and Butler) is getting a dual langage French/English program in one kindergarten class starting in 2011. There is going to be an open house at the school on Nov. 19 at 9am at their 211 8th St. (at 4th Ave.) location.

They will very likely have a language assessment, similar to the one at PS 58, to determine if a child can be considered a native speaker.

They are looking for a certified bilingual teacher - if you know of one, contact the Principal, Heather Foster-Mann 718-857-4810.

Don’t shout “algorithm conspiracy!” in crowed middle school

It has been brought to my attention that there is a belief among 8th grade parents that the students who score into the specialized HS get their pick of the high schools and the rest of the students get their left-overs.

To the best of my knowledge this is untrue. I have been chasing the details of this process for years, and here is what I understand from talking to the people who understand the algorithm, the timing of the running of the algorithm and the people at the DOE who work in the secret magic cave where the computers do their work.

First, just to throw a trickle of water on this fire, the DOE can be accused of a lot of things but no one can doubt that they go to crazy lengths to try to be fair and whether they succeed or not (and often they don’t), the conspiracy theorists can calm themselves knowing that this is one of the DOE’s first mandates.

• Central enrollment receives everyone’s application in Dec.

• The schools do not know how you ranked them (and they will never know). The schools look at all the students that have placed them on the app somewhere and they internally rank them. All schools “over offer” on their private wish list of students, because they know (from vast past experience) the percentages of students who will opt out for a specialized hs choice. If there is a discrepancy from year to year, there may be some overcrowding in the specialized hs or the 1in12 list school. It happens.

• The algorithm is run for everyone in the beginning of the year and it is designed to benefit the student and their preferences. Really, I had a guy from Harvard explain it to me. It goes down the student’s list and matches them with their highest choice school that has put them on the school’s internal student wish list (plus the location priorities – that was Millennium’s fatal flaw last year) and places everyone – it doesn’t care or know who took the SHSAT, what score they got or who their favorite Beatle is.

• In January the DOE opens new schools. It is possible for all students to resubmit an application to include a new school or two. It is an opportunity for students who have moved into the city after the app deadline and independent school students who have lost their placements to try for a seat.

• In a totally separate process, the SHSAT is scored and the students are placed into the specialized hs by their test score. Then the DOE sends out a letter with the specialized hs seat and the 1 in 12 hs seat for the student to decide which one they would prefer. Remember, all the other students are already placed, they just don’t hear about their seat early. I know for certain that there are students who are placed in specialized high schools who do not get their first choice. I know for certain that there are occasionally some kids who are offered a seat in a specialized hs who don’t receive a 1in12 placement at all. Bad luck, just like the approx.8% of students who aren’t placed in the main round. Lucky for them that they have a specialized or Laguardia as a safety. Here’s where people feel that the specialized students are getting an advantage, in very rare cases the numbers are tweaked slightly if a 1in12 school’s popularity with specialized students will cause an unusual overcrowding, but this is very, very rare because the DOE is already very good at predicting popularity from past numbers and the schools have already considered this in their "over offer" numbers.

• The algorithm is run again for all remaining students to include these changes, but it is not a giant reshuffle, just fitting in students here and there (do you know anyone who ever resubmitted an app in January?) There would be very little movement if any at the selective school level. It seems that what happened at Bard last year was when the second algorithm was run there was a glitch that said it was full and the previously placed students were dropped. When it became clear, those students where offered seats at Bard even though they had been placed elsewhere.

Note: I asked the guy from Harvard about this scenario about ranking your choices on the app.:

Me: What if a student ranked their 12 choices and put Beacon as #12, and for some reason his 1 to 11 choices didn’t have him on their wish list but Beacon did.

Harvard Guy: He would be placed in Beacon.

The reason that doesn’t happen is only because of the large numbers of eager applicants trying for a small school placement. A small school with many hundreds of qualified applicants placing it as their first choice will likely fill the school before it can reach a lower choice. It is not that the school is being exclusive, it is just that they are lucky to be popular, and we all know that being popular is a big deal in high school.

why millenium didn't take brooklyn kids last year

Lisa Bowstead of Big Fish Tutoring (tons of great services, check her out) wrote this clear and accurate explanation of what happened with Brooklyn kids applying to Millennium last year on PSP and allowed me to reprint it here. If you are sad that it seems to be an opportunity that is no longer open to Brooklyn kids because of the vagarities of the number of applicants, I would make your feelings known to the people below.

The priority for selection of students has never changed 

for Millennium HS: 

   1. Lower Manhattan

   2. Manhattan

   3. The rest of NYC

Historically, 30% of Millennium HS freshman class has been from Brooklyn. Given the school's close proximity to many Brooklyn neighborhoods, this was a natural occurrence.

In last year's freshman class, the percentage of Brooklyn residents in the entering class dropped significantly. The reason for this was a sudden increase in applicants from Manhattan who filled the spots before Brooklyn residents were even considered. 

Millennium HS has asked the DOE to remove the criteria which puts Manhattan ahead of all other boroughs. I have just confirmed with Millennium HS that the DOE has yet to grant/implement this change. 

This should be a simple data update... so what's the delay?

If you would like to expedite the removal of Manhattan as a priority over other boroughs for Millennium HS applicants,

please contact:

Millennium HS, your middle school, the DOE, your local City Council person, Millennium HS's City Council person, and/or your other local representatives.  

Lisa@BigFishTutoring.com

"Be the big fish in your pond." 

mom to a rising 10th grader at Millennium HS 

and Brooklyn Resident

twinsburg, ohio

Why drive 8 hours one way to the suburbs of Cleveland? - for the largest gathering of twins in the world. This trip has been my girls' dream for years and this summer they finally got us to agree by saying that they would use it as a topic for their college essays. They know how to deal with us. We figured it would be a silly goof of a weekend. I believe that they will probably attend every year from now on if they can.

On one side it is a small town fair; hot dogs, a couple of rides, a bouncy castle, a parade with antique fire trucks and a talent show. On the other, it is over 2000 sets of twins, triplets and quads of all ages, races, shapes and sizes, gathering for 3 days of unqualified understanding, comraderie and silly fun. I have rarely seen my kids as happy. In normal life, even in twin filled Brooklyn, they are oddities. "Who is older?" and "who is the evil twin?" are the first two questions that they are always asked. They occasionally enjoy the attention but it can also be a burden. During Twins Days they are the normal ones (we singletons are the misfits). Everyone gets it. Everyone has a bond that has no age, race or philosophical differences. It is a beautiful thing.

Side note: they will want you to know that they are not in any of these pictures although they did dress alike and had their picture taken by a National Geographic photographer (watch for the twins edition in Nov. 2011)

SHSAT is looking for specialists

This is not new news but it seems to surprise a great number of people so I thought I would include the link to the very interesting article from The New York Times from Nov. 2005.

You will do better to play to your strengths on the SHSAT and if you have limited time or test prep funds it may be a significant piece of information for you.

road trip

I have logged a lot of hours on the road with my family (masking tape down the center of the back seat). This is the summer of college tours so we will be doing even more. I choose to drive because then I don't have to be the one turning around to constantly monitor the food and fun in the backseat. Now that the girls have their music for the road, things have gotten a lot quieter back there, but there are some family traditions that they still enjoy participating in. I do believe that my family's love of brain teasers has been instrumental in their success on the SHSAT (it isn't why we did it, but they have years of experience with logic puzzles). The best test prep is an active mind.

50 miles. Every 50 miles there is a little treat, something to eat, a little game or activity, another chapter in Harry Potter on CD, a brain teaser or minute mystery from one of the many stoop sale books that we have collected. We add 10 miles for every time they ask if it is 50 yet, and we take away 5 if they have used the roadside clues (signs, mile markers or mph) to estimate how far we have gone (no fair looking at the odometer!)

"which one is not like the others" This is a game we have been playing since they were very small. The only age requirement is that the child understands rules and that this is a game for fun and not for winning. The leader thinks of four things - one of which doesn't belong and everyone guesses which one. Sometimes people guess the right thing but for the wrong reason. The answer has to be guessable by the people who are playing and even though there may be many right answers the only one that counts is the answer that the leader is thinking of. The more creative the quiz and the answer the better. People are thinking up new quizzes as fast as they are guessing.

ex. Gettysburg, Antietam, Yorktown, Manassas: answer Yorktown

guesses could be Yorktown because it was a revolutionary battle or Yorktown because it only has two syllables

ex. lettuce, potato, corn, apple: answer apple

it could be that the apple is the only fruit, or that it is the only one that isn't a body part (head of lettuce, eye of a potato, ear of corn)

Greatschools.org has some good articles about traveling with kids.

how many g&t kids scored at 99?

Insideschools has the answer.

In 2009 a grand total of 1000 children scored in the 99th percentile on the citywide assessments for kindergarten gifted and talented programs.

The "99s" account for 56% of the 1788 students who qualified for citywide G&T programs by scoring at or above the 97th percentile on the tests...

An unofficial report puts this year's 99th percentile number about 300 above last year's total. The NY Times looks at the equity of the test and debating the approaches to testing, and numbers of children scoring in the 99th percentile by district.