This is going to outrage you. If it doesn’t I’ll be shocked. And while a good litigation attorney would be nice, assistance from anyone would be nice. So, what is the matter in question? Well ….
A group of poor but determined young men – African-American, Latino and students with disabilities or other special needs – and their parents, need your help to save a highly successful educational program from falling victim to the ugly internecine politics prevalent in New York State and specifically from becoming victims of the education policies now being implemented by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration, in this case the “school receivership” laws Cuomo for which advocated and which the legislature subsequently passed.
To be specific, this is the story of how a law championed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, to place under-performing schools in receivership (itself a dubious policy choice), was exploited and abused by a power hungry and contentious inner city school Superintendent to destroy one of the most successful school programs to improve the lives of troubled African American and Latino youth in the entire state of New York, if not the entire country.
But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
In 2011, a teacher and assistant principal, Burnice Green, at one of the worst performing schools in one of the worst performing school districts in New York – Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 9 in the Rochester City School District (RCSD) in 2011, founded the Boys Academy. He took only the most troubled young male students in grades 3 through 6 – later expanded to include grades 7 and 8 – because they were the ones needing the most help.
Green, an assistant principal at the school, noticed several years ago that the vast majority — about 70 percent — of the school’s discipline problems came from the same group of students. All of them boys. Most of them black or Hispanic.
Green decided to immerse those boys… in a special program for them, one with high standards and structure, but also a place where teachers understand the dynamics of their students’ situations.
In this new setting, Green created essentially an all boys “school within a school.” The boys were required to wear a shirt and tie, and were held accountable as a group for each individual’s progress. Pride in themselves and their accomplished was quickly instilled. The program quickly achieved remarkable success in turning these kids into exceptional students. Troublemakers became school leaders, even class presidents.
Michael Corporan was wild — you can take it from him.
“I was a known troublemaker,” he said. “I’d be in the office all the time. Fighting, talking back to teachers, being the class clown. … I didn’t have anyone to guide me through, so I was making bad choices.”
He got that guidance from Burnice Green and the School 9 Boys Academy, which groups young boys with behavioral problems in an all-male program that emphasizes leadership and responsibility. Its first class of eighth-graders is moving on to high school in the fall. […]
In the Boys Academy, the students wear a shirt and tie and are held to higher standards of behavior. If one fails, they all take the fall together.
The boys described a strict approach from Green and his team of teachers, but also strict accountability among themselves. […]Corporan, also 14, has risen from his past issues to become the class president. He’s going to Rochester Early College International High School in the fall.
“It makes me feel like a leader,” he said. “When my mom comes into school, they all tell her I’m a good student.”
As an expert in the field who came in to study and examine Green’s program noted that what he accomplished was nothing short of a miracle:
“Every school has their culture,” said Adeyemi Stembridge, a researcher with New York University who has done work in the City School District. “There is a pervading universal culture in schools that is typically based on white middle-class norms. The extent to which someone is familiar with those norms dictates how successful they are.”
During several of his visits to Rochester, Stembridge visited the Boys Academy at School 9. He saw students who had developed deep relationships with the staff and their teachers. On a second visit, boys who recognized Stembridge greeted him and struck up conversations.
“What I recall thinking was ‘These kids are at a comfort level with school that I don’t typically see with other black male students,’ ” Stembridge said.
“What the research shows is that right around third or fourth grade is a critical tipping point for black and Latino boys. That’s when black and Latino boys are starting to pick up on these broader cultural signals on what they are supposed to be. If you don’t have a strong presence in the school to counter that, then those messages the kids are getting from a broader society are powerful and hard to ignore.”
He wasn’t the only one noticing this progress. Here is what the school’s principal had to say about the changes she saw in these youth:
“Everyone notices the change,” said principal Sharon Jackson. “There are less interruptions. The discipline problems are diminished. The other students look up to them as role models.
“These are boys who had a history of struggling and just pulled it together,” she said. “When those kids come in to school and put a blazer on, that shows them it’s two separate worlds, that they have options.”
A quick summary of some of the Boys Academy’s successes follows:
Within the first year, many boys saw their reading levels jump two grade levels and suspensions drop dramatically. Boys Academy students now have one of the highest attendance rates in the city. Due to their success, RCSD School Board President, Van White, chose them to represent the district at a national symposium.
This last year, 9 out of 11 of the 8th grade graduates passed the NY State Algebra 1 Regents exam. That exam was the first one to incorporate the tougher “common core” standards, and these 8th grade students from one of the worst performing schools in the state passed it at a rate that most suburban school districts would love to report for their high school students.
Originally, the new board superintendent had only good things to say about the Boys Academy.
Superintendent designee Bolgen Vargas said that Green and his team at School 9 might have found something that works, and that it could be expanded or duplicated at other schools if the results continue to prove positive over time.
“It’s an outstanding program in terms of trying to meet the needs of some of our most challenging students,” Vargas said. “It is clear to me that they have thought out their approach and are implementing it with the greatest fidelity.”
– The Democrat & Chronicle, “City’s poorest school may have an answer,” dated June 17, 2012.
That was before the students at the Boys academy embarrassed him publicly in February of this year, however, by posting a YouTube video about the City School District’s failure to hire a Spanish teacher for them.
Eighth graders from the Boys Academy said there has been a revolving door of teachers since before Christmas and it was having a significant effect on their learning. So the students at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 9 took action – lights, camera and action – and posted a video to YouTube.
“When I saw that it actually caught the attention of the superintendent I was like, ‘Yes, now we can have a new teacher,”’ said Isaiah Stewart, an 8th grader at School No. 9.
Rochester City School District Superintendent Bolgen Vargas paid a visit to the class Monday and announced a permanent teacher.
They may have received their Spanish teacher, but many parents I spoke with over the last two weeks now believe that the actions Vargas took at the end of the school year in June were retaliation for the manner in which these young men asserted themselves at his expense. I’d hate to believe that is true, but the parents certainly do.
Follow me below the fold for the rest of the story, and why these boys and their parents desperately need legal representation to fight for their school.
At the end of the school year this June, students at Martin Luther King Jr School 9, a K-8 school, were informed by their teachers of the program’s end. A few days later on June 18th, Vargas sent the parents an English only letter (nice touch since many of them do not speak or read English) informing them that boys going into 7th and 8th grade would be enrolled in another program of his choice. The program, the “Leadership Academy,” is based out of the former Charlotte High School facility near the shores of Lake Ontario. It’s roughly 7 miles from where the School 9 families reside, which will make it almost all but impossible for parents to remain in touch with their kids’ teachers and administrators.
The fate of the boys from the Boys Academy who will remain at School No. 9 (i.e., Grades 3-6) is unclear. For the boys moving on to grade 7 and 8, though, they literally were presented with no other options. The time to apply to other schools in the district was long past (most applications to change schools must be submitted by January 31st each year). The Superintendent is relying on the fact that the school year is about to begin to force these parents and kids to accept his decision as to “what is best” for them. “Father knows best,” in other words.
Unsurprisingly, the boys in the Boys Academy and their parents were extremely upset and outraged at his decision to destroy a program that they valued, and which had an established track record of turning its students into better scholars and young men. Here is a You Tube video produced by the student themselves in which they speak about their desire to save the program that did so much to turn around their lives.
The timeline of how this all transpired can be found in the August 2015 letter of complaint sent to MaryEllen Elia, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Education. That letter was signed four of the affected parents. The short version, however, is that Superintendent Vargas turned a K – 8 school into a K-6 school without any authorization by the School board and without consulting with any of the parents of the affected children.
He continues to justify his action to eliminate the Boys Academy by referring to his authority under the receivership provisions in the Education Law. Those provisions (if followed properly) allow a superintendent, or other appointed receiver, to take all governing authority away from local school boards regarding any schools designated by the state as failing to meet certain academic standards.
Of course Vargas pulled his dirty little trick on the Boys Academy before the receivership provisions of New York’s Education Law even went into effect. Nevertheless, he continues to argue he has the authority to override opposition by the School Board and/or the parents of these boys, based solely on a bare assertion of his power.
For whatever reason, he has bamboozled many School Board members into believing that his decision is a “done deal,” a fait accompli, though to date he has utterly failed to comply with any of the requirements set down in the law and regulations governing school receivership or with respect to the Rochester City School District’s own policies. All those requirements should have been satisfied before he acted. And the Education Law provisions that deal with receivership must be satisfied before Vargas may receive authorization from the Education Commissioner to change School 9’s School Comprehensive Education Plan (SCEP) (see “Selections from NY State School Receivership Law Fact Sheet”).
His failures to comply with the law include, without limitation:
(a) Submission to the Commissioner of a local stakeholder consultation plan (prepared after consultation with a community engagement team composed of “stakeholders with direct ties to the school and must include at a minimum: the principal, parents or persons in parental relationships to students, teachers and other staff, and students”); and
(b) Submission to the Education Commissioner of a proposed intervention plan requiring changes to the school’s School Comprehensive Education Plan.
Vargas convinced the Board not to challenge his authority by informing them at their August 27th meeting that he would be speaking to the NY Education Commissioner Elia on Friday, August 28th to resolve any issues about his cold-blooded evisceration of the Boys Academy. Indeed, on Saturday the 29th, I communicated with the President of the board, Mr. Van White, who told me via text message that:
“Dr. Vargas reports that the Commissioner is aware and approves of how he is resolving the challenges at No. 9 School.”
Mr. White admitted to me that no one from the school board spoke directly with State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia or members of her staff to confirm Vargas’ claims. Nor did White ask Vargas if the matter of the closing of the Boys Academy program ever came up in his alleged conversation with Commissioner Elia. In short, we have no idea what if anything was said between the NY Education Commissioner and Superintendent Vargas regarding the Boys Academy or the changes Vargas unilaterally imposed on Martin Luther King Jr School No. 9.
What we do know us that at present no “intervention plan for School #9” has been submitted to Commissioner Elia regarding closing the Boys Academy at School No. 9, or to change the configuration of the school from a K-8 to a K-g facility. Certainly one has not been approved. And we do know that until Education Commissioner Elia approves a properly submitted plan, Vargas cannot be appointed as a receiver for School No. 9 nor make any changes to the school that have not been approved.
Thus, any claim by Superintendent Vargas that he is acting under his authority as a receiver for the school is a falsehood. Absent compliance with the statutes and regulations in question Vargas’ had no such authority at the time he spring his “June surprise” on the parents of School 9, nor does he have that authority now. Then again, maybe the NY Department of Education and its Commissioner don’t give a damn about following the laws they insist others must follow. Who can say?
This is likely just the beginning of further damage that is coming for poor, “under performing” schools in New York and other states across the country who have passed similar receivership laws. Many, if not most of these schools are in our poorest neighborhoods, and are disproportionately attended by people of color, students with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency.
This vile “school receivership” policy, championed by Governor Cuomo, and passed into law by the NY legislature, was never intended, in my view, to benefit students who attend schools placed in receivership. The real purpose of placing schools in “receivership” is to my mind merely a thinly veiled attempt to turn public schools currently under the control of local communities into “charter schools” in all but name. Charter schools that will have to answer to no one in the communities they supposedly serve.
New York’s “receivership law” (i.e., those statutes added to the state’s Education Law) is at its core undemocratic and may well violate the regulations regarding Title I funding received by the state from the federal government. Once a receiver is appointed, his or her powers can be easily abused to the detriment of the students and their communities. Receivership effectively denies parents and students a voice in what happens at their schools, and eviscerates their right to hold their local and state officials accountable for the failure to provide resources necessary to improve the educational opportunities afforded their children, children who have literally have been “left behind” for decades.
So, if there are there any lawyers out there with litigation experience in New York, and particularly regarding litigation involving school districts and the Department of Education who are willing to help these kids out we could sure use you. Just email me at stevendbt at yahoo dot com to get in touch if you are interested in learning more.
And for everyone else, if you are as outraged at this as I am, please feel free to contact the following people.
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo:
Email (webpage contact form):
https://www.governor.ny.gov/contact
Phone: 1-518-474-8390
NY Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia:
Email (Office of Counsel): legal@nysed.gov
Phone (Albany office): (518) 474-5889
Media Phone Contact: (518) 474-1201
General Information: (518) 474-3852
Rochester City School District
Superintendent Bogen Vargas:
Email: bolgen.vargas@rcsdk12.org
Phone (Chief of Staff): (585) 262-8360
Be sure and ask them if they believe the State doesn’t have the follow the very laws they are relying upon to destroy the Boys Academy students’ hopes and dreams. That’s one I’d certainly like to learn the answer to.
