SUNY Delays Vote On Fee Increase for Success Charter Schools

Success Academy Charter School network head Eva Moskowitz blamed "the unions" today when SUNY's Charter School Institute postponed a vote on allowing higher management fees at some of the chain's charter schools.

"We are disappointed that union opposition has once again made it difficult to do the right thing for children," she told the Brooklyn Eagle. More here.

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Previous Posts On This Subject:
- Success Academy Builds Own 'Law Firm' as Cobble Hill Brooklyn Parents Sue
- Success Academy Gets Prime Brooklyn School Buildings; NYC Parents Becoming Increasingly Radicalized
- Explosive Cobble Hill Success Academy Hearing
- Quite a Brew-Ha-Ha at Cobble Hill Success Academy Charter School Meeting
- Too Bad Chumps: Red Hook, Gowanus Parents Won't Be Able to Attend DOE's Ed Panel Vote On Success Academy Charter School
- Rally Against Cobble Hill Charter School Saturday - 'Success Academy Cobble Hill'

Photo from contentious Cobble Hill Success Academy meeting by MK Metz

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Hall & Oates Play GoogaMooga; Downtown Brooklyn's 'New Livability;' and More Brooklyn Briefs

- This Brooklyn school saves lives -- so now it must die. NY Times

- Hall & Oates, The Roots, Holy Ghost! Preservation Hall Jazz Band to play at Brooklyn's GoogaMooga Festival. Carroll Gardens Patch

- More than a dozen Brooklyn walks are planned for May 5 and 6, as part of a series commemorating urbanist Jane Jacobs -- including one called "Downtown Brooklyn's New Livability." Brooklyn Eagle

- New Jersey Gov. Christie to the Nets: "My message to them is, goodbye. "You don't want to stay, we don't want you." AP/Google

- Artist paints picture that says, "Steal This Art.' Gets mad when someone steals it. Brooklyn Paper

- You might want to reconsider drinking tea from China. The Diplomat

- Jack Black transforms two Kiwi kids into rock gods for a night. (video) Gawker

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New Engineering, Science Campus Coming to 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn

The city has agreed to sponsor a new engineering and applied sciences campus -- the "NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress" (CUSP) -- at the deteriorating MTA building at 370 Jay St. in Downtown Brooklyn.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, this would be a partnership between NYU and several other universities worldwide — City University of New York, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Toronto, University of Warwick and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay – as well as IBM and Cisco.

The school would accommodate approximately 530 graduate and doctoral students, as well as 50 full-time faculty and about 30 post-doctoral researchers. While the renovated building is not expected to be ready for use until 2017, classes are scheduled to begin next year at Metrotech.

BP Marty Markowitz said Downtown Brooklyn is transforming into a "24-7 city" — and a college town to boot.

See Brooklyn Eagle for more.

Photo NYU via The Real Deal

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Father of Autistic Boy Plants Wire, Hears Teachers Bullying His Son

The father of a ten-year-old autistic boy in New Jersey attending a special needs school was told that his normally cheerful son had started having violent outbursts at school, including hitting his teacher.

After a series of emails, conversations and meetings with school staff the father remained mystified -- so he hid a wire on his son.

That night he was shaken to hear his son's teachers and teachers aides verbally abuse and humiliate the boy. From the moment he walked off the school bus they shouted at him in rough voices: "Put your hands down! You gotta walk with your eyes open!"

They mocked him for the little autistic noises he made: “Who are you talking to, nobody?” And when he wanted reassurance that he would see his dad again after a weekend with his non-custodial mom, his teacher cruelly said "No!" When he started to whimper, she followed with, "Shut your mouth!"

The staff also spoke in front of the class about totally inappropriate subjects: how drunk they were last night, how much they hated their husbands, how fat another woman was. They also colluded to cover up their behavior during a meeting the father requested about his son's difficulties.

Here's a webpage the father started about this disgusting behavior, and here's a link to a petition to the NJ legislature demanding that teachers who bully kids be fired.

This video was originally posted on Reddit.

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'Prayer March' Over Brooklyn Bridge: Churches Want Right to Rent Space In Public Schools

Rally In Cadman Plaza Park, Brooklyn

Hundreds of church-goers from across New York City gathered in Cadman Plaza Park in Downtown Brooklyn in the pouring rain Sunday to rally for the right for religious groups to continue to rent space from public schools during off hours.

The purpose of the gathering was to put pressure on state legislators to vote for State Assembly bill A8800, which would allow churches to hold services in public schools. Other organizations are allowed to rent space in schools, and churches say they should not be discriminated against.

About 68 churches across the city face expulsion from the spaces they rent. Supporters say that the churches are an asset to their communities, especially in boroughs like the Bronx and Brooklyn.The rent they pay to public schools helps the schools with their budget problems as well.

Rev. Dimas Salaberrios of the Infinity New York Church said at the rally, "Churches need to be able to worship and rent space in schools just like any other organization. The Mayor is discriminating against the faith community and it's harmful to the city." Salaberrios said that poor neighborhoods with church activities in facilities rented from schools showed a decrease in crime.

"The Mayor wanted everybody out February 12; now we have till the end of the school year," he said.

Following the march over the bridge, participants marched to City Hall Park for a concert.

UPDATE: More at the Brooklyn Eagle. 

- More on topic from a similar march in January.

- The church groups have set up a webpage at righttoworship.com

- Earlier article about the issue in the New York Times


Photos by MK Metz

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Brooklyn Rabbi 'Outs' Romney; Noise Torture at Brooklyn Bridge; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Brooklyn's Rabbi Yehuda Levin: 'Mitt Romney is a dangerous homosexualist.' Joe. My. God.

- Brooklyn's Chinatown has finally beaten out Manhattan's. Brooklyn Eagle

- The "insane night drilling" at the Brooklyn Bridge rehab project is a form of "noise torture" that prevents at least one local from sleeping. Gothamist

- Judge issues stay on Williamsburg charter school closing. NY Times

- DUMBO is really becoming a tech hotbed. Crain's New York

- The Nets are finally leaving the Garden State for Brooklyn. Fan reaction: "Whoop-de-damn-do." NY Times

- A diagram shows how the two-way bike lane on Plaza Street will work. Brooklyn Eagle

- How to buy a Facebook girlfriend for $5. Gizmodo


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Flood Watch in Effect in Brooklyn, New York City

The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch for Brooklyn and the surrounding areas, warning of heavy rain Sunday night into Monday morning. Heavy rainfall bands of up to an inch of rain per hour remains possible tonight. The rain will taper off to showers by Monday afternoon.

CBS reports that the rain is part of a massive nor-Easter chugging its way up the Eastern coast -- a "huge storm that could impact at least one-third of the nation, from Florida to Maine, and potentially as far west as Michigan." The same storm battered Orlando, Fl., with "golf ball-sized hail" and heavy winds which knocked down trees and power.

According to MTA, "The MTA and its operating agencies are closely monitoring today's storm, and have additional staff on duty and on call to respond to any weather related incident that impacts service."

The storm forced the Mets to cancel their match against San Francisco Sunday, according to NY1.

Wind Map by Hint.fm

UPDATE: The above image is a windmap taken at 10 p.m. Sunday night as wind gusts were rattling windows and blowing stuff off balconies. The white lines show wind starting in the north and swirling south, then east.

Photo by MK Metz

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Who IS This Guy Who Donated $40 Million To Brooklyn Bridge Park? UPDATED

Josh Rechnitz, from the Hub Blog

As it slowly sinks in that someone has donated $40 million to build a year-round indoor recreation facility near Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park -- the biggest gift ever donated to a park in New York City --  many folks are asking: who is philanthropist Joshua Rechnitz?

Here's what we know so far:

* According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Rechnitz is the founder and chairman of the nonprofit group New York City Fieldhouse Inc.

* According to A Walk In the Park, Rechnitz's family has had a long philanthropic history of giving in the city.

* According to the Cobble Hill Association, Rechnitz is a competitive amateur cyclist, track cycling enthusiast and philanthropist "who is committed to establishing a world-class sports, cycling and recreation center in New York City."

* Rechnitz declined to be interviewed by the New York Times*. His spokeswoman, Maureen Connelly, described Mr. Rechnitz, a 46-year-old resident of the Upper West Side, as a “very private person who keeps a low profile.” Ms. Connelly told the Times that Rechnitz had researched sites for a field house for three years, looking in New York City and New Jersey.

* He is a partner of Hudson Urban Bicycles (HUB), a Manhattan bike store, and a longtime bicycle rider and racer, with a collection of bikes, according to the Wall Street Journal.

* According to a video posted by the HUB Blog, Rechnitz had dreamed of  building a Velodrome for bike racing in Harlem back in 2009. That dream apparently fell through. Watch the video to hear Rechnitz describe his goals.

* Amazon posts his wish list. (Hint: He likes books about cycling.) UPDATE: He seems to have removed his wish list.)

* Here he explains how to ride a fixed-gear bike in a velodrome. 

* IMBd lists his film credits. His work (he is an animator / director) has been in the Brooklyn Film festival.

Thanks for the donation, Joshua!

*UPDATE: The New York Times on Nov. 23, 2012 profiled Rechnitz here after speaking to his friends; Rechnitz himself declined to be interviewed.

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Fireworks Tonight: Liberty Island, Brooklyn, New York City (April 20, 2012)

If you live in Brooklyn, New York or New Jersey, you can expect to hear the booms from a fireworks display tonight (April 20), launched at 10:30 p.m. from a barge near Liberty Island in New York Harbor. (NYC.gov). The display is sponsored by event-planning company AlliedPRA.

In Brooklyn, the rockets red glare will be visible from waterfront areas from DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and south to parts of Red Hook. (The photo to the left shows an earlier Liberty Island fireworks display, taken from a tall building in Brooklyn Heights.)

Photo by MK Metz

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Pope to Punish U.S. Nuns for Focusing On Poverty Instead of Abortion

According to the New York Times, the Pope has appointed an American bishop to "rein in" the largest group of Catholic nuns in the United States.

Members of the group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious -- which represents 80 percent of nuns in the U.S. -- had challenged church teaching on homosexuality and the male-only priesthood. The sisters also dared to “disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.”

The nuns were blamed for focusing "too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping silent on abortion and same-sex marriage."

The bishop appointed to rein in the nuns, Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartrain, stirred controversy in 2010 after his diocese knowingly ordained a priest who later pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young boy over a five-year period.

Related news

In related news, a man testified yesterday that he was raped at a home owned by the current West Virginia bishop.

Also yesterday, a Boston College trustee resigned after criticism of his supervision of a priest convicted of child sexual abuse. 

In California yesterday, a judge ruled that two victims can seek punitive damages in a clergy sex abuse and cover up case. Also in California, in L.A., a young man said he was coerced into appearing in a series of pornographic videos produced by his teacher at a Catholic high school while church officials tried to cover up.

Meanwhile in Kansas yesterday, a priest at the Sacred Heart Cathedral was arrested for sexual battery. 

Priest assault charges continue to pour in on a daily basis around the world:

A priest in Australia (called a "violent bully") was sentenced to nine years yesterday for a series of sexual assaults on young girls. Also in Australia, the government announced it is going to hold a year-long inquiry into the Catholic Church and its handling of criminal abuse cases against children.

In the Netherlands yesterday, politicians called for an inquiry into Church-ordered castrations in the 50s and 60s and asked for research into allegations of abuse coverups, while in England survivors of widespread childhood abuse by the clergy have called for a full government inquiry.

Church Opposes Child-Protection Law 

Last week, the California Catholic Conference (the lobbyist for the California bishops) opposed AB1628, a bill that contains a short extension of the child-sex-abuse statutes of limitations, and requires more rigorous background checks for employees and volunteers who work closely with children.

Photo: Blessed Mother and St. Elizabeth Visitation statue at Brooklyn Visitation Monastery

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