Brooklyn's Arabic School to Hit the Road Again?

Why does this sound so familiar?

The Brooklyn Eagle reports that parents from Fort Greene's P.S. 287 and the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) came together at City Hall Wednesday "to express their mutual outrage over the Department of Education’s plan to move KGIA into the building already occupied by P.S. 287."

Parents say the DOE “disrespected” their communities by “unilaterally” deciding to move KGIA into P.S. 287 without consulting parents or community representatives first.

It's nice to see how the DOE can bring people together this way.

Khalil Gibran International Academy is (was?) the City's first "Arabic-themed" school. But there's been no end of controversy, and parents say if the DOE doesn't give them more support, they'll pull their kids out.

Is it possible that all that anti-Arabic hysteria is scaring the P.S. 287 parents? Shouldn't the DOE have prepared for that possibility, since it's happened before?

Pictured: The Khalil Gibran International Academy's present home on Dean Street in Boerum Hill. DOE wants to move it out of this building (which it shares with two other public schools) and into an elementary school in Fort Greene.
Photo by MK Metz

Khalil Gibran Controversy Now Takes a New Form Brooklyn Eagle

- Judge Rules Against Ex-Principal of Brooklyn Arabic School
- Arabic School, Taxi Strike, and Other Brooklyn News in Brief
- Brooklyn in Brief -- Weekend Edition
- Rally in Support of Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal
- Brilliant or Crazy? Jewish Principal Appointed for Brooklyn's Arabic School
- Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal Resigns in 'I-Word' Flap
- Arabic-Themed School Finds a Home
- Brooklyn in Brief, Monday P.M.
- DOE to 'Cram' Arab-Themed School into Slope Elementary School

Judge Rules Against Ex-Principal of Brooklyn Arabic School

Manhattan Federal Court Judge Sidney Stein ruled Wednesday that the Department of Education will not have to reconsider Debbie Almontaser’s application to be reinstated as principal of the Brooklyn Arabic-themed school, the Khalil Gibran Academy, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.

The DOE will delay its announcement of a permanent principal until Friday to allow Almontaser to appeal.

More here.

- Arabic School, Taxi Strike, and Other Brooklyn News in Brief
- Brooklyn in Brief -- Weekend Edition
- Rally in Support of Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal
- Brilliant or Crazy? Jewish Principal Appointed for Brooklyn's Arabic School
- Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal Resigns in 'I-Word' Flap
- Arabic-Themed School Finds a Home
- Brooklyn in Brief, Monday P.M.
- DOE to 'Cram' Arab-Themed School into Slope Elementary School

Rally in Support of Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal

Supporters of Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran International Academy -- the first Arabic dual language school in NYC -- have gotten a bit fed up with all the right-wing hysteria directed against their fledgling school.

Monday evening they held a rally in support of the school, and in particular, in support of Principal Debbie Almontaser, forced out because she didn't denounce a women's group's T-shirts.

Interestingly, one of the speakers, Rabbi Michael Feinberg, mentioned that the school’s principal opposition group, the Stop the Madrassa organization, is backed by three extremist right-wing organizations: the Gathering of Eagles; NY-ICE (New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement); and The United American Committee.

More here.

Previous postings:
- Brilliant or Crazy? Jewish Principal Appointed for Brooklyn's Arabic School
- Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal Resigns in 'I-Word' Flap
- Arabic-Themed School Finds a Home
- Brooklyn in Brief, Monday P.M.
- DOE to 'Cram' Arab-Themed School into Slope Elementary School

Photo by MK Metz

Brilliant or Crazy? Jewish Principal Appointed for Brooklyn's Arabic School

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced Monday the appointment of Danielle Salzberg as interim acting principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy in Boerum Hill, the first Arabic-themed school in New York City, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.

The school’s original principal and a main founder, Debbie Almontaser (who is Arabic) turned in her resignation Friday after appearing to support a group that printed up "Intifada NYC" T-shirts.

Conservative web sites and right-leaning newspapers (the New York Sun and now the Post), along with a group calling itself "Stop the Madrassa" and Assemblyman Dov Hikind have been calling on the Department of Education to shut the school down.

The appointment of a Jewish principal could be a brilliant move on Klein's part. According to the DOE, Salzberg has been working with the school all along, and according to the Eagle story, the Arab-American Family Support Center fully supports Ms. Salzberg.

The Post's Andrea Peyser says, however, "This might be the worst joke ever to hit Brooklyn."

Brilliant? Or crazy?

- Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal Resigns in "I-Word" Flap
- Arabic-Themed School Finds a Home
- DOE to 'Cram' Arabic-Themed School into Park Slope Elementry School

Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal Resigns in 'I-Word' Flap

In the end, it wasn't the raging anti-Arab mobs that brought an end to the budding career of the Khalil Gibran school's founder Debbie Almontaser, nor was it the inept site search by the Department of Education.

It was some T-shirts printed by an Arabic women's group with the words "Intifada NYC" that ended the tenure of the first principal of the first Arabic-themed school in NYC, which will open in Boerum Hill in September, reports the New York Post and the Brooklyn Eagle.

Though the T-shirts had nothing to do with Ms. Almontaser or the school, the group operated out of the same offices used by an organization Almontaser works with. Ms. Almontaser initially defended the women's use of the word "intifada." Though she later reconsidered, that (as they say) was that.

Post story here.
Eagle story here.

- Arabic-themed school finds a home here.
- DOE to 'cram' Arabic-themed school into Park Slope elementary school here.