Community Education Council 24

P.S. 91 Room 119 68-10 Central Avenue

Glendale, New York 11385
Phone: 718.418.8160 / Fax: 718.418.8168/ Cec24@nycboe.net

New York City Department of Education

Visit our website at www.myschoolonline.com/ny/cec24
Nick Comaianni Dmytro Fedkowskyj Dominic Coticchio Ernest Cury Nancy Carbone
President 1St Vice President 2nd Vice President Treasurer Secretary

Council Members Department of Education Region 4 Officials

Lelani Bomani Reyes Irizarry
Cecilia Chavez Regional Superintendent
Dan Creighton Charles Amundsen
Marge Kolb Deputy Superintendent
JoAnne Scichilone Catherine M. Powis
Community Superintendent

FINAL BOARD APPROVED MINUTES

Minutes of Calendar Meeting
February 28, 2006
At PS 58, School of Heroes, Maspeth, New York

1) Call to order and Roll Call -- The Calendar meeting convened at PS 58 at 7:00
PM

• Roll Call – Present

• Cecilia Chavez
• Nick Comaianni
• Dominic Coticchio
• Dan Creighton
• Dmytro Fedkowskyj
• Marge Kolb
• Joanne Scichilone

Roll Call – Absent

• Lelani Bomani
• Nancy Carbone
• Ernest Cury

Also in attendance

Community Superintendent Catherine Powis

2) Approval of Minutes
On motion duly made and seconded the minutes were unanimously approved.
Out of Order

5) Resolutions

#13 – CEC Position of HIV/AIDS Curriculum

Resolution calling upon the Department of Education to set aside the immediate need of
implementing the proposed HIV/AID Health Curriculum for School District 24 public
schools grades 3 through 5 without revision.

Be it resolved that the Community Education Council for School District 24 strongly
recommends to the Department of Education that it should suspend certain aspects of the
HIV/AIDS supplemental Health Curriculum for grade levels 3-5.

Be it resolved that the Department of Education wishes to implement certain Health

instruction relating to such a curriculum that is considered intrusive and against religious
and parental beliefs of School District 24 communities, which are inconsistent with the
community values for children under the age of 12.

Be it resolved and duly noted that the Department of Education never requested or
included parents, CEC members, Community or Religious representatives from
organizations within School District 24 to be part of an established advisory committee
responsible for making recommendations concerning the content, implementation, and
evaluation of the HIV/AIDS instructional program.

Be it further resolved that the Community Education Council for School District 24 does
not approve of this curriculum in the manner it was designed for grade levels 3-5 and that
our school district was not consulted or made part of an advisory panel for schools based
in District 24.

On motion duly made and seconded the above resolution passed, 6 yes and 1 abstention.

Resolution #14 – CPAC Boycott of DOE Lobby Day

Resolved, that the CEC of District 24 Queens, representing Corona, Elmhurst, Maspeth,
Woodside, Middle Village, Ridgewood and Glendale, supports the Chancellor's Parent
Advisory Council (CPAC) boycott of the Department Of Education's Albany Lobby Day
on March 28th. The CEC agrees with the contention of CPAC that the DOE consistently
creates a priority list and talking points for Lobby Day with little, if any, consultation
with parents. Alternately, the CEC-24 urges and supports interested parents to participate
in the CPAC-organized Parent Lobby Day on March 14th.

On motion duly made and seconded the above resolution was passed unanimously.
Resolution #15 – D75 Seats in PS/IS 260 Corona

Resolved, that Community Education Council – District 24 strongly urges that all seats,
including those currently planned as a separate D75 site, at the new PS/IS 260, currently
under construction at 99th Street & Roosevelt Avenue, be allocated to D24 general and
special education students and D75 inclusion students who reside in D24.

Explanation: According to figures provided by the Region 4 office, for the 2005/2006
school year, District 24 has less than 500 K-8 aged children who reside in the district and
are categorized as D75 and the District currently has at least 628 D75 seats for K-8 aged
students (including those at PS 7, PS 9, PS 16, PS 58, PS 75, PS 87, PS 88, PS 239, and
IS 5). Inasmuch as the Corona neighborhood is an extremely overcrowded area of the
district and according to census figures, is projected to continue to grow in population,
the 90-100 extra seats planned as D75 seats for the PS/IS 260 location could better be
used by D24 to house D24 general and special education students including those D75
inclusion students who reside in District 24. Additionally, due to a lack of state funding at
this time, there may be no other new capacity projects in D24 in the near future, so this
site must be maximized for the benefit our district's children.

Joanne Scichilone stated for the record that the above resolution in no way discriminates
against the D75 population. We have enough D75 students in our district to fill the
proposed seats and we pass this resolution in an effort for all children to be schooled in
their own school district and not have to travel across the city.

Dominic Coticchio stated for the record that according to his beliefs and his way of
thinking he could not deny any child a seat anywhere.

Nick Comaianni stated for the record that the Community Education Council District 24
is not in anyway against D75.

On motion duly made and seconded the above resolution was passed 6 yes, 1 abstention.

Resolution #16 – Physical Education

Resolved, that CEC-D24 is very dissatisfied with the progress of improvements to the
Physical Education programs in our district for the following reasons:

--there are still five schools in D24 which do not have Physical Education teachers on
staff; schools should be MANDATED to hire a Physical Education teacher inasmuch as
the New York State Education Department requires that Physical Education be provided
in public schools;
--in some schools, Health is being taught during the Physical Ed. Period and thus the time
children are spending on physical activity is being shortened;
--the highly vaunted CHAMPS program (before- and after-school Middle School Sports
& Fitness programs) is only serving 300 children, although there are approximately
12,000 children in grades 6-8 in D24
--although the Region touted the fact that Health & Fitness Fairs would be held,
none have been, and apparently the onus is on each school to organize such a fair,
with help from the region; the CEC does not know if schools and/or PA/PTA
presidents have been informed by the region that they can request such a fair
--although the CEC requested it when we met with RIS Dan Nugent on November
23, 2004, there has been no mandate or strong suggestion from the region that
classroom teachers implement 5-10 minutes of movement during the day.

On motion duly made and seconded the above resolution was passed
unanimously.

3) Report of the President

Nick Comaianni stated that the response from the Chancellor Klein’s office
regarding the HIV/AIDS curriculum and the letter that was sent from the CEC
which asked why District 24 was not involved nor consulted on the curriculum.
The CEC was informed that the District 24 was represented by the PEP whose
members are appointed by the Mayor. Mr. Comaianni stated that no one on
the list was from District 24. According to Commissioner’s Regulation 135
Subchapter G the school board that is mentioned is the PEP in that the State sees
the City as one District. Nick Comaianni also stated that there are too many
budget cuts in our District and informed the public that the Metropolitan Avenue
Complex has been cut from the budget, mostly due to the City having not
received the CFE funds from the State. This project should not have been cut. If
a budget is based on CFE funds which are tied up in a law suit how can you
devise a plan for a school without actually having the funds available? Mr.
Comaianni stated that the budget needs to be a real budget, not based on funds
that the State may never give the City. The DOE needs to move forward with the
construction of our schools regardless of the CFE funds. We cannot play politics
with our children. He stated that he was informed that the City has a $3 billion
dollar surplus and questioned the fact that the City is not using that surplus on
building proper school facilities.

4) Report of the Community Superintendent

Ms. Powis stated that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 requires the
New York State Education Department (NYSED) to annually review the
performance of each District that receives Title I funds to ensure that Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP) is made toward enabling all public elementary, middle
and secondary school students to meet the State’s student academic achievement
standards about District performance. During the 2004-05 school year District 24
was designated as a District in Need of Improvement Year 2 (DINI 2) in ELA.
 Because the District did not may AYP at the elementary, middle and high school
level in ELA in 2004-05, the District has been designated as a District in
Corrective Action (DINI 3) in ELA for the 2005-06 school year. This designation
is based on NYS Exams in grades 4-8 only.

Ms. Powis went on to say that District 24 made AYP in several subgroup
categories in ELA, Math and Science. However, AYP was not met in subgroups:
Students with Disabilities – ELA in Elementary and Middle Schools and Limited
English Proficient – ELA in Elementary and Middle Schools. Letters from Ms.
Powis to parents explaining this designation and how they can help are to be sent
home this week in 10 languages.

Ms. Powis also gave a Gifted and Talented update to which she stated that in
order to continue to strengthen the curriculum and delivery of instruction in the
gifted and talented program in middle schools, an innovative, technology-based
program called Renzulli Learning will be piloted in District 24. This is a
technology based program developed by the University of Connecticut which is
designed to enrich the curriculum for children, provide resources and support for
teachers and allow parents to participate in their children’s progress.

Ms. Powis closed her report by announcing that a Region 4 College fair will take
place on April 29, 2006 at the High School for Information Technology located at
21-16 44th Road, Long Island City from 10 am to 1 pm.

Out of Order

6) Report of the Committees

Dmytro Fedkowskyj, Chair of the Building, Zoning and Maintenance Committee

stated that he attended the PEP meeting the night prior at which the Capital Plan
was discussed. There were 28 City Council Members, irate parents and students
pleading with the panel to suspend their vote until after April 1st at which time we
will see what kind of funding the state will offer the city. The pleas fell on deaf
ears. Mr. Fedkowskyj stated that there are no quick fixes or answers to the fact
that they should have suspended this voting until they knew what was in the
budget, what they had to spend. He spoke about how the situation will affect
District 24. He stated that renovations that were to be done were not due to the
lack of proper funding and additions no longer appear in the Capital Budget as
they were cut as well. The projects in the plan this year were separated by city
funded projects and state funded projects and this is the first year that this is done.
He went on to state the projects that were removed from the budget. There were
also projects that were delayed from one year to the next which are city funded
projects. We were told last year in FY 2004-05 that there was money for these
projects yet they were suspended for a few years due to budget cuts. Now
projects approved for FY 2006-2007 were pushed ahead over 24 months. The
state funded projects for FY 2006-07 were supposed to be done by June 2006 are
now scheduled for June 2008. Mr. Fedkowskyj stated that at the PEP meeting he
inquired as to where this money has gone and received no satisfactory answer.
Mr. Fedkowskyj stated that we as parents need to be loud at every level and let
the state and city know that this is absolutely unacceptable. We cannot go on and
educate our children with the lack of these kinds of resources, city or state funded.
We need to improve our school communities. Every parent in this district should
be screaming right now and complaining to anyone and everyone that these kinds
of budget cuts took place. We have to make enough noise to let the city know we
are not happy. Mr. Fedkowskyj closed his report by stating that every parent
should attend Lobby Day on March 14, 2006. For more information call our
office, there are free buses and free lunch. We must let Albany know we are not
happy at all levels. We need to ask them what they plan on doing. Everyone has
to move in the same direction and work together. Spread the word about Lobby
Day.

Nick Comaianni added that Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan’s district is almost

entirely located in District 24. Assemblywoman Nolan is the Chair of the
Education Committee. We must let her know that we are unhappy and she will
think twice as we are her constituents. She can make a difference.

Marge Kolb, Chair of the Curriculum Committee stated that she will begin to
make inquires to the city regarding physical education, social studies and
mathematics.

The council took questions from the public.

7) Old Business – 37 _ Minutes

Marge Kolb stated that between the last meeting which took place on January 24th
and this meeting we asked Ms. Powis to collect data from all the schools in our
district asking them what their arrival and dismissal times are, how many students
are mandated to attend the extra time and what provisions the DOE made for non
mandated students. Ms. Kolb stated that she has been hearing different stories
depending on the school. She gave PS 229 and PS 153 as examples. She then
asked why there was such a big difference between two very different schools and
further wanted to know if the decision as two how to implement the 37 _ minutes
is left up to each individual principal. Ms. Powis replied that as far as PS 229 and
PS 153 the differences are the number of non mandated students.

8) New Business – None

9) Public Agenda -- None