Friday, May 18, 2012
Park Slope and other Brooklyn students gearing up for an SAT makeup exam on Saturday, after their May 5 scores were invalidated, received a last-minute notice that the exam is postponed until June 16.
The Brooklyn SAT nightmare, where almost 200 students’ test scores were invalidated after a surprise inspection of the testing site and affected some students from The Berkeley Carroll School, is not over. The makeup exam at Abraham Lincoln High School scheduled for Saturday has been postponed. At 2 p.m. on Friday, the head of Packer Collegiate Institute received a call from College Board, the company that is in charge of the SAT, stating that the retake exam is cancelled and needs to be rescheduled because of the Brooklyn Half-Marathon. Almost 200 students who took the SAT exam on May 5 at Packer, a private school in Brooklyn Heights where some Berkeley Carroll School students took the test, were told that their scores were invalidated …
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
William Alexander Middle School 51 raised the most amount of money in any school in the city for the Pennies for Patients program.
Most kids know the saying, “a penny saved is a penny earned,” but students at William Alexander Middle School 51 have learned that if they raise as many pennies as possible, they can help kids with cancer. Students from M.S. 51 on Fifth Avenue, from grades six to eight, have raised a total of $73,340.99 since 2003 for the Pennies for Patients charity, which benefits The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. But this year, in just three short weeks, the middle school raised $13,776.66, a record-breaking amount of money raised during a single year in any city school. Nance Speth, the Assistant Principal at M.S. 51, is proud of her school’s accomplishment. But, she is even prouder of a particular sixth grade homeroom, class 612, for raising the most …
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Classroom overcrowding is on the rise in the city, with fourth and fifth graders most likely to be in full classrooms.
The number of elementary school students in classes of 30 or more has tripled in the last three years because of budget cuts and lack of teachers, according to a new report released by Council Member Brad Lander, D-Park Slope, says the New York Times’ School Book blog. Lander’s report found that 31,079 students in first through fifth grade were now in large classes, as opposed to only 9,756 in the 2008-9 school year, says the article, also finding that fourth graders and fifth graders are the most likely to be in large classes. School Book says that, according to Lander’s report, about 14 percent of current fourth graders are in classes of 30 or more students, compared with 5.5 percent during the 2008-9 school year. The article add that, …
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Park Slope resident opens his garage doors to the public to benefit private "independent" Clinton Hill school.
A classic car collector in Park Slope will open his garage doors this Sunday for a fundraiser to benefit Clinton Hill’s Brooklyn Free School. Lenny Shiller has been collecting antique cars for almost five decades, and will be showing off his 45 cars and trucks built between 1924 and1968 in his 2,300-square-foot garage for the fundraiser, says the school. NY1 says the collection all began with a 1936 Chevy from Shiller’s grandmother. The article says that his collection now includes vehicles ranging from a 1924 Star to a 1947 International Soda Truck, and a pink 1957 Cadillac convertible. "They are all running cars. I'm really proud,” Shiller told NY1. “I've become a really good backyard mechanic, I keep them all in running condition.” Some…
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
After over two years of construction and delays, the Sixth Avenue library branch will open by the new school year.
Bookworms, hold on, just a couple more months before the Park Slope Library opens its doors again. Across the street from the still-closed historically landmarked library, about 50 parents and elementary school students filled a classroom at P.S. 39 to hear updates about the branch’s construction, which started in October 2009, and what to expect once the library is back in action by Labor Day. Councilmember Brad Lander and Brooklyn Public Library president Linda Johnson told Slopers, who used to use the Sixth Avenue branch between 8th and 9th streets, that the city’s Department of Design and Construction, who is in charge of the renovations, will soon complete renovations and the finished product will be once again be an important …
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Tuition can be a big cost burden. Should the government share it?
For Brooklyn parents with kids in private school, tuition can become a huge burden. But is it right to give these parents who choose to place their kids in a certain school a tax break? In the last week, New York has seen two proposals—from both sides of the aisle—to help ease the burden of paying private school tuition. On Friday, U.S. Rep. Bob Turner, a Republican who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, revealed a bill to create a $5,000 per family tax credit for families who choose to educate their children in private schools. Earlier this week, Assemblyman Rory Lancman, District 25 in Queens, drew attention to a bill he co-sponsored last year in the state Assembly that would do nearly the same thing—offering a tax credit to …
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The deadline for public school Pre-K programs is April 5.
The Department of Education has launched the pre-kindergarten admission process for the 2012-2013 school year for New York City children born in 2008. For a list of all public school and community-based organization pre-kindergarten programs, families should check out the Pre-K Directory online, visit a Brooklyn-based enrollment office, or stop by any public elementary school with a pre-kindergarten program. Families can submit the application either online or in person at a borough enrollment office. A complete list of locations is available online. The application deadline for public schools is April 5. The DOE will notify families in early June about public school placements. The application for Community-Based Organization (CBO) pre-k…
Friday, February 17, 2012
A new deal gives the teachers union more say in how standardized exams are used in rating a teachers performance - and gives teachers a new way to contest a poor rating.
State officials reached a settlement yesterday in a lawsuit brought by United Federation of Teachers over just how accountable teachers could be held for poor student testing scores. With the new deal, at least 20 percent of a teacher's performance score would be based on students’ progress on state standardized exams, with another 20 percent to be measured using a different, union-backed method for looking at student progress, according to the New York Times Schoolbook blog. The article adds that other criteria, like classroom observations, would account for the other 60 percent of a teacher’s score. Also, the city and the UFT agreed on a way for teachers to contest a poor rating, says the Times – teachers who receive the lowest rating, "…
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
A group of St. Saviour students, part of the Brown Baggers Outreach Program, gather every month to pack food for the homeless.
A group of Saint Saviour High School students are helping to feed the city’s homeless, and have learned just how prevalent hunger in New York can be, says the Daily News. The 10 students from the all-girls Catholic school are part of the Brown Baggers Outreach Program, which meets once a month in a church basement to pack sandwiches, fruit and juice to deliver to homeless New Yorkers living in Tompkins Square and Union Square parks, says the article. “It makes me think about other people’s situation and the things that I have and they don’t,” Sarah Shenhan, a 14-year-old student from Park Slope told the News. Christina Bove, development director for Saint Saviour told the paper: “This gives [the students] a sense of self-awareness.” The …
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Saint Saviour High School
590 6th St, Brooklyn, NY
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012
A court ruling bans churches from renting space in public schools for Sunday service citywide.
School is out for churches, forever. This past Sunday, Park Slope Presbyterian Church did not hold its worship service in John Jay High School on Seventh Avenue like it has every Sunday for the past eight years. Instead, their service was held across the street at Greenwood Baptist Church. The reason? The city has evicted them. As New York 1 reports, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will start enforcing a federal court decision that bans churches from renting space in public schools for religious worship. Of the 53 churches affected citywide, nine of them are in Brooklyn. But not every place of worship has been kicked out, for the city’s policy states that no more than 50 churches are allowed to rent space in a public school for regular worship. …
Anthony Vassallo
2:06 pm on Saturday, May 19, 2012
Glad to see that the Packer administrators cannot understand how to use a tape measure. more ›