Monday, November 08, 2010

OPEN EMAIL: Violation of General Municipal Law & Open Meetings Law by NYC DOE Authorized Charter Schools [2nd Request]

November 7, 2010

Dear Chancellor Klein:

I hope this email finds you well.

I am writing to you, again, because I have not received acknowledgment of receipt or a response from the NYC DoE for my letter via email (see below) sent to you on October 15, 2010, over two weeks ago.

My letter requested that you notify all DoE authorized charter schools that they must comply with the Open Meetings Law that requires board, committee and sub-committee meetings be open to the public AND can be videotaped and recorded.  To date, you have not notified your charters and the aforementioned meetings are not listed on their websites nor published in the local newspapers.

In today's Daily News (see below), there is an article that reports you sent out a notice to all Community Education Councils at Eva Moskowitz's request informing them that their meetings are subject to Open Meetings Law and can be videotaped and recorded.  I would like to know why you have complied with Ms. Moskowitz's request but have not complied with my request for the same notification but to charter leaders and their boards.  I would hate to think that Ms. Moskowitz's request is more important than my request.  It makes me feel like a second class citizen.  Is a charter school leader more important than a charter parent?

I am also waiting for a response to my question on the status of PA/PTA's in NYC charter schools.

Lastly, in my previous email, I notified you that my principal was serving on our board in violation of General Municipal Law, sections 800-806.  The principal has now stepped down and my board is no longer violating that law.  However, there are DoE authorized charters which still are violating General Municipal Law by having administrators and/or staff on their boards.  I am requesting, again, that you notify DoE authorized charters that employees can no longer serve on their boards.

I look forward to hearing from you or the Charter School Office.

Respectfully yours,
Mona Davids
Founder & President
NY Charter Parent Association


Success Charter scores a victory after Department of Education backs taping of meetings
BY RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, November 7th 2010, 4:00 AM
After a staffer was arrested filming a public meeting, a charter school champion went to bat against the city - and won.
Success Charter Network employee Larisa Beachy, 24, was arrested last month after refusing to leave a meeting about the placement of the new West Side Success Academy inside Public School 145 in Manhattan.
Success' head honcho, Eva Moskowitz, wrote Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to complain, asking him to issue a statement confirming the "1st amendment" right to film a public meeting of a Community Education Council.
"I am requesting again that the DOE issue a statement reprimanding the CEC for their actions and failure to abide by the law," she said in a letter released to The News. "The DOE's troubling silence has led me to wonder whether that assumption is correct."
City Education Department officials sent a letter from lawyer Michael Best to all CECs, stressing they "may not prohibit members of the public or press from making video or audio recordings."
Beachy, 24, still faces a summons for not following a lawful order after she refused to leave the meeting that she was taping.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/11/07/2010-11-07_vid_victory_for_charter_school.html#ixzz14eG1f3w0

No comments: