“Invest in us; we’ll rise to the top. Give us a little, we’ll grow a lot!” This was the rally cry of the 700 children and after-school advocates that attended the March 28th rally outside City Hall to save child care and after-school programs. Dozens of after-school programs citywide, including Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center on East 93rd Street, brought representatives to the rally to protest the extreme proposed budget cuts. Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed fiscal plan in 2014 would cut $130 million from after-school programs and leave 47,000 children without a place to go after the school day.

“I think what we want to look at is how kids are staying in school and how our and how these programs build the skills of our youth,” said Cathleen Fitzgibbons, of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the sponsors of the rally, along with the Campaign for Children. “These programs are critical for their overall development, and for shaping them as they’re going through middle school and high school.”

The rally was packed with hundreds of advocates, who brought signs and posters pronouncing their love for the after-school programs: “Help Keep After School Alive!” and “Do Not Close Child Care!” Matt Phifer, Director of Educational Services from the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side, led the rally as MC. He brought to the stage numerous council members like District 6’s Gale Brewer, as well as District 8’s Melissa Mark-Viverito, who both touted the educational importance of these programs. Gale Brewer explained that every year for the past 12 years, the mayoral office has done this “budget dance” where they cut programs they know the City Council can restore.

“The uncertainty is still scary,” said Council Member Brewer.

Children from the after-school programs showed off their extracurricular skills on stage – from double-dutch, to singers and traditional drummers, making for quite an exuberant scene. As for the kids in the crowd, many of the younger students said that they loved playing sports like dodgeball and rugby in their after-school programs. But the older teenagers conceded that the programs keep them off the streets and out of trouble.

“Visibility was great. It was a perfect storm of different concerned parties,” said Phifer. “Hopefully we will be able to make some change.”

Mayor Bloomberg has not yet responded to the pleas of families impacted by these budget proposals. “We’re working with the City Council to deliver an on-time, balanced budget that keeps the city’s fiscal house in order, while also protecting vital services,” said City Hall spokeswoman Lauren Passelacqua.

The budget right now has not included any of the City Council’s one-year funds, which would cause hundreds of programs to have to shut their doors completely. In addition the $10 million proposed cut would slash after-school slots by 75 percent.

This struggle is not new – just last year, similar budget cuts were proposed. But after several rallies last year, many of the funds were actually restored for one more year, according to Phifer.

Emma Woods, a representative from the Campaign for Children, an organization that was started last year in response to the budget difficulties and one of the rally’s sponsors, said that the Mayor should just baseline the money for these programs in his budget, so that this fight would not have to happen year after year.

“In the long term, the goal would be to no longer put these programs on the chopping block,” said Woods. “As the number of kids served goes down, poverty increases.”

And there are other measurable benefits too. A Wallace Foundation Evaluation of Out of School Time Programs in 2006 found that 56 percent of program participants felt that the programs really got them interested and involved in activities outside school. Plus 69 percent of participating students said that they made more friends in the program. Besides social skills, most of the students surveyed felt that their schoolwork improved.

So what would happen to those benefits if budgets were slashed? For Stanley Isaacs Center, the Upper East Side organization at the rally, budget cuts would be devastating. They have four after school programs, and would basically have to chop one completely (P.S. 112), if the budget proposal passed. At P.S. 112, right now, they can only serve 80 kids, with a waitlist of dozens of students who want to participate in the program, said Jeanine Glazewski, the Director of Development at Stanley Isaacs, which oversees a low-income area. She also said that these programs decrease delinquency. One of their board members is Marianne Hedges, the woman who was hit in the head with a shopping cart thrown from the roof of a building over the summer.

“These are just kids with nothing better to do we after school,” said Glazewski. “We would much rather have them doing homework, arts and sports.”

Plus, she said, the after school programs allows parents to go to jobs or do job training/searches. Many of these parents, she said, cannot afford caretakers. So, if there were no after school programs, the parents would have to quit their jobs in order to provide an environment for their children.

“Parents feel strongly about this, but it becomes more and more difficult,” said Glazewski.”People think ‘oh this again? Didn’t we fight this last year?’ When you have to go and argue for something that is creating longterm benefits of the city, you know there’s a problem.”

The public advocate calls on the administration to find alternate solutions for struggling schools

By Public Advocate Bill de Blasio

If something is broken – fix it. Sadly, Mayor Bloomberg adheres to a different philosophy where our city’s education system is concerned. The Administration’s default response to struggling schools has been to close them, without first investing enough time and resources into turning them around. And instead of laying out a thoughtful plan for multiple schools to share facilities in the same building when they “co-locate,” the Administration turns a cold shoulder to community input. Clearly, we need a new approach for our city’s one million students.

There is a time and place to close a troubled school. But that should not be treated as an end goal in itself, nor an accomplishment to boast about. When all other options are exhausted, it should be the last resort. In 2011, the Department of Education (DOE) proposed for Canarsie’s P.S. 114 to be phased out. Yet the unwavering voices of students, parents and teachers of P.S. 114 were eventually heard, and the DOE resolved to work on lifting the school back up. Collaborating with community members like this – and really listening – should serve as a prerequisite for potential school closings. Too many of the schools doomed for closure have not been given the tools to improve, or the time to apply them.

Students at low-performing schools need the most support. But the Administration constantly misses the opportunity to pinpoint troubled schools, invest in them and turn them around. Too often, the Administration opts for the easier route, which is ultimately school closure. DOE’s policies have actually amplified the core problems that contribute to chronic poor performance. Adding more high-need students to poorly resourced and already underperforming schools is just one example. The end result? Performance results for our highest-need students have hardly budged, and educational disparity continues to besiege our city.

We see the same heavy-handedness in the way the City often shoehorns charter schools into existing public schools, without a well-considered strategy for both institutions to thrive. Co-location can be – and has been – successful in this city. Students at four high schools in the Brandeis Educational Complex, on the Upper West Side, learned beautifully side-by-side – until the DOE squeezed a charter elementary school into the building, despite staunch resistance from the school community. Successful sharing of space and resources can only be carried out through meticulous planning and input from all key stakeholders – students, parents, teachers, administrators, community activists and education advocates. Instead, the DOE has alienated school communities by neglecting their input and depriving them of a venue for meaningful engagement on educational policy.

As a public school parent, I know the difference of being involved in your children’s education can make in their academic success and self-confidence. That’s personal to me, and that priority is reflected in the recommendations my office put forth in 2010 to modify Educational Impact Statements and boost parental engagement. But the Administration failed to take our recommendations on community involvement and use of physical space seriously, resulting in a co-location process that is consistently divisive and poorly attuned to the physical demands of mutually-sited school communities.

That’s why, following Mayor Bloomberg’s latest announcement on school closures, I called on the Administration to freeze school closures and co-locations for the rest of the Mayor’s term. Until we can offer a comprehensive, community-driven plan for co-locations and school turnaround, I urge you to join me in pressuring the mayor to put a one-year moratorium on these divisive tactics. After years of disruption instead of progress, inequity instead of opportunity, haste instead of prudence. Enough is enough.

By Erin Brodwin

Jackie Albers Photo By Dale Eisinger

When a parent arrives in Principal Jackie Albers’ office to ask whether her student should take classes in music or math, her answer is both. Albers, who oversees an elementary charter school in central Harlem, said the most important aspect of her job is making sure students who leave her school are prepared for the real world.

“When we talk about our curriculum, we call it joyful rigor,” Albers said. “It’s challenging, but it’s also engaging and fun.”

After a two-year stint teaching English at a public school in the Bronx with Teach for America, Albers said she was drawn to a career in the charter school system.

“As the leader of a charter school, I’m able to see the needs in the curriculum and make adjustments immediately,” said Albers. “On any given day, I’m able to walk in and watch a teacher give a math lesson, and then talk with him or her afterward about what went well and what we can work on. It’s an atmosphere of open communication,” she said.

Harlem Success Academy 1, with its 60 teachers and 616 students—or scholars, as the school calls them—is a lot to manage. But for Albers, who has adored school since setting foot in her first English class, leading the Harlem elementary is a labor of love. “School opened doors for me,” said Albers. “I want to play a role in making sure other students have those opportunities as well.”

Albers’ school is one of 15 public charter schools managed by Success Academy Inc., a nonprofit that relies on funding from government and private donations. As a public charter school, the campus selects its students at random each year through a lottery.

Students attend classes daily from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., more than two hours longer than students at traditional public schools. In addition, the school allows its students to choose from a diverse range of classes, from music to chess, art, sports and science.

“It’s important to us that school is fun for our students. We want it to be something they look forward to,” said Albers.

As the head of the venerable Horace Mann School in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, Westchester county native and veteran educator Thomas Kelly admits that it’s all about the teaching.

“Each and every moment that we are together is a teachable moment, one in which both students and teachers challenge each other to mine their worth for all it’s worth,” said Kelly, who has been involved in teaching since his junior year in college and whose daughter Emma Rose has been a student at the school since he took the helm eight years ago.

Kelly, who holds several education degrees including a Ph.D. from Columbia Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and Teachers’ College, said that “hands down, it’s the life of the mind that looms large for everyone within the Horace Mann family.”

He adds that the school’s rigorous academic program is what keeps students motivated and energized, always thinking in entrepreneurial ways. In addition, said Kelly, there is the strong sense of community at Horace Mann School. “At every layer, there is a connective tissue that allows us to both celebrate and care for each other in highly personalized ways.”

The Mann school, with 1,816 students and 240 faculty members, has been in existence for 125 years and functions as a complete private school serving grades N-12 with an 18-acre main campus in Riverdale and a 275-acre outdoor education center in Bethlehem, Conn. The school is one of the 10 largest day schools in the country and was ranked as the second best prep school in the country by Forbes magazine in 2010.

Notable alumni include Pedro Alvarez, a 2005 Mann graduate who now plays Major League baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, as well as Samuel Newhouse, a media executive who is one of the top 50 richest Americans.

According to Kelly, some highlights of the school include special events, such as the sixth-grade trip to Colonial Williamsburg, climbing atop a 50-foot Cooperative Adventure Tower at the Dorr Nature Laboratory in Connecticut, or the Middle Division Read-In day, when all students celebrate the same piece of literature.

Kelly said he is especially thankful for the school’s John Dorr Nature Laboratory, where by way of scripted experiences, middle-division students learn essential team-building and healthy risk-taking skills, all while developing a greater appreciation for the physical environment and the need to think carefully about each individual’s carbon footprint.

Speaking more generally about Horace Mann’s academic offerings, Kelly said, “From the core academics to the arts, to the programs at John Dorr, to athletics, and to our robust co-curricular programs, all aspects of the teaching-learning process are valued equally at Horace Mann School.”

Parents of Horace Mann students had nothing but glowing comments on the school and its stellar reputation. “We feel very fortunate to have found the perfect school for our son—one that constantly stimulates him to stretch his mind and exercise his curiosity within an environment that makes him feel safe and nurtured and that makes learning fun, with unparalleled resources to make it all possible,” said Susan, a parent of a 2019 Mann School graduate.  “What more could a parent wish for?” she asked.

Photo By Emily Johnson

Outstanding Grade School

By Emily Field

Three years ago, St. Stephen of Hungary School, a pre-K through 8th grade Catholic school, was at risk of closing due to low student enrollment. Like many Catholic schools, St. Stephen found itself in the position of needing more students to stay afloat.

St. Stephen focused on attracting more students from its Upper East Side neighborhood by offering a variety of extracurricular activities and small class sizes. “It’s hard to build a school that’s sustainable if it’s not a neighborhood school,” said Katherine Peck, principal of the school. “We found that the neighborhood community really gravitated towards us.”

Today the school has 260 students, up from 156 students three years ago. Its teaching values, which Peck describes as a mix of traditional and progressive, are rooted in the school’s Franciscan tradition. “The focus is on teaching the whole child,” said Peck. “Franciscan values are very big on the whole person. For us in education, it means every single part of you—physically, mentally— has to be nourished to be spiritually healthy.”

St. Stephen has a wide array of extracurricular activities, ranging from violin lessons that start in the second grade, to a gardening club that tends the school’s rooftop garden. “It gives every child the opportunity to shine at whatever they’re really great at,” said Peck. “You find out what it is that you can give back.”

The school recently introduced after-school fencing lessons, and this year St. Stephen is putting on its first musical, Yes, Virginia. “Every single person came out of the woodwork to help—parents, even co-workers of parents,” Peck said.

Class sizes are limited to 18 students, and tuition starts at under $8,000 per student. Each teacher also has a master’s degree in education. While the school follows the New York state guidelines, teams of teachers are in charge of creating the curriculum.

“It’s very hands-on and differentiated for each student’s academic level,” said third-grade teacher Kathleen Culhane. Culhane has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College and has been teaching at St. Stephen’s for two years. “There’s lots of small group work and real life lessons,” she said.

Culhane described how the school uses technology in the classroom. With fundraising help from parents and grandparents, the school was able to buy iPads, which students start using in the fourth grade. “There are really amazing apps for math and math games. There’s one where you can draw and speak at the same time that students use to solve problems and explain,” said Culhane.

“The community is very special and the parents are very involved,” Culhane said. “It’s an amazing place to go to work every day.”

Holly Esperaggo has two children who attend St. Stephen. Her son is in the first grade, and her daughter is in pre-K. This is the second year her family has attended St. Stephen.

“It’s a very warm, nurturing environment,” said Esperaggo. She said that her son had been struggling with reading, and his teachers had helped him to gain more confidence this year. “They’re really sensitive to the kids’ needs and they partner with parents,” she said

McCourt emceed all the Blackboard Award ceremonies until his death in 2009, and I have no doubt his words and wisdom still echo in the minds of many the educators—teachers and principals alike—who were there during those ceremonies. They certainly do in me. McCourt’s message was that only a teacher really knows what it’s like to stand in front of classroom full of kids and get them to learn something. He bristled about how the teaching profession was besieged by so-called experts telling teachers what to do, when many of the experts themselves were never teachers. Mostly, though, he expressed a lot of camaraderie, respect and dark-humored sympathy for his fellow educators.

Only Frank could say it like Frank, but we try to carry his message forth in our own way: hoping to express that you, our dedicated and talented local educators, are deeply appreciated by many around you, your colleagues, students and parents. Chances are it was one of them who put in the nomination for you or your school.

Originally founded by the leaders of Manhattan Media, Tom Allon and Richard Burns, the Blackboard Awards are dedicated to honoring excellence in local education wherever it exists—public, private, charter or parochial school. It humbles us to learn about the good work you do, and that, in turn, impassions us to get out the word.

Speaking for all my colleagues at Manhattan Media, I have two final words for you: Thank you.

—Eric Messinger, Editor, New York Family

2012 Blackboard Award Winners

West Side YMCA, Where Teachers and Parents Work Hand-in-Hand

Students Learn to ‘GELL’ at Village School

Nurturing the Whole Child at St. Stephen of Hungary

PS 199 Creates Lifelong Learners

Horace Mann: A Century of Quality Teaching in the Heart of the City

Character Counts at Harlem Village Academies

The Uncommon Way: Improving the Norm for Inner-City Students

Small Step From High School to College

A Blueprint for the Global School of the Future

The World Awaits at Leman School

Emphasis on Whole Child at Battery Park School

Prepping for a Bright Future at Winston Prep

Math and Sciences Under Microscope at High School

All the World’s a Stage at Performing Arts School

Opening the Doors to the Future for Students

Empowering Students and Teachers to Find their Voice

Susie Kavanaugh

Sixteen teachers from New York City private, charter and traditional public schools are being honored this year with Blackboards. This year, the 11th for the Blackboards, we received about 1,000 nominations from parents, students, principals and fellow teachers, and the final selections were made by editors and executives from four Manhattan Media publications—Our Town, West Side Spirit, Our Town Downtown and New York Family.

One of our honorees, the beloved Jon Goldman at The Beacon School, unfortunately died this spring, but we wanted to recognize his extraordinary work over the years.

In these pages, you’ll find 16 remarkable stories of teachers, including Susie Kavanaugh at Corlears Elementary School, who empties her classroom every year so her students can decide how to fill it up, and Ross Grosshart, an electrical engineer who changed jobs mid-career so he could teach college-level courses at Brooklyn Tech.

Several other Blackboard winners also chose teaching after starting on a different path, and their students and our city are better off because of it.

—Josh Rogers,
Editor, Backboard Awards

Barbara Ciner: Life Lessons Before Kindergarten

Rose Coffield: Pre-K Teacher Uses Video to Teach Kids About Play

Cara Beseda, She’ll Give a Student the Socks Off Her Feet

Lisa Harrelson, She Cheers Students, and They  Return the Favor

Lindsay Wener, Life Lessons from the South Side to the Upper East Side

Tonia Percy, Second Graders Are Happy  to See a Familiar Face

Laurel Nyeboe, Opening the Doors to the World

Susie Kavanaugh She Empties the Classroom  Before Filling Their Minds

Jonathan Goldman, Beacon Students Remember Jon, Their Inspirational Teacher

Sammie Smith, A Passion for Writing, Theater and Latin

Lois Eder, Special Teacher Making Strides with Students

Andrew Adler, Using Computers to Teach the Three Rs

Marija Kero, Bringing Math Alive by Connecting  it to Students’ Lives

Dr. Warren Wollman, Physics Doctorate Demystifies Mathematics at Rodeph Sholom

Bernadette Robine, From Paris to Brooklyn

Ross Grosshart, Engineer Goes Back to High School Mid-Career

Starting your kids on the right path at an early age is always a top concern for parents. So when parents decide to send their children to the Adults and Children in Trust program at St. John Divine, they can rest assured that Barbara Ciner will empower their children with the skills necessary to survive.

The 44-year-old teacher began her teaching career over a decade ago and has made it a point to teach with a deep understanding of each and every one of her students.

“The quality that sticks out most in my mind is her amazing ability to know the children in her class,” said Karin Kimbrough, whose two children were in Ciner’s class in Morningside Heights. “She would take the time to understand how each one learned, what motivated them to apply themselves and what issues they have.”

Kimbrough was floored by her assessment and how well Ciner understood the children—how she got to know her sons’ habits better than Kimbrough herself did. Ciner even gave Kimbrough some pointers that she still uses with her children today—well past pre-school.

“In a way, the children are who they are going to be,” Ciner said. “They have their own personality, likes and dislikes. All I want to do is give them the confidence and strength to be successful.”

Every morning, Ciner walks her classroom to make sure that each child has their own space and their own outlet for creativity.

“I make sure the blocks are attractive for children who like to build and that every child has a place where they can interact and thrive,” Ciner said.

The teacher said she’s honored to receive a Blackboard Award and is thrilled by the outpouring of support from parents.
“It gave me chills,” Ciner said. “I’m having an out-of-body experience right now. I don’t like the spotlight.”
However, she makes sure each child has their own spotlight in order to thrive and develop in her classroom, a fact many parents appreciate.

“I learned to respect and care about Ms. Barbara because she profoundly cared and respected the little minds she was shaping,” said Janet Hernandez. “Ms. Barbara effectively prepared my [4-year-old] daughter and our preschoolers for the difficult process of entering into some of the most competitive kindergarten programs throughout the city, both private and public.”

Ciner is constantly trying to improve and follows the philosophy of avoiding rigidity in order to maximize the learning of her pupils.

“I am now motivated to keep things fresh and to keep being a student of life,” Ciner said. “When I was 13, my grandmother wrote a note in my yearbook which said, ‘Lend your mind to learning and your heart to understanding.’”
It’s a philosophy that she strongly abides by and hopes to pass on to each and every student she encounters.

In Laurel Nyeboe’s classroom, second- and third-grade children discuss stories in The New York Times, jump in place to solve math problems and earn certificates for good behavior.

It’s a way of following the curriculum and having fun at the same time, and parents at P.S. 40, Augustus Saint-Gaudens School, have taken notice—so much so that they wouldn’t mind reliving their elementary school days themselves.

“I wish I was 7 again and in her class,” said Carla Massey, a parent at the school.

Nyeboe, 58, has been an educator for 23 years and has taught at P.S. 40 for the last five. Her goal in teaching is to make sure the students learn math, reading, writing and all the fundamentals, but she doesn’t stop there; she works through the curriculum and the children’s passions to help them develop critical thinking skills and social consciousness.

“My premise is opening up the world to the children and exposing them to it as much as possible,” Nyeboe said. “I want them to live in a bigger world.”

Nyeboe starts off every year reading books by Roald Dahl and Robert Munsch, whose zany stories help children see “outside a formula.” She encourages the children to discuss stories in the newspaper in a way that’s age-appropriate and uses terms they understand to keep them engaged. One parent remembered her third-grader coming home and saying, “Mom, are you aware of the tax problems in Paris?”
It’s that sort of experience that makes Nyeboe popular with parents.

“Ms. Nyeboe infuses her students with her enthusiasm for learning. Her curiosity is contagious. She has a direct pipeline to the imaginations of her students. She knows what makes children tick. She sees the world in a grain of sand,” Massey wrote, nominating Nyeboe for a Blackboard Award.

“She opens doors to the world and inspires students to cross their threshold. Each of her students feels loved.”

Nyeboe got her start in education at P.S. 183 under then-principal Tanya Kaufman, who transformed the struggling school to a success story. At P.S. 183, Nyeboe worked on a “looping” schedule, where teachers spend time with the same kids year after year. That experience allowed her to develop deep relationships with the families.

“One mother I’m still friends with claims I helped her raise her child,” Nyeboe recalled fondly.

After 15 years at P.S. 183, she moved on to the New Teacher Mentor Program, where she stayed for the next three years. She missed spending time with students in classroom, though, so she took a position at P.S. 40.

Nyeboe recently took the LSAT and plans to go into school law. This fall, she’ll also move on to a new school where she will reconnect with a former colleague as her new principal. “It’s like coming home,” she said.

In the case of Chelsea resident and 10th grade electronics teacher Ross Grosshart, the phrase “better late than never” couldn’t be more true.

After more than 22 years as an engineer, developing software for high-profile companies including Hewlett-Packard, American Express and GTE, Grosshart decided to leave his lucrative career and follow his dream to become a teacher.

That passion led Grosshart in 2007 to Brooklyn Technical High School, where he has been teaching 10th graders the finer points of digital electronics ever since.

“DE is an introductory, college-level course typical for an college freshman majoring in electrical engineering,” said Grosshart, 50. “It starts with electrical circuit fundamentals, both analog and digital, to build student knowledge of different circuit components, and then it moves toward projects and group-based activities where students design complete circuits.”

Although Grosshart realized he wanted to teach during his undergrad days at the University of Connecticut, it wasn’t until he saw an ad for a teacher’s program that he decided to act.

“I tutored math and chemistry from freshman year until I graduated and realized how fulfilling the role of educator can be,” he recalled. “After 20 years in the business, I saw an ad for the NYC Teaching Fellows and looked into becoming a math teacher. I was lucky enough to end up at [Brooklyn Tech] teaching technology classes.

“As far as teaching goes, my biggest influence was my chemistry professor at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Covey,” he said. “She was the one who pulled me aside after class one day and asked me if I’d be interested in tutoring some students. If not for her, I don’t know that I would have ever made the career transition.”

Projects and concepts that Grosshart covers in his class include working with small, micro-controller-powered robots. “Kids love technology and use it daily, so getting them hooked on the content isn’t that difficult,” Grosshart said. “Most find the class interesting, especially if they like working with their hands.”

Grosshart said it wasn’t just his desire to teach that drove him to the classroom.

“We need technology innovators—and it’s more than just an opinion,” said Grosshart, agreeing that the United States now lags behind other countries when it comes to turning out enough engineers and workers with technical skills.

“Algebra and geometry should be taught throughout the middle school years,” he added. “Basic computer programming and introductory engineering should follow.”

Linda Soled, the parent of a student in Grosshart’s class, said the teacher “never hesitates to please parents and students alike.”
“Friendly to all, caring and extremely grateful to finally be at his dream job, Mr. Grosshart hopes to stick around for a long time doing what he loves,” Soled said. “Inspiring kids to look past high school and plan a fulfilling career, that’s what he’s all about.”

For Grosshart, some of the best parts of teaching include building a rapport with students that sometimes transforms into a mentoring relationship. He said “dealing with college, applications, personal conflicts, advice, etc.—that’s the best part of the job.”