Parentadvocates.org will expose what we believe are lawless acts of the New York City Department of Education in a series of articles on different aspects of the same problem: Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein have created a politico-educational complex that encompasses the media, the Office of Legal Services and compliance with Freedom of Information, Special Education and service delivery, school discipline and suspensions, the police, the Courts and the DA (District Attorney), and the people who work for this complex act in violation of the rules, regulations and laws of New York City, the State of New York, and the Federal Government as if these rules, regulations and laws did not apply to them and their actions.

We have, in our effort to expose what is going on not just in New York City but across America and around the world, created a new yahoogroup: schoolcorruption. Please join, if you do not work for any school board or Department of Education at any level! Then, you will find out the latest information we have available on the corruption and fraud that exists in the politico-educational complex. To join: Go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/

Type into the "Find a Group" box: schoolcorruption

Click schoolcorruption, then join/subscribe/post – it's that easy!

We try to give you, our visitors, what happened in a school, not what we believe the principal wanted to happen, or what the DOE wants you to hear. Below is our first story of the series:

NYC DOE Dissolve the Chinese-American PS 2 PA Executive Board on March 10, 2005 in a lawless and defamatory manner

On March 6, 2005, we received, through our website, the following email from Mr. Lee, the PS 2 PA Co-President:

-----Original Message-----
From: ps2pta@yahoo.com [mailto:ps2pta@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 11:24 PM
To: betsy@parentadvocates.org
Subject: (ParentAdvocates Contact) Principal and Teacher file a false child
abuse report against me.
Myself an active PA President of PS2, The Mayer London School, 122 Henry
Street, NYC 10002.
On Wednesday one of the parent have complaint to me, that the teacher did not mark the students homework, and let the student mark their own homework because her child was also same class with my son. I inform the teacher above this issue. She reply me: Last year she is been for the whole year but no parents complain, why this year parents complain?

The next day his teacher call ACS and file a report that I have hit my son. Thursday, ACS visit my apartment inform me to bring my child's for interview. Friday.I bring my two children's to ACS I tell my children's to tell the true. After both children's was interview, I was call in for interview the report
was read to me that, I hit my son. My both children tell the investigator the teacher is telling
lies...Now how can a teacher and a Principal file this report that I have hit my son head.
We have a PA meeting with all the parents on March 10th 2005, Thursday at 8.30am.I will contact the reporter I will also contact Eva Moskowitz office to invite her to attend is meeting. We parents can't accept this kind of teacher and principal in our school.

Mr K.C.Lee
PS2 PA President

We immediately called him and heard that the NYC Department of Education had sent the Agency For Child Services to his home to interview him about his abuse of his children following his questioning a teacher at PS 2 about the grading of homework. He asked us to advocate for him and his Executive Board, because the NYC DOE Supervisor of Parent Support Joann Makris and her Assistant Jennifer Greenblatt were threatening to dissolve the PS 2 PA Executive Board for improprieties ranging from missing thousands of dollars, no minutes, no record of elections, and no records. Mr. Lee told us that he had all the documents and was an honest chinese parent who had never misused any money. We told Mr. Lee that we could not make the meeting on March 10, but we would be glad to meet with him and his Board at their earliest convenience to see what we could do to assist them.

Ms. Makris and Ms. Greenblatt and the District 2 DOE did not know, when they called ACS on Mr. Lee for child abuse, that he was the "Star of Stars" who would be honored on March 23 2005.

On March 10 Jennifer Greenblatt and several other DOE personnel attended the PA meeting at the request of the Principal, interrupted the meeting, and announced that the PA Executive Board was now dissolved and there would be a new election for the entire board on March 29, 2005. The parents on the Executive Board were told "A letter is in the mail". (See March 10 letter from Ms. Makris, below). Mr. Lee called us the next morning and was extremely upset. We set up a meeting with him and the rest of his Executive Board for Monday evening, March 14, at PS 2 in Chinatown. That evening, I and a colleague also with The E-Accountability Foundation looked at the minutes, the budgets, and the receipts for items bought and voted on by the general PA members, and saw that the PS 2 PA was definitely a functioning body under the rules of the NYC DOE A-660 regulations – there was a President, a Secretary, and a treasurer, all doing their jobs.

On Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Ms. Makris called me at my office/home and told me "I regret to inform you that you may not attend any meetings with me nor may you attend any meetings at PS 2 or have any input into this situation" as you are not a member of any official group of the DOE – namely, the President's Council, the CDEC, the Executive Board, nor was I a parent in the school. When I told her that I had indeed seen the documents that Mr. Lee had told her existed, she became very loud and upset. She told me that I had no right to see these same documents that she had not seen. I asked her where the regulations were that gave her the right to dissolve the PA outright as she was doing. She did not answer and hung up.

We sent an email to Mr. Tim Johnson, the President of the President's Council (group of PA/PTA Presidents):
From: betsy@parentadvocates.org
Dear Mr. Johnson,

As President of the District 2 Presidents' Council you have no doubt heard of the dissolution of the PS 2 PA by Jennifer Greenblatt and Joann Makris on March 10. I am an advocate for parents, teachers, principals, anyone who needs help in situations where there are mistruths, corruption, or worse. I disagree with this unlawful action by Ms. Makris and District 2, and stand behind the PS 2 PA in their opposition to a new election on March 29, 2005. We will be there to provide the actions of anyone who shows up to the general public on our website, parentadvocates.org.

The NYC DOE believes, wrongly, that they can enter a school without any warning whatsoever and destroy a hard-working group such as the PS 2 PA. I and a colleague went to PS 2 at the request of PA Co-Presidents Mr. Lee and Ms Latchman, and spent 3 hours talking with the entire Executive Board and looking at the minutes and documents of the PA. The A-660 regulations state that a PA is not functioning if there are no President, secretary, or treasurer. The PS 2 Executive Board has a treasurer, a secretary, and two co-presidents.

The A-660s also state (Section A. 2) that IF a Principal believes a PA/PTA is NOT functioning, then he/she must inform the Executive Board in writing, and then hold a meeting within 14 days to discuss what the members of the Board need to do. The Principal at PS 2 never did this. He has not said anything about the PA not functioning since he started at the school in September. The former Principal attended the election of the Executive Board on June 7, 2004, as did the Parent Coordinator. The District 2 DOE is, therefore, making false claims against the parents who are on the Executive Board. There must be consequences for the DOE District 2 office, shouldn't there? Please let me know what these consequences could be.

Joann Makris called me up and told me that I could not help the PA at PS 2, could not see any documents of the Executive Board, and could certainly not attend any meetings with the PA Board. This is, as you know, a violation of due process rights and the rights of parents to seek a friend and/or counselor to assist with any proceeding. I am also a press person, Editor of parentadvocates.org, reporter for Out2 News and other publications, and I know my rights under the law and under my Union rules. Public schools, say the BOE, belong totally to the Principal. Ms. Makris told me that parents have no rights when a Principal says something. I'm sorry, but I believe this to be untrue. I'm pretty sure that Kathleen would agree with me.

I would like a response to this email and the notice below, which was handed out at the PEP meeting on Monday evening at Norman Thomas High School. Please reply to this address: betsy@parentadvocates.org. Thank you!

Betsy Combier

At a Panel For Educational Policy meeting on March 15, 2005, I spoke about PS 2 to Chancellor Joel Klein, and we handed out the following notice:

A NOTE FROM THE PS 2 PA EXECUTIVE BOARD TO THE PANEL FOR EDUCATION POLICY:

We oppose the NYC Department of Education's act of dissolving the PS 2 PA Executive Board on March 10, 2005 for the following reasons:

1. We are a functioning PA, following the A-660 regulations Section

A. 2. (p. 1) which states: "A PA must elect the required officers (president, secretary, and treasurer) to be a functioning PA". We have two PA Co-Presidents, a Secretary and a Treasurer.

2. "The PA must complete elections during the period of time between the ten days after the second Wednesday in May and the second Friday in June".

We had our election meeting on June 7, 2004 and our Executive Board was elected. The Principal and Parent Coordinator attended this meeting. Since that day there has been a PA meeting every month, attended by 150-250 parents and the Principal. How could the New York City Department of Education allege that we are not a functioning Executive Board? They have no grounds for their statements and cannot dissolve us.

3.If there was any question as to whether or not the PA was functioning, "it is the responsibility of the Principal to notify the PA in writing of their duty to take necessary action. .. If the PA fails to respond or take action within seven days, the Principal must notify the parents in the school by mail and schedule a meeting to be held within 14 days after the seven-day period has passed...the principal [initiates] the meeting by sending appropriate notification (at least 10 calendar days notice) to parents..."(A660, Section A 2., p. 5)

Since September 13, the first day of school, our Principal has never told us that we were not functioning; nor has he written any complaints about our activities, our fundraising, or our meetings.

4. On January 21, 2005, PS 2 celebrated the 46th anniversary. You were invited, but sent Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina instead. She attended our celebration and never told us or anyone that we were not functioning correctly.

5. On March 10, 2005, Ms Jennifer Greenblatt from the District 2 Office and several other NYC DOE personnel attended our PA meeting and told us that as we had never written any minutes, provided a budget for them to see, or receipts of what was bought, the Executive Board was officially "out of business", dissolved. She added that "a letter is in the mail".

6. A letter was handed out to the Executive Board on Friday, March 19, stating that the PA was dissolved because there were no minutes of the election meeting in May...and a new election is scheduled for March 29.

7. We protest this violation of our due process rights, and our rights as parents. We will not allow an election to take place on March 29, and will hold required elections at the end of May, as stated in the A660s. We will be the official PA of PS 2 until June 30, 2005 and beyond, if we are re-elected.

Thank you.

PS 2 Executive Board

From: betsy@parentadvocates.org
Date: 3/24/2005

Dear Fellow members of District 2, District 3, Brooklyn, Queens, ICOPE, NYADVOCATES, and other interested parties:

I am forwarding an email we sent to Mr. Johnson, the Co-President of the District 2 President's Council and President, I believe, of CPAC, concerning the NYC DOE dissolution of the PS 2 PA Executive Board. We have not received any response to this email, and I'm interested in hearing any suggestions from anyone - please, no personal attacks are necessary - about the process that The E-Accountability Foundation and parentadvocates.org are documenting here: the dissolution of a PA without cause or warning by the NYC DOE.

At the beginning of March Mr. Lee contacted us about the report of child abuse being sent to ACS, which then made two visits to Mr. Lee's home and grilled his two young children (the charges were unfounded). On March 23, 2005 Mr. Lee was awarded the "Star Among Stars Award" by the ACS City-wide Head Start Policy Council, "In recognition of the many contributions and the dedicated effort in which you fulfilled your role as an Officer and Area Representative of the Lower East Side Head Start Community during the 2003 & 2004 membership years."

Please reply to the ICOPE listserv or to me at: betsy@parentadvocates.org

Our goal is to resolve this issue through talking and communicating together, and we hope that the District 2 staff and Mr. Johnson will reply.

Mr. Johnson never replied.

So, we then approached the other parent group responsible, supposedly, for matters involving parents and school issues: the Community District Education Council for District 2:

To: mpropper@cecd2.net, pwalsh@cecd2.net, lgreenwald@cecd2.net, bscherl@cecd2.net, jlevine@cecd2.net, mfine@cecd2.net, kgomez@cecd2.net, llim@cecd2.net, mlish@cecd2.net, srappaport@cecd2.net, lbass@cecd2.net, esheppard@cecd2.net
CC:betsy@parentadvocates.org

The E-Accountability Foundation
parentadvocates.org
Betsy Combier, President

March 26, 2005
To All Members of the District 2 CDEC:

I have spoken with several of you on this matter and I would like your response to the situation at PS 2 in order to provide visitors to our website parentadvocates.org with the information they need to asses your work for New York City parents.

As you all know, Mr. Lee, Co-President of the PS 2 PA asked a teacher in his child's classroom why she did not hand back the homework. She told him that she never handed back homework. ACS was called to Mr. Lee's home and he let them in, as he did not know they needed a warrant. His children were grilled about his abuse of them - which the school says they admitted to, but the children then told everyone this was not true, and ACS returned to Mr. Lee's home to speak with his wife. Then, on March 10, 2005, at the regularly scheduled PA meeting, Jennifer Greenblatt and other BOE personnel from the District 2 office attended and told everyone there that the PS 2 PA Executive Board was dissolved, and a "letter is in the mail."

Mr. Lee had invited us, parentadvocates.org, to the March 10 meeting, but we were unavailable. Mr. Lee called us on March 11 and asked us to meet with the Executive Board at the school on monday, March 14. We did meet, and stayed until all the documents had been discussed, and we saw a budget, minutes, and receipts. The PA is functioning, and the D2 BOE has no legitimate reason to dissolve the PA. There are, it seems to us, no financial irregularities, and the District 2 staff have dropped those claims. (That they made them at all is another issue for another time).

On March 16 we met with Norm Siegel, and he told the PA Executive Board that he would help them, as I told him that I had seen the minutes and budget. We also showed Mr. Siegel the A-660s, in particular the clause on "functioning" PAs. There is no clause whatsoever that says that a BOE official may come into a school PA meeting and dissolve them outright. Ms Joann Makris called me up at home and told me that I could not attend any meetings with her and the PA Board, and she was amazed that the PA had shown me the minutes and budget. I dispute Ms. Makris' view, as I am an advocate for parents and any parent who wants to have an advocate / advisor / friend at any meeting may do so (due process rights under the law, and in the requirements for administrative hearings, which this is). I was distressed to see Ms. Makris leave the PEP meeting at Norman Thomas High School on March 15, 2005, right before Mr. Lee spoke.

On Friday, March 19, 2005, Ms. Makris distributed to the PA a flyer announcing a new election for the PS 2 Executive Board on March 29, 2005. Under what regulation, rule, or law, does Ms. Makris have the right to do this? We request a reply to this question immediately. We have read the A-660's and see no reference to this sort of action anywhere.

Our request:

Please, in order for the PS 2 PA to continue to work for the safety, welfare, and achievement of the children in the school, stop the March 29 PA election as the CDEC for District 2. This is a lawless action that will have major consequences for the CDECs in New York City and the Bloomberg/Klein "Children First" initiative.
Thank you.

On March 28, 2005 I attended the District 2 Presidents' Council meeting in order to ask that the Presidents' Council stop the election that would be held at PS 2 the next morning. Mr. Tim Johnson and Ms. Miriam Schneider, D2 Presidents' Council Co-Presidents, rudely told me to go away and furthermore, that I could not speak for PS 2 and they would not listen. I felt a little better when they both trashed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver along with me.

I sent an email:

Subject:Re: Request From parentadvocates.org to Stop the PS 2 March 29 Election
Date:3/29/2005

To: BScherl, mpropper@cecd2.net, pwalsh@cecd2.net, lgreenwald@cecd2.net, bscherl@cecd2.net, jlevine@cecd2.net, mfine@cecd2.net, kgomez@cecd2.net, llim@cecd2.net, mlish@cecd2.net, srappaport@cecd2.net, lbass@cecd2.net, esheppard@cecd2.net betsy@parentadvocates.org
To the CDEC:

Jennifer Greenblatt and Joann Makris set up and ran an election this morning at PS 2 to fill all positions of the PS 2 Executive Board, thrown out by the District 2 BOE on March 10 without prior notice or warning.

The Parent Coordinator translated for everyone, so that Mr. Lee could not speak directly to the parents in Chinese. The position of PA President was contested, and a Mr. O'Connell ran against Mr. Lee. Mrs. O'Connell ran for another position. Ballots were xeroxed by Ms. Makris, and Jennifer Greenblatt ran the election itself.

Mr. Lee was re-elected PA President. He is getting a letter together to send out to all the media about this. Here is the main problem as I see it:

Mr. Lee, a hard-working PA President, believes that he is working for the children of PS 2 as best he can. He and I and my colleague went over his notes, the budget and minutes - including the election of June 7 2004 - and I saw that they are not perfect, but what is? Do we pass judgement on someone according to our standards? What are our standards? Indeed, whose standards "count", and who decides?

No, we cannot judge the quality of documentation. I saw no financial improprieties, and Mr. Lee is not charged with any that I know of, after we stopped the claims of the Principal that the Executive Board had stolen the $11,000 that Mr. Sheldon Silver has given every school in his District. (I think that we should find that money, and I will try to contact Mr. Silver.) Last night at the D2 President's Council meeting Jennifer Greenblatt tried to say that there were no minutes and no validation of the Executive Board existing, but this is nonsense. The DOE had from September 13 to March 10 to make that statement and rectify it in a conciliatory way. They were obviously out to "get Mr. Lee" and this is not ok in my book and should not be ok in anyone's book.

The A-660s govern Parent Associations. In these regulations are the following:

1. A PA is designated "functioning" if there are a President, a treasurer, and a Secretary. The PA Executive Board at PS 2 had these 3 positions filled, all elected June 7, 2004 at which the Principal and Parent Coordinator were present. The District 2 office are required to keep all records of all elections at all the schools within their purview. Where are the District's records? Why is no one asking where they are, and terminating personnel who dont have them?

2. Section A. 2 states that IF a Principal believes that a PA is not functioning then he/she must put this in writing, and send it out to all members of the PA. Then he/she must call a meeting within 14 days at which the problem with the PA is discussed. Neither of these actions occurred. The District 2 employees were sitting in the meeting room on March 10 and arbitrarily and capriously told the PA Executive Board that they were dissolved in front of the parents of their children's school. This is, perhaps, slanderous actions? And, what regulation, rule, or law gives a DOE office the right to do this? We have been able to read absolutely nowhere that this is a valid or legal action.

3. We have also found no rule, regulation or law that gives a DOE office or officer the right to set up and/or run an election for a PA Executive Board. We have read and re-read the regulations. Where is this right given to the DOE?

However much Michael, you, Norman, I, and anyone else want Mr. Lee and any other PA or PTA Executive Board member to do what "We" want, ie give us the minutes, the budgets, etc., etc.,this is not required of anyone, according to the regulations, in order to stay undissolved. The PA/PTA is required to "have" these documents. Close reading of the A-660s does not give permission to dissolve a PA Executive Board without warning for not submitting these documents after being threatened with extinction. There is no process outlined in the A-660s that dictates "A PA/PTA President is required to give any information to the DOE when asked"...maybe the DOE is considering putting this in the regulations, but it's not there now.

Therefore, the election this morning was illegal and out of order. It is our opinion - parentadvocates - that a very bad precedent was set, not by the DOE, which has done this many times before, but by the D2 President's council and the CDEC.

Last night the all-white faces of the D2 President's Council stared at me as I went through the PS 2 events, and then told me that I had no right to speak about it as, Miriam Schneider put it, I dont have a child in the school. I told them all that Mr. Lee had asked for our assistance, and that in administrative hearings, an advisor/counselor/friend is allowed. I was told "Go Away, be quiet, we are not listening". The all-white faces looked totally un-concerned with the possibility of a chinese-American seeing this as discrimination, which several chinese parents told me this is their perception.

In my opinion, the CDEC should have had an emergency meeting, and should have asked Mr. Lee to speak about the budgets, minutes, and whatever else he had, and he should have been given a chance to be heard at a non-DOE forum. Now my question is, how many parents see, as I have heard from the PS 2 parents, that the CDECs are DOE extensions, and not independent at all. Michael - I just met you today and you impressed me very much with your interest in this situation by sitting through the entire election, but the parents saw you as a member of the enemy, as you sat there with Joann Macris and Jennifer. Several parents have called me who were at the meeting. If this was your goal, you have been successful.

Betsy Combier

Letters from Joel Klein and Joann Mackris

Subject:Re: FW: reply
Date:3/30/2005

To:mpropper@ggltd.org mpropper@cecd2.net, pwalsh@cecd2.net, lgreenwald@cecd2.net, bscherl@cecd2.net, jlevine@cecd2.net, mfine@cecd2.net, kgomez@cecd2.net, llim@cecd2.net, mlish@cecd2.net, srappaport@cecd2.net, lbass@cecd2.net, esheppard@cecd2.net betsy@parentadvocates.org
Dear Michael and CDEC,

Please do not believe for one minute that I am looking to start any attack on the members of District 2's CDEC. We will simply be colleagues helping parents: me, from the E-Accountability Foundation; and you from the CDEC, and we will hopefully agree to disagree about the unfortunate events which occurred tuesday morning March 29, 2005 at PS 2.

You and I attended and observed the DOE of District 2 doing something they had no right to do. There is no rule, regulation or law anywhere that I am aware of that permits the DOE to dissolve a functioning PA with a President, Secretary and Treasurer and then set up and run an election for the Entire Executive Board just because they want to. Another minor point is that taxpayer money was used to pay salaries, xerox ballots where the names of the candidates were written only in English (a violation of the regulations?) so that the chinese parents attending could not read the names of candidates running for office. Also, Ms. Makris and Ms. Greenblatt told Mr. Lee in their second memo that his Board would be dissolved due to there being no minutes of the election last speing. The District office documented the election and are supposed to keep the minutes, aren't they?

Well. at the March 29, 2005 meeting there was no one writing the minutes of the meeting. I went around the room several times, and no one wrote any notes.

I asked you, Michael, at the election, whether the CDEC could have set up an emergency meeting to discuss the importance of the actions of the D2 office in terms of literally denying the chinese american community a chance to reply to the false charges. You said that yes, the CDEC can have emergency meetings, but Mr. Lee did not request it.

Well, I have spoken to Mr. Lee many times, including a minute ago, and he will be filing legal action. Why this had to get to this point is what saddens me. I saw that there could have been a way to stop all of this, and it could have been the CDEC and the D2 President's Council along with the PS 2 Executive Board asking for the policy of the DOE in writing that allowed them to do what they did tuesday morning. If they could produce the regulation clearly stating their right to do what they did, we all would have had to go along with it. But they didn't and couldn't produce such a document. I have read and re-read the regulations so many times I may be able to say I know them by heart.

I have had a long conversation with Joan Makris - she called me at home - who told me that I have no right to talk with Mr. Lee, see his documents, minutes, budget or anything else, and no right to talk with her or meet with her about PS 2. I have, also, as stated in my previous email, the information given to me by the D2 President's Council (monday evening this Council was 100% white and no minorities were present) telling me to "go away" as I had no right to get involved, and, "Mr. Sheldon Silver was a horrible and rude person" on lobby day (PS 2 is in his District, I believe) and none of them would help the PS 2 PA in any way.

Finally, we have a grave situation: that the CDEC did nothing to prevent a lawless action by the DOE. I will not fight with you about who is right or wrong, and I hope you do not see my discourse as an attack on you. My Foundation holds people accountable for their actions. We see an act, we hold the person accountable. It really is a simple formula. This needs extensive time to discuss and see the consequences, none of which I can predict except to say that I dont see any entity stopping the DOE when "they" do something that they 'cant' do. We need an entity out there to provide this service.

I know that by talking about what happened we can all learn how not to have this happen again. At least I hope not.

Betsy Combier

On April 7, 2005, I was invited to attend the CDEC2 business meeting at which, I was told, PS 2 would be discussed, but you cannot speak". The CDEC2 invited Ms. Makris and Ms. Greenblatt to attend and speak. Ms. Makris spoke about how she had written many letters to the PS 2 Executive Board letting them know that they were not functioning, and she wrote them in English and chinese.

I saw the need to speak to this false information, and told the almost empty room - Region 9 Superintendent Peter Heaney sat behind me - that everything Ms. Makris said was untrue. President Michael Propper told me that he would not allow me to make any more comments and he "had heard enough from" me when I tried to say that the ballots had the candidates' names written in English, which many of the PS 2 parents could not read.

On April 20, at the CDEC meeting, parentadvocates spoke about the need to give all sides a fair and open hearing, and asked that in the future, the CDEC not forbid any parent from speaking while allowing the NYC DOE to make erroneous and false statements. We asked if there was a rule or regulation that permitted this prejudicial approach. Mr. Propper, who seemed to be angry with parentadvocates' story about the PS 2 PA Executive Board dissolution on this website, interrupted my two minute statement to tell me that "Well, we did let you speak, we followed the honor system".

Betsy Combier and several other parent advocates signed a letter to the DOE requesting a change in the policy mandating that candidates running for a position on the CDEC not speak on any issue, but limit their speeches to two minutes and to answering pre-set questions:

Subject:Parents' concerns about CDEC Election Process
Date: 3/30/2005
To: mbest@nyceboe.net
CC: kfeuer@nycboe.net, jbernard@nycboe.net, betsy@parentadvocates.org

Mr. Michael Best
General Counsel
New York City Department of Education March 30, 2005
52 Chambers Street
New York, New York 10007

Dear Mr. Best:

We are writing to you regarding your reversal of policy in regards to forums sponsored by Presidents' Councils for candidates for Community Education Councils. Parents have a right to ask the questions we want of our candidates, regarding whatever issues concern us, in each of our districts and regions. We welcome this change of heart of the part of the Department of Education, but insist that there was no misunderstanding on our part about what the original policy was.

At several public meetings, including at a Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council meeting at Tweed on March 10, Karen Feuer, director of Education Councils for DOE, informed assembled parents that if Presidents' Councils wanted to hold their own candidate forums, they would have to ask the very same six questions pre-selected by DOE that would be asked at the official DOE candidate forums, and to use a format for the evening pre-determined by DOE officials.

This attempt to censor our questions was an egregious violation of our constitutional right to free speech, as Norman Siegal, civil rights attorney, and the attorneys at the New York Civil Liberties Union confirmed
to us.

We urge you to send a letter to all Presidents' Councils, informing them of the new policy, and explicitly letting them know that they will be allowed to ask whatever questions they choose. Moreover, because of these earlier restrictions, several Presidents' Councils were discouraged from holding their own candidate forums. We ask that you give more flexibility to Presidents' Councils to set the date of these events, and not limit them to April 4-7. They should be allowed to schedule them later in the month, at a time and place convenient to all, or else to submit written questions to CEC candidates in a survey form, if they so choose.

We hope that from this day forward, officials at the Department of Education will treat parents as equal partners in the effort to improve New York City schools. What we need and deserve is a seat at the table, and our voices heard rather than suppressed, when after all, it is our children's futures which are at stake.

Respectfully,

Betsy Combier, President, The E-Accountability Foundation and Editor, parentadvocates.org
Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters
Michelle Ryan, President of Presidents' Council, District 31, Staten Island
Patricia Warner, President, United Parents Associations
Maria Dapontes-Dougherty, President of Presidents' Council, District 30,
Queens
David Bloomfield, Vice President and Region 10 Representative, Citywide
Council on High Schools

CONCLUSION: The Presidents' Council of District 2 and the CDEC2 are both working against the interests of the parents in this city in collusion with the NYC DOE. The members of these groups, once elected, lose sight of their priorities and become extensions of the lawless entity known as the NYC DOE. They do not understand that they have value as a group only if they can be perceived by parents as legitimate mediators for parents and children.

Legitimacy is earned, not elected. The Presidents' Council and the CDEC2 never have any parents attend meetings because parents in New York City do not believe that these groups are legitimate.

RECOMMENDATION: Mr. Lee pursue this matter in another venue; Michael Propper and Kathleen Gomez not be re-elected to the CDEC2; and Tim Johnson and Miriam Schneider be asked to step down from their positions; Joann Makris and Jennifer Greenblatt be reprimanded for their blatant display of discrimination and harassment of the chinese-american parents in chinatown's elementary school, PS 2.

Betsy Combier