OntheWilderSide

(excerpt from) NY Daily News
Tumultuous six-hour meeting ends with panel’s decision to close 12 public schools

A panel voted to close 12 struggling schools early Friday morning after a tumultuous six hour meeting disrupted by a raucous crowd of angry protestors.

More than half the 2,000 parents, teachers and students at Brooklyn Tech High School in Fort Greene chanted, booed and banged drums early in the explosive meeting, halting proceedings for 30 minutes.

The rabble-rousers walked out and continued their demonstration outside. The meeting went on, and the Education Department’s Panel for Educational Policy ultimately voted to shutter the schools…

The meeting started with remarks from embattled Schools Chancellor Cathie Black, who was accused of mocking the angry crowd at a similar meeting that ran into Wednesday morning…

She was followed by a bevy of fired-up lawmakers who blasted Black for trying to close the schools and what they considered her nasty attitude toward the school communities.

“Ms. Black, you have a lot of nerve. Jeering at our parents is the height of disrespect,” said City Councilman Charles Barron. “Cathie Black must go.”…

The city’s attempt to shut down 19 schools last year was halted by a lawsuit brought by the NAACP and the teachers union, after a judge found the city hadn’t properly considered the closings’ impact on school communities.

Union officials are unclear what they will do to combat this year’s closings.

Filed under: children, Education, New York State Politics, News, politics, progressive politics, social & economic justice Tagged: | Brooklyn Tech, Cathie Black, Chancellor Black, Charles Barron, NY school closings, NYC Board of Education, NYC Education Department, NYC school closings, Panel for Education Policy, school closings