Celeste Lumpkins-Moses, a Department of Education secretary employed at the Paul Robeson High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, has agreed to pay a $7,500 fine after DOE officials accused her of using campus computers to run her private real estate business during school hours. Lumpkins-Moses, the owner of Brooklyn-based residential brokerage Prospective Properties, admitted to using the school facilities for her business, according to a statement released today by the City of New York Conflicts of Interest Board, leading to the settlement figure. But Lumpkins-Moses pointed out to The Real Deal that there was only “probable cause” that the improper behavior occurred. [more]
Posts Tagged ‘department of education’
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Local officials and residents are riled over a plan to operate an elite public school set to open inside a crumbling educational facility in Park Slope, which houses three existing troubled high schools. The school, Millennium Brooklyn, has raised hackles in the community, inciting claims of racism and discrimination against the schools inside the John Jay High School building, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Among the biggest complaints opponents have is an allotted $35,000 in extra funding to Millennium for computers and other equipment, according to local City Council member Brad Lander. [more]
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An East Village charter school is fighting possible closure, according to the New York Post, after receiving negative reviews from Department of Education officials. The Ross Global Academy at 420 East 12th Street on the corner of Avenue A is one of numerous New York City schools on the chopping block this year. The school, which serves kindergarten through eighth grade, has been up for closure five times before. But Kevin Quinn, a lawyer for the school who is helping it petition the closure, said the news has come as a shock. “The fact that [DOE officials] were going for closure was never even discussed — in fact, everything was pointing to a renewal,” Quinn said. [Post]
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Following a release yesterday of a list of 11 schools to be phased out and a charter school recommended for renewal, the Department of Education today named 14 struggling schools that it wants to shutter at the end of this year, bringing the total number of proposed school closings to 26, NY1 reported. The list includes P.S. 114 Ryder Elementary; P.S. 332 Charles H. Houston; Frederick Douglass Academy III; and I.S. 195 Roberto Clemente. At the elementary and middle schools slated to close, an average of only 19 percent of students are proficient on state English tests, less than half the citywide average of 42 percent. [more]
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Residents in Kensington, Brooklyn are riled over plans to build a 735-seat primary and intermediate school in their neighborhood, according to the Wall Street Journal, after it was revealed that the facility would largely serve students in an adjacent school district. Yeruchim Silber, vice chair of the local community board’s land use committee, said that residents are staunchly opposed to the project, contending that even families that live nearest to the school could be denied access because of school district boundaries. [more]
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Lorraine Grillo has been named president of the New York City School Construction Authority, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday. A 17-year veteran of the agency, Grillo has been acting president since April, when she stepped in to fill the role vacated by former SCA president Sharon Greenberger, who was tapped as COO for the Department of Education. TRD [more]
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Crunched for cash, the city’s Department of Education is looking to pull the plug on nearly 1,000 community groups getting free rides in 900 city-owned buildings, the Daily News reported. The DOE wants the non-profit groups to start paying for security and custodial expenses — which range anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars per year — or else be evicted. A spokesperson for the DOE said that although the city began reviewing its rent-free tenants in 2003, the crackdown comes as a result of severe budget cuts more recently. The Bronx’s Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, for example, is housed in a $3.5 million facility on Mapes Avenue, built for them 10 years ago. The center serves upwards of 400 children and 1,000 adults, does not pay rent, and only recently began paying $30,000 per year for permits, which it funded by cutting weekend and evening hours. [NYDN]
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Chancellor Joel Klein
The opening of 26 new school locations will add more than 17,000 new seats for the 2010-11 school year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced today. The new buildings, annexes and leased spaces represent the most new classroom seats to come in one year since the School Construction Authority was created in 1988. The Department of Education is on track to add nearly 100,000 new school seats across the city by 2013. “Modernizing our schools is a part of the bold education reforms that have helped turn around the public school system here in New York City,” Bloomberg said. “Thanks to strong support from the state and city council, we are in the midst of the largest school construction effort in New York City history.” TRD
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Classes will soon be back in session for middle schoolers at Girls Prep on East Houston Street, whose classes were delayed from their Aug. 16 start date to accommodate the school’s expansion plan. Girls Prep has now secured new space at 51 Astor Place in Cooper Square for 125 fifth- and sixth-graders, DNAinfo reported. The East Village school’s decision to look elsewhere for classroom space came following protests from parents and elected officials over its planned expansion within the East Houston Street building, which would have caused special-needs students — who share the building with Girls Prep — to move. Following the protests, the Department of Education backed off a plan to use an “emergency declaration” that would have bypassed an earlier state ruling against the expansion. [DNAinfo]
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The city is in talks to acquire a 177,000-square-foot Greenwich Village building from the state and turn it into a school in an effort to combat overcrowding. Local parents have been eying 75 Morton Street ever since it hit the market two years ago for $78 million, but the city contended that the price tag was too steep and didn’t immediately go after the building, which is half-vacant and would be ready for new occupants in the fall of 2012. Now, according to the Department of Education, the city is hoping the state will be willing to budge on the asking price, given the sunken real estate market. Earlier this year, the city bought a nearby building to house Greenwich Village Middle School for $250 million. [NYDN]
