Community Education Council 24

P.S. 91 Room 119 68-10 Central Avenue

Glendale, New York 11385
Phone: 718.418.8160 / Fax: 718.418.8168/ [email protected]

New York City Department of Education

Nick Comaianni Dmytro Fedkowskyj Lelani Bomani Ernest Cury Marge Kolb
President 1St Vice President 2nd Vice President Treasurer Secretary

Council Members Department of Education Region 4 Officials

Cecilia Chavez Reyes Irizarry
Bill Kregler Regional Superintendent
Deborah Tscherne Charles Amundsen
Deputy Superintendent
Catherine M. Powis
Community Superintendent

FINAL BOARD APPROVED MINUTES

Minutes of Calendar Meeting
November 28, 2006
At PS 153, Maspeth, New York

1) Call to order and Roll Call -- The Calendar meeting convened at PS 153 at 7:00
PM

Roll Call – Present

• Lelani Bomani
• Cecilia Chavez
• Nick Comaianni
• Ernest Cury
• Daniel Creighton
• Dmytro Fedkowskyj
• Marge Kolb

Roll Call – Late

• Bill Kregler

Also in attendance

Deputy Chancellor of Finance, Kathleen Grimm; President of the School Construction

Authority, Sharon Greenberger; Senior Director of Government and Community
Relations, Lorraine Grillo; Manager of Community Relations, Mary Leas; City
Councilman Dennis Gallagher; State Senator Serphin Maltese; Community
Superintendent Catherine Powis; Director of Regions 4 and 5 Sandy Brawer.
2) Approval of Minutes

On motion duly made and seconded, the minutes of the October 24, 2006 meeting were
unanimously approved.

3) Report of the President

Mr. Nick Comaianni thanked Deputy Chancellor of Finance, Kathleen Grimm, all the
members of the School Construction Authority, and the elected officials for being in
attendance.

4) New Member Vote

Mr. Comaianni motioned to vote on new member applicant Ms. Debbie Tscherne, Mr.
Dmytro Fedkowskyj seconded. Ms. Marge Kolb called the roll; Ms. Tscherene was
approved to sit on the Community Education Council District 24 by a unanimous vote.

5) Report of the Community Superintendent

Ms. Powis stated the Saturday Preparatory Academy began on November 18, 2006. The
host sites in District 24 are PS 19, 81, 89, 153, IS 5, 61, 73 and 77. Classes are held from
8:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The schedule includes breakfast, 3 hours of instruction, lunch and
1 hour of Arts or Physical Education activities.

Ms. Powis stated that two additional state legislative grants have been approved. The
first grant is for $10,000 and will be used for auditorium renovations at PS 88. The
second grant is for $2,000 and will be used to conduct a modern dance after school
program at PS 128.

Ms. Powis stated that applications for District 24’s Talented and Gifted program will
close on Friday, December 1, 2007. She informed the public that applications should be
mailed to Cheryl Quatrano, Director of Talented and Gifted no later than December 1,
2006. She further stated that testing will take place during December 2006 and January
2007.

Ms Powis also reminded the audience that high school applications must be submitted to
the middle schools guidance counselors by December 1st.

Ms. Powis closed her report by stating that she was pleased to announce that District 24
will be holding an annual Marine Corps Toys for Tots collection. The toy drive began on
November 20, 2006 and will run through December 14th. Anyone wishing to contribute
unwrapped toys should drop them off at the District 24 office, located at IS 61.
6) Guest Speakers

Mr. Comaianni introduced Mary Leas.

Ms. Leas stated that the School Construction Authority (SCA) is in the third year of the 5
Year Capital Plan. She stated that District 24 is the most overcrowded school district in
NYC; she also stated that 5 new additions are in design as well as PS 245 and PS/IS 260.
She stated that she had attended the meeting to hear comments from the council and to
take questions from the audience. She then reminded the public that the 5 Year Capital
Plan is a living document which is subject to change as the needs of the district changes.

Mr. Dmytro Fedkowskyj stated that this year’s amendments call for more seats for D24
which is a wonderful thing; however Mr. Fedkowskyj inquired as to whether or not they
would be high school or K-8 seats? Ms. Grillo responded that they will be K-8. Mr.
Fedkowskyj then asked that if the DOE does not find the seats fast enough would money
be taken out of the Capital Plan to which Ms. Grimm responded that we have the funding
in the plan for all of the capacity projects. She further stated that the DOE and the SCA
had to make some changes on some other projects but stated that all of the seats will be
build and solicited help from public in finding sites in District 24.

Mr. Nick Comaianni stated that many people come to him with ideas for sites. Mr.
Comaianni asked that if a site is found can money be put into that site once it is approved
so it stays in District 24 to which Ms. Grillo stated that it can. Mr. Comaianni then
inquired about the Metropolitan Avenue site. He stated that D24 was supposed to get two
high schools which would be shared with District 28. He inquired as to the timeline as to
when that site would be complete. Ms. Greenberger stated that she shares the district’s
urgency to move forward with the site. One school will be a 1000 seat locally zoned high
school and one will be a 700 seat district choice 6-12 school. Construction should begin
next summer.

Dan Creighton stated that in the past mini buildings were said to have a 10 year life span.
He inquired as to how it could now be a 20 year life span in the Capital Plan. Ms. Grillo
stated that the goal of this Capital Plan is to replace the mini buildings that are over 20
years old and to eliminate all transportable tailers which house classrooms in NYC.

Marge Kolb commented that discussions of the Metropolitan Avenue site have taken too
long and that the high school overcrowding situation is Queens is criminal. She stated
that students drop out and they get into fights due to overcrowded conditions; she further
stated that for Ms. Grimm to state that the 5 Year Capital Plan is fully funded is not
believable. She went on to give examples of overcrowding in District 24 (trailers at IS
125; Kindergarten busing from PS14 to Fresh Meadows; extremely large class sizes at PS
16; trailers at PS 143, etc) which will not be addressed by the current 5-Year Plan.
Dmytro Fedkowskyj inquired as to when the new capacity seats would become available
to which Ms. Greenberger stated that 3 additions will be opened in 2008 and two will be
open in 2009 (referring to the new additions that will house the new capacity seats). Mr.
Fedkowskyj asked if Ms. Greenberger could identify now which schools will be open
when to which she responded that the SCA would put a list together with those schools
and their anticipated opening dates and send the list to the office.

Mr. Fedkowskyj also inquired if there was any funding for reconstruction or restructuring
at the elementary level to which Ms. Greenberger responded that it was just for the high
school level.

Ms. Kolb stated that the city’s Blue Book’s target capacity for K-3 is 20 students per
classroom, yet the SCA is building a new school where the capacity is computed based
on 25 students per classroom in K-3. Ms. Greenberger stated that the SCA is looking into
the situation and the SCA will research it and get back to the council.

Mr. Fedkowskyj asked what efforts go into reducing construction costs to which Ms.
Greenberger responded that the SCA is evaluating the building and design in order to
reduce costs and stretch the dollar. She further stated that the SCA spends on average
and adjusted for inflation since 2004 is $325.00 per square foot.

The School Construction Authority took questions from the public.

Mr. Comaianni invited Councilman Dennis Gallagher to speak.

Councilman Gallagher stated that we know we are moving ahead and we also know that
by having local schools go K-8 will affect IS 119. It is at that time we will have to meet
with Department of Education officials, the CEC and representatives from IS 119
including the principal. Parents of students in the Beacon program at PS 153 have
suggested that IS 119 become a junior high school Beacon program and these are things
we will look at. There are many things that we could do. The best thing that is
happening right now is that there are many concerned parents who came out tonight.
There is finally money to construct schools in our district. He further stated that parents
should give an opportunity to the DOE as well as the SCA and the CEC to work out all
the details and to come up with solutions. The most important thing we need to know is
that we are moving in the right direction for the first time in a long time.

Mr. Comaianni invited Senator Maltese to speak.

Senator Maltese stated that he wanted to express his appreciation to the parents and to the
council for serving the community and serving it well. The only way we could
accomplish what we are looking to accomplish is to work together. Thus far we’ve been
able to get millions of dollars in operating costs and construction into the Capital Plan.
We need to build these schools and work out any situations like zoning or who the seats
will go to later. He stated that he believed all would work out to the satisfaction of the
parents of D24 because of their concern and dedication. He stated that he is 100% in
favor of all gifted programs and feels that District 24 does not have its fair share of
available gifted and talented programs.

7) Resolutions – None

8) Report of the Committees

Dmytro Fedkowskyj, Chair of the Building, Zoning and Maintenance Committee

stated that a mailing went out to principals, PTA presidents, and custodian engineers
discussing the 5 Year Capital Plan and asks the above mentioned to fill out what they
think needs to be improved in their schools and mail it back to the CEC by December 20th
so that the CEC could draft a report to the SCA by January 15th.

Marge Kolb, Chair of the Curriculum Committee had nothing to report at this time.

Ernest Cury, Chair of the English Language Learners Committee had nothing to
report at this time.

Bill Kregler, Chair of the Special Education Committee had nothing to report at this
time.

9) Old Business

Mr. Fedkowskyj stated that he had received a response from Mr. Richie Scarpa, Director
of Office of Pupil Transportation regarding the busing situation for students living in the
PS 128, PS 49 and IS 119 zones. Mr. Scarpa approved a hazard variance for the parents
who are concerned however the parents received denial letters from the Office of Pupil
Transportation. Mr. Fedkowskyj stated that he is not sure where the breakdown in
communication began but promised to follow up. He asked the parents to go ahead and
complete the hazard variance form and send it to OPT.

10) New Business – None

11) Public Agenda Session – Beacon Parents Presentation in Support of K-8

A number of parents spoke about their desire to have a Gifted and Talented middle
school program.

12) Adjournment

Dmytro Fedkowskyj motioned to adjourn, Dan Creighton seconded the motion. The
meeting was adjourned at 9:45 PM.
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