NYC parents blast education depart. election for schools panel, saying it disenfranchised voters

New York City parents are accusing the Department of Education of disenfranchising voters in an election of new borough-based family representatives to the city’s education oversight panel, the Daily News has learned.

When the state passed a two-year extension of mayoral control over the city schools last summer, lawmakers added five new positions to represent parents from each borough and serve as a check on the mayor. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill just minutes before it would expire, with an amendment to push back changes to the Panel for Educational Policy until January.

The education department held the election Tuesday with little notice via email, according to parents — who said standard practice is to contact families in advance through multiple mediums, including advertisements, mail, social media, phone calls and text messages.

“This is not parents’ voice. This is ignoring the parents’ voice,” said Rosa Diaz, who sat on the nominating committee and presides over Community Education Council 4 in Manhattan, where just three of six school districts voted. “I thought they wanted to hear what I think, that they wanted this to be a fair election. This feels like an unfair process.”

The Tweed Courthouse, headquarters of New York City Department of Education on Chambers St. in Manhattan.

New panel members were announced Friday, just hours before schools closed for winter break. No members were elected for Staten Island, due to lack of candidates, emails show.

The law to extend mayoral control passed the state legislature in June, but the city didn’t announce a nominating committee until the first week of November, emails show.

The application was slated to run for less than two weeks — but just days before its closure, only three parent leaders registered, according to NeQuean McLean, who sat on the committee for Brooklyn.

As a result, the city extended the deadline until Thanksgiving, and the nominating committee selected finalists this month. The education department scheduled a candidate forum for mid-December, but delays to informing 32 parent-elected district representatives, who preside over local education councils and would vote on behalf of their neighborhoods, led them to push it back to the night before the election, members and emails said.

Parents had one day to cast their ballots electronically, before some voters said they had access to the recorded forum. Close to 19% of school districts didn’t vote, according to the city. That includes education council presidents who had technology trouble, didn’t see the email about the election, and one parent who had a death in the family, sent in a proxy and was shut out from voting.

“It didn’t matter to me who got on (the panel),” said McLean, also the president of Community Education Council 16 in Brooklyn, who penned a letter to the department before results were announced. “It matters to me that folks’ right to vote was taken away from them.”

McLean also blasted the lack of representation for families from Staten Island.

“You’re telling me there was not one parent on Staten Island being interested on the PEP? No, the DOE didn’t do their due diligence of getting this out there.”

The members appointed to the panel out of 40 candidates have long track-records advocating for the public schools.

Vice-president Tom Sheppard, who represented parents citywide before the board’s redesign, was widely anticipated to be elected again to rep families in his home borough of the Bronx.

“I am concerned that an unnecessarily rushed process disenfranchised several CEC Presidents,” Sheppard said. “It’s my my hope that the DOE can develop this process… before the next election cycle to prevent a repeat of the issues that presented themselves during this cycle.”

The other reps are Jessamyn Lee, a former member of Community Education Council 22, in Brooklyn; Naveed Hasan, a member of Community Education Council 3, in Manhattan; and Effie Zakry, a vice president of the Citywide Council on High Schools, in Queens.

“It was totally botched,” said Sanayi Beckles-Canton, a finalist to represent parents in Manhattan but wasn’t elected, who is challenging the vote.

“I have a problem with people being maneuvered out of their vote and parents’ votes being suppressed,” she added. “If officials are going to give mayoral control, they need to make sure the process they made for parents to have a voice is a real process.”

The education department told The News that elections were run in accordance with city and state law.

“Family engagement and voice are critically important to this administration,” said Nathaniel Styer, a DOE spokesman. “In response to parent feedback, we extended the timeline. We fully intended to solicit and incorporate parent feedback on this process prior to the next round of elections in the spring.”

Content Source

California Press News – Latest News:
Los Angeles Local News || Bay Area Local News || California News || Lifestyle News || National news || Travel News || Health News

Related Articles

Back to top button