At the same time as our CEC meeting of June 21, at which the Superintendent attributed the delays in committing to Pre-K to “complexities” (presented by private Community Based Organization Pre-K programs (despite them not being part of the Grant’s scope and our never receiving an answer to our January requests to the Office of Student Enrollment to detail these claimed issues)), the Mayor conducted a Town Hall in Chinatown.  After the Mayor departed his Townhall to take phone calls relating to the possible expiration of Mayoral Control (which would be good),

Mayoral Control Slides_Page_2

Naomi Pena had the opportunity to question Dorita Gibson, the Senior Deputy Chancellor and the Chancellor’s second in command.  Senior Deputy Chancellor Gibson was previously the Deputy Chancellor for Equity and Access.

Naomi asked the Senior Deputy Chancellor (twice) if they (DOE) were committed to Controlled Choice in D1.  The Senior Deputy Chancellor said she was.  Here is the video link.  We will update this post with a transcript when available.

Senior Deputy Chancellor Gibson:  “We want you at the table to make this work for us.

Does the commitment by this second-most-senior DOE official include Pre-K?  Our highly segregated Pre-Kindergarten programs have always been part of the SIPP grant’s agreed upon scope, born out of a community vision for equity.  As a reminder, here is the community vision of controlled choice and a family resource center:

CEC 16-17 Status Report-2

But the “tier proposal” specifics from April have still not been shared publicly.  Is this, “at the table“?  And if that proposal doesn’t reflect the community’s prior work, what does “at the table” actually mean?

The $500,000 Question_Page_05

We were advised last week that implementation funds (after over a year of delay) are now expected to be released from the State.  But what and how are we “implementing”?  What is the plan?

The DOE still has not shared any internal timeline to implement enrollment changes next fall (last promised in April, and previously promised in January after another admission cycle had been missed and we were asked to “reset”).

CEC 16-17 Status Report

We want to be at the table.  Necessary next steps and a timeline below:

CEC 16-17 Status Report-3

CEC 16-17 Status Report-4

Our timeline:

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