Wednesday Links
P.S. 29 PTA Treasurer Indicted in Theft of $100,000 [NY Times] Federal Foreclosure Aid Fell Short, and Is Fading [NY Times] Case-Shiller: Housing Market Chilly as Spring Arrives [WSJ] Forest City Ratner Sells Shopping-Center Stake [WSJ] Bay Ridge Memorial Day Parade Shortened [NY Daily News] Burg’s Finger Building Getting New Agent, Name [Crain’s] Markowitz: Keep…
P.S. 29 PTA Treasurer Indicted in Theft of $100,000 [NY Times]
Federal Foreclosure Aid Fell Short, and Is Fading [NY Times]
Case-Shiller: Housing Market Chilly as Spring Arrives [WSJ]
Forest City Ratner Sells Shopping-Center Stake [WSJ]
Bay Ridge Memorial Day Parade Shortened [NY Daily News]
Burg’s Finger Building Getting New Agent, Name [Crain’s]
Markowitz: Keep Cars in Prospect Park! [Gothamist]
Video and Analysis of Night Bazaar Meeting [NYS]
Brian Lehrer Show Looks at Atlantic Yards [AY Report]
Two Slope Churches Merging [BK Paper]
The Edge Close to 50% Sold [Eagle]
The Brooklyn News of 1884 [Lost City]
While the scale of this monetary “diversion” may be striking, having worked in the school system over decades, mostly in poor districts, I saw lots of instances of disappearing funds. There were PTA class picture and candy sale monies that went missing annually. In one high school I knew, senior dues money kept being “stolen” and still the senior class advisor retained her job year after year. I’m sure there must have been smaller sums diverted after cake sales and the like. I am positive that I did not work in the only NYC schools in which such events occurred.
Whether italiana71 is correct in saying that PTA and other unequal funding makes letter grading of city schools unfair, I know that richer school communities are able to provide a slew of benefits, smaller and larger, that poorer schools just don’t have. The accuracy of the grading system, though, is suspect for a variety of reasons, however.
@italiana71 Please don’t believe everything you read. That didn’t happen at PS29, believe me. The parent community at the school is very diverse, and while some may be able to contribute generously, by no means are all parents able to contribute at that level. The media is excellent at painting things with a broad brush (to be polite). What any PTA needs is as much as, or more than, money are volunteers to keep things running.
P.S.29-
They also have fundraisers like the Gene Ween (of Ween) band play there, as well as many other creative benefits. PTA’s have the ability to do alot, its a shame that money got swiped. I went there in the 70’s when we had the same text books passed down for years from class to class, wonder if thats still going on.
Italiana, I am no fan of the DOE grading system, but in fact it does take socioeconomics into account. Each school is compared to a “peer” school whose population has a similar mix of free and paid lunch students attending.
I don’t know how much of PS 29’s PTA money is pass-through for the after-school program, but probably more than 50%. Still, it’s a rich PTA.
PTAs and similar volunteer organizations have notoriously poor financial oversight. Free, competent financial management is hard to come by.
neilw, I’m glad you pointed that out. It’s definitely misleading to say a school “raised” $500,000 when most of the money comes from afterschool program fees which are immediately spent to pay for the costs of the program. Many schools (in far less affluent neighborhoods, too) offer afterschool programs but instead of being run by the PTA they are run by a third party organization that charges parents fees but keeps the profit themselves. PS 29 does raise alot of money, but not this much, and it’s great that any profits from the after school program stay in the school.
BTW, I think its great that this school can pull is resources together to get programs like this. I wish every school could.
My point is when assigning letter grades to schools, the city should take into account the money that the PTA is getting.
I love my school and its programs but we don’t come from an environment where, and I quote, “when the parents found out that the budget was cut $900 per student, they took out the check books and each wrote a check for $1000.” (NYT).
We come from a district where some parents question $7 dollars needed to go on a trip to the Aquarium.
Hey I love a good joke to break up the banter!
italiana71, sorry, I just couldn’t resist
🙂
Biff, Spelling is not my forte.