Open Thread Wednesday

Does anybody have a report from the front – PS 8?

Simply put – how’s it going?

The Cynthia Nixon op-ed in yesterday’s Times was very sobering reading, i.m.o. Whether you like or respect her, she’s a NYC parent of a public school kid, and I very much doubt that the school in question is severely “under-resourced.”

The comments in the Times mostly heaped abuse on diBlasio and the DOE, so I’ll skip that. School cleanliness – I remember hearing how well the “janitors” make out years ago, and I doubt that that’s changed – was one key issue, but the focus of her hand-wringing was testing or the lack of same.

I’d like to think that a good principal – does that apply to PS8? – could make a world of difference, but voluntary-only testing and even temperature checking [reported] sure makes it sound like a train wreck is coming.

Oh, yes, if anyone wants to report on Heights pre-schools and/or the 3 nearby independents (how they’re doing), I’m all ears.

Brooklyn Women’s Exchange now has an online shop:

https://brooklyn-womens-exchange.myshopify.com/

Just for the record, Trish Peterson is a good principal.

Court Street in 1925, showing Borough Hall, streetcars and tracks:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10f35025da128dc21e0add0a039c5dbc3af3a98d66c111f1053c79834ac1c0c7.png

I’ve seen census workers visiting brownstones. After overhearing one conversation where the resident was informing the worker that there is no basement apartment anymore, my pet theory is some conversions to single-family has thrown off their estimates.

NOTE: These are my personal opinions and do not represent the blog as a whole. The times has good education reporting but I suggest you also follow the education reporting in Chalkbeat and on WNYC. You’ll get a well rounded picture from that. The bottom line is DeBlahBlahBlah and Carranza should have made a decision MUCH earlier in the summer (Like LA and Chicago) and stuck to it. Then they would have had many, many weeks to focus on their plan, and be careful and deliberate about its execution. Instead of the fire drill they put families, teachers and administrators through here in NYC. And yes, Trish Peterson is an EXCELLENT Principal, a teacher’s principal. She’s fair, has high standards and is a problem solver. PS8 also has tons and tons of parent support both human and financial resources. It’s the schools in the rest of District 13 that I encourage parents to be concerned about. PS8 is doing a school supply drive for PS307 and encouraging families who received the debit card with the equivalent of $420 of food stamps to donate that amount to D13 directly.

i hear ya. 2 times at the dentist this morning. it is a surprisingly contentious issue for people. with a few exceptions it isn’t actually mandated – childcare being one of those exceptions.

I do not pretend to know anything about what is happening with regard to school openings but I think the teachers union had a great deal to say regarding additional revisions to any plan put forth by DeBlasio/Carranza. If union officials were not included in the initial school opening task force then shame on DeBlasio.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielcassady/2020/09/01/teachers-union-threatened-to-strike-convinced-nyc-to-delay-school-reopening/#f7d7ec9472c1

Interesting. Obviously, it can’t hurt. But as a safety measure it has a lot of holes…

Your experience, from “I wanted to say…” through “…let it ride” is something I resonate with almost hourly.

https://twitter.com/elizashapiro/status/1306598905396764673

I’ve still got Bill Thompson T-shirts over the seats of my ugly, oversized, pollution spewing vehicle! If only…

Exactly! Or sometimes you’ll see two people walking down the street talking, one with a mask on and one without. Are they hedging their bets? Conducting a weird science experiment?

I’ve always wondered about the t-shirts over seats in cars thing. What’s the reason for that?

Retail apocalypse continues: Starbucks Fulton Landing is closing next week.