More controversy for the Kahlil Gibran International Academy. This time it’s not about the principal. But the school is in search of a new home. Again.
A few months ago I heard on a school tour that the school was definitely moving out of the Dean Street building, which also houses the Math and Science Exploratory School, a middle school, and the Brooklyn High School for the Arts.
Now they are talking about PS 287 in Ft. Greene and parents there aren’t happy about it. It’s deja vu all over again: who can forget the uproar caused by parents when the school was set to move in PS 282 in Park Slope.
At
a meeting with education officials Tuesday night, parents from PS287
were uneasy about older students moving into the building used by their
younger kids. The following is an excerpt from the NY Daily News article:
"It’s a bad idea altogether," said PTA President Edgardo Rivera. "We want the elementary school to stay an elementary school."
"I’m adamantly opposed to its being in this building," said Ed Brown, president of the Ingersoll Parents Association.
Less
than a year old, the school has been mired in controversy since its
inception, with its founding principal stepping down last summer, then
suing the city to get her job back.
I think we all owe saintmarks’soul and his brethren a debt of gratitude. While we all sat around idly watching the values of our homes increase fifteen fold, this selfless martyr – nay, settler, if you will – turned out those dreadful ghetto people and single-handedly rid our fair shtetl of crime, discontent and general malaise. I say we erect a monument in his honour – how about a four-story bronze statue of this groyse macher with a huge can of anti-schvartse spray in his right hand, his left arm shielding his family from these peygerns – we can call him The Exterminator…
What with all your nimby whinging and sanctimony, it seems to me the only thing shorter than your shmeckl is your memory – it wasn’t all that long ago that you and yours were on the other end of the ethnic cleansing broom – how quickly we forget…
No matter where Khalil Gibran end up finding a home, I beseech you to keep espousing these enlightened ideas, especially around your children – schmendricks like you are responsible for more jungle fever than the g_d damned tse-tse fly (where do you think my black ass learned all this Yiddish?)… By the way – be sure to say hi to your daughters for me…
I have to correct my evaluation of 287 – I had it confused with another neighborhood school on Adelphi between Myrtle and Park. According to Inside Schools 287 has been able to attract a lot of foundation support, despite the fact that its biggest challenge is a dwindling population. the review goes on to say that the elementary program co-exists comfortably with a high school program. So I guess I don’t understand (altho I do!) all the complaints about mixing age groups…
Saintmarks’soul – at least you don’t cloak your NIMBY’ism. I guess if you were talking about, oh, a methadone clinic or a detention facility I could begin to understand; this is a school, for god’s sake. That wouldn’t change the overt racism of your comment that the school should be sent to East New York. Would you be happier that 287 is in a less gentirifed part of Fort Greene, and thus this program will be away from white people? They vehement and racist responses to it are clear indications to me that it will serve a purpose if well-run. I really tire of the need to crush any institution or opinion which seems to be somewhat open to exploring cultures outside of the Euro-centric tradition. And the only scandal involving the principal was that she spoke not as carefully as she should have and then allowed herself to be swift-boated by the anti-Palestinian lobby. truth is that schools always complain about new programs entering “their” building, even when it is grossly under-utilized. PS 287 is a dreadful school, and should probably be shut down anyway.
Why does the city find it so necessary to attempt to assimilate clearly unwelcome institutions into neighborhoods that have fought long and hard to pull themselves up from the mire of crime, discontent and general malaise?! Ft. Greene and Park Slope were once upon a time “last resort” neighborhoods. The folks who took a chance, bought property in the area and put their lives and that of their families on the line- they absolutely deserve better. No offense to anyone reading this blog, but put the academy somewhere where, perhaps, less objections (deservedly so!) are bound to spring up. KAHLIL GIBRAN’S EAST NEW YORK ACADEMY-it’s got a nice ring to it, eh?. The point is, all those opposed to having their neighborhoods and schools invaded by an unnecessary and unwelcome outside “forces” have every reason to be-and the city knows it. Better yet, scrap the whole plan altogether. The “academy’s” pathetically public failure as evidenced by the original “head master” scandal should serve as a clear indicator that the project never should have gotten off the ground in the first place.
Everyone has experienced the unsettling mystery of deja vu that flash of memory when you meet someone new you feel you’ve known all your life or recognize a place even though you’ve never been there before. But what if the feelings were actually warnings sent from the past or clues to the future It is dj vu that unexpectedly guides ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) through an investigation into a shattering crime. Called in to recover evidence after a bomb sets off a cataclysmic explosion on a New Orleans Ferry, bending race to save hundreds of innocent people. http://www.atheist.co.za/