My Sidewalk Chalk read Brownstoner’s interview with School’s Chancellor Joel Klein and now she’s fighting mad and grinding her teeth. Here’s an excerpt from her blog:
"Read the interview with a #2 pencil in your teeth to prevent dental abrasion.
Joel
says, "The current Five-Year Capital Plan, which allocates funding for
school construction projects, does not currently include new building
construction in district 13 because district 13 overall is enrolled
below the total district-wide capacity, even taking into account
additional planned residential units. That said, there are some
individual district 13 schools whose enrollment is over capacity. In
the next Five-Year Plan, which we will put out in November and which
begins in July 2009, we plan to look at the potential need for school
construction based on demographic patterns within districts and the
accessibility of existing schools. This will be a first: we haven’t
previously drilled down below the district level."
More
teeth references! Drill Joel, DRILL. The whole story is in the
demographic patterns not within the weirdly shaped District numbers as
a whole. Being in a school where the DOE determined "capacity" was like
watching an exercise in Alice in Wonderland logic. They go by the "Blue
Book" instead of by the reality."