Finally. This morning I spoke to a friend with a child in special education; she finally heard TODAY – Friday, June 20th – about her child’s middle school placement. Can you believe????

As reported here and elsewhere, the Special Education kids were left hanging for more than two weeks after the general education kids heard about middle school. In past years special education kids always heard at the same time.

The Daily News had the story of this outrage yesterday. Here’s an excerpt.

City special education fifth-graders are still waiting to find out where they’re going to middle school next fall.

It’s
been particularly troublesome for students in inclusion classes, where
general- and special-education students attend class together,
educators said.

"We’ve worked so hard – as have so many schools
– to make sure that our special-needs children are treated equitably,
and this differing timetable undermines that approach," said Park Slope Public School 321 Principal Elizabeth Phillips.

It was the latest complaint about public school admissions in recent weeks. Education Department
officials are already scrambling to fix bungled prekindergarten
placements; middle school parents have charged it took months to learn
where their children would be attending school next year – and some
haven’t yet heard where.

The problem affects city school districts where students choose their middle schools.

City Education Department spokesman Andy Jacob said the special-education placement delay wasn’t because of an oversight, adding letters will go out next week.

"We want to make sure the schools special education students are assigned to can meet their needs," said Jacob.

But
School District 15 officials said in past years special-education
students have learned about middle school admissions at the same time
as general education kids.

A friend who’s daughter is a student at Park Slope’s Middle School 51 today had this to say about the incident, which occurred around 12:00 Thursday afternoon.

“I was told by one of the school’s deans that there was a robbery at Commerce Bank (OTBKB note: it was actually Astoria Bank on 10th Street and Fifth Avenue). Two armed robbers ran out of the bank. One got caught near the bank; the other kept running. He opened the money bag and the dye that is packed with the money exploded on him. He kept running.

SWAT teams and helicopters were notified. One member of the SWAT team has a kid at MS 51. He notified the school to go into lock down. Teachers were told to close the classroom doors. The school is saying that the second armed robber was never inside the school.”

Today was the 8th grade graduation. The entire 8th grade, administration and many teachers were at the graduation at the Brooklyn Marriott. My friend, who runs the Old Stone House, got a message from the drama teacher between 12 and 1 warning her that she should lock herself inside The Old Stone House. At the time she was at the Havana Outpost having a celebratory graduation lunch.

At the school, the parents were notified and the kids were sent home. A letter went home informing parents about the incident. It is believed that the school was closed down as a precaution by the SWAT team.

So now we know why there were helicopters flying over Third Street. A routine training exercise, said the operator at the 78th Precinct when I called earlier today. Hah. That’s a line out of Iron Man. I saw the movie.

The real reason: There was a bank robbery at the Astoria Bank at Fifth Avenue and 10th Street. Two bank robbers with guns ran down Fifth. One of them was apprehended. The other ran down further down Fifth Avenue near MS 51, a Park Slope middle school at Fifth Avenue and 6th Street. It is not clear whether the suspect was in the school or not. The school is saying that the bank robber never entered the building. The school was put into lock down as a precautionary measure by a Swat team. Here’s a report from a Fourth Street resident:

According to reports, two bank robbers ran from the cops after robbing the Astoria bank on 10th Street and Fifth Avenue. They ran right into the school around noon. The police apparently caught one of the two, but the other got away.

An eyewitness told my source the one they caught had at least one gun strapped to his upper body. The school was evacuated…sounds like mayhem, but luckily no one was injured…could have been much, much, much worse.

Also luckily, police and all responders were all over the scene, including helicopters, very quickly, bravo to them all.

I’ve been following the career of Mike Daisey via email and YouTube. I watched a video of Invincible City in which a large group of the audience walked out in protest. You can watch it here.

He was, of course, outraged, and asked if any of those who walked out would like to share their problem with him. The whole episode is an amazing work of improvised reality theater!

Aside from that, he’s been gathering raves all over the country and has been called, “the master storyteller” by the New York Times for his powerful, funny, and explosive monologues.

In this new work, If You See Something Say Something, Daisey explores the secret history of the Department of Homeland Security. With this, he weaves together with the untold story of the father of the neutron bomb–called “the perfect capitalist weapon” for the way it kills civilians while leaving cities and industries intact–and a pilgrimage to the Trinity blast site, where atomic fire rewrote history a half a century ago and ushered in an age of American supremacy.

Sound interesting?

Says the PR blurb: This very prolific theater artist “takes us on journey through the dark heart of America, in search of answers for what it means to be secure, and the price we are willing to pay for it.” Here’s a letter from Mike:

Hello All,

I’m delighted to announce our first national tour–we’ll be performing IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING, a monologue about the secret history of the Department of Homeland Security, what it means to be secure, and the price we are willing to pay for it.

SANTA FE
Lensic Performing Arts Center
June 26th to 28th

WASHINGTON DC
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
July 11th to 20th

PORTLAND, OR
Time-Based Art Festival
September 11th to 14th

MAINE
Colby College
October 3rd

CHICAGO
Museum of Contemporary Art
October 10th to 12th

NEW YORK
The Public Theater
October 15th to November 30th

We’re ecstatic to birth the monologue next week in Santa Fe, where it will be seen by many who know intimately the work of the Los Alamos weapons labs, and then travel to DC so that those who run the Department of Homeland Security can have it in their backyard. After stops in the Northwest, my alma mater, and Chicago, we’ll end the tour with a full production at the Public Theater

I got this note from on OTBKB reader and was just horrified by this story. It’s really so much more than a dumb prank. What a bunch of idiotic kids!

I’ve been reading OTBKB for a while now, and I love it! I thought you might be interested in this newsbite, which I just saw on Gothamist about the School For Global Studies in Boerum Hill:
I thought it might be the kind of thing you’d possibly want to report on….maybe…
anyway, please keep up one of my favorite city-related blogs!

Bring a picnic and something comfortable to sit on. It’s time for opera in Prospect Park!

Don’t miss the operatic event of the summer. This Friday, June 20, at 8pm, two of opera’s biggest stars, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, perform in a special one-night-only event in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Ion Marin conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a program of favorite arias and duets.

Location
The stage will be located near the baseball fields of the Long Meadow. The park entrance at 9th Street and Prospect Park West and the one at the Bartel-Pritchard Circle (15th Street and Prospect Park West) are the closest to the concert. Visit the Prospect Park website for more park information: www.prospectpark.org.
To make advance arrangements for wheelchair locations, please call Hospital Audiences, Inc. at 212-575-7660

An now for something a little different. Come on out to Staten Island on Saturday for Art by the Ferry.

Marian Fontana’s mom is organizing an ambitious two-weekend festival, called Art by the Ferry–three days of free exhibitions and performances, including art, music, dance, spoken word, and performance in the historic St. George and Stapleton neighborhoods of Staten Island–just a 27-minute ferry ride from downtown Manhattan!

I will bringing a little bit of Brooklyn to the St. George Library at 3:45. Apparently, it’s a great library and it’s right near the ferry.

At The Staten Island Creative Community, the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI), and ArtLab are joining together with local businesses to celebrate arts and culture in Staten Island with the Art by the Ferry Festival on Saturday, June 14; Sunday, June 15; and Saturday, June 21.

The Art by the Ferry Festival will take place over the course of two weekends and will feature art works and events in spaces provided by the St. George Theatre, the St. George Library, and two local real estate companies—Gateway Arms Realty Corp. and Casandra Properties. Venues are both indoor and outdoor, and everything is completely free!

Go here to see the schedule

Here’s a list of the locations that are hosting events on Saturday:

The Fishs Eddy building on 139 Bay Street will house the exhibition “Larger than Life.”

120 Stuyvesant Place will feature 18 group exhibitions including: “Battlespace;” “Bunkin, Tango, Arcia, Grabel;” “The Collagraph Circle;” “Alan, Joanne, Barbara, and Janine;” “Wagner Sculpture Group;” “Creative Photographers’ Guild;” “Unique Art;” “DMBZ Group;” “Bogaert Group;” “ArtLab;” “Staten Island Camera Club;” “ArtLab Printmakers;” “Photographers Group;” “Wagner People;” “McCormack Family;” “Snug Harbor Studio Artists,” “Unaffiliated Group;” and “Independent Artists.”

Arts and crafts will be on display along Bay Street by the ferry.

Taste of Art venues, in restaurants throughout St. George, will feature art, music, and performance!
Beso
Cargo Cafe
Enoteca Maria
Everything Goes Book Cafe and Neighborhood Stage
Healthy Grill
Karl’s Klipper
Ruddy and Dean’s
Tuttoriso

SHOW Gallery at 156 Stuyvesant Place with its inaugural exhibition featuring paintings by Lazarus Nazario and sculptures by Cynthia von Buhler.

The Studio 150 at 150 Bay Street will offer blown glass and glass art

Affordable Local Art with ceramic works by Victoria Larrea-Bellinger; wooden sculptures by Steve Jones and Albin Lohr-Jones; paintings by Andre Wible, Taylor Moore, and Reto de Oaxaca; artwork T-shirts by Robert Civello; clothing designs by Ezair Beausoleil, all priced at $5-$50, at Everything Goes Book Cafe, 208 Bay Street

Gallery 6 featuring the exhibiton “Skin” at 30 Beach Street (in Stapleton)

I called 311 who connected me with the 78th precinct about the helicopter over Third Street. According to the person who answered the phone it’s a routine helicopter training.

"What kind of training?" I said.

"Routine training," he said.

"Who’s training?" I said

"The police. Routine helicopter training." he said. "It should be over soon. Nothing to worry about."

Weird. Is that like Driver’s Ed for helicopter pilots? Routine training? They’re just not telling.

There’s going to be a new downtown Brooklyn TKTS booth opening on Thursday July 10th bringing discount tickets for Broadway, Off Broadway, Dance, Music, and Brooklyn performing arts events at Metrotech Center.

Location for the new Theater Development Fund TKTS booth: 1 Metrotech Center at the Corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue.

There used to be one at Borough Hall but it’s not there anymore. This is great news for Brooklyn theater goers. Let’s get tix for In The Heights, Passing Strange, South Pacific, August: Osage County…

Wow. There’s actually stuff on B’way I really want to see. I want to take my daughter to A Chorus Line…

Here it is, as promised, the first Sexy Moms event at Babeland, Park Slope’s sex toys for women shop at 462 Bergen Street (near Flatbush Avenue) in Park Slope.

Tuesday, June 24, 7-8:30 pm, free Join Babeland Co-Founder and Park Slope mom, Claire Cavanah, as she kicks off our “Sexy Moms Series”. Each month Babeland will host a night for moms looking to put the zing back in their sex lives. We’ll discuss issues relating to desire, body image, making time for sex, and what it means to be a sex-positive family.

This month’s event features Esther Blum, a Registered Dietitian and Holistic Nutritionist practicing in New York City. Esther authored Eat, Drink and Be Gorgeous: A Nutritionist’s Guide to Living Well While Living It Up (Chronicle Books, 2007) and will be sharing information on which foods and nutrients can help boost your sex drive and balance your hormones. Refreshments served.

Yesterday I tried to catch Christine Quinn’s press conference at Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church Food Pantry. Unfortunately I left the apartment late and made the mistake of taking a car service.

The driver took a very roundabout route and I got there very late. Once inside I asked a Food Pantry volunteer if there were any politicians around.

“Downstairs,” he said.

I went downstairs and asked if the press conference was still going on. There were some high school kids in yellow food pantry t-shirts volunteering there.

“Press conference? Hmmmm. Downstairs,” one of them said.

I went farther downstairs and didn’t see anything. Finally, I decided that I’d missed it. Plus there weren’t any official looking cars outside.

I’m guessing they all went over to IKEA for the big grand opening.

I’m sorry I missed the event. There are 200,000 households in Brooklyn who qualify for Food Stamps but are not enrolled. This is federal money that is going to waste. The City Council wants to remedy this problem and get the Food Stamps to people who really need them. In these tough economic times that sounds like a great idea.

At the press conference that I missed, they announced the the completion and the findings of the Brooklyn borough Medicaid Food Stamp data match, an initiative that identified 211,801 Brooklyn households currently enrolled in Medicaid who may be qualified for the food stamp program, but are not enrolled.

In these tough times, it sounded like a tiny ray of help and hope for people who are struggling to pay for groceries. I was curious how they’re going to contact these households. It could be a touchy thing. Some people are proud. Some people don’t want handouts, Some just don’t know and could use the help and would be glad to get it.

I’m curious how all this will be ironed out.

For an article for Time Out Kids, a writer is looking for parents to share their experiences and opinions. Let it loose.

What are the main challenges? How do you prepare your kids, what are the
rules while dining and what do you do when misbehaving starts? Do you tend to go out early or to certain kinds of restaurants?

Are you sick of kid-friendly places and long for fine dining? Do you find waitstaff
generally helpful with small requests like bottle warming? I can be reached at nckear at gmail.com.

Thanks!

Nicole Caccavo Kear

I know you’ve heard that one before but…

I heard a rumor yesterday that the Department of Education finally sent out acceptance letters to the parents of students in Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) classrooms on Tuesday.

This program helps bright children who have different learning styles be successful. This can be seen in report cards, test scores and other school activities. Two teachers, working together, teach and instill in their general education students and special education students that everyone can achieve and contribute as much as the brightest students to the whole.

Parents of children in CTT have been waiting to hear about middle schools. I am told that there are not enough CTT seats in District 15 and citywide and that’s part of the problem.

Hopefully the letters went out or the elementary guidance counselors get the information soon. It doesn’t seem fair that these kids have to wait when just about all the general education students have already been told.

Le Taq is the new tequila bar (with a restaurant in the back) next door to La Taqueria, the longtime burrito place on Seventh Avenue near Berkeley.

Le Taq is owned by Marty Modina, the guy who brought the California burrito to Park Slope first at La Taqueria on Seventh Avenue (pictured) and Rachel’s on Fifth Avenue. About these businesses: We love the murals, we love the prices, and we love Marty’s vintage red pick up truck parked outside.

Le Taq has a huge selection of tequila, as well as a big menu of cocktails and wine. I had a drink called, Rachel’s, a really sweet purple/pink punch with, I guess, tequila. Whoa, was that strong.

The chips and salsa were delicious.

People were eating at tables in the back. With a new bar, nice lighting, big Mexican murals on the wall and a dining room in the back, Le Taq is set to be a real hit on Seventh Avenue just a few doors from Santa Fe.

Some more outrageous racial humor from The Blog That Must Not Be Named. This time BN writes funny about the IKEA opening in Red Hook.

Gawker gawked about this post on Tuesday. I’m sure there were plenty of comments.

The first-ever IKEA store is opening in the borough of Brooklyn tomorrow, a development which has the local media all atwitter. Close to 40 people have lined up for the chance to be the first ones in the rapidly gentrifying Red Hook neighborhood to buy mass-produced Swedish furniture. To celebrate the occasion, the gruff and hilarious Park Slope guy who goes by the name of Blognigger (just to make you uncomfortable) has posted his own Onion-esque take: “Red Hook Blacks Line Up to Rob First 100 IKEA Customers.” But he doesn’t forget to make the scheduled robberies a multicultural endeavor for the Curbed.com-reading gentrifiers themselves, too

Slow news week and the IKEA opening is the talk of the town.

Racked,is blogging non-stop blogging about the IKEA line-up reports that BP Marty Markowitz came by after 9 p.m. on Tuesday night to hand out sandwiches to those who have lined up for free couches and chairs.

Isn’t this whole IKEA thing fun?

By the time I wake up they should begin sawing the log, IKEA’s version of a ribbon cutting. It’s a Swedish tradition though the Daily News via Gowanus Lounge begs to differ.

“This isn’t a Swedish thing, it’s an Ikea thing,” sniffed Ortigueira, who said that just like in the States, Swedish politicians love cutting ribbons, not logs. “I’m sure the founder has a good reason, but it’s not a Swedish thing.”

You gotta catch the Brooklyn Paper’s extensive video coverage of the line up at IKEA for free couches and armchairs.

People have been camping out since Monday for the Wednesday morning opening. It should be quite festive on Wednesday morning starting at 6 a.m.

The first 35 people will be getting a free couch. The first 100 will get a Pooang chair. Check out Brit in Brooklyn’s photos of this wild scene.

Come one, come all. The Brooklyn Blogade is coming to town on June 22 and I hope you’ll join us this Sunday at noon. Joyce at Bad Girl Blog had this on her blog:

The Blogade is a monthly meet and greet for bloggers, blog
readers, and people who are thinking about becoming bloggers. It’s a
great opportunity to network and to learn a thing or two about
blogging. It’s also a great way to learn about new blogs

Photo-tastic Adrian Kinloch of Brit in Brooklyn is hosting this month’s blogade so naturally the emphasis will be on photoblogging. Anyone who regularly uses images should find it useful and fun.

Brooklyn Blogade: Picture This
Sunday, June 22, Noon
Root Hill Cafe
4th Avenue and Carroll, Park Slope, Brooklyn
RSVP to: ak@adriankinloch.net

If you are thinking of starting a blog you’ll be in great company as
there’ll be bloggers around who’ll be happy to chat with you about
setting something up. We’ll also talk about copyright, fair use and
backing up your work.

And that’s not all! We’ll also do our regular shout-out, where everyone gets to talk a bit about their blog. And we’ll all have a chance after the main event to share, gripe, praise, and otherwise gossip and moan about how the blogosphere’s growing importance throughout the universe.

Sustainable Flatbush reports that Mayor Bloomberg, Lance Armstrong and David Byrne were on hand at the news conference to announce Summer Streets NYC. Here’s the press release via Streetsblog:

“We anticipate that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors will take advantage of streets temporarily opened for recreation,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We hope the Summer Streets experiment will become as much a part of the New York experience as strolling the Coney Island boardwalk, participating in the 5-borough bike tour, or listening to the Philharmonic in the park.” (NYC press release, via Streetsblog)

And from the New York Times:

Emulating similar experiments in Paris, London, and Bogotá, Colombia, New York City will close off to traffic a 6.9-mile route from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street on three consecutive Saturdays, giving New Yorkers to a chance to explore and enjoy “car-free recreation corridors” — well, for six hours a stretch, at least. (NY Times)

What about Brooklyn? I know there was an attempt to close off Seventh Avenue to traffic for a few weekends this summer. Not sure if anything came of that yet. Sure sounds like a great idea to me.