Walcott statement on CEC elections.
Mona Davids (NYCPA)
http://gothamschools.org/2011/05/04/borough-president-asks-city-to-redo-flawed-parent-elections/#more-58866
“I cannot stress enough the importance of parent involvement in our
schools and the Office for Family Information and Action will take all
necessary steps to ensure that all of our parents have an opportunity to
cast a vote in the CEC elections by May 7th,” the chancellor said in a
statement.
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Borough president asks city to redo “flawed” parent elections
by Anna Phillips
May 4, 2011, 5:14PM
Following complaints from parents about this year’s council elections,
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is calling on the city to
postpone the elections for a second time.
Calling the process “badly flawed,” Stringer said that a series of
mistakes made by the Department of Education’s Office of Family
Information and Action had undermined parents’ confidence in the elections
for members of the Community Education Councils. In a letter sent to
Chancellor Dennis Walcott, Stringer asked that the city redo the
elections.
Walcott responded that the elections would take place, as planned, on May 7.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of parent involvement in our
schools and the Office for Family Information and Action will take all
necessary steps to ensure that all of our parents have an opportunity to
cast a vote in the CEC elections by May 7th,” the chancellor said in a
statement.
Though the parent councils are largely powerless — their only real
function is to re-draw school zone lines — the election snafus have
angered parents who see the councils as one of the few ways they can voice
their opinions on school policy.
OFIA first pushed back the elections when it extended the deadline for
candidates to apply after 500 parents volunteered themselves for 325
positions. More complaints followed when the city posted inaccurate
information about who was eligible to run for the councils on the election
website. In the last few days, the city has faced even more criticism
after it posted the list of candidates online but made the information
password-protected, excluding some parents who didn’t have passwords.
After the New York Post wrote about the lack of public access to the
candidate lists, the city said it would make the lists public today.
In his letter to Walcott, Stringer wrote:
These incidents, which I am hearing are not isolated, may stem from
disorganization. But they are also feeding troubling speculation that
OFIA is intent on removing candidates whose independent voices may not
be closely aligned with DOE views.
In March, OFIA landed in trouble when it was revealed that department
employees had been trying to mobilize parents to attend public meetings
and to sign petitions in support of city political goals.