Grievances Written By Parents are Garbage: the Story of La Guardia High School

I, former Vice President of the La Guardia High School PA, provide the grievance below in order to show how the Department of Education in New York City provides no respite from problems. The NYC DOE, and in particular Chancellor Joel Klein and his Chief Counsel Chad Vignola answered the grievance more than 2 weeks after the deadline, then dismissed all claims as if they were the defendant, judge and jury, which they are. There is no accountability for anything within the DOE, because they answer to no one except themselves. Therefore, whatever they say becomes the Truth, and whoever says otherwise becomes a false witness.

The E-Accountability Foundation
New York, NY 10021

Chancellor Joel Klein August 5, 2003
New York City Department of Education

RE: GRIEVANCE AGAINST LA GUARDIA HIGH SCHOOL PA AND SLT
ELECTIONS HELD ON MAY 6, 2003

Dear Chancellor Klein:

This email requires your earliest response, for publication on the ParentAdvocates.org website under the heading "Chancellor Klein and the Implementation of the Policy of Parent Involvement in NYC Public Schools." We have followed the A-660s and the process outlined therein concerning Grievances, and we respectfully question the validity of the process, due to the fact that the grievance we filed against the La Guardia High School elections held last spring has, to date not been resolved, and you, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, have now not complied with your own regulations.
As you know, The E-Accountability Foundation has supported you in your reform of our public schools in New York City. We have researched the implementation of Department of Education policy for the past year, and we have deferred judgement of any kind until we could see the new structure in place, hoping that indeed we would see a new, transparent, accountable system with you, an esteemed lawyer, at its' helm. We are non-partisan, we have no political agenda to go after anyone, and we simply want to expose wrong-doing – we mean non-compliance with the rules, regulations and laws outlined in New York State Education Law, School Leadership Team regulations, and the A-660s – in order to make you and all public servants accountable for your and their actions. We, involved parents, teachers, administrators, fed up with the current system and talking about what needs to be changed, are already in State and Federal Court. More lawsuits are on the way, thus the troubling questions we have and will continue to ask will, we believe, indeed be answered albeit in a forum we would not pick unless forced to. We have no desire to start or pursue legal action, but it is an unfortunate reality that misinformation, misallocation of services and resources, and slanderous/libelous statements are being made by your personnel against parents, and this must stop. Those already compromised by your organization must get relief, as you, a lawyer, and I, a journalist and paralegal/advocate are aware.
Since we started looking into situations involving parents and DOE personnel we have been given information outlining missing Title 1 money from Manhattan High Schools under Superintendant Sawyer, grievances never answered in Districts 8, 11, and 3, Doreen Conwell's inappropriate actions concerning the Martin Luther King Jr. High School PA, and we have spent two days talking with Kevin Clement, who used to work with Diana Lam in Providence Rhode Island. We asked questions about the investigation into the dumping of High School records onto the street at Amsterdam and 65th Street in March, 2002, and we have asked why even Stuyvesant High School has pushed-out special education children after illegally de-certifying them. We are left with unanswered and troubling questions, as people in your organization have, to date, refused to reply to our always respectful questions. We will offer the public this information on ParentAdvocates.org, and perhaps the publicity surrounding the serious and unanswered questions will bring resolution or, at least, some answers. We are presenting the La Guardia High School Grievance as an example of your interest in having parents involved in the school their child or children attend – or, alternatively, you are not interested in this - as the bottom line at La Guardia is, we allege, that there is no parent involvement outside of a small select group.
The Grievance we filed details the fact that there have been no elections, up until The-E-Accountability Foundation started working to change the Bylaws, for the PA Executive Board and SLT members at La Guardia High School. The election process was not even included in the Bylaws. I, as 1st Vice-President of the PA for the 2002-2003 school year, documented this fact as well as the appointment of officers, and statements by Charles Thompson, PA Co-President, that "this is the way La Guardia High School works". Mr. Sawyer and Doreen Conwell never did anything to bring the La Guardia PA Bylaws into compliance with the Regulations, and Doreen did speak to me in an inappropriate way for making this information available to the parents at La Guardia. Charles and several other members of the PA Executive Board, SLT, and La Guardia Administration inappropriately verbally attacked me at PA meetings for trying to change the Bylaws to comply with the A-660s, and for this reason the Grievance has only my signature on it although many parents are horrified by his actions. He touted his personal friendship with Mr. Sawyer all year, and was indeed the guest of honor at Mr. Sawyer's going-away party held on June 13, 2003. Mr. Sawyer met with me, Charles, Co-President Jane Lewis, Mr. Mike Racanelli, and Doreen Conwell in June, and I told him that there were no notices sent out for the elections of May 6, 2003 at La Guardia. Charles and Jane never said, to their credit, that there were. Jane, at this meeting, told Mr. Sawyer that indeed there were NO notices mailed out at all. But Doreen said that there were, and Mr. Sawyer immediately said that he would believe Doreen over me, Charles, and Jane. I then asked Doreen to give me a copy of the notices, and I gave her two days to supply me with them. She never did. I know how easy it is to print out a flyer and say that this was given to all parents before the elections, but no one has given us any flyers about the elections to date...because there were none. An election that is not noticed to all parents is not a valid election, therefore I am asking that you call for a new election in October, after proper notices have been mailed out, bios of parents running have been sent, and proper procedures have been followed.
I met with Kim Bruno, Principal of La Guardia High School on July 23, 2003 about the Grievance, as required in the A-660s. She told E-Accountability that she did not want to ever hear another word about the PA or SLT Bylaws, there is nothing she can do with anything the PA or SLT members do because Mr. Sawyer denied the Grievance and therefore our request to invalidate the elections was a moot point. She added, "What are the A-660s, or Chancellor's Regulations anyway? I've never heard of them."We then called Lucille Swarns' office several times, and finally reached her on Thursday, July 31, 2003. She told me that she had nothing to do with PAs, and she was only instructional support. Ms. Swarns suggested that I speak with Ms.Renscher, Region 10 Parent Coordinator, Victor Rodriguez, or Jean Desravines. I called Ms. Renscher on Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, but her message machine was full, so no one could leave any messages. Jean Desravines never has returned my call, and I spoke with Mr. Rodriguez, who told me that he had no idea what to do and would get back to me.
However, it is you, Chancellor, who is accountable under the current Chancellor's Regulations A-660 dated 11/14/02. We request your response immediately, so that we may post your decision on the website for all parents to see. We also want to inform you that one of the parents who is still on the Executive Board, was one of the parents who told parents to go away and never come back, and is also on the SLT which closed its' doors to any attendance by non-members, has just been hired as the La Guardia High School Parent Coordinator. Her position on the PA Executive Board will be vacated now, as will her place on the SLT. Do you support the current PA, which we are alleging were self-appointed, as they choose new parents for these two positions from their already assembled small group? This increases the possibility that the current PA and SLT members of La Guardia High School are not interested in involvement of all parents at the school .
Are you?

Respectfully,


Betsy Combier
Cc: Ms. Lucille Swarns
Ms. Kim Bruno
Mr. Victor Rodriguez
Mr. Jean Desravines


The E-Accountability Foundation
Betsy Combier, President

ACCOUNTABILITY, TRANSPARENCY,
AND PARENT INVOLVEMENT AT
LA GUARDIA HIGH SCHOOL AND THE MANHATTAN HIGH SCHOOL SUPERINTENDANT'S OFFICE

May 26, 2003
Chancellor Joel Klein
Lucille Swarns

Dear Chancellor Klein and Region 10 Superintendant Lucille Swarns:

We are writing this letter to ask that you take immediate action to rectify non-involvement of parents at La Guardia High School by invalidating the elections for PA Executive Board and SLT members on May 6, 2003 due to the fact that written notices were not sent out to all parents at the school concerning the date and time of the election and the nominees. Therefore, those parents who have been PA and SLT officers gave themselves an unfair and illegal advantage to be elected and we respectfully ask that you do not support this process. We believe that if you allow the elections which took place to stand, you cannot at the same time support "parent involvement", because at La Guardia High School there is wide-spread sabotage of anyone who acts to unseat the "powers that be", and limited communication with parents outside of the "select few" who have set up their positions at the school. We ask that you mandate a new election of officers for the PA Executive Board and School Leadership Team in the Fall, with all the election procedures for the sending out of notices, and all the procedures for the nominating committee clearly followed. We also must bring to your attention the lack of responsiveness and the inappropriate actions taken by members of the Manhattan Superintendant's office which have, we allege, allowed the regulations to be violated for the past two years (perhaps before this as well).
Ms Swarns asked me to wait until next year to grieve this process, and while I am very willing to accept and support what the new Region 10 Superintendant requests if her assessment provides the optimum resolution to the problem at hand, I feel in this case I must file this "online complaint" now for several reasons: (1) the A-660s state that a grievance may be sent to you within 30 days, therefore we are complying with this deadline even though this is not a "normal" grievance for the reasons listed below; (2) we are presenting the information to you because we have already tried to approach Mr. Sawyer, Mr. Racanelli and Ms Doreen Conwell with limited success, and many of the problems outlined below are a direct result of non-responsiveness on their part; (3) I have filed a grievance in the past with very serious questions of process, harassment, and discrimination, as well as fiscal mis-management (Booker T. Washington MS 54, June 25, 2001), with the result that no one at the Board of Education, District 3 School Board, Superintendant's office, NY State Department of Education, NY State Assembly, NY State Senate, UPA, Mayor's office, Public Advocate, NYC Council and NY State Education Department bothered to answer my questions despite being mandated by laws of this city and state to do so. I researched other grievances and found that city-wide, these forms of complaints are being ignored by the BOE and now the DOE. I filed another grievance against DJ Sheppard in the District 3 office for stopping the SLT election last June, illegally, in my opinion, and against Elliott Levy for holding back the return of our PTA check from Barnes & Noble for $13,783.77 and I have, as yet, heard nothing in response about that. In addition, I have been slandered, harassed, and threatened, and my children have been hurt physically, emotionally and academically; (4) I and all the other parents I have spoken to believe, as a result, that grievances as outlined in the A-660s are useless. We are, therefore, thinking "outside the box" and have designed a new, "online" complaint, which this letter is, to provide you with information about a problem which you can, in your positions as Chancellor and Region 10 Superintendant, "fix". Your actions one way or another will be posted on websites concerned with your ability to support what you say you believe in. This is, in other words, accountability, transparency, open government, and parent involvement all rolled into one.
Almost two years ago I saw that something new was needed to establish true accountability for problems in our city schools, and was fortunate to meet many other parents who felt the same way. We have established an internet connection which will, we believe, empower us and will change the way the Department of Education, UFT, and politicians do business by informing the public what actions were taken and who never responded, online. The E-Accountability Foundation will do that, and this letter to both of you is one of many you will be receiving online as a complaint about DOE personnel and/or PA/PTA/SLT members who are not complying with the rules and regulations. The Chancellor's Regulations - A-660s - state that a parent may grieve any action and receive no retaliation, (Section 1.E.1.h&i) but I have experienced exactly the opposite. So, this is an online report which will inform you of the actions of parents and DOE personnel in the Superintendant's office of the Manhattan High Schools which are inappropriate, and which necessitate your response. We are, in our opinion, helping you establish parent involvement and accountability, and we will hold you accountable for your actions to resolve the problems described below; (5) We believe that there is every reason to support "fixing" the problem now, rather than in the Fall, when the maximum amount of damage may occur to hurt the fundraising efforts and community building of the parents. Again, this is what happened at Booker T., and we need to avoid this destruction and disarray! We are, therefore asking that you help us start afresh in the Fall with new elections fully noticed to all parents at La Guardia HS.
Our disclaimer: our purpose in writing this letter is to help you in your efforts to reform the New York public school system, which we firmly support. We are very aware of the political ties which place our children last, not first, in importance, and we want to assist you in disengaging the education and safety of our youth from these forces so that you can truly put "children first". We are dedicated to establishing accountability and parent involvement in this city, and we see that we must include you as well as those working in other positions in the DOE, Mayor's office, Legislature, etc., in order to be a credible and legitimate voice in creating a data base of "accountable action". Our motives in giving you information about how your own personnel have responded to problems and when they, your employees, were the problem, is not malicious in any way, as we want you to succeed in your work. We are not trying to "get" anyone. We feel that if you do not have accurate information about who is doing what to whom, your actions for educational reform will not have any credibility or legitimacy among your constituents- the parents and children in our New York City schools- and your efforts will ultimately fail. You must succeed, and to do that you must hear the parents and children as well as the teachers and Principals. Parents and children are not always wrong, hostile, belligerant, or disruptive. This all begs the question, "what do you mean by 'parent involvement?'" We have been told for several months that your "Children First" agenda supports involvement of parents in the public schools, thus protecting our right to be part of the events, fundraising, and PAs/SLTs in our children's schools. Are we correct? If this statement is correct, what do you do when this right to be involved and informed is denied us, [parents] and we give you proof of this?
As you know from previous correspondence, the La Guardia PA Bylaws and SLT Bylaws have been out of compliance with the Chancellor's Regulations, the Green book, and Open Government Laws. This letter follows the email to the Chancellor on May 8 concerning the CPAC meeting at Tweed Courthouse, and addresses the reference I made to La Guardia High School. I am, in this follow-up letter, describing the actions of a pre-selected few who are in control of the PA and SLT at La Guardia, and who not only make up rules and regulations as they go, but force parents to turn away from involvement due to the inappropriate actions and words which are used by this group. "They" have established illegal election and nominating procedures which must be stopped, and the elections invalidated. I am the parent of four children, and I have been elected to many positions on PAs and PTAs as well as SLTs over the past few years. [EXHIBIT 1] In light of the fact that my dad was Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York, and that I am a writer/journalist with a huge sense of justice and dedication to doing what the rules, regulations and Laws mandate, I have never joined a clique to railroad through anything which I believe violates a Law, or compromises any individual's rights. I also support the processes of consensus, democratic voting, and free speech, as long as the words are not defamatory or in any way abusive. Additionally, we have studied the US Constitution as well as Internet Law and Policy, and we assert that it is our right and responsibility to inform all taxpayers of any violations of the rules, regulations, Laws and/or misallocation of public funds. Freedom of information is, indeed, the foundation of a democratic government.
It is not difficult to understand that those "select few" who have been involved in maintaining the status quo and positions of power attack anyone who tries to alter the system or to make them powerless. The danger of exposure for previous wrong-doing is too great. We all know politicians who can, and do, lend their legislative influence to support those who have supported them, making any "whistleblowing" all that much harder. We have also seen groups of parents violate rules, regulations and the Law in order to harass and attack anyone who stands in their way, only to have the powers that be - DOE personnel included - go along with what "they" - these parents - say, because they are, or convince the administration that they are, the "majority". As "the majority" they allege that they can do anything they want, including violating every rule in the book. Parents outside of this group usually go away at the beginning of the school year, never to return to a PA/PTA meeting again. Surprisingly, this tactic works quite well, as Superintendants and DOE Parent Outreach representatives close their eyes or actively intervene to help this "majority" stay in power, irrespective of what they have done or plan to do for the kids in the school. "Majority rule", however achieved, is the road to power and success in our New York City schools. The "majority" must do two things to assure their power: one is to control the information which goes out to the parents; the second is to demonize, threaten, scare away or in some way marginalize anyone who might endanger the status quo and/or the "majority's" position in it. We have all heard the abusive comments and have seen the retaliatory actions which follow any exposure of illegal, or other inappropriate actions, such as "I'll get you for this" and "You'll be sorry!" screamed both inside and outside the sandbox.
At La Guardia High School, those kinds of comments have been hurled at me as well as others who have stood up to the small group of La Guardia parents who, we allege, have denied equal representation to all parents of students in the school. The group has actively assured that only a select few have a right to be heard. For the past several years the La Guardia Parents Association and School Leadership Team have 'elected' officers by "acclamation" and by appointment; there have been no elections by paper ballot, and there has been no nominating committee actively seeking parents for the various positions on the Executive Board and SLT. A "select" few have taken the positions on the PA, Academic and Conservatory Committees, and School Leadership Teams, and have maintained their positions by sending few, if any, notices out to the general membership about meetings and events in the school, barring parents from meetings if they happen to show up, changing minutes and emails to tell everyone what "they" want, rather than what actually happened, and making inappropriate comments or harassing remarks to anyone who suggests a different approach.
The Manhattan High School Superintendant's office did not intervene to change this irregular application of the rules and regulations. I, Co-Vice-President of the PA, called Mr. Sawyer approximately 13 times over the past year to ask for a meeting about this unfortunate situation. He has never returned my telephone calls. Instead, Ms. Doreen Conwell called me, and her last conversation with me was so full of inappropriate comments, taunts and deprecating remarks from her to me for bringing up the PA Bylaws and other issues at all that I have notified my lawyer, who will get my record of the conversation. Ms. Conwell also accused me of cancelling the one meeting we scheduled to go over the changes in the Bylaws, and had Ms. Gwen Hopkins tell Mr. Racanelli and Mr. John Norris that I had cancelled the meeting, when indeed she had scheduled it for the one day I and a co-worker were unavailable. I was told that it was my word against the Department of Education, and my word was suspect. As Doreen told me, she's "heard all about me". I came back with the point that if I was the one who wanted to bring everyone together for a meeting about the Bylaws, why would I just cancel any meeting? So the meeting took place, but not before I was told that my opinion did not count for anything, was not credible, legitimate, or valid. May I suggest that this practice stop?
As Doreen and the Superintendant's office never bothered to bring the Bylaws into compliance with the A-660s, the small group which self-appointed each other were able to remain firmly in control of all parent information. Ms. Conwell's justification that she never saw the Bylaws is untrue, according to our Co-President last year, and her job is, according to the Chancellor's Regulations, to make sure that the Bylaws are in compliance with the regulations. Over the past year I was told countless times by Charles Thompson and Jane Lewis, the Co-Presidents of the PA, that there had never been a paper ballot, there had never been a nominating committee with anyone other than senior parents on the committee , etc, because, they asserted, the Superintendant's office had allowed it, and it was "done this way under Paul Saronson". This of course makes it "ok", according to Charles, Jane and the others who are hanging onto the status quo. When I needed a copy of the PA Bylaws, I called Bill Stevens, who told me that he did not have a copy. I called Kim Bruno's office and was faxed Bylaws which had been written two years earlier, and subsequently changed. Her Assistant told me that Charles Thompson told her to send me the out-of-date version. Then, at the PA meeting that evening, I was ridiculed by Charles, Jane, and many others. I and other parents in the school who want to be involved and to have the election procedures established in compliance with the A-660s, then became the "bad guys", the parents who do not go along with "the plan", the "troublemakers", even though we are right, the rules and regulations are being violated.
My desire to increase parent involvement by changing the control of this false "majority" has led to harassment and verbal abuse of me and anyone associated or allied with me. I am very saddened by this, but will continue to stand up for parent involvement, adherence to the rules and Laws of our City/State, fairness, and respectful discussion of problems. It is your responsibility to change the Department of Education personnel who deride anyone attempting to maintain a positive working relationship between parents and administrators, and, as I have previously stated, I - and many other parents - will, indeed, hold you accountable for your actions, or non-responsiveness. Under the term "accountability" no response is an accountable action.

We are asking for your invalidation of the May 6, 2003 PA/SLT election at La Guardia High School based upon the following:

1.Continuous abuse of the rules, regulations and procedures by current members of the PA and SLT including unfair elections held without timely or proper notices to the general membership. None of the general PA meetings this year, 2002-2003 had timely and proper written notice sent to all parents, as required by the Bylaws. I sent to you emails [EXHIBITS 2, 3] and subsequently, thanks to the intervention of Ms. Swarns, was able to obtain a new set of Bylaws in compliance with the Chancellor's Regulations for elections of PA and SLT members, but not before being being harassed for my efforts by the Co-Presidents (PA Bylaws), by Mr. Bill Stevens, Assistant Principal (SLT Bylaws), and by Ms. Doreen Conwell (Manhattan Superintendant's office), and seeing the very same Bylaws violated a few days later (see EXHIBIT 11 below). After the Bylaws were voted in on April 29, I discovered by calling many parents that no written notices were sent out to all the parents at the school with information about the May 6 election. The result is the election and re-electon of a select few, most of whom have deliberately kept the control of PA expenditures, the CEP, and PA affairs secret or within their control. The La Guardia PA belongs to all the parents who have children in the building, DOESN'T IT? There was no outreach by the nominating committee, leaving only one position in contention at the PA election: the position of Vice-President, and the position I was running for re-election. The entire slate was ready to be appointed, because there was no notice sent out, and no "new" people coming forward who had not been involved previously. A parent received a call telling her "they" wanted her on the SLT, and she was elected. It is my opinion that "they" wanted me to pull out of the election so that "they" could have a vote by ACCLAMATION. I decided that I would not pull out just to document the process. This is how democracy and parent involvement fails, and this is why you must invalidate the election. In light of the fact that people may say I am making this request in order to get elected, I will not run again for office on the PA Executive Board. I feel that I have been attacked enough, and plan to work on a school newsletter similar to the one I wrote at Stuyvesant High School, in order to increase parent involvement at La Guardia. Charles and Jane told me this Fall that they would not "allow" me to write this newsletter at La Guardia, even though it was, and is, desperately needed.
In fact, there were no timely written notices sent to all the parents this year. After the April A&C meeting with a learning specialist who spoke about Special Education, a parent approached Kas Wilson, the parent who sends the emails to approximately 300 parents (there are 2500 students in the school) and asked her to send out more timely emails, as the meeting had been noticed only the night before. Kas started screaming at this parent, saying "shut up!!! I've had enough from you!" [EXHIBIT 4]. I was standing a few inches from the parent being screamed at, and I left the room with her. She and I were very upset, as were other parents who overheard this unfortunate outburst. According to the Department of Education website for the year 2000-2001, more than $58,000 was allocated for each special education student per year. This is odd, considering that there is only one resource room with one resource teacher. Why has this population of the La Guardia High School been denied their budgetary rights? Special education students have the same rights to a fair, equal, and free education as anyone else, am I not correct?
We have not seen the procedure, with paper ballots, sign-in sheets, etc., for several years at La Guardia. Indeed, those appointed to the PA Executive Board and elected by simple majority to the SLT have continuously denied other parents the right to even have an open discussion of the suggestions which have been made to the existing Bylaws. The Co-Presidents and parents on the Academic and Conservatory Committee have been making unilateral decisions about what can be discussed at their meetings, and even asked parents to leave the room when they had their meetings, an obvious violation of Open Government Laws according to parents aware of the statute and the Supreme Court Judge ( a parent member of the PA) they barred. I tried to have an open discussion of the PA and SLT Bylaws at a general PA meeting for four months; Co-Presidents Charles and Jane sabotaged me, humiliated me, and successfully stopped any discussions. Charles told everyone, "I feel very sorry for anyone who would ever vote for Betsy Combier for any position."
At the April PA meeting they inappropriately, as I have explained at length to John Norris, Mr. Racanelli, Doreen Conwell and Lucille Swarns, dismissed the work of 4 months' gathering suggestions for the Bylaws by myself and several other parents, and established their own, "new" committee to address the changes that needed to be made. They then put into the Bylaws the needed clauses about the election and nominating processes, but also added that the May 6 elections would be "BY ACCLAMATION"! I was shocked that the parents running for Co-PA Presidents for next year would write this statement in direct contradiction to the election guidelines. I emailed John Norris about this, and he agreed with my assessment:

Subj: RE: La Guardia HS: New Committee and Bylaws, violating election procedure
Date: 4/28/2003 5:11:50 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: JNorris@nycboe.net
To: So
Sent from the Internet (Details)
"Betsy -

In looking over both sets of suggested changes, I do see your point that the "new" committee suggested language seems to contradict itself regarding the election of officers. I assume that this was not meant to be, and that it was a mistake. I looked up