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‘Vital’ After-School Programs on the Chopping Block

By Alex Kratz

Parents at PS 94 in Norwood have grown accustomed to having a safe, constructive place for their children to spend after-school hours and it hasn’t cost them a dime. But Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to slash the after-school program, which would leave parents, 90 percent of whom are living in poverty, scrambling to find alternatives.

“This program is vital,” said PS 94 Principal Diane Daprocida of a program known as Out-of-School Time (OST). “Parents are able to work and know that their kids are safe and being productive. It would be a huge loss to the community.”

The after-school budget cuts, totaling $22.1 million, would slice into 172 programs citywide and reduce the number of subsidized slots available for child care centers. Locally, the programs at PS 94 and PS 8 in Bedford Park would be cut completely and programs at PS 20 and PS 95 would be shrunk.

But the PS 94 community is fighting back, sending letters from parents and students to Bloomberg and enlisting the help of local Councilman Oliver Koppell who has vowed to oppose the cuts.

Read more

MS 80, Other ‘New’ Bronx Schools, Get New Names; Hiring Stalls Due to Lawsuit

By Alex Kratz

Beginning next year, MS 80, the Norwood-area middle school that is closing and re-opening as a new school with a mostly new staff next year, will be known as the Norwood Academy for Communal Excellence at the Isobel Rooney Campus.

As part of the city’s “turnaround” program, MS 80 and 23 other city schools (10 in the Bronx) needed to be re-named. The DOE said they would come up with the name based on input from school leadership teams.

During an April hearing at MS 80, officially known as “Junior High School 80, The Mosholu Parkway School,” several community members asked the DOE to retain the number 80 and to continue to use the name Isobel Rooney, which is written above the entrance to the school. Toward the end of the hearing, Deputy Chancellor Dorita Gibson said the DOE heard their wishes “loud and clear.” That appears to be the case as Isobel Rooney, a former school board member who took a special interest in MS 80, is included in the new name.

Now, as this article on SchoolBook points out, whether people actually use the new names is another story. Unofficially, JHS 80, The Mosholu Parkway School, has been known as “MS 80, The Isobel Rooney School,” for years.

Many of the other re-named “new” schools also incorporated pieces of the schools’ current names. (See list at the bottom of this post.)

Aside from re-naming the turnaround schools, the DOE is planning to lay off all of each schools’ teachers and replace them with new ones. Teachers at each school can re-apply to the schools, but turnaround guidelines require that only 50 percent of those teachers can be re-hired at the new schools.

Hiring teams, consistently of a school’s principal, two DOE representatives and two teachers union representatives, were supposed to start the hiring/re-hiring process in the near future.

But the teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), filed a lawsuit claiming the DOE is circumventing stipulations in its contract with the UFT. The DOE says their contract grants them permission to lay off staff at schools that they have closed. But the UFT says the schools aren’t really closing. They’re just being re-opened under new names and the schools will be in the same location with the same kids.

Read more

It’s Official: MS 80 To Close This Summer

By Alex Kratz

Just two days after the Bronx’s MS 80 introduced its third principal in two months, the Department of Education approved a plan that will change the face of Norwood’s oldest and largest middle school forever.

Under a new school improvement model called “turnaround,” MS 80 will close at the end of the school year and open under a new name with new faculty in the fall. Teachers at the school can either re-apply for their current jobs or look for work elsewhere. Students are guaranteed a spot in the new replacement school, but have the option to enroll in another middle school.

The turnaround plan was approved at a meeting of the DOE’s decision-making body, the Panel for Education Policy, last Thursday evening. MS 80 is among 10 Bronx schools and 24 citywide that will be closing under the turnaround model. Earlier this year, the panel approved proposals to close 18 other city schools.

The DOE says MS 80 was chosen for turnaround because of sagging state test scores, low attendance and a chance to maintain extra state funding. Meanwhile parents, teachers and students are scrambling just to figure out what’s going on.

Simply determining who is running the school on a weekly basis represents a challenge.

Read more

End Days Coming For 10 Bronx Schools

School’s out forever come this summer for 24 New York City public schools, 10 of which are in the Bronx, after a meeting and vote by the Department of Education’s Panel for Education Policy last night in Brooklyn.

Under the so-called “turnaround” program, the two dozen schools, including venerable, long-standing Bronx institutions such as MS 80 and Herbert H. Lehman High School, will be closed after the school year, their administrations and staffs overhauled over the summer and reopened in the fall under new names. Students who are not graduating from the schools will be guaranteed a spot in the replacement schools if they choose to stay.

The outcome was entirely expected, given the fact that the 12-member panel, which is controlled by a majority of mayoral appointees, has never rejected a DOE-recommended proposal.

Yesterday afternoon, Cecilia Donovan, the head of the parents association at MS 80, where a new principal — its third in just two months — was introduced this week, said she decided two weeks that if the situation didn’t appear to be shifting in the school’s favor, she didn’t see the point in going all the way to Brooklyn from the northwest Bronx.

Read more

Fates of 10 Bronx Schools Hangs in Balance Tonight

By Alex Kratz

Kevin Kearns, an English teacher in his fourth year at the Bronx’s Herbert S. Lehman High School, expects the Department of Education’s decision-making body, the Panel for Education Policy, to vote in favor of closing his school tonight at a meeting in Brooklyn. Still, he’s making the trek out to the meeting anyway to testify in hopes that other schools won’t suffer the same fate in years to come.

“I’m going because I feel it’s important to put on record what the school means to us,” Kearns said from his cell phone while riding on the train.

But he’s also going, he said, because closing schools and re-opening new ones is becoming more and more prevalent and it’s being done without any regard for or  input from the school community. “A greater number of schools are closed each year,” he said. “It’s an unfair process and it’s not fair to the students, parents or teachers, who were 100 percent against this happening.”

Lehman is one of 10 Bronx schools designated by the DOE for closure and restructuring under the “turnaround” program, a federal model for school improvement that is untested in New York City. Early this year, after failing to reach an agreement with the teachers union over evaluations, the DOE proposed putting 33 city schools, all of which were deemed low-performing, into the turnaround program, which would allow the schools to continue receiving an extra $900,000 per year in state funding. (The funding was suspended when the DOE and the teachers union couldn’t reach an agreement by the beginning of the calendar year.

Since the initial proposals, the DOE has taken nine schools off the list for closure under the turnaround program, including two this morning. All of the Bronx schools on the list remain slated for turnaround.

Read more

Police Looking For Two Missing Bronx Teenagers

Police sent out two media alerts this morning, asking for help in locating two missing Bronx teenagers: 13-year-old Ross Harrison and 14-year-old Darniese Dervin. Both live in the 46th Precinct.

Darniese, who lives in the River Park Towers (30 Richman Plaza), was last seen leaving her residence on Friday, April 20 at 7:30 a.m. She is described as being 5’4″ tall, 180 lbs., medium build with brown eyes and black hair.

Ross, who lives in University Heights (17 West 182 St.), was last seen leaving his residence on Tuesday, April 24, at 7:22 a.m. He is described as being 5’9″ tall, 130 lbs., thin build with gray eyes and short black hair. He was last seen wearing a black sweater, black shirt, black pants and brown sneakers.

Anyone with information about these two teenagers is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All call are strictly confidential.

As Clock Ticks, Little Opposition to MS 80 Closure

By Alex Kratz

If there is widespread opposition to the proposed closure and re-imagining of Junior High School 80, Norwood’s oldest and largest middle school, it was not apparent at a Department of Education hearing on Monday night.

In what amounted to the school community’s last and best chance to voice its opposition to the DOE’s controversial new “turnaround” program, which would dramatically change the makeup of JHS 80, only a handful of people, including one parent, two students and one teacher, chose to give testimony.

Grace Siemer, a 1944 graduate of the Mosholu Parkway school, when it was known as PS 80 and served students from kindergarten to 8th grade, said she was disappointed with the lack of turnout.

“We should have seen fliers on every car and light post around the school,” she said, adding that no local elected officials attended or gave testimony (representatives for State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Councilman Oliver Koppell, however, were in attendance). “Everybody should have come out.”

The school’s auditorium, where the hearing took place, was dominated by empty seats. Only about 50 people attended and many were DOE staffers, union representatives or local community board members.

Those who did speak blasted the DOE’s decision to abruptly drop a previous plan to transform the struggling school, commonly known as MS 80, under another improvement model called “re-start,” which was imposed on the school last summer. Read more

Hearing Tonight a Chance for MS 80 Community to Have Voice

By Alex Kratz

The Department of Education is holding a hearing tonight at JHS 80 (commonly called MS 80), so the school’s community — parents, students, faculty, local residents, alumni, etc. — can weigh-in about the DOE’s decision to designate MS 80 for the federal turnaround program, which would essentially close the school and re-open it with a dramatically different administration, faculty and programming.  Read more about what’s going at MS 80 here and here.

The hearing is tonight, Monday, April 16, at 6 p.m. at MS 80, 149 E. Mosholu Parkway N., inside the school’s auditorium. It is expected to last three hours. After tonight’s hearing, the fate of the school will be determined at a Panel for Education Policy meeting next month in Brooklyn. The PEP rarely votes against a DOE-backed re-organization or closure plan.

The school’s principal since 2004, Lovey Mazique-Rivera, was fired last month as part of the coming transformation. Last week, the Daily News reported that in the next few weeks, the DOE is planning to replace the interim principal, Lauren Reiss. In the article, celebrities who attended the school were listed, including Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Penny Marshall. Marshall, actor/director and star of “Laverne and Shirely,” said she still had her yearbook from MS 80. “It was a big part of my life,” she told the Daily News from her home in California. “Public schools in New York were great back then.”

Bronx Sports Report: Jaspers Win Battle of the Bronx (Baseball-Style)

By Alex Kratz

Following Manhattan College’s thrilling comeback victoryover cross-Bronx rival Fordham University yesterday in Van Cortlandt Park, Jaspers coach Jim Duffy summed up the 6-5 win in this way: “It was a crazy game,” he said. “There were some wacky plays out there.”

The wackiest play in this crazy game came in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out and Manhattan down 5-4. Jaspers sophomore Yoandry Galan grounded a single to left and then just kept running all the way home after Rams left fielder Stephen McSherry misplayed the ball, allowing it to trickle all the way back to the fence. That tied the game 5-5 and allowed Kyle Murphy to smack the game-winning single one out later after Nick Camastro had ripped a double to get into scoring position.

But that’s the kind of thing that happens to a team now riding a 10-game winning streak. The Jaspers started the season 4-17, but have stormed back and are now just three games under .500. Fordham, meanwhile, dropped to 14-20 on the season.

It was the 108th meeting between the Bronx schools. Yesterday, the Jaspers took a very small step in evening out the all-time series, which is now 76-27-3 in favor of the Rams.

Read more

Bronx Links, Thursday

Here are the Bronx stories we’re reading this Thursday. Weather: Looks gorgeous right now, not a cloud in the sky with an expected high in the low 60s, but there’s a chance of showers in the afternoon. 

In a story published last week, the Daily News writes about the Jaguars running program at PS/MS 15, a stellar school on Andrews Avenue in University Heights. This summer, just as they did last summer,  the school’s runners, coached by English teacher Shawanda Weems, will participate in the Children’s Summer Games in Athens, Greece. In March, Weems was honored as a “Champion of Change” at a White House event and panel discussion hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Police are looking for a scam artists who is preying on immigrants looking for cheap rent in the northwest Bronx. Sally Dunford, of West Bronx Housing, says this type of scam is becoming more and more prevalent.

Six Bronxites are being charged with running a prescription drug ring out of four Bronx daycare locations. Authorities said they confiscated 122,000 pills, including Ecstasy, Xanax, Viagra and Percocet. Ecstasy is illegal and its illegal to distribute the other drugs without a prescription.

A vacant storefront in near Crotona Park is becoming a showcase for emerging artists.

David Oliveras, 18, was struck and killed last night while riding his bicycle on Williamsbridge Road near Mace Avenue. The driver is not being charged.

Heart Gallery NYC, a nonprofit dedicated to finding permanent homes for foster children used the Bronx Museum of the Arts as a backdrop earlier this week. Heart Gallery uses the photos to recruit parents.

A Wall Street trader photographs and writes captions about his encounters with South Bronx residents, many of them drug addicts or prostitutes.

State Offers Support to PS 51 Parents, City Another Story

By Jeanmarie Evelly and Alex Kratz

In late March, the parents of current and former PS 51 students met with state officials to ask questions and discuss their concerns about potential health effects caused by exposure to contamination at the school’s former site on Jerome Avenue.

The building, which was home to the PS 51 (Bronx New School) for nearly two decades, tested positive last year for high levels of trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxin linked to cancer.

While state officials tried to calm parental fears and help them organize, those in attendance said they’re still looking for more help from the city’s Department of Education and remain concerned about the health of their children.

“It’s very scary when it’s your child, and it’s not something we really know much about,” said Helene Hartman-Kutnowsky, who sits on CB 7′s sanitation and environmental committee, and whose daughter, now 18, attended PS 51 for six years.

Read more

Bronx Mentoring Program Forced to Close

By Destiny DeJesus

The Bronx One-on-One Mentoring, known as BOOM, a program for at-risk children operated by the American Latin Association of New York in University Heights, was forced to shut its doors recently due to budget cuts.

After a federal grant expired last year and was not renewed, Israel Rodriguez, the association’s president and director of the BOOM program, said he spent the summer and fall scrambling for funding, but was ultimately forced to close operations in March.

“We did such good work,” Rodriguez said. “No politicians in the area recognized it and I don’t understand why.”

Rodriguez, originally from Venezuela, started BOOM in 2006, inspired, he said, by his own experiences from his own childhood, when he felt like he had no one to look to for guidance and direction.

The program paired at-risk children — many of them foster children, children of immigrants, or children who have an incarcerated parent — with adult mentors, who worked with them for a minimum of one year. They discussed everything from academics to personal issues and tried to guide their charges to a better path.

Read more

Saving MS 80’s Spirit

By Alex Kratz and Destiny DeJesus

Editor’s note: A version of this story appears in this week’s print edition of the Norwood News. The MS 80 rally scheduled for this afternoon didn’t quite go off as planned, leaving many people puzzled. Organizers said the school’s administration told them to leave before the rally was even scheduled to start. In any case, this is the story in it’s larger context. We’ll continue our MS 80 coverage up until the DOE hearing at the school on April 16th.

Since the Department of Education announced plans to close Middle School 80 at the beginning of March, a group of concerned parents and local activists have been attempting to advocate for keeping the spirit of the school, as well as its most valuable programs, intact.

The Friends of MS 80 has made the rounds of community meetings and staged a short-lived rally in front of the school on Tuesday afternoon in the run-up to a DOE hearing at the school scheduled for Monday, April 16 at 6 p.m. inside the school auditorium. They want to change the name to MS 80/Isabel Rooney, which is its unofficial name already (JHS 80 is its official title), as well as some of its key programs, including its bilingual program and a program designed to prepare students for taking entrance exams for specialized high schools, such as Bronx High School of Science.

The DOE has designated MS 80, a 650-seat school on Mosholu Parkway that opened in 1924, for the federal “turnaround” program. The designation would allow the school to again receive extra state funding that was being withheld because the city and the United Federation of Teachers, have not been able to come to an agreement over teacher evaluations.

The Panel for Education Policy still needs to approve the re-organization, but the panel rarely rejects a DOE-recommended plan. The hearing on April 16 is an opportunity for the school community to have their input heard before the next PEP meeting. Read more

Parents, Activists Organize Walk to Save MS 80 This Afternoon

A group of parents and local activists will be holding a walk this afternoon to save the spirit of MS 80, the school on Mosholu Parkway that has already lost its principal after it was designated for the Department of Education’s turnaround program. Under the turnaround program, the school would undergo a complete facelift, which would include hiring a completely new staff (although up to 50 percent of the current staff could be rehired) and taking on a new name.

The group organizing the walk, Friends of MS 80, want more information about what’s happening with one of the area’s only middle schools and are pushing for the school to be renamed MS 80/Isabel Rooney. Although everyone calls the school “MS 80″ and its honorarily named after Isabel Rooney, a longtime school board member who advocated strongly for the school, its technically named “JHS 80, The Mosholu Parkway School.” The change to MS 80 would allow the community and alumni to better identify with the school.

The walk begins at 3:30 p.m. outside of MS 80, 149 Mosholu Parkway North, and will continue to the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, Dekalb Avenue and Gun Hill Road.

Recently, seven schools were taken off the list of schools slated for closure, but MS 80 remains on the chopping block. But those schools were rated higher by the DOE and more vocal in their opposition to the plans for closure. Friends of MS 80 have been advocating at community meetings and speaking with the DOE, who want them to be involved with community advisory committee.

For more background on the MS 80 story, click here.

Ed. note: A joint public hearing for this proposal is scheduled for April 16 at 6 p.m. at J.H.S. 80, 149 East Mosholu Parkway. Oral comments can be left at (212) 374-5149, and written comments can be sent to D10proposals@schools.nyc.gov.

Motorcyclist Killed on Mosholu Parkway Was ‘Favorite’ Bronx Middle School Teacher

By Jeanmarie Evelly

Justin Bravo, who was killed while riding his motorcycle on Mosholu Parkway in Norwood yesterday morning, was a seventh and eighth-grade social studies teacher at MS 244 in Kingsbridge, the Norwood News has learned.

An employee at the school, the New School for Leadership in Journalism on W. 231st Street near Sedgwick Avenue, confirmed that Bravo, 28, was a teacher there, as did one of his seventh-grade students. That seventh grader had Bravo as a teacher for homeroom and social studies.

“He was very determined to help us,” she said. “Whenever you had a problem you could just go straight to Mr. Bravo and he’d be right there to help you.”

Bravo was supposed to join the class on a field trip yesterday to see the movie “Hunger Games,” the student said, but he never arrived. Students found out about the accident when they returned from their trip in the afternoon.

“It’s very sad to know that we lost one of our favorite teachers,” she said.

Bravo, who lived in North Babylon, Long Island, died Wednesday morning after after crashing on Mosholu Parkway in a tunnel that runs underneath Jerome Avenue. The crash site was just a short distance away from where a young pedestrian was struck and killed in a hit-and-run incident back in December.

It’s Budget Time: City Council Rallies for Restorations, While State Lawmakers Strike a Deal

By Jeanmarie Evelly

It’s that time of year again–budget negotiation time, as lawmakers hammer out deals on how much the city and state governments should spend, and on what. City Council members have until the start of the next fiscal year, on July 1, to agree on a plan for the city’s spending. Mayor Bloomberg released a $68.7 billion preliminary budget proposal in February, which he boasted would close a $2 billion budget gap without raising taxes.

But not everyone, of course, is happy with the Mayor’s plan. Bronx City Council Member Annabel Palma, who represents Parkchester, Soundview, Castle Hill, and Classon Point, and heads the Council’s General Welfare Committee, rallied this morning on the steps of City Hall against cuts proposed to a number of the city’s social service programs.

Bloomberg’s budget, Palma said in a press release, would slash the budgets for a number of agencies and programs that serve the neediest and most vulnerable New Yorkers; many cuts that were restored in last year’s round of budget negotiations are again on the chopping block this year.

“Unfortunately, last year’s budget included many one-year fixes and that’s why we stand here today yet again to rally against those cuts that will directly and negatively impact the already-strained programs that many New Yorkers have to come rely on,” Palma said.

The Mayor’s proposal would reduce funding for the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, cutting slots for child care and after-school programs, and laying off about 100 Child Protective staff positions. Funding for case managers and supportive housing for residents living with HIV/AIDS could be cut by several million dollars, as would the budget of the Department of Homeless Services, which runs the city’s shelter system.

Read more

Bronx Links Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to Breaking Bronx. It’ll be cloudy and in the mid-60s today. Here are the news stories we’re following this morning:

Good news for museum-goers on a budget: in honor of its 40th anniversary, the Bronx Museum of the Arts is eliminating its $5 suggested admission fee starting tomorrow.

Is the South Bronx gentrifying? A New York Times piece this week says yes, pointing to an influx of white, middle-class professionals who are making their homes around the Grand Concourse area near Yankee Stadium. UNHP’s Gregory Jobo Lost, in a guest post on the new blog Bronx Matters, says the Times might be getting ahead of itself.

A 2-year-old boy in Parkchester was hit by a car while chasing after an ice cream truck Monday, the Daily News reports. He remains in critical condition.

Former Bronx State Sen. Pedro Espada and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, are currently on trial for embezzling funds from their nonprofit health care clinics. Their accountant took the stand Monday and testified that the Espadas routinely listed personal expenses as businesses expenses for the company.  In one instance, Espada supposedly tried to expense the costs of his grandchild’s birthday party as “community children’s outreach,” according to the Post.

A New York City school administrator resigned this week after it was discovered he’d arranged a job for his wife in a Bronx Department of Education office. Angel Namnum allegedly arranged to have his wife hired as a community coordinator for the DOE, despite evidence that she was not qualified for the job.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo picked Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera to be his new Department of Labor commissioner, in spite of his “baggage,” as the Village Voice calls it. A few years back, a nonprofit the Assemblyman largely helped fund was the probe of a federal investigation, and its director, a law partner of Rivera’s, was slapped with corruption charges last year. Former Daily News columnist Bob Kappstatter, now blogging for Bronx Matters, predicts that Luis Sepulveda–an attorney who challenged Rivera in 2010 and lost–is likely to fill his empty seat.

Bronx New School Parents Meet With State Officials, Told Illness After Toxin Exposure ‘Not a Slam Dunk’

By Jeanmarie Evelly and Alex Kratz

On Monday night, parents of current and former PS 51 students met with state officials to ask questions and discuss their concerns about potential health effects caused by contamination at the school’s former site on Jerome Avenue. The building, which was home to the Bronx New School for nearly two decades, tested positive last year for high levels  of trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxin linked to cancer.

Representatives from the State Departments of Health and Environmental Conservation met with Community Board 7 members and PS 51 parents, who have been organizing with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition under the name PS 51 Parents United.

“It’s very scary when its your child, and it’s not something we really know much about,” said Helene Hartman-Kutnowsky, who sits on CB 7′s sanitation and environmental committee, and whose daughter, now 18, attended PS 51 for six years.

Lenny Siegel, of the California-based Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO), was on hand to discuss some of the possible health effects linked to TCE exposure. After explaining how and why they believe the contamination was present ever since the school moved into the former lighting manufacturing plant 20 years ago, Siegel sought to allay parents’ fears that their children are at a high risk for illness.

Read more

Bronx Notes: Board 7 Education Meeting Tonight, Closure of MS 80 On Agenda

Bronx Community Board 7′s Education Committee will meet tonight, Wednesday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the board office, located at 229-A East 204th Street. A major topic of conversation will be the proposed closure and revamping of MS 80, which has already claimed the job of former Principal Lovey Mazique-Rivera who was replaced last week. A group of concerned parents and local residents have come together to advocate for, among other things, keeping the school’s name, Middle School 80, through the planned transition, which will include a complete overhaul of the school’s staff.

For more information, call (718) 933-5650 or visit www.bronxcb7.info.

Ed. note: Every weekday, we highlight Bronx programs, announcements, services, opportunities, public meetings/hearings or community events. Find a full listing on our Neighborhood Notes page. Send your neighborhood notes to us at norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org.

Bronx Sports Report: Monroe Lady Mustangs Repeat as National Champs and a Madness Wrap

By Alex Kratz

March and all the madness that accompanies it are coming to a close. We’ll wrap up all the insanity from a Bronx perspective, starting with a team of ladies representing the Bronx once again cutting down the nets as national champions.

Despite a nearly complete roster overhaul and the loss of their starting point guard on the eve of the season’s biggest tournament, the Monroe College Lady Mustangs repeated as National Junior College Athletic Association Division II national champions with a 78-73 victory over Lake Michigan in Peoria, Ill.

Alvah Parham, the only Lady Mustang returning from last year’s championship team, hit two clutch free throws to put Monroe in the lead for good after Lake Michigan had stormed back from an 18-point second half deficit to take a 71-70 lead with 2:24 left in the game.

Parham finished with 22 points and six rebounds and Jasmine Mcroy contributed 21 points and six rebounds. But it was Kashay Barnes who stole the show and tournament MVP honors after dropping 26 points and eight assists on Lake Michigan.

Read more

Bronx New School Parents Still Looking for Answers

By Alex Kratz

PS 51 Parents United, a group of concerned parents of children who attend or used to attend PS 51 (The Bronx New School), will be looking for support and answers from state officials at a Bronx Community Board 7 meeting tonight in Bedford Park. Last year, inspectors discovered high levels of trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxin linked to cancer, at the Bedford Park building (3200 Jerome Ave.) Bronx New School called home for two decades.

Several Community Board 7 members, including Chairman Paul Foster, Vice Chair Adaline Santiago-Walker and Helene Hartman-Kutnowsky, have children who attended Bronx New School, making the issue extremely personal. Many parents of PS 51 alumni have been upset with the lack of response from the DOE about their concerns. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott met with the current PS 51 administration and parents association, but not parents of alumni. Most parents of alumni found out about the toxins through media reports.

Tonight, parents will be directing their questions and concerns at three state officials: Dana Kaplan, Environmental Engineer for the Division of Environmental Remediation (NYSDEC); Dawn Hettrick, Public Health Engineer for the Bureau of Environmental Exposure Investigation (NYSDOH); Elizabeth Lewis-Michl Community Exposure Research for the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology (NYSDOH).

The state will be providing some background and updates, as well as some answers about what kind of health effects TCE exposure can cause.

According to a press release, at the meeting tonight, Bronx Parents United:

“Will call for the establishment of a Community Advisory Group to oversee the remediation process and further health studies. They want NYS DOH to establish clear recommendations to NYC DOH for the notification of all parents of students who attended school at 3200 Jerome Ave and their physicians and the creation of a medical registry and medical monitoring program for all students who attended school at that site. Parents say that their must be unified regulations for comprehensive environmental review of DOE leased and owned school facilities and the City must pass new legislation mandating the timely notification of parents any time the DOE conducts environmental testing in their school.”

Parents looking to get involved or receive more information can contact Helene Hartman-Kutnowsky, kutnow3@yahoo.com.

DOE Plans to Close Middle School 80

By Alex Kratz

Ed. note: This is an updated version of a story that appears in the March 22-April 4 edition of the Norwood News, which is being distributed today and tomorrow.

Amid a backdrop of plummeting test scores, gang problems and a bitter showdown between the teachers union and the Department of Education, Middle School 80 in Norwood is facing closure and a complete overhaul of its staff and administration.

If the overhaul plan is approved, MS 80, and 32 other city public schools, will undergo a dramatic re-organization that will include replacing its administration, at least 50 percent of its current staff and undergoing a name change. Students who have not graduated before the start of the next school year will be given a guaranteed seat in the new school.

The DOE has already moved to replace Lovey Mazique-Rivera, MS 80’s principal since 2004. A new acting principal, Lauren Reiss, was introduced on Monday.

The Panel for Education Policy still needs to approve the re-organization, but based on recent history, that appears to be a formality. The PEP rarely rejects a DOE-recommended re-organization plan.

Read more

With Overhaul on Horizon, MS 80 Principal Replaced

By Alex Kratz

After recently announcing Norwood’s MS 80 was slated for closure and a complete overhaul of its administration and staff, the Department of Education moved swiftly to replace the school’s principal since 2004, Lovey Mazique-Rivera. Her last day was Friday. On Monday, parents received notice that the school would be led by acting Principal Lauren Reiss.

The DOE is proposing to designate MS 80 as a “turnaround” school, which would mean replacing its administration, at least 50 percent of its current staff and undergoing a name change. Students who have not graduated before the start of the next school year will be given a guaranteed seat in the new school.

The Panel for Education Policy still needs to approve the re-organization, but based on recent history, that appears to be a formality. The PEP rarely rejects a DOE-recommended re-organization plan.

And now it appears they are already beginning the overhaul.

A joint public hearing for this proposal is scheduled for April 16 at 6 p.m. at MS 80, 149 East Mosholu Parkway. Oral comments can be left at (212) 374-5149, and written comments can be sent to D10proposals@schools.nyc.gov.

We’ll have the full story on MS 80 in this week’s print edition of the Norwood News.

Bronx Notes: Discussion on School Re-organization Plans

To talk about the re-organization of MS 80 and other Bronx schools, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is inviting elected officials, education activists, community leaders and parents to a forum next Thursday, March 15, at 6 p.m., at the Morris Educational Campus Auditorium, 1110 Boston Road. Elaine Gorman, the chief executive of the DOE’s turnaround program, will be on hand to speak. Diaz is imploring stakeholders at these schools to “Share your vision for the future of your schools – your input matters.”

Besides MS 80, several Bronx schools are facing so-called “turnaround” programs, which would essentially close the school, replace the administration and at least half of its staff and then be re-opened under a new name this coming fall. In April, the DOE will hold hearings at these schools. Here’s the complete list of schools on the verge of major changes and their hearing dates:

• Alfred E Smith Career- Tech HS (4/16 @ 6 p.m.)

• Herbert Lehman HS (4/2 @ 6 p.m.)

• Banana Kelly HS (4/4 @ 6 p.m.)

• JHS 22 Jordan L. Mott (4/3 @ 6 p.m.)

• IS 339 (4/5 @ 6 p.m.)

• Bronx HS of Business (4/12 @ 6 p.m.)

• JHS 80 Mosholu Parkway (4/16 @ 6 p.m.)

• MS 391 (4/4 @ 6 p.m.)

• Fordham Leadership Academy (3/30 @ 6 p.m.)

• JHS 142 John Philip Sousa (4/19 @ 6 p.m.)

Bronx Notes: Charter School Open House

Tech International Charter School invites students in the 5th grade interested in becoming part of its middle school, and their parents, to its open house at the Kingsbridge Library, 291 W. 231st St., Wednesday March 14, from 6 to 7 p.m. The school is scheduled to open in August 2012. For more information, contact Steve Bergen at sbergen33@gmail.com or call (781) 953-9699.

Ed. note: Every weekday, we highlight Bronx programs, announcements, services, opportunities, public meetings/hearings or community events. Find a full listing on our Neighborhood Notes page. Send your neighborhood notes to us at norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org.

Be Healthy! Wednesdays: Bronx Advocates Condemn Proposed Tabacco Control Cuts

By Jeanmarie Evelly

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Breaking Bronx features a health-related story, event or tidbit as part of an online expansion of our Be Healthy! column.

Anti-smoking groups in the Bronx and across the state are deriding a proposed budget plan that would slash tobacco control funding by $5 million this year, a cut they say could reverse the strides New York has made in getting residents to quit the habit and could lead to more young people taking up smoking.

“While we have seen a decrease in smoking rates, we still have over 850,000 smokers, many of whom are the most vulnerable populations,” said Sheelah A. Feinberg, the Director of the NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City. “We still have much work to do, as we continue to protect the next generation of New Yorkers from the harmful effects of tobacco use and secondhand smoke.”

Advocates point to a recent report released by the United States Surgeon General about the dangers of the tobacco industry’s insidious marketing campaigns aimed at young people. The report, “Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults,” calls for tougher action against cigarette aids aimed at young people.

Read more

In Response to Bias Incidents, Fordham Students Demand Change

By David Greene

Fordham University students and alumni took to the streets last week to demand change in how the Bronx Jesuit school approaches multiculturalism and how it handles acts of racism and bias.

More than 150 students walked out of the Rose Hill campus on Thursday evening, March 9, after a series of hateful messages were reported at Rose Hill and the school’s Lincoln Center Campus.

Taking a page from the Occupy Wall Street movement, students used the “public microphone,” where the crowd repeats what a speaker is saying, to demand that the school’s administration re-examine its current policies on investigating and reporting bias incidents. Read more

Bronx Links, Wednesday

Good morning! Welcome back to Breaking Bronx. We’re in for another beautiful day of spring weather today, with plenty of sunshine and a high of 68. Enjoy it. Here are the local news stories we’re following this Wednesday:

Local leaders and politicians are once again looking for ways to battle the ongoing problem of dog poop on sidewalks here in the Bronx. Raising fines and increasing funding for enforcement of the city’s pooper-scooper law are among the suggestions, according to the Daily News.

Opening arguments being today in the corruption trial of former Bronx State Sen. Pedro Espada. Espada and his son are accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the network of nonprofit health clinics they ran.

Bronx student activists, including those from Sistas and Brothas United, the youth arm of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, are protesting what they are calling overly punitive punishments in schools doled out to Bronx students of color. Recently released data showed that nearly half of the 532 summonses that school safety officers issued to New York City students during the last three months of 2011 were written in the Bronx alone.

A grand jury will decide whether or not criminal charges should be sought against the NYPD officers who shot and killed unarmed Bronx teen Ramarley Graham last month.

Students at Bronx Regional High School and Arturo A. Schomburg Satellite Academy, which share a building, are fighting the city’s plan to co-locate a charter school for teens involved in the criminal justice system into the space.

A new Fine Fare supermarket is coming to Williamsbridge, at East Gun Hill Road and White Plains Road. The city is giving $4.5 million in tax breaks to the project under the FRESH initiative, which looks to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods that lack major grocers.

Nonprofit group Project Enterprise is helping entrepreneurial Bronxites get their businesses off the ground by providing them with small loans.

 

Construction Begins on Low-Income Development Mosholu Gardens

By Destiny DeJesus

Two  Fridays ago, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for Mosholu Gardens, an eight-story housing development with 63 low-income units located at 245 Mosholu Parkway North, in the Norwood neighborhood of the Bronx.

The building will be developed through a partnership of Acacia Network, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and other groups.

The units will be available to individuals earning no more than $34,860. Residents of Mosholu Gardens will have access to on-site services such as laundry facilities, a 24-hour concierge, resident attendant services and a computer facility. Other services will include case management and access to Acacia’s network of healthcare, housing, educational and social services.

Thirty-nine of the units will house members of the special needs population and formerly homeless residents. Each unit will include private kitchens and bathrooms and have access to indoor and outdoor communal garden areas.

In total, the project cost roughly $15 million. Many funds have been received from HPD, The National Equity Fund (NEF) and other organizations in order to help develop the new housing. The construction of the Mosholu Gardens is expected to be completed by August 1, 2013.

Bronx Sports Report: Borough Catholic Boys Teams Representing and Other HS Hoops Updates

By Alex Kratz

[The Evander Childs Campus boys team would prevail in their match-up, captured in the slideshow above by photographer Adi Talwar, against Benjamin Banneker Academy, 58-42,to move into the PSAL Boys A Division quarterfinals. But with a birth into the Final Four at stake on Wednesday night, the Tigers fell at 4th-seeded Bedford Academy in Brooklyn.]

This is the penultimate weekend of New York City high school basketball playoff games. All of the public school divisions have semifinal match-ups and the Catholic league will crown a champion. A handful of Bronx teams still in the running have legitimate title shots.

The Boogie Down was heavily represented in the Catholic High School Athletic Association boys semifinal round, with three teams in the Final Four: St. Raymond’s, Cardinal Hayes and Mt. St. Michael. Read more

All-Girls Academy Works to Be ‘Charity Champions’

By Destiny DeJesus

The Academy of Mount St. Ursula, the oldest Catholic girls school in New York, located in Bedford Park, has entered a contest in order to win seed money to continue supporting its students’ charitable work at the Concourse House.

Sponsored by Cablevision, “Charity Champions” gives high schools the opportunity to host events that support a charity of their choice. The school that does the best job wins $5,000 for its selected charity organization. The contest has previously allowed AMSU to support POTS, a local soup kitchen and multi-service center.

This year, AMSU is competing in hopes to donate towards the mission of the Concourse House, a group home on the Grand Concourse that offers safe shelter to homeless women and their children. Read more

Fordham University Students To Lead Anti-Racism Rally

A group of Fordham University students known as the Collective of Concerned Students of Color and Anti-Racist Allies is leading a rally this evening to bring awareness to a recent spate of hate crimes on the Jesuit school’s campuses. The rally kicks off at 6 p.m. on the Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx. Students will then exit the school’s Bathgate Avenue entrance and gather at Fordham Plaza, on Fordham Road and 3rd Avenue. There, they will talk about an online petition condemning the racism and calling for tolerance and implementation of new anti-racism policies. The petition, posted on change.org, already has more than 1,500 signatures.

Below is the sequence of racist acts that prompted the petition and rally, according to the Fordham group: Read more

Proposal for Closure of MS 80 Officially on Table

By Marcos Sierra and Alex Kratz

Amid plummeting test scores and reports of gang problems, the Department of Education is proposing to close MS 80, The Mosholu Parkway School, in Norwood. If approved, the school will undergo a dramatic re-organization including losing at least 50 percent of its current staff and changing its name.

Students who have not graduated before the start of the 2012-2013 school year will be being given a guaranteed seat in the new school. At this point, the DOE is calling whatever would replace MS 80, “New School.”

The new school “will develop rigorous, school specific competencies to measure and screen prospective staff – including [MS] 80 staff who apply to work at New School,” said a DOE press release.

The changes will maximize New School’s chance of receiving up to $1.8 million in supplemental funding over the next two years under the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program, the DOE said.

A joint public hearing for this proposal is scheduled for April 16 at 6 p.m. at J.H.S. 80, 149 East Mosholu Parkway. Oral comments can be left at (212) 374-5149, and written comments can be sent to D10proposals@schools.nyc.gov.

To talk about the re-organization of MS 80 and other Bronx schools, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is inviting elected officials, education activists, community leaders and parents to a forum next Thursday, March 15, at 6 p.m., at the Morris Educational Campus Auditorium, 1110 Boston Road. Elaine Gorman, the chief executive of the DOE’s turnaround program, will be on hand to speak.

On Leap Day, Celebrating “LEAP Day” in the Bronx

For 34 years, the nonprofit group Learning through an Expanded Arts Program (LeAp) has provided music, dance, theater and visual arts programs at New York City public schools, including many in the Bronx. Last Wednesday, on leap day (Feb. 29), Mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed it to be “LEAP DAY” in honor of the group’s contributions. In 2008, we wrote about how they worked with students at MS 399 to create their own superheroes.

Bronx Notes: Family Resource Day at Library Center, Saturday

The Bronx Library Center, at 310 East Kingsbridge Road, will hold a free family resource day on Saturday, March 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Pre-Function Lobby. Representatives will be there to talk about educational and child care resources as well as summer programs and to give out information to families. Workshops and activities will be available throughout the day along with face painting and give-aways for children. For more information and directions call (888) 469-5999 or visit www.nycchildcareconsortium.org.

Ed. note: Every weekday, we highlight Bronx programs, announcements, services, opportunities, public meetings/hearings or community events. Find a full listing on our Neighborhood Notes page. Send your neighborhood notes to us at norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org.

Court Denies City’s Plea to Reject Injunction, Churches Will Be Allowed to Worship in Schools Until June

The Second Circuit court denied the Department of Education’s application to have a preliminary injunction lifted on its policy banning worship in school buildings during off-hours. The denial will allow churches and other religious groups to continue worshiping inside city public schools until at least mid-June.

On Friday, Judge Loretta Preska ordered a preliminary injunction that would temporarily allow all religious groups to continue worshiping at school buildings while she came to a more definitive decision. On Monday, city lawyers asked the Second Circuit court to lift the preliminary injunction and were denied. However, the court did ask that a decision be made by “mid-June.”

“Today’s order is unusual; however, it calls for a speedy resolution of this litigation,” said Jane Gordon, who is working on the case for the law department. “We look forward to concluding this matter in accordance with the Court’s expedited time frame.”

Churches Can Keep Meeting in Schools, Judge Says

By Jeanmarie Evelly

In the latest development in the citywide debate over worship services being held in public schools, a judge ruled late last week that  New York City churches and religious groups are allowed to continue meeting in school space, at least until a lawsuit considering the matter gets resolved.

Bronx Household of Faith, the University Heights parish, has been waging a lawsuit against the Department of Education for 17 years for the right to keep holding services at PS/MS 15 on Andrews Avenue. The city has long wanted to end the practice, arguing that it could give the impression that the city was promoting one religion over another, a violation of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause. In its latest legal maneuver, Bronx Household of Faith claims that the city’s policy violates freedom of religion.

Federal Judge Loretta Preska issued the preliminary injunction on Friday, saying Bronx Household has a good chance of winning the case since “losing one’s right to exercise freely and fully his or her religious beliefs is a greater threat to our democratic society than a perceived violation of the Establishment Clause.”

Read more

Locked Out of Schools, Bronx Religious Groups Seek Alternatives

By Jeanmarie Evelly

An ongoing tug of war over a city policy banning worship in public school buildings during non-school hours caused confusion this past weekend, sending many churches that rent space from local schools scrambling to find sites to hold their Sunday services.

The ban, which went into effect Sunday, Feb. 12, following a federal court’s decision last spring that the Department of Education could legally evict the religious groups on the grounds of separation of church and state, was put on hold last week after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order.

But last Friday afternoon, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the order would apply only to Bronx Household of Faith, the University Heights parish that has been waging a lawsuit against the city for 17 years for the right to keep holding services at PS/MS 15 on Andrews Avenue.

So while Bronx Household of Faith is allowed to remain — at least until Feb. 27, when federal Judge Loretta Preska is due to issue another decision in the case — other parishes had to find last minute alternatives.

Heavenly Vision Christian Center, which has been renting the auditorium at the Walton High School Campus, was forced to split its service into three separate sessions on Sunday in order to fit everyone into the small chapel space they own on Jerome Avenue.

“It was chaos here,” said Pastor Salvador Sabino. “We have grown so much, we have over a thousand people in the Bronx alone, which is why we had to start renting from schools in the first place.” Read more

Local Initiative Puts Focus on Teens’ Reproductive Health

By Jeanmarie Evelly

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Breaking Bronx features a health-related story, event or tidbit as part of an online expansion of our Be Healthy! column.

As federal lawmakers in Congress continue to debate over whether health insurers should be required to cover the costs of birth control, a recent city initiative is looking to curb teen pregnancy rates in the Bronx, where it is higher than in any other borough.

The program, called Bronx Teens Connection, will offer affordable reproductive health services to the borough’s teenagers, as many here lack health insurance coverage and live below the poverty line. In New York City overall, one out of every 10 teenagers is uninsured, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

“Teens in the Bronx face many challenges as they approach adulthood,” said Dr. Jane Bedell, assistant commissioner at the Health Department’s Bronx District Public Health Office. “A community-wide effort will allow us to work together to invest in the well-being of our teenagers by providing access to services and making sure that teens are knowledgeable about sexual health and empowered to act on this knowledge.”

The new program will team the DOH up with the Department of Education to implement a new sexual education curriculum to be taught in ninth and tenth grade classrooms at 20 different Bronx high schools. Called “Reducing the Risk,” the lesson plans will stress the importance of using birth control and condoms, the risks involved in sexual activity and the benefits of waiting until they’re ready to have sex. A similar curriculum will be introduced through the city’s Administration for Children’s Services to reach teens in foster care.

Read more

Churches Can Stay in Schools for 10 More Days, Judge Says

By Jeanmarie Evelly

A city policy banning worship in public school buildings during non-school hours was put on hold today, after a federal judge issued a temporary injunction this morning that will allow churches and other religious groups to continue holding services in schools, at least for the next 10 days.

The ban was supposed to go into effect Sunday, Feb. 12, following a federal court’s decision last spring that the Department of Education could legally evict the religious groups on the grounds of separation of church and state. Bronx Household of Faith, a small University Heights-based church that has held services in the auditorium of PS 15 since 2002, has been been fighting the city’s policy for over a decade. This week, a Christian legal group representing the church, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), requested the injunction after the city’s Law Department denied a judge’s request Monday to let the churches remain while the court considered the issue.

“The court’s order is a message of hope for fundamental freedoms in New York City because it means that, for the time being, the city must welcome churches as it does other groups,” said ADF lawyer Jordan Lorence. “ADF will continue to fight this battle relentlessly until the city no longer unconstitutionally prohibits activity for purely religious reasons.”

Opponents of the ban, including many of the city’s religious leaders and Bronx City Councilman and pastor Fernando Cabrera, are hoping to have the issue resolved legislatively, and have been campaigning in support of a state bill that would reverse the city’s ban. The legislation was passed by the State Senate but has not been approved by the Assembly, where it was introduced by Bronx Assemblyman Nelson Castro. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who decides what bills come up on the Assembly floor for a vote, is looking for a more narrow version of the bill than the one that’s been proposed, according to a spokeswoman.

“He feels that the Senate bill is very broad, and would allow any organization to come into the school,” said Sheldon staffer Kerri Biche. “He’s glad it’s being addressed in the court since it’s a constitutional issue. He looks forward to the court’s decision as a guide for any legislation.”

Bronx Nabe Note: CSI for Teens at BCC

Every weekday, we highlight a Bronx program, service, opportunity, public meeting/hearing or community event. Find a full listing on our Neighborhood Notes page.

Bronx Community College‘s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), offers aspiring middle and high school students classes in the fundamentals of crime scene investigating. Funded by the NYS Education Department, the program offers free Saturday workshops providing enriching, academic support to seventh to 12th grade students in math and science disciplines such as algebra, earth science, biology, and calculus. Along with scientific research and application, students strengthen writing, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. For more information or to enroll your child, call (718) 289-5952 or contact Eugene.adams@bcc.cuny.edu.

Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative–FINAL DEADLINE!

Today, Wednesday, Feb. 15, is the last day to apply to the spring semester of the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative, the free high school journalism after-school program run by the Norwood News.

Founded in 2008, the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative is open to any high school student who lives or goes to school in the Bronx. Spring classes will start at the end of February and are held every Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. at Hostos Community College, on the Grand Concourse.

The course runs for 12 weeks, and teaches the ins and outs of reporting, writing, and photojournalism. Students work on their own articles (often story ideas they pitch themselves), which we then publish in Bronx Youth Heard, a special supplement we distribute in the Norwood News–meaning they will get a real news clip with a byline. Their work will be seen by thousands of readers and have an impact on the Bronx community.

We are looking for students of all academic abilities, but they should be highly motivated, love to write, be naturally inquisitive, and care about what’s going on in their communities. Click here to find out more about the program or to download an application form. If you have any questions, please call Jeanmarie or Alex at (718) 324-4998.

To check out some of the stories published by our fall semester students, click here.

You can also “like” the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative on Facebook! See what our current and former students are up to. Click here to become a fan.

City Rejects Judge’s Request for Delay in School Church Evictions

By Jeanmarie Evelly

The city has denied a federal judge’s request to delay the evictions of dozens of faith-based groups that hold worship services in public schools, saying the enforcement of the policy has already been pushed back twice, according to a letter sent by the city’s Law Department.

Yesterday, Judge Loretta Preska asked the city to allow churches and other groups that rent public school space on weekends to continue to use the facilities while she deliberates on the issue. The Department of Education policy banning religious groups from worshiping in school buildings, citing the separation of church and state, was supposed to take effect this past Sunday, Feb. 12. But lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a lawsuit earlier this month that seeks an injunction against the ban, which the ADF, religious leaders and some Bronx elected officials are calling discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Jordan Lorence, the lead lawyer for ADF, which first began challenging the DOE’s ban on behalf of University Height’s church Bronx Household of Faith in 1994, said yesterday that he’s hopeful Judge Preska will issue the injunction soon if the city refuses to voluntarily delay the evictions.

Read more

Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative — Apply Now Before Tomorrow’s Deadline!

Just two more days to apply to the spring semester of the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative, the free high school journalism after-school program run by the Norwood News. We’ll be accepting applications until this Wednesday, Feb. 15.

Founded in 2008, the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative is open to any high school student who lives or goes to school in the Bronx. Spring classes will start at the end of February and are held every Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. at Hostos Community College, on the Grand Concourse.

The course runs for 12 weeks, and teaches the ins and outs of reporting, writing, and photojournalism. Students work on their own articles (often story ideas they pitch themselves), which we then publish in Bronx Youth Heard, a special supplement we distribute in the Norwood News–meaning they will get a real news clip with a byline. Their work will be seen by thousands of readers and have an impact on the Bronx community.

We are looking for students of all academic abilities, but they should be highly motivated, love to write, be naturally inquisitive, and care about what’s going on in their communities. Click here to find out more about the program or to download an application form. If you have any questions, please call Jeanmarie or Alex at (718) 324-4998.

To check out some of the stories published by our fall semester students, click here.

You can also “like” the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative on Facebook! See what our current and former students are up to. Click here to become a fan.

Bronx Nabe Note: Human Rights Activist Speaks at Lehman College

Every weekday, we highlight a Bronx program, service, opportunity, public meeting/hearing or community event. Find a full listing on our Neighborhood Notes page.

Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, a Catholic priest from Oaxaca, Mexico, a leading advocate for the rights of migrants travelling through Mexico to the U.S., will speak in Lehman College Music Building’s East Dining Room on Thursday, Feb. 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, e-mail alyshia.galvez@lehman.cuny.edu.

Court to Hear Appeal on Worship in Schools Ban

By Jeanmarie Evelly and Alex Kratz

On Sunday, dozens of religious groups across the city that rent auditorium and cafeteria space in public schools held their (possibly) last services there, as a city policy banning worship in schools went into effect Feb. 12. Breaking Bronx reached out to a few local pastors to see what the plan was for their congregations after getting evicted, and we’re hearing from several sources that the groups could possibly be getting a reprieve.

Pastor Jack Roberts of Bronx Household of Faith, the University Heights church that led a years-long legal fight against the DOE’s policy, said that a Manhattan judge could decide this week to order a temporary injunction against the city’s ban, granting the religious groups more time to try and get the policy reversed by state law, or, at least, to find new sites to hold services.

The injunction was filed by the Alliance Defense Fund, which has legally backed Bronx Household’s efforts to use school space since it first challenged the DOE’s policy in 1994. Read more

Bronx Weekend Links: Final Day for Churches in Schools, More NYPD Fallout From Ramarley Graham Shooting & More

By Jeanmarie Evelly

Here are some local news stories we’re following, from this morning and this weekend, here on Breaking Bronx:

• Dozens of churches across the city that rent public school space for services will have to find new homes this week, after the Department of Education’s ban on the practice went into effect yesterday. The issue has become a crusade for Bronx City Councilman Fernando Cabrera, who has been campaigning for the State Legislature to pass a bill that would disallow the city’s ban. That bill passed in the Senate but still needs the approval of the Assembly and Gov. Cuomo before it can become law.“It is claimed these small houses of worship are recruiting and evangelizing impressionable children. Yet, the schools are rented only when they are empty. The houses of worship use the spaces when classes are not in session,” Cabrera said in a statement sent out yesterday.

• A Bronx teen was stabbed to death in Brooklyn Saturday night during a scuffle following a game of street football, the Daily News reports. Edgar Soto, 17, lived in Van Nest and was a student at Lehman High School. There were no immediate arrests.

• The NYPD is ordering a review of how it trains of all its street-level narcotics teams, following the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Bronx resident Ramarley Graham earlier this month. The officer who shot the unarmed Graham inside his Wakefield home had not undergone proper training and was not qualified for the detail he was on that day, WNYC reports. His death has sparked outrage and protests against the NYPD in the Bronx and across the city.

• Soundview, the struggling health care network founded by ex-State Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr.,  is in financial straits this month, laying off employees and facing expulsion from the state’s Medicaid program, while Espada himself continues to collect a paycheck from the nonprofit, according to the New York Post. Soundview is getting banned from Medicaid in part because Espada and his son, who are facing a slew of corruption charges for funneling money from the clinics for their own personal expenses, ignored a judge’s order to cut ties with the organization.

• The teenaged son of a high-ranking NYPD union official has been arrested in connection with a January shooting near Co-Op City. Police arrested 17-year-old Hameed Abdul-Jabbar after a search of his bedroom turned up a gun and drugs. Abdul-Jabbar is the son of Officer Mubarak Abdul-Jabbar, Second Vice President of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

• A 42-year-old woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Soundview Saturday night.

Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative–Apply Now Before Wednesday’s Deadline!

Just two more days to apply to the spring semester of the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative, the free high school journalism after-school program run by the Norwood News. We’ll be accepting applications until this Wednesday, Feb. 15.

Founded in 2008, the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative is open to any high school student who lives or goes to school in the Bronx. Spring classes will start at the end of February and are held every Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. at Hostos Community College, on the Grand Concourse.

The course runs for 12 weeks, and teaches the ins and outs of reporting, writing, and photojournalism. Students work on their own articles (often story ideas they pitch themselves), which we then publish in Bronx Youth Heard, a special supplement we distribute in the Norwood News–meaning they will get a real news clip with a byline. Their work will be seen by thousands of readers and have an impact on the Bronx community.

We are looking for students of all academic abilities, but they should be highly motivated, love to write, be naturally inquisitive, and care about what’s going on in their communities. Click here to find out more about the program or to download an application form. If you have any questions, please call Jeanmarie or Alex at (718) 324-4998.

To check out some of the stories published by our fall semester students, click here.

You can also “like” the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative on Facebook! See what our current and former students are up to. Click here to become a fan.

Bronx Nabe Note: Blood Drive at St. Brendan’s

Every weekday, we highlight a Bronx program, service, opportunity, public meeting/hearing or community event. Find a full listing on our Neighborhood Notes page.

St. Brendan’s Parish, located at 333 E. 206th St., between Perry and Bainbridge avenues, is conducting its annual neighborhood blood drive on Sunday, Feb. 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the school’s cafeteria. Social Security numbers are not required, but a valid picture ID is. Eligible donor ages are 16 to 75, but anyone under the age of 18 will need to provide his or her parent’s written consent. For more information, call (718) 547-6655.

Bronx Sports Report: Old School Hoops Slideshow as Borough Playoffs Heat Up

By Alex Kratz

[Slideshow: These vintage-looking shots by Adi Talwar were taken during the John F. Kennedy boy's 78-60 win over rival DeWitt Clinton in the quarterfinals of the Bronx borough playoffs. JFK plays Eagle Academy tonight in Riverdale at 6 p.m.]

The Embattled Eagle Academy Marches On
The Eagle Academy boy’s team, the number three seed in the Bronx borough playoffs (and they probably deserved a two-seed), goes into tonight’s semifinal match-up against JFK with a total of three wins on the season, according to the Public School Athletic League website. They were forced to forfeit their first 11 games played by point guard Gerard Carty, who the PSAL has deemed ineligible because he is a fifth-year senior, according to the NY Post. The Post‘s anonymous sources dispute this claim.

It’s unclear how the forfeits will affect Eagle’s seeding in the citywide playoffs coming up next week, but the loss of Carty has not stopped them from winning. Since losing by four to Wings Academy on Jan. 19, Eagle has reeled off five straight wins, including a 58-42 quarterfinal win over a much-improved Evander Childs team on Tuesday. Read more

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• Ex-Bronx Senator Pedro Espada Found Guilty of Theft Mon, May 14 at 2:35pm
• MS 80, Other ‘New’ Bronx Schools, Get New Names; Hiring Stalls Due to Lawsuit Fri, May 11 at 2:46pm

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