Rally On! Blizzard Nor Snow Day Will Stop Parents, Students, Educators, and Community Members From Expressing Their Outrage Over School Closings and Charter Takeovers

Press Advisory                                   

Date:  Thursday, January 27, 2011     

Contact:

Sam Coleman, NYCORE/GEM, Rally Coordinators:  646-354-9362

Angel Gonzalez, GEM, Rally Coordinators:  917-842-0381

Rally On!  Blizzard Nor Snow Day Will Stop Parents, Students, Educators, and Community Members From Expressing Their Outrage Over School Closings and Charter Takeovers.

When and Where:  Today, Thursday, January 27^th 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. at Brooklyn Bridge Park, on Centre Street, to the east of the Tweed Courthouse building.

What:  On Thursday, January 27th, parents, students, and teachers across the city will join together at a city-wide rally to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies.  The event will feature Jamaica and Queens Collegiate students performing an abridged performance of "Declassified: The Struggle for Existence [We Used to Eat Lunch Together]" which is a reinterpretation of Antigone and a candid and scathing critique of school reforms.  Parents, students, and educators from schools facing closing and charter takeovers, as well as those who sponsored the event will speak. 

Snow Closings, Yes!  School Closings, No!

Who:  Sponsored by: The Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers, Grassroots Education Movement NYC (GEM), New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE),Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública (CPE-CEP), The Manhattan Local of the Green Party of NY State, Class Size Matters, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

Endorsing Organizations: Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Independent Community of Educators (ICE), Center For Immigrant Families (CIF), The Puerto Rico Solidarity Network - PRSN NY, People Power Movement,  Renaissance School of the Arts-M377(UFT Chapter), City-Wide Coalition for Education Excellence Now, Black Women Against Urban Youth Violence, Teachers Unite (TU),  South Bronx Community Council, NY with UPR (NY with University of Puerto Rico), Dee Knight, The Independent Workers Movement/Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores,, District Leader Chris Owens (52nd Assembly District, Brooklyn), Retiree Advocate Caucus-UFT, CUNY Mobilization Network, The Green Party of NY State, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Radical Women, Answer Coalition, Community Education Council 1 (CEC1), Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE), New Action/UFT, National Black Education Agenda (NBEA), State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson 56^th AD, Youth on the Move (a Program of Mothers on the Move), PACE Network. Roots Revisited, S.E.E.D.S., Inc., The Healing Drum Collective, Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) Solidarity Network, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Councilman Charles Barron and Operation P.O.W.E.R., Time Out from Testing, The M.A.NY

Additional Contacts:

Stephane Barile, NYCORE and assisting students who are performing play: 650-218-3352

Crystal King, parent and PA President of PS 114: 347-789-5468

James Eterno, teacher, Jamaica High School: 917-693-5013

Stefanie Siegel, teacher, Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152

Muba YaroFulani, parent, CPE: 347-785-3418/347-442-5134

Brenda Walker, parent, CPE:  347-583- 5925

Leonie Haimson, parent and Executive Director, Class Size Matters:  917-435-9329

Edwin Mayorga, doctoral student in urban education at CUNY and NYCORE member:  917.400.6255

Christine Annechino, parent, CEC3:  917 593 4797

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