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[quote=Anonymous][quote=littlehouse]My child went to this school during this time.  I'm familiar with the people and the events.  It's funny to me that a lot of talk here is "if you listened to the podcast, you'd understand".  But the podcast itself is subjective too, I suppose all reporting is.

I've never been on a school tour with even majority white parents.  NYC public system is 15% white.  There are a couple of white neighborhoods were you'd see tours like this .. carroll gardens, upper east side, Tribeca.  It's a tiny percentage. I get that the podcast host lives in a super white Brooklyn neighborhood, but that's highly unusual and she should have said so.

I also wrote a letter about a middle school that was being built back when my kids were in grade school.   Like in this case, it took 5 years (longer) and I didn't send my kids to that school, because they were no longer middle school aged.  I wonder if someone will call me when I'm 90 to ask about this,  I remember my kids weren't in middle school anymore.

I remember the fundraising event at the French Cultural Services building.  It was a fundraiser for all the French dual language schools in NYC. There were about a half dozen at the time. Not for this school specifically.   Parents were invited, but this wasn't really a parent thing.  I didn't go.  It was for rich ladies who love Paris to give money for french language instruction - presumably to the poors in Brooklyn. I know I'm happy to take their money.  Easier than selling wrapping paper.

More about that foundation here: https://frenchculture.org/about-us/press-room/4889-campaign-dual-language-nyc-public-schools

(And let's take a moment here to acknowledge the French govt is playing the long game.  I hand it to them.)

The school in 2015 was about to be closed. DOE employees are union, with pretty good salaries.  Jillian, the principal, was making about 180k.  There are Assistant Principals, Parent Coordinators, Guidance Counselors, Nurse, Safety Agent, Building Maintenance Staff all these people who are in a building if there is 100 kids or 3000.  Teachers too, but that's scaleable.  When enrollment is 100, the DOE is paying sometimes 30k a student and it makes no sense.

The podcast likes to focus on the 50k for the teacher and books, but a lot of money was being spent there for kids who ended up not graduating from high school.  Even last year, the graduation rate was 75%.  The high school directory is online.  You can see the data.

I agree in general that PTAs should step back, but Principals need to step up.  I'd be happy if PTAs were abolished.  But I know parents are doing their best and they are unpaid and untrained.  They also really don't make budget decisions.  I know the press likes stories about parents fighting over PTA crumbs, but the Principal had a budget of north of $3mm in 2015.

There are about a dozen French dual language programs, but there are hundreds of Spanish and Mandarin programs.  There are also Arabic, Japanese, Polish, Korean, Russian .. you name it .. dual language programs.   In Brooklyn, the French speaking community is largely Caribbean (like me) but also kids from 27 African countries.  SIS (called BHS now) was started with families from PS58, the one French Dual Language program in Carroll Gardens, the white zone where the podcast host lives.  This "whiteness" is hard to shake, even now when it's mostly Caribbean.   Then again, they are the people who used their agency to make it happen.  Did they sound bad sometimes, sure.   There probably were bad parents.   Most were nice and made things happen.  Not just French,but also sports and arts.

But again, when that Turkish/Yemini girl was learning French in a drama class, the host wonders if she wouldn't be happier in a arabic program.  I think it leaves people to think there wasn't an arabic program at a school just a couple blocks away.  There is!   I'm not sure what the motivations were for the parents and the student to pick this school, but I don't second guess them.  Would that little Chinese boy at her kid's school been happier in a Mandarin program?   She doesn't seem to think so.   But who are we to say.  Parents make the best decisions they can for their kids, that includes immigrant parents.

That play by the way, was great, about refugees.  It won awards.  Here it is, being preformed for another fundraiser.   (performative?  sure.  but easier than selling candy and the kids loved it.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0n4ikL1glE

I look forward to future episodes.  I'm sure it will cover the Diversity Plan.  Where white parents  with kids in private schools said that that language screens were racist and so you couldnt test into BHS anymore as a Francophone.  So rich white parents got those seats, the black francophones did not, and the school is whiter than ever post-Diversity Plan.

To put a picture to some of this, here's a video about the school during this time. Is it perfect?  No.  Did people mess up?  Yes?  Were people trying?  Yes.  Did the principal and admin mismanage some of this?  YES, most of it.

Most white parents don't send their kids to public schools in NYC.  One day, I'd like to see a Nice White Parents about those people - the ones who didn't even try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6vxEyslut8[/quote]

Bravo!   Another Brooklynite here, and I also think the podcast is offering a very biased picture.   I’d love to see a disclosure of where the NYTimes people send their kids to schools. [/quote]

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