Mary Somoza
Community School Board Member District #2
Dr.Maureen Weinberg
Dear Dr. Weinberg,
Thank you for
your letter of January 3rd addressed to Superintendent Shelley Harwayne and
members of the School Board.
There is
tremendous concern among District 2 parents regarding the math curricula. It has
been almost a year now that parents in the District have addressed their
concerns to me both privately and at school board meetings. The District held a
math forum at P.S. 89
in April 2000. It was
probably one of the best attended meetings that, in my history as a school
board member and a parent in District #2 (since 1989)I
was fortunate to have been a participant. In my perception, parents wanted
answers to their questions regarding the math curriculum, not another “math
night” presentation by the district.
The panelists were not a diverse group, but only advocates and
interested parties and promoters of the
TERC and CMP curricula.
From what I
have heard from parents over the last several months, there is an enormous
amount of private tutoring being provided by parents to bring their children up
to speed in math. In that District 2 is
socioeconomically diverse, it was not surprising to me that some parents who
approached me could afford tutoring services, however they were indignant at
having to provide this service to their children. They feel unable to help
their children, despite the fact that most of them are professionals and very
well educated. Having no books with
which to work, parents feel inadequate in their ability to help their children
and are looking for outside professional help.
Of course, parents who do not speak English, or who cannot afford
between $60 to $120 per hour for math tutoring, and are not skilled in
advocating for their children are left without recourse.
Working with
several parents who had requested a diverse math forum, with experts for and
against the TERC curriculum, the Board formed a math committee to organize a
truly open math night. I have worked on
that committee over the past months, but unfortunately my colleagues on the
Board chose on Tuesday, January 9th at the working session to disband the math
committee. Despite my constant reminders that we are elected to serve our
communities, our parents and children, and not the District office, the rest of
the Board has chosen to ignore the multitude of complaints they have heard from
parents over the last six months.
On one level I
understand their lack of involvement in addressing parent complaints. Five of
the nine members of the Board do not live in District 2, but in communities as
distant as Staten Island, Queens,the Upper West Side and the Lower East Side.
Those five Board members hold full time jobs as well as having children in
District 2 schools, which leads one to wonder exactly how much time they have to dedicate to their role as a school
board member, and to involve themselves in community issues.
On Tuesday
night, one of the above mentioned board members, who is a corporate lawyer,
stated that he could not help his child with his homework, that he could not
speak the same math language, there is no text book to guide him, and he is
spending “a fortune” in tutoring. He had
not attended the last three board meetings where many parents came to voice
their complaints, and yet he felt qualified to call for a motion to disband the
math committee. I simply do not
understand the reasoning behind this.
I am quite
disenchanted with our school board. It
is incidents like this, and others that have resulted in previous board
decisions of “inaction” that make me
want to conclude that perhaps school boards should be disbanded. If they become
too “political” or contain too many folks with personal vested interests, well,
perhaps there should be another type of system or a revamping of the present
qualifications for community school board members.
The President
of our school board is the chief of staff for a member of the state assembly,
so one wonders where the politics begin and where representation of
constituents of the district - parents, children and community take precedent.
This will certainly be my last term on the school board, but in the meantime, I
will do my best, as perhaps the sole voice on the Board, to address the
concerns of district 2 families who are finding the math programs
deficient.
I will be
available to you should you need any advice concerning the home-schooling of
your child. I sincerely regret that I
cannot be of more help, I will however keep bringing your concerns and those of
other parents on to the agenda at the school board meetings and I will continue
to voice any ongoing math concerns.
Please let me
know how Jessica is doing, I don’t doubt that you are doing what is in the best
interest of your child.
Sincerely,
Mary Somoza
c. Shelly Harwayne Assemblymember
Christine Quinn CSB #2 Members Assemblymember
Steve Sanders
Chancellor Harold
O. Levy Assemblymember Deborah
Glick Dep.
Chancellor Judith Rizzo State
Senator Tom Duane
Burton Sacks
Dr.
Irving Hamer
Trudy Irwin
Enclosure: Letter
from Dr. Weinberg