Bronx Schools: Making Reading Fun, One TIGER Day at a Time

2nd graders at PS 94, where just 29% of students read at or above grade level, enjoy TIGER Day.

Editor's note: This story first appeared in the April 21 edition of the Norwood News.

About halfway through his pivotal starring role as a life-sized, book-loving tiger at Norwood elementary school PS 94, Joe Lawliss removed his foam-rubber mascot head and breathed deeply. It’s all worth it, he thought.

Lawliss runs an after-school tutoring program at PS 94. He has two kids of his own. He realizes how important reading is for the development of young minds. It’s the reason he doesn’t have a TV at home and is willing to dress up in a cumbersome tiger costume that makes him feel like he’s living in a sauna. It’s why he will spend the entire day prancing around to various classrooms at PS 94 preaching: Reading is fun!

Parent Coordinator Miriam Seminario started T.I.G.E.R. (Together In Getting Everyone Reading) Day — an initiative developed by the nonprofit Literacy Inc. (LINC) — when she first arrived at PS 94 in 2003. It’s her programmatic baby. She spends an inordinate amount of time preparing for it each year: organizing administrators, teachers, parents and staffers as well as recruiting readers, media and, of course, a tiger.

“For me it’s important because the future is our kids,” Seminario said, while racing between PS 94’s two buildings in knee-high leather boots.

It’s also something that will hopefully encourage students to read at PS 94, where just 29 percent of third, fourth and fifth graders tested at or above grade level in reading on state exams last year, according to Principal Diane Daprocida.

Espada Hands Out School Supplies, Gets in Ugly Confrontation

Espada's staff give out school
supplies (Photos by David Greene)

By DAVID GREENE

Last Wednesday evening, State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. and several of his staffers gave out free school supplies to local residents outside PS 94 in Norwood.

"The need is great," said Espada, who's held several giveaways in recent weeks. Last month he antagonized a local pastor when he tried to hand out free groceries by St. Brendan's Church.

Outside PS 94, though, much of the response was positive.

"He's going to get our vote because he's been there for us," said local resident Sedella Harvin. "He supports us in ways that he can."

One man, however, began heckling Espada, accusing him of living in Mamaroneck, not his Bronx district, and of being a thief. (Espada is being sued for allegedly stealing $14 million from the non-profit healthcare company he runs.)

A furious Espada suggested the men settle the dispute with their fists. "Go and meet me there, over there on the corner," he said, pointing to East Gun Hill Road. The man, who refused to give his name, declined the invitation.

After the confrontation, Nancy Brown, another local resident, said, "I won't vote for Espada, but I took the school supplies, because I needed it."

Only folks who'd received a letter in the mail from Espada, and bought it with them, received a bag, which contained a notebook, a folder, a ruler, and pencils. About 100 bags were given out. They were paid for with campaign funds, said Espada, who's running for reelection.

Espada (right) is held back by his staff as he argues with an unidentified man

New from the Norwood News

The latest edition of the Norwood News is out on streets and online now. Here's a quick preview of our stories and features.

Top Story: The Related Companies, the designated developer for the Kingsbridge Armory revamp project, say they will not guarantee living wage jobs ($10 an hour, plus benefits) at retail stores that will eventually occupy the Shops at the Armory. Living wage jobs were something the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance has been pushing to be included in a Community Benefits Agreement since the project became a reality more than two years ago.

Proposed kindergarten cuts by the city's Administration for Children's Services will lead to some serious hardship at several Bronx daycare centers.

With the economy struggling, parents at PS 94 turned to job training help at the school.

Local kids pot plants for Earth Day.

A new Bronx playground is already closed for repairs.

A new school is on its way in District 10, but will it alleviate all the overcrowding problems in schools nearby?

Plus: we asked readers about gun violence in the Bronx . . . find out what's happening in the local arts scene in our Out & About section . . . and see our extended Neighborhood Notes listing of programs, services and events.

New from the Norwood News

It's here! The new issue of the Norwood News is out on streets and online now. This is a good one, if we do say so ourselves. Here's a look at what's inside:

-BP Watch: Adolfo Carrion's last speech, what local residents think of his legacy, and who is planning to run in the April 21 special election to replace him.

-Neighborhood landlords seem to be pushing out current tenants to make room for homeless families, who come with a hefty rent check from the city.

-Community groups are hoping to get a serious community benefits agreement from the Kingsbridge Armory developer as a condition of any financial incentives from the city.

-Bronx politicians turned out in force to welcome a new immigrants' rights center to the Bronx.

-City Council Members debated the future of Bronx parks.

-A look at why the Blockbuster on E 204th St. closed.

-Editorials on the Kingsbridge Armory, housing the homeless, and the broken windows theory.

Plus plenty of school news: Samuel Gompers High School students debate race and identity, PS 94's step team, and heartbreak for the women's basketball team at Lehman College.

And, as always, check our Neighborhood Notes section and our events calendar at Out & About to find out what's going on this month.

'New' School Seats a 'Flimflam'

An article in the Daily News today revealed that 300 'new' seats in the northwest Bronx were actually reclaimed seats, meaning the city is still not adding additional seats to ease the borough's chronic overcrowding problem.

City Council education chairman Robert Jackson said, "It seems to me that they're trying to do a flimflam on us." (For those unfamiliar with the term, the word "flimflam" means "a swindle." Thanks Webster's. Yes, we looked it up.)

Others, including Councilman Oliver Koppell, were equally unimpressed. The city is "trying to placate everybody, trying to make it seem like they're doing more than they're really doing."

In September the Norwood News wrote a story with similar miscalculations from the Education Department about a new building being constructed on the PS 94 campus in Norwood.

If you don't want to read through the whole article, here's the important part:

"Feinberg wrote in an email that the SCA scoured the district to find places to build on existing DOE property and, as a result, chose PS 94, PS 95 and PS 79 to receive permanent annex buildings. It's all part of the DOE's plan, she wrote, to alleviate overcrowding by adding 2,500 K-8 seats to District 10 in the city's revised Five-year Capital Plan. The new Early Childhood Center at PS 94 will 'provide 420 additional seats' in District 10, according to DOE calculations.

But after a closer look at the numbers, those calculations appear optimistic at best. The new building, which the DOE says will be part of PS 94 when it opens (but even that is subject to change once it's built), will contain 515 seats. Currently, PS 94 houses 1,050 students; 600 in the main building, 325 in the portables on campus and an additional 125 at a satellite building on Gun Hill Road four blocks away. As it stands, the DOE says all 450 students housed outside of the main building will move into the new Early Childhood Center. That leaves just 65 additional seats, not counting the new Pre-K students who will arrive as part of the DOE's citywide push for more Pre-K classes."