Cabrera Rips the DOE Over High School's Relocation

Councilman Fernando Cabrera (right) and University Heights Secondary School students held a press conference on Monday (Photo: R. Thomas)

By REBECCA THOMAS

Councilman Fernando Cabrera had harsh words on Monday for the Department of Education, which continues to be unreceptive to his proposal to keep University Heights Secondary School in his district.

"The DOE has been duplicitous in their dealings with my office and our constituency,” said Cabrera in a statement released that morning. “They never intended to prevent the move of University Heights and falsely gave the impression that they were willing to negotiate with CUNY and the community in order to provide the best for the kids. It is time they be held accountable.”

The school is located on the Bronx Community College campus in University Heights, but will have to leave because BCC - a CUNY college - needs the space in time for the new school year.

On Monday afternoon, the councilman and 13 students from the school gathered at the corner of 179th Street and Jerome Avenue for a press conference. They stood outside a newly constructed four-story building that Cabrera described as “ideal” for the school but which the DOE has rejected in favor of the South Bronx High School campus in Morrisania.

Cabrera says he suggested the 179th Street site in January after the DOE had said that the lack of suitable buildings was the obstacle to keeping the school in the local area. The building is a five-minute walk from University Heights Secondary School's current site, but Cabrera's proposal was greeted with inaction.

“They asked me to find a building. I found a building, but now nothing!” he said at the press conference. “Don’t ask me to do something if you know at the end that there is no hope!”

Bronx News Roundup, April 22

Yesterday morning, as you've no doubt heard, the FBI and IRS raided State Sen. Pedro Espada's Soundview HealthCare Network. Here's the story that appeared in today's NY Times.

In related news:

Law-enforcement officials tell the NY Post that Espada will likely be indicted on multiple federal charges in the next few weeks.

AG Andrew Cuomo's office has subpoenaed the State Senate in an effort to get its hands on records relating to ten of Espada's Senate employees who have previously worked for Soundview or sat on its board. More here.

The first victims of the Espada fallout could be the thousands of low-income patients who rely on his health clinics.

Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. thinks Espada should relinquish his majority leader position, as do senators Neil Breslin (D-Albany) and Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn).  (Espada, remember, doesn't have much time for borough presidents, despite running for the office himself in 2001.)  UPDATE: 6 p.m.: We missed this: Sen. Eric Schneiderman is also calling on Espada to step aside.

Espada could face two or more candidates in September's Democratic primary. Desiree-Pilgrim Hunter, a community activist, has already announced her decision to run (here's a write-up she received in today's Times) and Daniel Padernacht, a lawyer and community board member, is also considering it. More on Padernaht here.

Away from Espada:

The lowdown on why a lawsuit filed by Legal Services NYC could have far reaching implications for landlords and tenants nationwide. (The suit is part of an effort to force a bank to maintain ten rundown Bronx apartments building, which went into foreclosure last year when a private equity firm defaulted in its mortgage.)

Two Bronx men charged with the fatal beating of an Ecuadorian immigrant in Brooklyn in 2008, laughed about it afterwards, according to a relative of one of the men.

In a video posted on YouTube, students at University Heights Secondary School are requesting that President Obama stop their school's relocation to the South Bronx High School campus. 

Students from MS 15 in University Heights have won a national chess tournament in Minneapolis.

Approved: University Heights Secondary School's Move to the South Bronx

On Tuesday night, the city's Panel for Educational Policy voted to approve University Heights Secondary School's move to the South Bronx High School campus.

The school is being forced to relinquish its current building at Bronx Community College at end the school year, because the college says it needs the extra classroom space.

According to Marge Feinberg, a Department of Education spokesperson, nine Panel board members voted in favor of the move, and two against (the representatives of the Manhattan and Brooklyn borough presidents). The Bronx BP's rep was absent because of a car accident, Feinberg said.

We've left messages with teachers at the school, seeking their reaction to the vote, and will update this post when we hear back.

Many in the school community are furious with BCC, and also with the DOE for not doing move to fight the move and for recommending the South Bronx High School campus as the new site. (On BronxTalk on Monday night, host Gary Axelbank interviewed a parent and a teacher from the school, both of whom slammed the relocation plans. You can watch it here. Next Monday at 9 p.m. officials from Bronx Community College will appear on the same show - tune into Bronxnet's Cablevision channel 67 or Verizon Fios channel 33.)

It's possible - in theory - that BCC could reverse its decision, or that the DOE could find a different space more in tune with the school's wishes. (Local developer Frank DeLeonardis wants the city to consider his four-story building on Jerome Avenue at East 179th Street, which is just six or seven blocks from BCC.)

But the Panel for Educational Policy's "yes" vote makes this less lightly. "It doesn't look good for them [the school]" said Xavier Rodriguez, Community Board 5's district manager, at last night's community board meeting.

D-Day for University Heights Secondary School

University Heights Secondary School is currently located in this building on BCC's campus.  (File photo by R. Thomas)

In December, Bronx Community College asked University Heights Secondary School to vacate the building it occupies on the college’s campus by the end of the school year.

The Department of Education has since proposed moving the school to Morrisania, where it would take over a section of South Bronx High School.

Tonight, at a meeting in Staten Island, the city's Panel for Educational Policy will vote on whether to approve the relocation.

Tonight: Public Hearing on High School's Future

Students want their school to stay where it is (Photo: R. Thomas)

Undeterred by the gathering blizzard, more than 40 University Heights Secondary School students rallied on Thursday, Feb. 25 to protest plans to move their school to the South Bronx High School campus in Morrisania.

Tonight, at a Department of Education public hearing at Bronx Community College (where the school is currently housed), students and parents will state their case to DOE officials. The hearing starts at 6 p.m. There's another one on Thursday, this time at the South Bronx High School campus. Details here.

The Panel for Educational Policy will decide on March 23 whether or not to approve the relocation.

Bronx News Roundup, March 2

A man has died after falling down an elevator shaft in an apartment building on the Grand Concourse.  (UPDATE 12 p.m. - the incident happened at 1749 Grand Concourse, also known at the Lewis Morris.  This building, it seems, is rarely out of the news. In 2008, a man was shot dead in the lobby. A year before, one person died and 40 were injured when a fast-moving fire swept along the corridors and up and done the stairs. The building is owned by SG2 Properties, a private equity firm that was taken to court by the Urban Justice Center for failing to make repairs in the apartments. SECOND UPDATE 8 p.m. - SG2 no longer owns the building.  Thanks to Marie Toribio, a tenant, for pointing that out.  The new landlord is Lemle & Wolff, Inc.)

One of Assemblyman Peter Rivera's aides is calling on Gov. David Paterson to resign.  Bronx Democratic Party Chairman Carl Heastie, meanwhile, says the governor should be allowed to serve out his term.

March 7 is Oscar-night, but Cablevision subscribers in the Bronx may have to watch something else, following a contractual dispute between Cablevision and WABC.

A church is the north Bronx is helping undocumented Haitian immigrants apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) so they can stay here legally, rather than return to their earthquake-ravaged homeland.

For the past two decades, a Bronx man who works for the city's Department of Planning has been helping the Census Bureau track down elusive populations.

Nearly 270,000 Bronxites don't have a bank account. A new program, NYC SafeStart, is hoping to change this.   

With service cuts imminent, the MTA is hosting a public hearing at the Loew's Paradise Theater tomorrow night.

A talented boxer from the South Bronx will return to the ring next week, after taking time out to have a baby.  Nisa Rodriguez is hoping one day to compete in the Olympics.

The Bronx has a new community newspaper.  The Bronx Free Press is an off-shoot of the Manhattan Times, a Washington Heights weekly published by David Keisman, who used to run the Bronx Times, and Luis Miranda, who along with Roberto Ramirez (the one-time Bronx Democratic Party boss) heads up the MirRam Group, a political consulting firm.

Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 16

Twelve people were injured yesterday when a fire swept through a Bronxdale apartment building.  Here's a dramatic photo of a woman holding a baby girl out of a fifth-floor window so she could breathe.

In Bronx Park, recently, a group of young adults took a tree-climbing class - part of a new job-training program for aspiring arborists.

United Bronx Parents has come to the aid of Tato Laviera, a Nuyorican poet who was struggling to find an affordable apartment.

The DOE plans to close the construction trade program at Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School and replace it with a 18-month-old charter school. But the charter school has its own problems, among them, poor teacher and student retention. Moreover, its founder and former director is Richard Izquierdo, the nephew of Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo. Izquierdo was charged last year with stealing $200,000 from a non-profit.

The Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. has a new president. Marlene Cintron, most recently the director of the state Senate's Puerto Rican and Latino Caucus, replaces Ray Salaberrios.

New procedures at Lincoln Medical Center have led to fewer infections in the hospital's intensive care unit.

The Daily News covers Bronx Community College's attempts to expel University Heights Secondary School from its campus. More here in this month's Mount Hope Monitor.

Least we forget, Councilman Larry Seabrook isn't the only Bronx politician looking at possible jail-time. In his weekly column, the DN's Bob Kappstatter ticks off five or six others under investigation.

Majora Carter, the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, was in Georgia yesterday to give a talk to a group of university students about green jobs and environmentalism. Carter now runs her own consultancy firm and was paid a tidy $18,500 for her time.

In high school basketball, Wings Academy are the new Bronx Borough champions.

A eclectic mix of celebrities and politicians - among them, actress Mary-Kate Olsen and Congressman Eliot Engel - name their favorite places to eat. Engel's? Liebman's Delicatessen on West 235th Street.

DOE Proposes New Home For High School

In December, Bronx Community College divulged its intention to evict University Heights Secondary School from its campus at the end of this school year, so that the college can better accommodate a growing student body.

The decision maddened parents, teachers, and students at the school, as well as local politicians, who have been speaking out against BCC.

The Department of Education, meanwhile, has been busy hunting for a new site for the school, and on Tuesday announced they'd found one: the South Bronx High School Campus, at 701 St. Ann's Ave. (near East 156th Street).

Blogging in the Huffington Post, Alan Stringer, a Hofstra University professor and a friend of a University Heights teacher, criticized the DOE's proposal and said it would "kill" the school. He added:

My prediction is that if this plan goes through, students who would have selected UHHS will choose to go elsewhere and four years from now we will find it on the failing schools list and targeted for reorganization.

The proposal (published below) will be discussed at a public hearing on March 11, at the South Bronx High School Campus. The final decision rests with the city’s Panel for Educational Policy.

DOE Proposal for UHSS

Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 2

The Bronx Zoo is at the forefront of an effort to save a species of toad, whose natural habitat was destroyed when a river in Tanzania was dammed.

Police are hunting a group of gypsies suspected of burglarizing at least ten homes in the Bronx and Queens these past few months. The group preys on the elderly, police say, may be responsible for other break-ins in other states.

Yesterday, students at St. Raymond's Elementary School in Parkchester presented New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan with a $15,407 check. The money will go to Haiti.

A building manager, found guilty last year of criminally negligent homicide in the "Black Sunday” fire, will have to wait another week to find out if his conviction will stand. Cesar Rios could go free after a juror on the trial admitted that she e-mailed and tried to "Facebook" a witness.

State Sen. Pedro Espada and his lawyers have accused Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of launching a smear campaign against him.

The future of City Island's only FDNY fire company, Ladder 53, is once again in doubt. Last week, Mayor Bloomberg's 2011 fiscal year budget called for the shuttering of 20 fire companies, and which names and numbers weren't given, Ladder 53 - the quietest unit in the city - is likely on the list.

Blogging in the Huffington Post, a Hofstra University professor has some words of wisdom for University Heights Secondary School students, whose school is in danger of being kicked off Bronx Community College's campus. Here's another post by the same author criticizing BCC's decision (he’s friends with a teacher at the school), and here's an article that appeared the Mount Hope Monitor, concerning opposition to the eviction.

A trauma surgeon at St. Barnabas Hospital, who travelled to his native Haiti the day after the earthquake to help out, recalls his heart-wrenching experiences.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been wooing Bronx Democrats.

More on the 16th Congressional District's status as the nation's hungriest place.

All eyes on Leroy Comrie as he takes over Land Use Committee, at a time when the City Council is beginning to take strong stands on development projects, as it did with the Kingsbridge Armory.

Bronx BP Opposes BCC's Decision To Evict School

Here's a letter Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. sent the president of Bronx Community College last week, asking her to reconsider plans to evict University Heights Secondary School from one of the college's buildings.

Diaz wrote, in part:

"[Moving the school] would not only have a negative effect on current and future students at school but would also put a stop to an educational partnership that serves as a shining example of one of the best methods in improving students outcomes and lives."

The college says it needs the extra classroom space to cope with rising enrollment; teachers, parents and students at the high school want to stay where they are, believing a move will hurt students' grades.

More here and here.

School Community, Local Politicians Criticize Plans to Relocate High School

Passions ran high on Thursday night at a University Heights Secondary School parents meeting where over 650 parents, teachers and students met with Department of Education representatives and Mary Coleman, a senior vice president of Bronx Community College, to discuss the possible relocation of the school from its current site on the college’s campus.

In December, the college asked the DOE to move the school so that it could use the Nichols Hall building for its own classes. The BCC student population has reached a historic high of almost 11,000 students this semester – 4,000 more than this time last year – Coleman said at the meeting, and it simply needs all the space it has.

But the school community and local polititians are angry about the move, believing it will disrupt the school’s academic success.

More here.

Reporting, writing, and photo by Rebecca Thomas.