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HOST: More than four months after Hurricane Sandy, students in storm- damaged areas are still struggling to return to their academic routines. Now the school system is committing more than 2 million dollars to offer academic enrichment to students who fell behind. Jessica Gould reports.

Gladys Munez watches as construction workers replace the walls in her Red Hook apartment. Most of her belongings lie in a heap in the middle of her living room. It’s a mess. But she worries that’s nothing compared to the chaos in her son Jonathan’s head.

MUNEZ: I think what affected him was the darkness. Not having heat. One night he’s sitting in the chair he said Mommy I feel like I’m driving crazy. When are we going to get heat? When are we going to get light? I said no it’s going to take time. It’s going to come.

For thirteen days after the storm, Munez and her sixteen-year-old son sat in their public housing apartment, surrounded by darkness, wrapped in blankets — waiting out the cold. It was a month before Jonathan Munez made it back to school. And he’s still trying to catch up.

JONATHAN: Like everybody was ahead I didn’t know what to do in class because I was stuck behind because of the hurricane. A lot of my classes I’ve been getting 50s and stuff.

In other words, Jonathan is failing. Badly. And he’s not the only one. At a hearing in February, educators told city council members that many students saw their grades sink after the storm. Santos Crespo is president of the union that represents school counselors.

CRESPO: Buildings can be repaired and in some cases replaced. … But the damage that I’m talking about is the post-traumatic stress that many of the children in those areas are going through.

Crespo praised the city for investing in school buildings after the storm. But he said it’s time to invest in students and their schoolwork.

CRESPO: Whenever there’s a severe rain storm the children for lack of a better word freak out. Obviously, they’re not learning ready.

Crespo called on the city to provide tutoring for students. And later that day, the city announced it would do just that – spending an additional $2 million on “academic enrichment” for students affected by the storm. The money will go to 39 of the hardest hit schools in the next few weeks.

Studies show that students who fall behind during disasters often stay behind for years to come. Lisa Jaycox is a behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. She researched the impact of Hurricane Katrina on students back in 2005. And she says New Yorkers can expect students to struggle for a long time if no one intervenes now.

JAYCOX: They may do worse this year and then not get into the classes they want next year. This really has the possibility of pushing them off their trajectory.

NARR: Gladys Munez says she’s not going to let it get to that point with her son. His school won’t be getting any additional funding from the city because it wasn’t directly affected by the storm. And she plans to keep lobbying officials until Jonathan gets the services he needs.

MUNEZ: Now we’re planning to have tutoring. And maybe summer school. And see how we can push him more.

NARR: Her son Jonathan may be ready for that push now. He just started counseling through a state-sponsored program. And he says he’s beginning to feel better. He used to love basketball, but he hadn’t played since the storm. Until this week.

JONATHAN: I went to play basketball a day ago and going there it made me feel good about myself to see my friends and stuff.

NARR: He just hopes he can carry that same can-do spirit from the basketball court to the classroom.

Jessica Gould, Columbia Radio News

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Dr. Seuss would have turned 109 years old this year. Today more than 250 Manhattan school children went on a field trip to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue to celebrate his work. The National Education Association sponsors the annual Read Across America Day as part of a nationwide literacy campaign. Sonia Paul reports.

REPORTER:
First and second graders in New York became Dr. Seuss impersonators today at the library. As they wear the beloved Cat in the Hat’s famous red and white striped hats and wait for readings from Dr. Seuss books to begin, teachers and students talk about their favorite Dr. Seuss books.

TEACHER AND ISAIAH:

What do you think about the Cat in the Hat, Isaiah?

I think about the Cat in the Hat, that, it’s like, fun, funny, and

It’s fun, yeah, and what else?

And like, awesome. Because you get to – you get to see Thing One and Thing Two. (0:23)

Characters like Thing 1 and Thing 2 came to life. They were walking around and talking with students like Isaiah during the event. The National Education Association uses the writer’s magnetic attraction as a way to get children excited about reading. Kids can’t get enough of his books, or his characters. Isaiah and his classmates got into a heated conversation with Thing 1 from the Cat in the Hat.

ACTORS AND CHILDREN:

You guys are going to have so much fun today!

What’s your real name?

My real name is Thing 1!

But your real name is not the Cat in the Hat.

How do you know?!

Are you the real Thing 1?

Look at my blue locks! Don’t you like my hair? It’s always like this! (0:22)

Actors Uma Thurman and Jake T. Austin were on call to read The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. But eight-year-old Isaiah kept squirming during the readings. He wasn’t paying attention like the other kids from P.S. 51, the school he’s here with today. But he’s also not a typical P.S. 51 student.

ISAIAH:

I live in Times Square. I live in a hotel.

Wait, you live in a hotel? (0:05)

Isaiah and his family are originally from Far Rockaway. They’ve been living at the DoubleTree Hotel in Times Square since Hurricane Sandy. And Isaiah has been attending P.S. 51 while his family is in transition.

ISAIAH:

Tell my mom I like green eggs – green eggs and ham. My mom is over there. (0:06)

Tonia Davis sits at the sidelines listening to “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham” alongside the children. Today is the first time Tonia has ever participated in Read Across America. It has added significance for her because events like these are part of her plan to bring normalcy back to her family.

DAVIS:

We’re stable, you know, I’m trying to spend most of my time, most of my free time, participating in school events, stuff like that. (0:07)

Tonia is especially glad Read Across America Day took her son and his classmates out of school and into a New York landmark.

DAVIS:

I love it, I’m glad I came here, you know, to participate. As I was growing up, I went to performing arts school, and I experienced going to different museums and stuff like that. And I like to see that with my children, and also the kids they grow up with. (0:20)

For Tonia, Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s birthday are not just ways to get kids to read. It’s part of a bigger way to escape troubles and become immersed in New York City’s culture. Sonia Paul, Columbia Radio News.

Success Academy posters have been repeatedly defaced in the Bedford Avenue subway station.

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HOST INTRO: Residents of the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn have  been contending with the effects of gentrification for more than a decade. Upscale restaurants have forced out mom and pop residents and poor residents worry that they’re getting priced out. Now gentrification may be coming to Williamsburg schools. A nonprofit charter school is slated to open in an existing public school building and that’s divided the community. Jackie Mader reports.

N1: Stand in East River state park and you get a really clear vision of what has happened to the Williamsburg waterfront.

AMB: Water lapping against the shoreline. Distant construction sounds.

N2: Fifteen years ago, this park was an abandoned former freight depot. Now you can see residential high rises stretching down to the Williamsburg Bridge. Median income in the neighborhood has shot up as the area has attracted more residents and businesses.  It has also attracted the interest of a charter school chain called Success Academy. The non-profit has launched an ad campaign in the neighborhood to let everyone know that it’s coming.

AMB: Subway: “The next L train is now arriving”

N2 The Bedford Avenue subway stop in Williamsburg is plastered with posters for the new school.  Opponents of Success Academy have placed stickers on top of the ads. One accuses the charter school chain of spending too much money on marketing. Another accuses the schools of enrolling too few students who speak English as a second language. And its those two issues- money and ethnicity- that are at the center of the fight over Success Academy in Williamsburg. Along the waterfront and north of Grand street, the neighborhood is primarily white and more affluent. South of there, it is primarily Latino and poorer. Opponents of the schools say their founder, former city council member, Eva Moskowitz, is ignoring the south side and targeting the north side for a specific reason.

DEVOR: Her business model cannot succeed, at this point, without an affluent parent body.

Jim Devor is a parent in Cobble Hill. He says Moskowitz targets affluent parents because they’re more likely to make donations to the non-profit that runs nine schools.

DEVOR: To the extent that her schools are successful is because, and to some degree they are, it is because there is substantially greater resources. Not necessarily coming from public funds, but coming from outside funds.

While Success Academy is targeting parents on the north side, it is actually going to be located in the south side. Latino residents in that area feel that the school has completely ignored their needs.  Esteban Duran is the chair of the education and youth committee for Community Board 1 in Williamsburg.

DURAN: What about the South side of the community which actually- is Spanish, speaks Spanish predominantly and where the school is located. They do any of the gathering of signatures there, they didn’t do any advertisements in Spanish until after the first hearing. Its not a public process.

Duran says that what the community actually needs, is another middle school. He’s also worried because the charter school is going to be located in an existing public school building. He thinks the charter school, with its greater resources, will crowd out the struggling public school.

DURAN: You’re gonna see a school that’s gonna get more resources and then a school that is left to die on the vine, and that’s the public school.

Supporters of Success Academy say that’s not likely to happen. Vanessa Bangser is principal of a Success Academy in the Bronx. She says that when a charter school and a public school operate side by side in a public building, good things can happen.

BANGSER: The bigger point is to go back- what was the root of charter schools? It was to provide choice and provide options but also innovate different ideas for schools and to partner with district schools to help improve all schools. So if we just share best practices and work together, definitely both schools can improve.

The four elementary schools in Williamsburg nearest to where the charter school will open could use improvement. Only 30 percent of their students are proficient in English. Success Academy teacher Jessica Johnson says the controversy more about what adults want than about what children need.

JOHNSON: if you don’t want to send your kid to Williamsburg success, fine then don’t. You have the option to send them wherever you want. I just really strongly believe in parent choice.

But Success Academy opponent Estaban Duran says that parents should be concerned if the new school is going to weaken the existing schools.

DURAN: The larger story here is really this interest of public property, public resources being given over to a public entity. That would be ok if there was actually community input. That’s the real issue here.

Success Academy will open in Williamsburg in August with room for nearly 200 kindergartens and first graders. Jackie Mader, Columbia Radio News.

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Newly designated school chancellor Dennis Walcott greets Staten Island city council member Vincent Ignizio at the Committee on Education hearing. Walcott said 4500 teachers would have to be laid off due to state budget cuts. Photo by: Jacob Anderson / Columbia Radio News.

The brand new chancellor of New York City Schools wasted no time getting down to business today. This morning, Dennis Walcott faced the Committee on Education’s budget hearing for the next fiscal year. He said Bloomberg’s policies will stand, including the Mayor’s estimate that 4500 teachers will need to be laid off due to state budget cuts.

Walcott began the public meeting on a personal note.

“This morning I dropped my grandson off at his school which also happened to be my own elementary school when I was a child,” he said.

His day quickly got lot tougher. He faced the council and told them that the state’s education budget doesn’t cover the needs of New York City’s one million students.

Several of the nineteen council members blamed the mayor for the school’s financial problems. They said if Bloomberg would support the so-called millionaires tax–income tax on people making over 200 thousand dollars a year, that revenue could help cover school costs. Council Member Charles Barron, from Brooklyn, told Walcott to tell the mayor that.

“When y’all go to lunch or breakfast or caviar at his mansion, whatever you do, I think it’s important to try to influence him that it’s the tax breaks,” Barron said.

Barron fought back when Walcott insisted that people losing their jobs would be unfortunate, but that it was necessary.

“I also do not want to lay off teachers,” Walcott began.

“You don’t have to Dennis,” Barron interrupted. “I know you don’t want to have to lay them off–don’t!”

Barron and others called on the city to use its 3 billion surplus to cover the lost funding. Walcott said it would be unwise to spend it all at once. He spent more time talking about getting rid of the “Last In, First Out” policy, or LIFO, which gives preference to teachers based on seniority instead of performance. He says the policy leads to firing the wrong person.

“The only thing worse than having to lay off a teacher is having to lay off a bad teacher,” he added.

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, left, walks his grandson Justin, 7, to PS 36- St. Albans School, Queens, a day after he was nominated to replace Cathie Black as schools chancellor. Photo by: Henny Ray Abrams / AP.

Public school parent Ann Kjellberg attended the meeting, and said her child’s teacher is young, and at risk of getting laid off under “Last In First Out.” But she said completely getting rid of LIFO could mean too much emphasis on test scores. She’s says that’s already happening.

“My kid’s in fourth grade and they started test prep for a test they’re taking in May, in March,” she said. “They spend half the day–more than half the day–preparing for this stupid test.”

Kjellberg fears getting rid of LIFO would make that kind of teaching standard.

Dennis Walcott says he’ll continue to push for the end of LIFO when he goes to Albany next week. As for layoffs, he said pink slips will have to go out by June at the latest, but may be sent even sooner.

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Teacher layouts may affect P.S. 65 in East New York. Larry Tung/Columbia Radio News

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new budget proposal has some hard news for public school teachers.  He says he needs to cut more than 6000 of them from the city’s payroll.  That’s about 8 percent of the city’s public school educators.  If the cut actually happens, it would be the biggest teacher layoff since the 1970s.

It’s 3pm – And school’s out for kindergarteners at P.S. 65 in East New York, Brooklyn.

One of their teachers, Luz Paternostro is waiting outside with them until they’re picked up.

A product of New York City public schools, the 22-year-old says she knew she wanted to teach when she was a student at Queens College.

“It’s fascinating to see children learn and to be the person who teaches them because it’s something that they will carry on with their life forever,” said Paternostro. “It makes you feel like you are making a real difference.  You are teaching the future.”

But it is Paternostro’s future that’s uncertain right now.

If the budget passes, about 4600 teachers will be laid off.  And the 1500 that will retire or resign next year….will not be replaced.

New York State law mandates that as the last teacher hired at P.S. 65, Paternostro would be the first one out.

She doesn’t think that’s fair.

“There are other factors that should be considered,” said Paternostro. “There are excellent teacher who have been in the system a long time that definitely should have their jobs.  Just as there are also new teachers who deserve that opportunity to gain that experience that have the same qualities who just perform as well.”

Mayor Bloomberg shares her view.

He first threatened to cut 21 thousand teachers … after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a massive cut in state funding earlier this month.

Many critics say that was the mayor’s push to abolish this “Last in, first out” law. Bloomberg says it should be changed immediately.

“We have great teachers,” said Bloomberg. “And I want to keep the very best if we have to lay off teachers.”

But determining the best teachers is tricky.

Wendy Glash is the union rep at P.S. 65 and a teacher with 25 years of experience.  She says ratings are very subjective.

“It depends on who your supervisor is,” said Glash.”That will guide your rating. I don’t think that, if you want to lay off people based on those ratings, that that’s a fair and equitable way.”

P.S. 65 is one of the top-rated schools in the district and attracts many students.

But almost half of its teachers have less than 5 years of experience.  So they are in danger to be laid off.

PTA President Karina Cevallos says there are barely enough teachers.

“Imagine more kids in the class,” said Cevallos. ”I don’t know how they are going to deal with it.”

That’s left for P.S. 65’s principal, Daysi Garcia, to deal with. She says the mayor and the teachers’ union have been able to works this out in other years.  

“Whatever tools they use to come to the table to try to make those agreements,” said Garcia. “They do it nicely so far year after year. We haven’t had to cut our teachers.”

The mayor doesn’t want to cut teachers, either.

He will negotiate with the city council and most likely come up with another proposal in May.

The council is supposed to vote on the budget by the end of June, right around the end of the school year.

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The undergraduate admission office at NYU is housed in an unmarked building on Broadway.  But it is where important decisions are made – well, important to the 42,000 applicants for the class of 2015.  And that’s an increase of 11 percent from last year.  Shawn Abbott is the assistant vice president of NYU’s undergraduate admission.

“We are pretty much at the capacity of what our admission officers can read,” Abbot said. “We have just about 26 admission officers that are responsible for the review of these 42,000 applications.  When the dust settles, we would have hired 3 or 4 additional part-time readers.”

Columbia is facing an even more dramatic increase.  It received more than 34,000 applications this year, a surge by almost a third from the previous year.  The admission office is so swamped that they don’t even have time for an interview.  Bari Norman is a former admission officer at Barnard College and now an independent counselor.

“Even though the economy has slowed, and we would think the interest might go down as a result because these places have pretty hefty price tags on average,” Norman said, “I think almost the sense that a degree from this place is important, or increasingly important in light of the economy, becomes more significant. Hence more applicants come their way.”

But it also got easier technically to apply for Columbia this year because it finally adopted the Common Application: a generic undergraduate application system accepted online by more than 400 colleges in the United States. And Columbia was the last holdout among Ivy League universities.

“The common application is always going to give some sort of a boost,” Norman said.  “You see it in the initial year, and some schools see an even bigger boost in the second year.”

On top of that, financial aid also plays an important factor. Janaye Pohl, a junior from California, chose Columbia over Berkeley for exactly that reason.

“The UC system doesn’t give out a lot of financial aid,” Pohl said. “I would have to end up paying more even though the tuition rate is lower.”

In 2008, Columbia introduced a “no loans” policy.  That means Columbia will make up the difference between the tuition and family contribution with university grants.

“It’s around a thousand or 15 hundred a semester for me, which is like fantastic,” she said.

A fantastic deal indeed.  But for Bari Norman, the independent counselor, her experience tells her ultimately it is the school’s reputation that really matters.

“Columbia will always be a place, so long as the reputation stays as it is,” Norman said.  “It’s an Ivy League school.  The admit rate is very low.  Many people just want what they can’t have. And that would always create the cycle that we have at Columbia and that we have elsewhere. ”

For the 34,000 who applied to Columbia, the chance of getting what they want is getting smaller. Based on previous admission numbers, only about one out of 14 applicants will get in.

When the cul-de-sac on 129th street is expanded, the playground (pictured) will be lost at St. Nicholas Houses in Harlem. Green space residents call “The Circle” is where the school will be built. (Photo by Joe Danielewicz/Columbia Radio News)

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It’s Black History month, so kids at one of the Harlem Children’s Zone pre-k programs are doing a special program for parents. Maryam Boddie is in the audience watching her twin daughters perform.

She has five daughters total  and they all attend Children’s Zone schools.

“When they started going to the classes and events at the school, I realized what great opportunities they have,” Boddie said.

The Harlem Children’s Zone and the housing authority want to bring that experience here: a cul-de-sac at 129^th street and 7^th avenue, right in the middle of St. Nicholas Houses.

At the end of the road is what residents call “the circle.”

It’s a green space divided by waist-high metal fences and sidewalks, linking the buildings together.

Long-time resident William Denzy spent his childhood here, playing football, running and roller-skating in the circle.  He says it’s always been a barbecue spot and meeting place for families—and should stay that way.

“They want to make this place congested and over crowded,” Denzy said.  “The school will do that.”

Nearly 35-hundred people live at St . Nicholas. And Denzy says he’s collected 700 resident signatures against the plan.

The 130,000 square-foot school will cover this space .

And the cul-de-sac will become a through street bringing more traffic — and 1300 students.

But the Children’s Zone is already established here.

It’s been running after-school and summer programs here for three years, says Lauren Scopaz, who’s managing the Zone’s St. Nicholas expansion.

Scopaz says for the housing authority, the school seemed like a logical next step.

“The chairman of housing authority said ‘Why don’t we do even more for these families and why don’t you build your school here so we can provide more services?” she said.

About 30 St Nicholas kids have already enrolled in the Children Zone’s pre-K program.

And some residents say it’s the pace of the plans that’s upsetting.  They say they weren’t always in the loop.

The housing authority acknowledges that, says its deputy director of development, Katherine Gray.

“We’ve attempted to address the issues that have been raised, by both sides, so that we produce a project that is thoughtful and responsive to the needs of the residents as possible,” Gray said.

Gray says that means the attending tenant association meetings, knocking on doors, setting up a hotline and holding meetings to answer residents concerns all of last year.

Gray says these efforts will continue.  But the project is slated to go forward, with construction due to start this month…and classes to begin in the fall of 2012.