Dear Commons Community,

Westfield High School Principal Derrick Nelson, 44, died Sunday after he lapsed into a coma during a bone marrow donation procedure, according to NJ.com. His bone marrow went to a 14-year-old boy in France.  As reported:

“He couldn’t speak” as he was lying in a hospital bed after the procedure,” his father, 81-year-old Willie Nelson, said. “His eyes were open and he realized who [family members] were. But he couldn’t move. He never spoke again.”

Derrick Nelson couldn’t go under general anesthesia for the procedure because of sleep apnea, which makes sedation extremely dangerous, according to Inside Edition.

Nor were doctors able to draw blood from his arms either because he carried the trait for the sickle cell anemia blood disorder.

Instead, they put Nelson under local anesthesia and extracted cells from his bone marrow and sent them to the boy in France.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the most serious risk associated with donating bone marrow stems from the use and effects of anesthesia during surgery.

Nelson had served as Westfield High’s principal since February 2017. Before that, he was the vice principal of Westfield Junior High School. He also had been a member of the Army Reserve for more than 20 years, according to CBS New York.

Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle was among those mourning his death.

 “He lived his life with daily acts of selflessness and kindness, so it’s a tremendous loss and people are reeling from it,” Brindle told reporters. “He just lived a life of service above self, and I think there is a lesson that we’re all going to take away from his untimely passing that hopefully we can apply to our own lives.”

Besides his father, Nelson is survived by his mother, Juanita, his fiancé, Sheronda, and the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, according to NJ.com.

A funeral will be held later at St. John’s Baptist Church in Scotch Plains. 

What a role model for his students and his community!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday scientists revealed the first ever photograph of a blackhole.  The image itself (below)looks essentially like an orange blob, however, the effort that went into taking the photograph was incredible.  The video above has scientists explaining the Event Horizon Project which took ten years to develop and which synchronized eight telescopes from around the world.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that after five straight years of growth in state support, nationally there was no change in state and local per student support for higher education.  Citing the 2018 “State Higher Education Finance” report, state appropriations per student remained essentially flat from the 2017 to 2018 fiscal years. In 11 states, higher-education appropriations have not recovered at all from the worst years of the Great Recession, according to the report released on Tuesday by the association of State Higher Education Executive Officers.   As reported.

“Tuition revenue, which had risen in all but two of the past 25 years, also remained flat compared with the previous fiscal year, the report said. State spending on student financial aid increased by nearly 9 percent, the fourth consecutive increase, according to the study.

But the impact of the recession still casts a long shadow on state appropriations for higher education, the report noted: “Ten years out from the start of the Great Recession, per-student higher education appropriations in the U.S. have only halfway recovered.”

Nationally, state appropriations, on average, fell more than $2,000 per student in the years after the recession, the report said, and remain nearly $1,000 below their pre-recession levels.

The situation is far worse in more than a fifth of states, where appropriations per student are still less than they were in 2012 or 2013, the low point for most state budgets. That’s after federal dollars — part of the $54-billion that went to states to avoid cuts in education spending — ran out, creating a fiscal cliff for public colleges.

The states where per-student spending still has not rebounded are Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Higher-education appropriations now exceed those before the recession in only six states: Alaska, California, Hawaii, New York, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday the New York City Department of Education released its plan to pay salary differentials in hard-to-staff schools.  Essentially staff with specific titles at 60 historically under-served schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens will receive an additional $7,200 in salary for the upcoming school year. Titles include bilingual teachers, bilingual special education teachers, bilingual guidance counselors, bilingual social workers, and bilingual school psychologists; and middle and high school science and math teachers.

The $7,200 “hard-to-staff” salary differential is part of the Mayor and Chancellor’s Bronx Plan. The plan is named to reflect the challenges many Bronx schools face, and adds resources to improve teacher retention and recruitment, reduce teacher vacancies and teacher turnover. The differential is available at 50 previously announced Collaborative Schools, and ten Bronx District 75 schools.

The complete announcement including the schools in the plan is below.

Thank you to Maryann Polesinelli for passing this on to me.

Tony

——————————————————————————————————————————

CHANCELLOR CARRANZA ANNOUNCES BRONX PLAN HARD-TO-STAFF SALARY DIFFERENTIALS

Initiative will include 10 Bronx District 75 schools in addition to 50 previously announced Collaborative Schools

NEW YORK –Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza today announced that staff with specific titles at 60 historically underserved schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens will receive an additional $7,200 in salary for the upcoming school year. Titles include bilingual teachers, bilingual special education teachers, bilingual guidance counselors, bilingual social workers, and bilingual school psychologists; and middle and high school science and math teachers.

The $7,200 “hard-to-staff” salary differential is part of the Mayor and Chancellor’s Bronx Plan. The plan is named to reflect the challenges many Bronx schools face, and adds resources to improve teacher retention and recruitment, reduce teacher vacancies and teacher turnover. The differential is available at 50 previously announced Collaborative Schools, and ten Bronx District 75 schools.

“Never underestimate the power of great teachers and their ability to shape the lives of our students,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “The Bronx Plan is about upending the status quo and building a fairer school system. With these hard-to-staff salary differentials, we’ll be able to recruit and retain excellent teachers to ensure that all students across the city, no matter their zip code, will get the education they deserve. This is equity and excellence in action.”

“Great teaching is the foundation of great schools, and this innovative approach will encourage our teachers to take jobs and stay in historically underserved schools,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. “In particular, the Bronx Plan hard-to-staff differentials will help support our multilingual learners and students with disabilities, including in ten Bronx District 75 schools. The Bronx Plan advances equity now, rights historic wrongs, and helps provide an excellent education for all students regardless of their zip code.”

“The Bronx plan is designed to help schools find their own answers to the challenges they face, and then provides the resources to help make that happen,” said Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers. “Schools will now have a chance to use hard-to-staff differentials to help them recruit and retain teachers.”

The Bronx Plan, launched in October 2018 as part of the UFT contract agreement, will support a total of up to 180 historically underserved schools citywide, with an additional 120 Collaborative Schools and Hard-to-Staff Only schools to join the initiative next year. Through collaborative decision-making, teachers and principals will create specific solutions tailored to the needs of their school communities to increase student achievement.

The hard-to-staff differential will apply to educators who are hired or retained this spring to work at Bronx Plan schools in 2019-20. Current staff, new hires and transfers are eligible for the salary differential, which will be paid out over three equal payments with the final payment in 2020-21, to incentivize continued retention.

At the 50 Bronx Plan Collaborative Schools, educators in these license areas or who teach more than 50 percent in the following roles or subject areas, will be eligible for the differential and receive an additional $7,200 on top of their base teaching salary:

• Teachers in all bilingual licenses, including bilingual special education and bilingual speech
• English as a Second Language (ESL) Teachers
• General Science Teachers (Middle School)
• Earth Science, Physics, and Chemistry Teachers (High School licenses)
• Mathematics Teachers (Middle and High School)
• Bilingual Guidance Counselor, Bilingual School Psychologist, Bilingual School Social Workers

In ten District 75 Schools in the Bronx, Bilingual Special Education Teachers will be eligible. This represents a majority of the District 75 Schools in the Bronx.

Bilingual Guidance Counselors, Bilingual School Psychologists, and Bilingual Speech Teachers in district-based positions in the Bronx are also eligible. These staff work for School Districts 7-12 or 75, and support multiple schools.

“As a lifelong Bronx resident, the education of our community’s children has always been a top priority,” said New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. “The Bronx Plan will support underserved schools across the city and prioritize one of our greatest challenges – teacher retention.  The retention of great teachers has been proven to have a direct correlation to the academic performance of our students.”

“This new Bronx Plan, with $7,200 ‘hard-to-staff’ salary differentials for teachers, will give a greater chance in succeeding in their academic career by providing the necessary resources they need to combat the many difficult challenges that Bronx schools face,” said New York State Senator Luis Sepulveda. “This initiative is the right step to ensuring that our Bronx students are better prepared for their educational, professional, and personal futures.”

“I am pleased to see that five schools in Senate District 19, and several nearby, will finally receive much-needed attention this fall under the Bronx Plan,” said New York State Senator Roxanne J. Persaud. “While these positions are considered ‘hard-to-staff,’ our students are suffering without the support they deserve; and I commend their diligent teachers in their efforts to help them achieve success.”

“The Bronx Plan is a step in the right direction that focuses on increasing resources and opportunities in undeserved schools in New York City and in particular, the Bronx. I applaud the Administration for recognizing the importance of recruiting and retaining quality teachers while reducing vacancies and turnovers,” said Council Member Vanessa Gibson. “District 9 and other districts, face a high concentration of students in temporary housing and the Bronx Plan will further invest more resources and collaborative measures to ensure our students achieve academic success. By adding $7,200 on top of the base salary to bilingual teachers, guidance counselors, social workers and more, this plan will support and retain the vital educators of our students, especially within District 75 schools.  I am thankful for the six schools within my district who took advantage of being a part of the Bronx Plan and I look forward to working with Chancellor Carranza as these investments are made in our Bronx schools.”

“For far too long, public schools in the Bronx, specifically those in the South Bronx, have been at a competitive disadvantage,” said Council Member Rafael Salamanca. “In addition to the unfair stigmatization of our neighborhoods, our schools have historically suffered from underfunding and low teacher retention rates, among other issues. Caught in the middle of decisions made by adults are our children who are purely seeking an opportunity to enrich theirs and their family’s lives. With the creation of the Bronx Plan, however, positive change is occurring. Instituting a ‘hard-to-staff’ salary differential scale is an important step in ensuring high-level teachers and counselors remain in the schools in which they are making a difference in, while making prospective jobs in traditionally underserved schools more attractive to educators. I applaud the de Blasio Administration for taking much needed action, and look forward to working with Chancellor Carranza on behalf of students in the Bronx.”

The Bronx Plan is aligned to the Mayor and Chancellor’s Equity and Excellence for All agenda, which is building a pathway to success in college and careers for all students. Our schools are starting earlier – free, full-day, high-quality education for three-year-olds and four-year-olds through 3-K for All and Pre-K for All. They are strengthening foundational skills and instruction earlier – Universal Literacy so that every student is reading on grade level by the end of 2nd grade; and Algebra for All to improve elementary- and middle-school math instruction and ensure that all 8th graders have access to algebra. They are offering students more challenging, hands-on, college and career-aligned coursework – Computer Science for All brings 21st-century computer science instruction to every school, and AP for All will give all high school students access to at least five Advanced Placement courses. Along the way, they are giving students and families additional support through College Access for All, Single Shepherd, and investment in Community Schools. Efforts to create more diverse and inclusive classrooms through Diversity in New York City Public Schools, the City’s school diversity plan, are central to this pathway.

Below is a complete list of the schools eligible for the salary differential:

BRONX 

Elementary & Middle Schools 

P.S. 277

M.S. 301 Paul L. Dunbar

Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship

J.H.S. 022 Jordan L. Mott

P.S. 063 Author’s Academy

New Millennium Business Academy Middle School

The Highbridge Green School

MS 593

MS 594

North Bronx School of Empowerment

Leaders of Tomorrow

Pelham Gardens Middle School

P.S. 214

Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School

Fairmont Neighborhood School

I.S. X318 Math, Science & Technology Through Arts

Bronx Envision Academy

P.S. 536

High Schools 

Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School

Bronx Leadership Academy II High School

The Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters (Grades 6-12)

Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & Tech

Bronx River High School

The Hunts Point School

Gotham Bronx Planorative High School

Bronx Arena High School

School for Tourism and Hospitality

Kingsbridge International High School

High School for Teaching and the Professions

Fordham Leadership Academy

Academy for Scholarship and Entrepreneurship: A College Board School

Bronxdale High School

BROOKLYN 

Elementary & Middle Schools 

P.S. 150 Christopher

P.S. 165 Ida Posner

The Gregory Jocko Jackson School of Sports, Art, and Technology

P.S. 327 Dr. Rose B. English

Brownsville Bronx Planorative Middle School

Mott Hall Bridges Academy

High Schools 

High School for Civil Rights

World Academy for Total Community Health High School

The School for Classics: An Academy of Thinkers

Frederick Douglass Academy VII High School

Teachers Preparatory High School

QUEENS 

Elementary & Middle Schools 

P.S./M.S 042 R. Vernam

P.S. 043

M.S. 053 Brian Piccolo

P.S. 197 The Ocean School

Village Academy

High Schools 

Rockaway Park High School for Environmental Sustainability

Rockaway Collegiate High School

BRONX DISTRICT 75 SCHOOLS

J.M. Rapport School Career Development

P.S. X811

P.S. X010

P.S. X017

P.S. 168

P186X Walter J. Damrosch School

P.S. X188

The Vida Bogart School for All Children

P469X – The Bronx School for Continuous Learners

P.S. X721 – Stephen McSweeney School

Contact:  Chancellor’s Press Office (212) 374-5141

Dear Commons Community,

U.S. Congressman Clay Higgins from Louisiana has urged anyone responsible for burning down three predominantly black churches in the state to come forward, as state and federal authorities investigate what appears to have been coordinated arson.  Authorities said last week they had found suspicious “patterns” among fires that burned down three churches between March 26 and April 4 in St. Landry Parish, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of New Orleans.

Congressman Higgins, a Republican, who represents a district that includes St. Landry Parish, stood in front of the rubble of St. Mary’s Baptist Church and addressed the arsonist he presumed was behind the fires.

“I advise you to hear my heart and turn yourself in,” Higgins said. “You’re going to jail one way or another.”

Authorities declined to say whether arson was to blame for the church fires at a news conference on Saturday, but local media reported that Butch Browning, the state fire marshal, had told parishioners on Sunday that his office was treating the fires as criminal activity and would find whoever was responsible.

The FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have joined local authorities in the investigation, bringing the number of people involved up to 200, The Daily Advertiser reported on Monday.

The, FBI, ATF and the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The fires destroyed St. Mary Baptist Church in the community of Port Barre, and Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas, the seat of the parish, the Louisiana equivalent to a county. All the churches have mostly black congregants, raising authorities’ suspicion that the fires could have been racially motivated hate crimes.

“For decades, African-American churches have served as the epicenter of survival and a symbol of hope for many in the African-American community,” Derrick Johnson, the N.A.A.C.P. president, said in a statement on Monday condemning the fires. “As a consequence, these houses of faith have historically been the targets of violence.”

“They burned down a building,” the Rev. Harry J. Richard of Greater Union preached at a makeshift gathering Sunday in Opelousas. “They didn’t burn down our spirit.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Jeffrey Toobin, CNN chief legal analyst and New Yorker staff writer, said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s abrupt resignation is a cautionary tale of “what happens when you go to work for Donald Trump.”

“He is the great reputation killer,…” Toobin said.

“Here’s this woman who  was a reasonably admired bureaucrat, and for the rest of her life, people will look at her and think, ‘Oh, that’s the woman who put children in cages, that’s the woman who broke up families across the border.’ And you know what? They’ll be right. Because she implemented that policy. … She’s going to get what she deserves.”

Trump announced Nielsen’s ouster on Sunday and said she’d be replaced by Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. She had repeatedly clashed with Trump privately over his anti-immigration demands, but publicly defended the administration’s zero-tolerance policy of separating children from their parents at the border.

Nielsen infamously claimed in testimony before Congress that the policy was “not a policy.” She also quibbled over the definition of a cage, arguing during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last month that the chain-link pens in which minors were being held were simply “detention space[s].”

Pennsylvania Avenue is lined with the career corpses of the dozens of people who have worked for Donald Trump.  He is a user and could not care less about human decency or loyalty when it comes to the people who have worked for him in government.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I am cautiously optimistic that I will be leaving the hospital today.  I have not seen my doctors yet this morning but all signs point to my discharge.  I am walking better although I am not sure about stairs yet.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned yesterday amid the administration’s growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border.

President Donald Trump thanked her for her work in a tweet and announced U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be taking over as acting head of the department. McAleenan is a longtime border official who is well-respected by members of Congress and within the administration. The decision to name an immigration officer to the post reflects Trump’s priority for a sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks.  As reported  by the Associated Press:

“Though Trump aides were eyeing a staff shake-up at Homeland Security and had already withdrawn the nomination for another key immigration post, the development Sunday was unexpected.

Nielsen traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday with Trump to participate in a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement. There she echoed Trump’s comments on the situation at the border, though she ducked out of the room without explanation for some time while Trump spoke. As they toured a section of newly rebuilt barriers, Nielsen was at Trump’s side, introducing him to local officials. She returned to Washington afterward on a Coast Guard Gulfstream, as Trump continued on a fundraising trip to California and Nevada.

But privately, she had grown increasingly frustrated by what she saw as a lack of support from other departments and increased meddling by Trump aides, the people said. She went into a meeting with Trump at the White House in Sunday not knowing whether she’d be fired or would resign, and she ended up resigning, they said.

There have been persistent tensions between the White House and Nielsen almost from the moment she became secretary, after her predecessor John Kelly became the White House chief of staff in 2017. Nielsen was viewed as resistant to some of the harshest immigration measures supported by the president and his aides, particularly senior adviser Stephen Miller, both around the border and on other matters like protected status for some refugees. Once Kelly left the White House last year, Nielsen’s days appeared to be numbered. She had expected to be pushed out last November, but her exit never materialized. And during the government shutdown over Trump’s push for funding for a border wall, Nielsen’s stock inside the White House even appeared to rise.

But in recent weeks, as a new wave of migration has taxed resources along the border and as Trump sought to regain control of the issue for his 2020 re-election campaign, tensions flared anew.”

Nielsen will forever be remembered for her cruel policy of forced separation of thousands of migrant families at the border.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Business Insider is reporting that former President Barack Obama issued a warning yesterday to Democratic lawmakers to avoid a “circular firing squad” within the party that would devoid policy progress, particularly ahead of the 2020 presidential election.  As reported:

“Speaking in Berlin during an Obama Foundation town hall, the former commander-in-chief said he worried about progressive lawmakers falling victim to “rigidity” within Washington. 

“One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States, maybe it’s true here as well, is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, ‘Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be,’ and then we start sometimes creating what’s called a ‘circular firing squad,’ where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues,” Obama said. “When that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens.” 

Pointing to examples like his passing of the Affordable Care Act and the Paris Climate Agreement, Obama also emphasized the importance of compromise in making progress within a democracy among citizens and lawmakers who don’t agree with a given core philosophy or policy. 

“You have to recognize that the way we structure democracy requires you to take into account people who don’t agree with you,” Obama said. “That by definition means you’re not going to get 100 percent of what you want,” 

Warning of external threats to democracy, Obama said the resurgence of nationalism in America “divides us into us and them” and breeds a hostile, unproductive environment. “

Good advice!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I am feeling much better and have begun walking to strengthen my legs and coordination. I am hoping to leave the hospital tomorrow.

Tony