News Update, Parent Reference:
First Day’s Coming, School System
Put To Test

By Shams Tarek

It’s reckoning time.

Just a few days before the Sept. 8 start of the completely restructured Department of Education’s (DOE) first school year, it looks like the Department and the borough’s parents are in for a lot of growing pains.

After Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum’s office published a study that concluded the DOE’s new regional and district-level offices offer little information or help to parents, phone calls made by the PRESS found the same result.

Calling each of borough’s district ofices and “Learnin Support Centers (LSCs), as the regional school offices are called, led mostly to a maze of automated voice menus, full voicemail boxes and incorrect transfers.  All calls were made on Sept. 2 between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Paul Rose, a DOE spokesperson, said the experience was strange and that his agency would look into the problems.

During the PRESS’  recent mini-phone test, Region 5’s (south Queens) District 27 office — also an LSC — yielded the best experience. A person answered the phone and took a message; the local superintendent returned the call later, but said she had to get clearance from the DOE press office before speaking to us when she found out a reporter was on the phone.

But at Region 4’s (western Queens) District 24 office, the voicemail box was full and the local superintendent, Joseph Quinn, wasn’t listed in the automated directory. 

At the District 30 office — which is also an LSC — there was no answer and no option to leave a message.

At Region 3’s (eastern Queens) District 25 office - which is an LSC — the option to transfer to the superintendent’s office led to the wrong department.  An automated greeting at District 28, a satellite LSC, refers callers to District 25.

At Region 3’s District 29 office, one transfer attempt sent the call to District 32, and second, third and fourth attempts sent the call back to the main menu.

But the most bizarre experience happened at the District 26 office in Bayside, where a woman on the telephone gave roughly specific information about Local Superintendent Anita Saunders’ availability, but wouldn’t take a message because, she explained,  “I don’t work here.”  When asked why she was answering the phone, she said, “For other reasons.”

In response to Gotbaum’s report two weeks ago, Chancellor Joel Klein acknowledged the problems and said, “I would say this each time . . . there are going to be bumps, we are going to make mistakes. This is inevitable in the process.”

This map from the Department of Education’s website shows the new educational regions in relation to the old districts.

Chancellor Joel Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott both met with parents in Ozone Park and Jamaica on Sept. 3 to help address the confusion surrounding the most sweeping overhaul in the school system’s recent history.

Klein met with a group of parent coordinators at the Region 5 headquarters in Ozone Park to unveil the DOE’s new “Guide for Parents and Families.”

The 15-page booklet includes basic information about the new school curriculum and structure, as well as essential calendar and contact information.  It will be distributed directly to parents by DOE staff and inserted into major daily newspapers in the City.

Klein also distributed cell phones to some of the 1,185 new full-time, school-based parent coordinators put to work this week.  The numbers will be available to parents, according to the DOE.

“This is not a cushy desk job,” Klein said of the parent coordinators, who are appointed by principals and paid between $30,000 and $39,000 per year.

“Our job is to make all schools parent-friendly,” said Judy Rea, parent coordinator for Middle School 202 in Ozone Park.

Parent Coordinator at Howard Beach’s P.S./M.S. 207 Nina DeBlasio, who was with Klein during his visit, said having a formal position rather than just being a volunteer will make school administrators, teachers and other parents take her more seriously.

“Parents now have more leverage,” DeBlasio said.

Walcott, a Cambria Heights resident who acts as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s education liaison, met with about 120 parents, many of them parent coordinators, at Thomas Edison High School in Jamaica Sept. 3.

That late-August meeting, called by elected officials in Community School Districts 28 and 29 — mostly in Southeast Queens — was overrun by personnel issues, Walcott said, and many parents left frustrated for not learning much about how the changes will affect them and their children.

During workshops after the initial presentations, parents got a chance to ask DOE officials questions about the  newly revised curriculum, special education and students who speak English as a second language (“English Language Learners” in the DOE’s new parlance).

With the DOE’s recent restructuring of district and regional divisions, the most concern from parents seemed to be about zoning and school transfers.

– Thomas Lin contributed to this story

Essential Information For Day One

Schedule (holidays indicate school closings)
• Monday, Sept. 8 – First day of school
• Monday, Oct. 6 – Yom Kippur
• Monday, Oct. 13 – Columbus Day observed
• Tuesday, Nov. 4 – Election Day
• Tuesday, Nov. 11 – Veterans Day
• Sunday, Nov. 16 to Saturday, Nov. 22 – Open School Week
• Thursday, Nov. 27 and Friday, Nov. 28 – Thanksgiving
• Wednesday, Dec. 24 to Friday, Jan. 2 – Winter Recess
• Monday, Jan. 19 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Friday, Jan. 30 – Fall term ends for high school students
• Monday, Feb. 2 – Spring term begins for high school students
• Monday, Feb. 16 to Friday, Feb. 20 – Midwinter Recess
• Monday, April 5 to Tuesday, April 13 – Spring Recess
• Monday, May 31 – Memorial Day observed
• Thursday, June 10 – Anniversary Day (also known as Brooklyn-Queens Day)
• Friday, June 25 – Last day of classes for all students

Early Registration
Parents are being encouraged to register their students before the first day of school, unlike in previous years.  Zoning information can be found by calling the New York City Citizen Service Center at 311 or any Learning Support Center.

Queens high school students without a zoned school must register at Jamaica High School, at 167-01 Gothic Drive.

New Immunization Rules
Legal immunization is required for all students entering public schools; students without a source of health care can get a physical by school physician.  The following immunizations are required for the first time this year:

• Varicella (chicken pox) immunization is required for kindergarten students born after Jan. 1, 1998 and pre-kindergarten students born after Jan. 1, 2000.

• Hepatitis B immunization is now also required for students in the 10th grade (previously requirement of grades 7 to 9 and students born after Jan. 1, 1993 still in effect)

Queens Regional And District Offices
(* indicates regional office, a.k.a. Learning Support Center)
Each school also has its own parent coordinator; names and contact information are available by calling individual schools or, in the near future, checking the DOE website.  Regional and local superintendents are available at:

Region 3 (Superintendent Judith Chin)
* District 25 (Local Superintendent Gerard Beirne)
30-48 Linden Pl., Flushing; (718) 281-7575
District 26 (Local Superintendent Anita Saunders)
61-15 Oceania St., Bayside; (718) 631-6900
• District 28 (Local Superintendent Harold Wilson)
90-27 Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica; (718) 557-2600
District 29 (Local Superintendent Walter O’Brien)
One Cross Island Plaza, Rosedale; (718) 978-5900

Region 4
(Superintendent Reyes Irizarry)
District 24 (Local Superintendent Joseph Quinn)
8000 Cooper Ave., Glendale; (718) 417-2600
• District 30 (Local Superintendent Philip Composto)
28-11 Queens Plaza N., Long Island City; (718) 391-8300

Region 5
(Superintendent Kathleen Cashin)
• District 27 (Local Superintendent Rita Giaramita)
82-01 Rockaway Blvd., Ozone Park; (718) 642-5800

For More Information
Chancellor’s Parent Hotline: (718) 482-3777
DOE website: www.nycenet.edu