Vol.
13, No. 51
'52 pages
Sah,;day, December 20, 1980
15 cents
•I
te r inst •I By Ellen M: Cosgrove It was cold enough for snow
outside, but inside the Truman High Auditorium, about 500 parents, community leaders and other residents of District 11 were warm as they gathered to support the two Ed Park schools threatened with dosing. Posters, placards and impassioned speechesvoiced the protest of the entire Co-opCity community. The rally represented the formal step taken by District ll's Community School Board to adopt a resolution protesting the dosing of any school within the district, particularly . primary schools 153 and 178, . • as City School ChanceHor Frank: .Maccíaroía had-suggested December 4. The resolution passed unanínously,
·
Steve Kaufman,
of
HoHday deadllne Because of the ooliday, deadline for the January 3 . issue
wm
be
Friday, Decem~r 26
at 5 p.m •. Pæase-be guided acoordmgly.
e
•tiont
1n
By Diane Bennett The Riverbay Board of Directors unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday night that pledgedits. total. support to. keep-
ing all schools in the Co-op City Northeast Bronx Education Park open, Board,President Charles Par-
ness stated that Co-opCity should not only give support to the schools in the district, but . to
schools. "We are an interdependent," he noted. Nels Grumer added, "I think the news of possible school closings shook up a lot of people: once schools are dosed they are rarely opened again, and that is the beginningof the deterioration of a community. This would be a black eye for Co-op City and I think we shoulddo as much as we surrounding
nr,:•vP1nt it."
,
Sandler added, this, an old ''The true
"
the City Council's Education Committee, State Senator Abraham Bernstein, and Riverbay Board President Charles Parness were there, along with representatives of Assemblyman Eliot Engel, Senator Carol Bellamy, Bruce Irushalmi, president and Marcia Schneider secretary of Community School Board 11, spoke eloquently in defense of quality education in. Co-op City. Joe Petrella, principal of I.S. 181, spoke for an the principals in the Ed Park, and in a private interview said, "As a parent of four, I knowthat the first thing parents look at j~ a rommunity. is its schools, and Co-opCity'sschools are mal:'Vetous. all of them." The fighting spirit was strong. Not only the parents who had instigated the meeting were there, but people throughout Distriet 11 came to the rally to pledge· support and decry the threatened action. Bernie Greenberg, a cooperator, does not have childrenat any of the schools, but said that he . "understands the value" of the schools i¥1 Co-op City. "When we stand up for our schools,we're standing up for the (Q>ntmued.on page 48}
CliOS·i
guardians of a community are not its soldiers, but its schools,':
In-~ President's report, Parness made a very brief "state of
the union" statement, recapping the year.by recalling momentous events: the explosion . at the power plant, the threat to close the schools, the agreement with the State and tñe major plus: the Mitchell-Lama bill "that everyone saíd.would never be passed, and which,. of course, did.,., He added, ''This board, I think will. job gets done." the board door
s
on . the use by Security of the YellowSchool House for a ministation, and -, discussed another proposed resolution that would (C@ntmued on page 48)
Offices dosed AU
Q>mm1mity Centers and the • Ma.inteQaooe· and Adm in~
istraiion offices wm be closed
on Thursday, Deéembèr 25 and Thursday; .January I for Christmas. and New Years. Only emergency maintenance
semœ
wiU
be avaiRabie.
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