The notices that went out said that the District 10 Community Education Council presents a Town Hall meeting with Chancellor Carmen Farina. The town hall meeting with Chancellor Farina was scheduled for Wednesday April 1st from 6:30 - 7:30 PM at PS 86 located at Reservoir Avenue and West 195th Street. In bold letters were 'ALL DISTRICT 10 PARENTS ARE URGED TO ATTEND'. The photo above was taken at 6:30 PM when the meeting was to begin. About 100 staff from district 10 schools, the chancellors office, children, their parents, and security officers were in attendance. I was told that every parent in the district was given a notice, and some even received calls to attend.
At 7PM you can see only 4 of the 9 CEC members and no chancellor on the dias. It was then announced that the chancellor would be a little late. At 7:15 PM attendees were told the chancellor was stuck in traffic on the West Side Highway and that people could leave if they wanted. As several did just so, I followed suit by leaving and not wanting to wait any longer because I had another event to go to which I did not want to miss.
I was however able to read a handout on the table giving the results of the past years test scores. As a former Parent leader in District 10 years ago I was shocked to see that the scores were lower than 10 years ago when District 10 was a District in Need of Improvement. English scores were at 16.8 percent down almost 8 points, while math scores were 21.9 percent down over 10 points. When I asked the current District 10 Superintendent (who was on hand) Melodie Mashel why the scores have gone down so, her answer was 'the test is harder now'. The current standards were suppose to be instituted 10 years ago, because I was a member of the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council when the presentation was given. The city received a waiver for the past 10 years, but now it seems that those 10 year old standards can not even be met today.
