Letters

February 4, 2010

Brooklyn Heights Montessori School
185 Court Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201

Attention: Mr. Dane Peters

Dear Mr. Peters,

I write to you with an open heart to ask that you reconsider the current deadline date for the vacancy of The Little Room. I am the Principal at neighboring Linden Tree Preschool and frequently refer parents to BHMS when they are looking for a quality private education for their child(ren). Having had no personal experience with BHMS myself, my recommendations come from the wonderful services I have had with The Little Room. Linden Tree welcomes children with special needs and on the many occasions a SEIT has been required to work with a child in our classroom, our best experiences have been with The Little Room staff, especially Annie and Liz. I am also very familiar with families whose children have been fortunate enough to attend classes at The Little Room, many of them trying now to help save it.

It is our hope that you consider our request to briefly hold off on your expansion efforts for what is already a highly successful and respected program and do what is right by our community, The Little Room staff, its families and future children with special needs, who are nothing less than deserving of a nurturing and safe environment in which to learn. It simply seems on a most basic level, the right and ethical thing to do.

I would hope the outpouring of heartfelt considerations from myself and other heads of schools in the area will allow the officers at BHMS to reconsider the departure date of The Little Room.

With kind regards,

Susan L. Kuhlmann, Principal
Linden Tree Preschool

Mr. Dane Peters
Ms. Helene Banks
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School
185 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Dear Dane and Helene,

I write, once again, to urge you to help our community save The Little Room. As you both know, the services rendered by this very important program reach well beyond the twenty-seven students enrolled. Many families enrolled at Plymouth Church School use the team at The Little Room to conduct evaluations and provide services to their children who are in need of early intervention.

Downtown Brooklyn is bursting with young families. I know that your growth is providing necessary educational space for young children. It does sound, however, that The Little Room is close to finding a new sponsor. It is my hope that BHMS will make every effort to keep The Little Room alive.

Yours sincerely,

Gail Rose
Director, Plymouth Church School
plymouthchurch.org/plymouth_church_school.php

On January 28, 2010, State Sen. Daniel Squadron, Assemblywoman Joan Millman and Councilmembers Steve Levin and Brad Lander wrote the following letter to Helene Banks, Chair of The Board of Trustees of BHMS.

View the PDF version of this letter here.

Ms. Banks:

When the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School decided in December 2008 to end its long and mutually beneficial relationship with the highly acclaimed Little Room Program, the Board established a deadline that ultimately proved to be an insufficient amount of time to find a suitable location for the program.

BHMS originally discussed the possibility of transferring the Little Room to YAI’s network of programs last spring. However, it was not until late October that YAI was seriously considered as a possible organization to operate the Little Room. This left YAI only a matter of weeks to locate a space, negotiate a lease and begin a build-out for a September, 2010 opening. YAI Chief Operating Officer Steve Freeman and his team worked tirelessly to accomplish these goals as quickly as possible, but unfortunately the only feasible location proved to be problematic. Specifically, the landlord of this space declined to include a clause within the lease allowing YAI to opt out should they not receive necessary government approvals for the opening of the Little Room. Without this clause, YAI was forced to request that the New York State Education Department (NYSED) depart from its standard protocol and provide a pre-approval of YAI’s Little Room application. Our offices worked hard to obtain this pre-approval, but ultimately NYSED rejected the request.

While we are disappointed by NYSED’s unwillingness to adapt to the circumstances of the Little Room program, this extraordinary request for pre-approval was only made due to challenges specific to this potential space. Given more time, YAI could conduct a wider search and locate a site and a landlord more amenable to the specific requirements of the Little Room. Given how close we are to finding a new home for the Little Room with YAI, an extension of BHMS’ self-imposed termination date for the Little Room is the only possible way to save this exemplary program.

There are two possible options that we would like the Board of Directors to consider: The first option is for BHMS to extend the termination date from August 2010 to August 2011 and operate the Little Room for the next school year. An additional year would provide YAI ample time to complete all of the necessary paperwork and to identify and properly prepare a new home for the Little Room, starting in September 2011.

The second option is for BHMS to allow YAI, beginning in September 2010, to operate the Little Room program in its current location within the BHMS complex. YAI would rent the space for one year as it looks to find a permanent location for the Little Room. This option would also permit YAI to complete the transfer application to NYSED more quickly and with fewer obstacles.

Although the Little Room has many dedicated advocates, at this point its fate rests in the hands of the Board of Directors of BHMS. We hope to have the opportunity to continue working with you to save this vital program.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Daniel Squadron
State Senator
25th District

Joan Millman
Assembly Member
52nd District

Steve Levin
Council Member
33rd District

Brad Lander
Council Member
39th District

Here is the board’s response to our letter of January 11, while they “appreciated our efforts and concern”, their position remains unchanged. From where I stand, this is the final nail in the coffin— it will take something short of a miracle to keep the program alive now.

Dear Little Room Families,

Thank you for your thoughtful letter. It was clearly the product of many hours of work, trying to make sense of a very difficult situation. We appreciate your effort and concern.

First, please know that the letter has been shared with the Board of Trustees, and that the Board has been kept abreast of all the developments you outline. You are correct that the Board was optimistic that a new sponsor would be found, and in fact, The Little Room Transition Task Force did identify two seriously interested, potential sponsors. Unfortunately, the regulatory approvals needed for the second sponsor to move forward have not been forthcoming; and we understand will not be, despite our, their, and counsels’ extensive efforts, and the political outreach of interested elected officials.

As you accurately stated in your letter to us, the regulatory structure sets up a “Catch-22″ for any sponsor. The state requires that a sponsor expend the effort, time, money, and other resources to admit students and ready the space with no preliminary approval, taking the risk that there will be no program for those students and no income to cover the costs. From our close communication with the potential sponsor throughout the process, it became clear that it is a heavy risk for a sponsor to bear and one that can be eliminated only by the State Education Department (SED) granting the pending request for preliminary approval. SED has advised that they believe no such preliminary approval is possible under the existing regulations, and they will not grant the requested exception.

We hope this clarifies for all of you the crux of the problem. The Board has considered the matter fully, and the decision to end BHMS sponsorship of The Little Room in August 2010 remains unchanged.

Thank you again for your continued interest.

Helene Banks, Board Chair
Dane Peters, Head of School

This letter was sent to Dane Peters, the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School headmaster, and Helene Banks, chair of the board of trustees, on Sunday, January 10, 2009. It was co-signed by 33 current and past Little Room families.

It explains the current situation, which is that the Little Room is basically at the end of the line in terms of having all approvals necessary to get a new adopting agency and space ready for the 2010-2011 school year.

There is a potential and very interested adopter for The Little Room, but due to circumstances, the window for them to find a new space has been short; with a bit more time, an appropriate space could be located. A new space for the program would require inordinately fast state approval, or, in the alternative, BHMS could extend its own self-imposed deadline. If neither of these solutions come to fruition, the program will cease to exist next year. As of this writing, we have not yet received a response from the school.

Dear Dane and Helene:

We, the undersigned current and former Little Room parents, are writing to express our deep concern about the future of the Little Room. Specifically, we ask that the BHMS Board reconsider its decision to terminate the Little Room program in August of 2010 and instead allow the Little Room to continue at BHMS for another year.

You will likely respond that the issues regarding the Little Room’s future were extensively debated last winter and that there is no reason to revisit the decision. For a number of reasons, we disagree. In particular, we urge you to consider the following:

1. When the Board made its decision, no Board member believed that his or her vote might be a vote to end the Little Room forever. Indeed, even though a number of elected officials suggested that moving the Little Room would take two years, the Board expressed full confidence that the program would find a new home by the BHMS imposed deadline. Some Board members expressed hope that the Little Room would be able to serve even more students in its theoretical new home. In short, there was nothing but (largely unjustified) optimism from the Board.

Now, however, the situation has changed. The Little Room has been unable to accept students for the 2010-11 school year. If it does not begin to do so in the very near future, it will mean that there can be no program in the next academic year.

The Board members made their decision with confidence that the Little Room would never face extinction. But now extinction is here. Given this new reality, would all Board members now make the same decision they did before? You cannot know unless you ask them.

2. Despite this grim situation, the Little Room has actually made great progress in finding a new sponsor. The YAI Network is, in fact, eager to adopt the program. As State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Joan Millman wrote to us, “We were encouraged by YAI’s professionalism and zeal for continuing the Little Room…[Chief Operating Officer Steve] Freeman and his team have demonstrated an incredible commitment to continuing this program.”

Unfortunately, as you are aware, YAI faces a catch-22: it is unable to lay out the money for major renovation of a new space for the Little Room without State Education Department (SED) approval, but SED has been unwilling to approve the facility before it is built out.

What makes this situation even more difficult is the BHMS imposed deadline. Given another year, YAI would have more time to find and renovate suitable space, to work with SED to get the necessary approvals, and to plan an orderly transition for the Little Room. It is unable to do any of this simply because of an artificial deadline imposed by BHMS.

YAI stands ready to achieve the goal that the Board has always claimed to desire. Do Board members want to stop this from happening simply because it cannot be done within the artificial timeline created by BHMS? Again, you cannot know unless you ask them.

3. Throughout this process, both you and other Board members have expressed your love for the Little Room. You have claimed to respect the program and to want to see it thrive for many years to come. We are certain, therefore, that you do not want to see the Little Room end unnecessarily. You have the opportunity to demonstrate your love and respect for the program by giving it the time it needs to complete the process of finding a new home. And in fact, given the situation in which the Little Room finds itself, you are the only ones who can now save it. We respectfully ask you to live by what you so often said and to do the right thing for the program.

We understand that you are eager for the Little Room to move out. Nevertheless, the plans you have for the Little Room’s current space can wait a year. One way or another, BHMS will enjoy many years without the Little Room. But the Little Room has only one chance to survive.

If the Little Room ends, thousands of special needs children will be denied the opportunity to receive an education that can change their lives. Such an outcome is not only completely unnecessary, but also goes against the Montessori philosophy and the school’s expressed commitment to diversity. We are sure this is not what you want your legacy to be.

We are eager to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss this situation. We urge you and the Board to reconsider the Little Room’s future at the next scheduled Board meeting. We look forward to hearing from you and discussing how to move forward.

December 23, 2009

A NOTE FROM STATE SENATOR DANIEL SQUADRON AND ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOAN MILLMAN:

Dear Little Room Parents:

As elected officials, we are very proud to represent the Little Room. Its record of success is unchallenged, and hundreds of families cite the Little Room as a place that truly changed their children’s lives. Thus, we were saddened and disappointed last year when the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School announced that beginning in September, 2010 it would no longer be housing the Little Room.

Over the last year, much work has gone into locating another program which would be willing to provide a home for the Little Room so that it can continue to serve families across Brooklyn and New York. In late October, the YAI Network was identified as a potential sponsor, and led by Chief Operating Officer Steve Freeman, YAI began to investigate how the Little Room might permanently join the YAI Network.

YAI is an organization with a long and respected history of providing quality programs for people with disabilities throughout New York. We were encouraged by YAI’s professionalism and zeal for continuing the Little Room; over the last two months Mr. Freeman and his team have demonstrated an incredible commitment to continuing this program.

Our offices have been working to do everything we can to ensure the Little Room transition is successful, but we have encountered two serious obstacles.

The first problem has always been time. As you may know, the Little Room typically begins recruiting new students beginning in November for the following year. Having been identified and engaged by the Little Room Task Force (LRTF) in October, YAI had only a few weeks to find a new space, file necessary paperwork and state applications, and receive approvals. Managing the limited time frame as well as a desire to keep the Little Room in the same community it has always served, YAI was only able to find one viable option.

The other impediment has been the State Education Department (SED), whose cooperation is necessary to resolve the Little Room issue within the limited time frame. To acquire a lease for the site, YAI needs SED to commit now that YAI will receive an approval if the space is built out to SED standards. Unfortunately, YAI has been trapped in a catch-22: it is unable to lay out the money for major renovation of the space without SED approval, but SED has been unwilling to approve the facility before it is built out.

To this end, we have both called and written the State Education Department frequently, contacting everyone from the local office to the Commissioner himself, advocating for rapid action to assist the Little Room. Frustratingly, to this point SED has not provided YAI with any approvals, though to its credit it is now in the process of arranging a site visit to investigate the potential location.

Additionally, SED will have to address questions about whether the continuation of Little Room is considered a transfer of an existing program, as we believe it to be, or the closing of a program and opening of a new one, which would cause further bureaucratic hurdles. We believe strongly that the preservation of the Little Room would constitute a transfer of the program, and we will continue to argue the merits of the case to SED.

We had hoped that heading into the holiday season we would have happy news to share with all of the Little Room families, but today we must say that we are unsure what the outcome will be. We are still working toward finding a solution, but we do not want to create false hopes: at this point, there is a strong possibility that the Little Room will not be open for the 2010-2011 school year.

We thank Mr. Freeman, Bernadette Flynn and all the other people at YAI who have committed an incredible amount of resources, time and energy to this effort. We greatly appreciate all they have done and continue to do. We also want to thank those at BHMS and on the Little Room Task Force who have been working to make the YAI transfer successful. Finally, and most of all, we want to thank all of the Little Room parents and families who have fought so long and hard for this incredible program. We share your passion, and we look forward to continuing the fight in 2010.

Please do not hesitate to contact us, about this or any other issue. Senator Squadron can be reached at 718-802-3818 and Assembly Member Millman can be reached at 718-246-4889. Thank you for your dedication to the future of this very special program.

Sincerely,

State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Joan Millman