Plymouth Explores “Making Change Contagious” on Sunday 2/21

How do successful organizations evolve and change? How can we promote our mission via strategic planning and “intentional” change?

As Plymouth Church prepares a strategic plan for the future, the Plymouth Council invites you to a conversation with three leaders of non-profit initiatives that successfully met the challenge of change.

Sunday, February 21, 12:30 p.m.
Reception Room

Our Panelists:

Paula Kascel
Deputy Executive Director, Bravo Lincoln Center Campaign
Former Director of Strategic Planning, The New York Botanical Garden (1999-2003)

The transformation of the New York Botanical Garden in the 1990s from a demoralized non-profit facing near-bankruptcy to a world-class education and research institution has put the institution back on the cultural map. The turnaround of NYBG has been examined by the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia in case studies on strategic planning for non-profits.

Dane Peters
Head of School, Brooklyn Heights Montessori School

Brooklyn Heights Montessori, serving 250 students in Grades K-8, has grown in recent decades to become a vital center of childhood education in Brownstone Brooklyn. The school recently completed an extensive strategic planning exercise and, based on the resulting plan, purchased an old firehouse on Dean Street as part of its goal to increase enrollment by 15%.

Rob Rogers
Principal Architect, Rogers Marvel Architects

From large-scale public projects, such as the re-design of Governor’s Island, to institution-specific buildings, including a new campus for Westchester Reform Temple, Rogers Marvel has earned a reputation for comprehensive, sophisticated solutions that carefully address a project’s inherent strengths and weaknesses.

BHMS Head of School, Dane Peters, circulated an email today (Feb 5) suggesting that the supporters of the Little Room might stage a rally outside the school this weekend, that rumor is not true.

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

The borough’s newspaper of record ran a story on the pending closure of The Little Room last week. The In this most recent article, the Brooklyn Paper correctly noted that BHMS contradicted itself when explaining why it planned to terminate the program.

The troubles all started late in 2008 when Montessori School officials decided that its regular school program and its Little Room program could no longer fit under the Bergen Street roof. Those officials assigned a task force of parents and staff to find a new home for the program — which is currently state-funded and free — by December, 2009. But complications among the program’s would-be host, future director and the state Department of Education hindered the effort.

Montessori Head of School Dane Peters declined to talk about the problem, referring a Brooklyn Paper reporter to the school’s outside spokeswoman, Lupe Todd, who said, “I do understand what these parents are going through, but this isn’t about money, or even space. It’s about two schools growing under one roof — two schools that need to be separate.”

Todd’s comments are in direct contradiction with the Montessori School’s earlier position. Just over a year ago, Montessori officials said that the Little Room was too costly because state reimbursement rates don’t fully cover the expense of such a fine program.

Many parents say that the failure to find a new sponsor is the Montessori school’s fault. Matilda Garrido, whose son is a Little Room graduate, said parents found out about Montessori’s discontinuation of the Little Room program by accident, through a vague letter sent out by the school in 2008. [The Brooklyn Paper]

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

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Ms. Helene Banks
Chair, Board of Directors
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School
185 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Dear Ms. Banks:

We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens writing to respectfully implore you to consider extending by one year the date by which the Little Room needs to find a new home.

We understand that the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School Board of Trustees has concluded that there is no chance that the Little Room can be saved even if an extension is granted. Many parents, educators, and politicians unaffiliated with the Little Room have stated that they believe that the universally-admired special needs program has a chance of survival if YAI (an organization that already operates seven preschools for special needs children in New York City and is seeking to become the Little Room’s new sponsor) and the Little Room community are allowed more time to overcome the regulatory hurdles.

As State Assemblywoman Joan Millman’s chief of staff Paul Nelson, who has been involved with negotiations with the state, says, “At this point, the ball is really in Brooklyn Heights Montessori’s court.” “We’ve tried to do too much in too short a time and we need another year, and they’ve refused to consider it. We’re going to keep asking them.”

It seems clear to us that if more time is granted to allow navigation of the bureaucratic hurdles then there is at least a chance that the Little Room program can be saved. In order to keep even the small possibility of an acclaimed social service program with widespread support and plaudits alive, we respectfully ask you to grant the Little Room program an additional year to find a new home.

In an economy as harsh as any we’ve ever lived through with budget cuts looming at the federal, state and local levels, we’re hoping that BHMS will agree that we should make every effort to support critical social service initiatives in our community. The program’s value is beyond dispute. Please help make every effort to save it. Thank you for your kind consideration.

The Little Room is an award winning education program that serves 27 special needs children in 3 classrooms each year – ranging from those with speech and language delays to those on the autism spectrum. It evaluates many more children from the greater community to determine whether they need “related services” like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy, and also provides services to a number of those children. The Little Room program was founded in 1970 by the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School.

Why does the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School want to close the Little Room program?

Precisely why BHMS wants to end its affiliation with the Little Room remains unclear: the school has offered different reasons at different points in time. Parents of children served by the Little Room learned in December 2008 that BHMS was planning to vote on whether to close the program at the end of the 2008-09 school year. Although parents – once they learned of the impending closure vote – were allowed to read (but not have a copy of) a report of a “task force” that had been meeting to discuss the future of the Little Room (the existence of the task force had not previously been made public), that report did not explicitly discuss the immediate closure of the program.

Hasn’t everyone known for a while of BHMS’ plans to close the Little Room in August 2010 if a new sponsor is not found?

After learning in December 2008 of plans to close the Little Room in the summer of 2009, Little Room parents worked quickly together with the help of elected officials and others, and, under pressure, BHMS agreed to allow limited additional time – less than a year – for the Little Room to find a new sponsoring institution and navigate the state regulatory bureaucracy to get approval of the program’s transfer to a new sponsor. Elected officials and others told the school at that time that this would not be enough time, but that was all the time the school was willing to give.

Isn’t the problem that the State Education Department won’t approve the transfer of the Little Room to the new sponsor?

Despite claims from leadership at BHMS that the State Education Department will not approve the transfer of the Little Room to a sponsor that was located in October 2009, elected officials – including Assemblywoman Millman’s office and State Senator Squadron’s office – and others involved in the negotiations process disagree. They think that, with another year at BHMS, differences could be worked out, and the Little Room program could be saved. Recognizing the extraordinary loss to the community that the loss of the Little Room would represent, they are working hard with the State Education Department and the potential new sponsor, YAI, to allow the transfer to happen.

Isn’t the problem with the new sponsor, YAI, and what it is willing to do?

Although YAI expressed an interest in adopting the Little Room early in 2009, BHMS first chose another institution as a potential sponsor, and only returned to YAI in late September 2009 after negotiations with that first potential sponsor fell through. YAI has since been diligently working with the state and elected officials to allow the program to be adopted in a manner that would preserve what makes the program special. This process has only been ongoing since approximately October 2009 and is very much still an active process.

Why does BHMS need the space immediately?

BHMS has not made clear what, precisely, it needs the space for, and why it needs that space starting in September 2010. If the school discussed its needs openly, perhaps all involved could work together to meet those needs and allow the continued existence of a much needed and widely respected program serving special needs children in Brooklyn.

What can I do to help?

You can add your voice to the multitude of voices asking BHMS to give the Little Room another year to negotiate the regulatory process and effectuate the its transfer to a new sponsor. Elected officials have asked to extend the program for another year. Local preschool directors that rely on the program to provide therapies to local students have also asked the school to provide more time. A petition you can sign is available here. You can also speak to parents you know at BHMS and ask them to support efforts to save the Little Room, by signing the petition and by talking directly to the school’s leadership about the need to do everything possible to save this incredible program.

More info about The Little Room from the BHMS Family Handbook 2009-10 after the jump.

From the BHMS Family Handbook 2009-10:

The Little Room and Related Services

Brief History
The Little Room is the special education program within the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School. The program was established in 1970 when Joyce Rashap, the Educational Director of BHMS, identified a need in the community to serve youngsters with speech and language deficits. Ms. Rashap encouraged the BHMS Board of Trustees to initiate a special education classroom, stating, “We have never wanted to be just another nursery school.” Ms. Rashap believed that the Montessori Method was ideally suited to educate students with different learning styles. Indeed, Dr. Maria Montessori did her first educational work with children with learning disabilities. Initially, our program consisted of one modified Montessori preschool class called “The Little Room.” From the start, The Little Room and Preschool classes participated in mainstreaming activities together.

Over the years our program has grown and diversified, but our primary goal remains the same: to provide an excellent language based program within a modified Montessori classroom. Students in special education and mainstream classes participate together in informal settings (such as the daily playground experience) as well as more structured activities (such as classroom visits and Community Service).

Little Room SEIT/Related Services Program
In 1993, the New York City Board of Education and the New York State Education Department created the Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT)/Related Services Program. The program was created to provide more possibilities for children with special needs to receive support while remaining in a mainstream classroom. The Little Room became one of the first programs in New York City to be awarded New York State and Board of Education approval for provision of these services, and in 1993 we began to serve children within these programs. Our families come from neighboring Brooklyn communities and lower Manhattan. The children we work with range in age from 3 years to young teenagers.

The SEIT/RS Program has always functioned as an extension of our center-based program in its philosophy and approach to working with children and their families. Indeed, many of our providers have worked or still work within The Little Room center-based program as well.

Mainstream Visits
Since its inception, BHMS has made a commitment to mainstreaming activities between The Little Room and Preschool students. Children participate together in informal settings (such as the daily playground experience) as well as more structured activities (such as classroom visits facilitated by a special education teacher and our sing-alongs). Our experience has shown us that mainstreaming supports all children in learning from a more diverse peer group and helps children to develop empathy for others.

The New York Post recently ran a story on the letter written by State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblywoman Joan Millman and Councilmembers Steve Levin and Brad Lander which outlined some options on how to help save The Little Room.

The letter suggests two options for saving the school.

One calls for BHMS to extend the deadline for closing Little Room to August 2011. This, the elected officials said, would give YAI Network “ample time to complete all of the necessary paperwork and to identify and properly prepare a new home” for Little Room beginning in September 2011.

The second option is for BHMS to allow YAI to operate Little Room in its current location at the Montessori school next academic year. YAI would rent the space and use the extra time to find a permanent site.

BHMS, however, is not budging. [NYPost.com]

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

January 20, 2010

Dear Dane Peters,

Open House Nursery School is one of the few “mainstream” early childhood programs in Brooklyn welcoming children with special needs. Every year we become more convinced of how precious this service is. We are writing to urge you to do all in your power to ensure the continued existence of The Little Room. We all know that the Little Room has created a highly successful environment for small children with special needs. But just as importantly, it has provided other centers such as Open House with experienced, well-trained evaluators, teachers and therapists. Without its support and inspiration our school may be less able to include children with special needs.

As it becomes clearer and clearer what a critical difference early intervention can make in a child’s development, the prospect of losing The Little Room is wrenching. There are simply not enough special needs teachers, evaluators, and centers to go around, and certainly there is none to take the place of such a vital resource as The Little Room. Just as Maria Montessori showed the world a new way to teach children, The Little Room demonstrated to all of New York City how therapeutic services can change the future for young children.

Not too long ago Open House experienced the need to relocate. We are all too aware how much time it takes to find, renovate and finance a move. Surely someone at BHMS remembers the challenges faced when it relocated from Montague Street to Bergen Street. If extending The Little Room’s stay at Brooklyn Heights Montessori for one more year will make the difference between its collapse and its survival, we strongly urge you to do all you can to extend its stay. Providing a reasonable time frame for relocation demonstrates respect for The Little Room’s contributions to BHMS and to Brooklyn.

Sincerely yours,