Posts Tagged ‘Joan Millman’

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

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

View the PDF version of this letter here.

December 15, 2008

Helene Banks
President, Board of Trustees
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School
185 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Dear Ms. Banks:
We are writing with serious concern regarding the fate of the Little Room program. As described in Sunday’s New York Times, and as we have heard from parents and members of our community, the Little Room is a high-quality, award-winning special education program for preschool children. We want to underscore the importance of preserving such a vital service for Brooklyn residents.

As we understand it, the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School Board is planning to meet on Tuesday to decide the future of the Little Room. We hope the Board will strongly consider keeping the program and embracing the Little Room as part of the mission of the school.

At a minimum, we ask the Board to make a strong, clear commitment to ensuring the long-term survival of the Little Room. Because public funding undergirds the program, we feel there is a strong public interest in ensuring that the Little Room continues to survive and thrive. We believe this would entail keeping the program at Montessori through the summer of 2011, and hiring a new director capable of guiding the Little Room through a transition to another location.

We also ask for the opportunity to meet with the Board briefly prior to your discussion on Tuesday so that we may present our concerns in person.

Mary Cooley of the office of State Senator-elect Daniel Squadron will serve as contact person for the undersigned as a group. You can reach her at mary@danielsquadron.org or 646-472- 5712, or you may reach any of us at our offices.

We look forward to working with you, the affected parents and members of the community to formulate a solution that preserves the Little Room and the essential services it provides for the children who need them.

Sincerely,

Christine Quinn
Speaker, New York City Council

Marty Markowitz
Brooklyn Borough President

Daniel Squadron
New York State Senator-Elect

Joan Millman
New York State Assembly

David Yassky
New York City Council

Bill de Blasio
New York City Council