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Community Council Formed to Support Boys & Girls High School
By David Mark Greaves

In 1815 Peter and Benjamin Croger of Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church,  started the first School in Brooklyn to educate African-American children, it was called “The African School.” In 1841 the city of Brooklyn annexed the school and named it “Colored School Number One.” Taken from a plaque at the Charles Alexander Dorsey School.

Community involvement in the education of young people has a long history.  It is now being updated with the formation of the Boys & Girls High School Community Advisory Council, a group of residents and community leaders that grew out of conversations between New York State Regent Lester Young, Jr.  and Councilman Al Vann who had expressed to each other their concerns about the stresses put on the school, and joined by Principal Stephen Holder, they decided to convene a community council.
“Councilman Vann and I have been talking about Boys and Girls for some time,” said Regent Young.  “It is one of the few remaining large high schools in New York City.  The school has tremendous potential and a history and tradition of excellence, but it has some challenges that it’s facing.”   Regent Young said that rather than “stay on the sidelines as critical observers, we thought it was important to maintain the original integrity of community involvement and create a strategy that would support the further development of the school.”
Councilman Vann says that Boys and Girls High serves a “unique and significant function” with things that are very good about it and things that have to be improved to survive as a community school.  “It was along those lines that we asked people if they wanted to serve.  What is great is that so many Bedford-Stuyvesant leaders and community residents feel strongly enough about our school that they were willing to put their time and energy into making things better in our community.”
Principal Holder said that this support was welcomed and needed.  The school has already been working with The Algebra Project to improve math scores with intensive staff training, and with the Lorraine Monroe Institute on education strategies.  In the Fall session, the school will be reorganizing into four magnet communities within the school centered around themes such as humanities, law, business, entertainment and art.  “Everyone is very excited about this change” says Holder.  “The objective is to bring the staff and student closer together, and to give the students a way to follow their interests.  It will give the students a choice.  This is a model that has worked,” says Holder.  “We expect ups and downs, but it is the change we believe the school needs.”
Holder said they also need stronger parental involvement  when we asked about the DOE’s Learning Environment Survey Report and the disheartening numbers for the school, with 11% parent participation and low academic expectation ratings being two examples.
Asked about the low community involvement rating on the Survey, and if that was something the Council was looking at, Regent Young said   “Absolutely, that’s one of the primary purposes.  I think there’s a link between school development and community development.  The activities of the school have to be transparent.  There must be a community outreach process.  If you talk to people in schools they will tell you the parents are not involved when their kids get to high school. However that is not the same as saying community involvement doesn’t help the school.  This structure that we’re putting in place is a vehicle to getting the community more involved in the school.”
Dr. Young explained that “As children get older in school, parents, quite naturally begin to disengage and pursue there own survival strategies.  They may be able to go from a part time job to a fulltime job, because now ‘my child is older and I don’t have to worry about them going back and forth’ things of that nature.  And as kids grow into adolescence, they begin to move away from their parents.”  He says that one of the charges of the advisory council is to help Boys & Girls become more effective in expanding parental involvement.  “We can be more effective in bringing the parents out,” Young insists.
One of the stresses on the school is the 21% “special needs” student population.  Advisory Council member Jitu Weusi said that number should be about 10%.  Councilman Vann agrees.  “21% is disproportionate to what other schools have. We’re going to meet with the chancellor.  And unless he can show otherwise, we’re going to ask him to make the modification for the incoming class.”
One of the notable facts about “The High” is the large number, almost 40, of teachers and administrators who are former students.  “They bring with them an understanding of the many issues that our young people face before they even come in the classroom,” said Principal Holder. A large percentage of our students go through major challenges every day and need to hear encouragement every day.”
But the school is only one section of the school-to-future pipeline that the children are in.  “We said to Spencer, you’re on the receiving end” noted Regent Young.  “While we are prepared to assist you to figure out the challenges here in this building, in a lot of respects we’re just dealing with the symptoms.  The real cure is in prevention.  We have to look at the feeder pattern and how do we reach out to those middle schools to better prepare students for the high school experience.”
Councilman Vann says that part of the problem is that the majority of the students Boys & Girls receives are coming in with very weak skills.  “The school has the additional challenge to bring them up to standard and then bring them forward so they can graduate.”  What is needed says the Councilman is for the Advisory Council to be an educational family and ask what how they can help the schools feeding Boys and Girls.  “The initiative starts with the high school, and then it will extend down to the feeder schools as well.”
“We plan to do several things,” says Regent Young. One is be an advisory body to the principal. Two, we hope to better communicate to the community what is happening in the school.  Three, we are an accountability mechanism to ask the right questions and report back to the community.  And our members can provide some advocacy and some resources to the school as well.”
We have to celebrate the success of our students,” Dr. Young continued.  “We have youngsters going to some of the top schools in the country.  Some of the top scholarships offered in the country have been won here at Boys and Girls.
The school is one of the few remaining large high schools located in a community of color that doesn’t have metal detectors, is not an impact school with a lot of police in the building.  There is a culture that was established by the former principal and we want to build on that existing culture and move forward.”

Boys and Girls High School Community Advisory Council
Ms. Deborah Akinbowale
1700 Fulton Street ~Room 117
Brooklyn, New York 11213

Ms. Ava Barnett, President
Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Inc.
PO Box 330009
Brooklyn, New York 11233

Ms. Brenda Fryson
63 Chauncey Street
Brooklyn, New York 11233

Mr. Colvin Grannum, President and CEO
Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
1368 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York 111216

Ms. Bernice Green Greaves, Co-Publisher
Our Times Press
679 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Rev. David Hampton
Bethany Baptist Church
460 Marcus Garvey Boulevard
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Mr. Spencer Holder, Principal
Boys and Girls High School
1700 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Mr. Dourdy Jordain, Executive President
Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA
1121 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Ms. Phyllis Hurd, Director
Quincy Senior Residence
625 Quincy Street
Brooklyn, New York 11221

Mr. Lloyd Porter, Representative
SOLA (Shops on Lewis Avenue Association)
403 Lewis Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11233

Ms. Claudia Schrader
Medgar Evers College/ CUNY
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11225

Ms. Andrea Toussaint
439 MacDonough Street
Brooklyn, New York 11233

Councilman Albert Vann
613-619 Throop Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Mr. Jitu Weusi
1107 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York 11238

Dr. Lester W. Young, Jr., Regent
New York State Education Department
55 Hanson Place ~Suite 400
Brooklyn, New York 11217

With rising unemployment and amidst a failing economy there is fierce competition for the jobs that do exist, and an example of that dynamic can be found at 534 Myrtle Avenue, home to a new $50 million dollar administration building being built for Pratt University with objections from union labor, but with a work force that includes workers from the surrounding community.
The union argument is put forward by Anthony Williamson, an organizer for Local 79 of the Construction and General Building Laborers union.  With over 9,500 members, it is the largest construction local in the United States and second largest in North America.
Williamson says, “The new construction is not paying a living wage with benefits.  Pratt’s budget is over $160 million dollars.  It is unacceptable for them not to hire contractors that pay workers a living wage with decent benefits.”  Williamson says that as an organizer, he sees that  situation as exploiting the workers.  “How can you pay guys $10-12 dollars an hour and expect them to raise their families,” he asks.  “We have people from the building trades who live in the surrounding community who can benefit from jobs like that.”
On the question of diversity of membership, he says, “Our union is considered one of the most diverse and progressive.  I’m part of the executive board.   We have a Latino business manager and a membership of African-Americans, Latinos and Caucasians.  In that community we have a number of members who want to be a part of the project.”
Nolan Herrera is on the executive board of the Steelworkers Union and said “We have a collective bargaining agreement throughout the city where we are paid proper wages for the work we do.  These contractors bring in people and pay them well under the standard for the work they are doing. There are unsafe conditions and some of the people don’t speak English, they’re illegal, and they pay them what they want. They have nothing to say because they have no backing.  They’re being exploited.”
One man’s exploitation is another man’s well-paying job.  Activist Darnell Canada of Rebuild says he has been able to successfully place men on the Pratt site and at other sites around Brooklyn.  Mr. Canada says it better that someone be making $25/hour and be able to support a family, than waiting to join unions that had all but closed their books. “We have 70% unemployment in the Farragut Houses, in a surrounding area with 50% unemployment.  We need jobs.” Asked about the influx of immigrant labor to the area, we havr seen Hispanic women doing laborer’s work in Bedford Stuyvesant, Canada said he had been on some job sites where “if I had pulled out a badge, everyone would have run.  We’re being squeezed between the unions on one side and immigrant labor on the other.”
Speaking of Pratt, Mr. Canada described the University as a good partner, both in employing local labor and in their contributions to the surrounding community.  Speaking of the Myrtle Avenue site, Canada said, “We had 10 men working on the foundation and one man training in steel on a five-man crew.   These are relationships we’ve built up with contractors over the years.  We just don’t give them anybody.   We do training and deal with job retention.  We constantly work with our people.  A lot of them have not been in the world of work for many years.”
Councilwoman Letitia James said that she has worked closely with, and fully-supported Mr. Canada in his employment efforts.  Since the beginning of this year, Canada says his group has placed approximately 60-70 people in jobs.  “For a group that gets no money, we do a better job of getting jobs than organizations getting” tens of millions of dollars a year.  Those organizations train and get people ‘work ready’, we get them jobs.”
Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, (D) said “I remain hopeful that Pratt will find it economically feasible to use some union labor as part of completing the building.”  The Assemblyman said he had spoken to members of the administration and urged them to come to some agreement with organized labor as it relates to the project and I’m hopeful they’ll be in dialogue to reach a mutually acceptable resolution.”
Asked about the relationship between union labor and “community labor” Jeffries said he had also urged Pratt to “insure that to the extent they are unable to use union labor, that a significant percentage of the people employed on the project come from the community.”
The Assemblyman added that “It’s also important that Pratt hire local businesses, as part of the construction process.”  He said he “made that position clear” to President Thomas Schutte as well as to other senior officials.  “They have indicated to me that they are going to take all steps possible to incorporate both community members and businesses into the process and I take them at their word.”

PROJECT GREEN ECO-WEEKEND PROMOTES UNITY
& COMMUNITY SPIRIT AS NATURAL “GREEN” RESOURCE

Alicia Mack

This year’s Project Green two-day event on Arbor Day, Friday, April 24 and Family Day, Saturday, April 25 at Herbert Von King Park, where 10,000 bulbs planted in fall are now coming into bloom, helped expand the community’s perspective on its role in preserving and protecting the neighborhood’s natural resources, while creating foundations for Bedford-Stuyvesant’s sustainable future.
Project Green is also an initiative designed to bring community awareness of the neighborhood’s nature organizations – Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Bedford Stuyvesant, Von King Park & Cultural Arts Center and the Hattie Carthan Community Garden — comprising Bedford Stuyvesant’s largest green space.
With the support of major sponsors Con Edison, Amalgamated Bank and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation; the blessing of beautiful weather; and the overwhelming response from community residents to useful free green-oriented products and information and intriguing stage performances, this year’s event was nothing less than inspiring and fun.
Arbor Day opened the weekend with a celebration of spring by some 500 area schoolchildren from P.S. 256, P.S. 305, George Murray Academy, Concord Baptist School, 117 and P.S. 3. The students were the stars of the morning presentation which featured them performing in unison the first-ever Arbor Day song, Planting Our Future, written particularly for the children of Bedford-Stuyvesant by noted composer-songwriter Larry Banks.
At the event hosted grandly by educator and Civil Rights pioneer Mama Leah (Ms. Lois Gilliard), elders, New York City Parks and New York City garden officials offered messages from the stage, which was adorned by Von King Park’s stage manager, Berris, with enlarged images of environmental heroes: Harriet Tubman, Hattie Carthan, Wangari Matheii, Majora Carter, Van Jones and George Washington Carver.
Athlete Mary Sobers, historian Mama Olatunji, and environmentalist Dyanne Norris were brief in their words, but memorable in their presentations. Ms. Norris summed up the thoughts for the day: “Green is not new to us; it represents the rich heritage from which we emerged.”
The lessons of the day extended to Mama Leah’s involving the students creating their own definition for “green.” Words and phrases from the amphitheater ricocheted off the cement walls as the young people shared what they knew and what they had learned that day about the food we eat, the air we breathe, the land we tend and more.

A tree-planting ceremony followed with the students and community leaders encircling a baby Spruce (compliments of John Bowne H.S. via the intercession of Magnolia Tree Earth Center board member Nancy Wolf). Mama Leah blessed the grounds and the ceremony, and Councilman Al Vann, life-time resident of Bedford Stuyvesant and dedicated supporter of community youth programs spoke about Harriet Tubman’s natural genius and environmentalist spirit.
With the assistance of some 40 motivated Brooklyn Job Corps’ volunteers, the children reprised Banks’ wonderful song, as they stood around the island of grass in the northeast side of the Park, now home to the Spruce and the history of that unique and memorable Arbor Day.
Brooklyn Job Corps’ volunteers also helped facilitate a structured arrangement that helped schoolchildren view and take part in the tree planting presentation. Gifts were donated from numerous sponsors to teachers and librarians in the participating schools. “The day was an overall learning experience, encouraging everyone, primarily the youth to think about nature and the environment,” said Bernice Elizabeth Green, who with James Durrah of the Neighborhood Housing Services-Bedford Stuyvesant, originated the concept for Project Green, now in its second year.
Throughout the entire structured production, students were enlightened of the many ways to live a healthier lifestyle and educated about some of the contributors who will support them in their personal and united pursuits of a sustainable future for the community.
The goodwill spirit of Arbor Day carried over to Project Green 2009 Community (“Go Green”) Expo, the next day (April 25), a day for all family members. From the numerous organizations, businesses and individuals who displayed and gave away useful products and green information, to inspirational performances promoting unity and love, the Expo explored the importance of paying attention to the earth, nature and the environment.
A sense of unity was in the air even before the Expo commenced. Mama Leah, the very first arrival at 7:30am, blessed all the corners of the park, and the Spruce Tree.

Amongst the thirty- eight volunteers, one stood out the most, to this writer. A teen by the name of Robert from the Bedford Stuyvesant area, stumbled upon the event, insisting that we use his help “in anyway possible.” This, indeed, was the quintessential example of the many courtesy and union aspects of “going green” that occurred over the weekend in Von King Park.
Motorcycle Bikers (who wanted to perform “great community service” for the neighborhood), Brooklyn College and Pratt College students, and local parkside neighbors were among the wide range of volunteers who dedicated their time and effort in making this two- day event a success; proving that it takes a village to create a foster a movement.
The Park was sectioned into among other areas a Children’s Arts & Crafts walkway with face painting and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s live animals; The Congo Drummers’ Circle, near beds of tulips, and the Restoration-sponsored At Home Way with organizations such as NHS, Brownstoners of Bedford Stuyvesant, NYSERDA, and Pratt Sustainability and enterprises such as “Go Green, Inc.” and Therapeutate.
Performances presented by various age groups on this day captured the attention of park visitors from all walks of life and all ages: the dynamic and articulate seven-year-old Nyla Anderson opened up the day’s entertainment presentations, sponsored by Con Edison and Restoration, with a remarkable speech on going green from a youthful standpoint. Von King’s Martial Arts Group, under the guidance of Master Nash, and Double Dutch Jammin Jumpers, under the aegis of Ruth Payne, by their skills and physical stamina, exemplified the importance of exercise and discipline in our lives. The ongoing Inner City Sports Little Leagues games were also a live example of this point.
A highlight of the day was the launch of this year’s celebrations of the 40th Anniversary of Congo Square Drummers and Dancers and the 10th Anniversary of the Universal Hip Hop Parade 2009 Association Inc. Phoenix Rising and Mama Leah of drum royalty led the historic Congo Square masters in a majestic performance with elder kings, Brother Abu Abidun and Brother Monte.
Nearly 700 hundred bottles of AriZona water and 250 canvas eco-bags were distributed at the event (note: attendees were provided with information on tap water vs. bottled water), and the kick-off of the Green Teen essay contest was announced by Marcia Melendez, owner of Flowerworks, who gave away a Mother’s Day gift basket and a large philodendron plant in two drawings.
Gifting and greening went hand in hand during this weekend with the sound of the drums echoing through the evening and all helping to create a green uprising, an uplift, and an awareness that it all starts with our relationship to ourselves and each other. With events such as these in the future, the community will be encouraged to become more active in the issues surrounding global warming, and how we can all contribute now and together for a “greener” future for the children of tomorrow. (Alicia Mack was the event organizer for Project Green 2009.)
(Readers, please note: A more detailed story on the Community Expo written by Kimberley Banjoko appears in next week’s Our Time Press Legal News issue.)

The case of the Central Park Jogger may be 20-years-old for some, but it is as new as this morning for Kharey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana the young men who were convicted of raping Trisha Meili known as the Central Park Jogger, in April 19, 1989. The convictions were based upon confessions extracted from these 14-16-year-olds, after 28 hours of enhanced interrogation by seasoned and “scripted” homicide detectives. (See Attorneys Michael Warren and Roger Wareham, page 2.)

In December of 2002, attorneys Michael Warren and Roger Warham filed a motion to vacate the convictions based on a confession from Matias Reyes a convicted serial rapist and murderer and a DNA match between Reyes and semen found on Ms. Meili. The motion was affirmed and the boys, now men, are “free.”

“This is the 20th Anniversary of that event,” said Councilman Charles Barron at a press conference on the steps of City Hall. Standing with him were Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise and his mother, Sharonne Salaam, mother of Yusef Salaam, Attorneys Alton Maddox and Colin Moore. The councilman will be introducing legislation to provide compensation for the five men who were imprisoned for up to 13 years based on what attorney Colin Moore characterized as “abuses” in the District Attorney’s office.   “They have been robbed of their youth, robbed of the opportunity to develop their lives so they could have good jobs, good homes,” Barron continued. “They don’t that opportunity because of the terrorist-like tactics of the police department, to get underage minors, interrogate them for 28-hours to force confessions out of them even after they so-called ‘confessed’ they knew what the boys was saying wasn’t consistent with what happened and they prosecuted them anyway.”

The councilman said that over 22 states have exoneration laws “that say if you have been unjustly convicted and you’re exonerated, that they state will pay. It’s time for New York to catch up.”

The reporting of the case has been called a media frenzy with terms like “wolf pack” and “wilding” being used in the media at the time. Dr. James Macintosh of CEMOTAP (Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People) said “The city must pay reparations. The New York Post, Daily News, New York Times also must pay reparations. The New York Post called them a rolling mass of pus. Gerald Nachman called them a melanoma. That’s a black tumor, making a racial allusion. They didn’t need courts to lynch them, so you don’t need courts to repair them. Media lynchers need to ante up.”

The icon for this lynch mob attitude was Donald Trump who was singled out for special mention. “And as for Donald Trump,” said Barron, “You’re the one who put out a big ad calling for a return of the death penalty and that these boys should be executed. You should put out another ad that says ‘I was a fool and made a mistake. If the city does not compensate them I will.” However, because such an action would call for both humility and grace, not two of Mr. Trump’s known strong suits, this was probably a rhetorical suggestion.

Attorney Alton Maddox spoke to the systemic nature of the legal assault on the boys. “20 years ago there was a tragedy in this city that we will never repay. Young men under the age of 16 were in a situation where they could not defend themselves. There were four Black lawyers who came forward in this case. All four of them, after they came forward were disciplined by various grievance committees. Three of them have been disbarred, and the other one was suspended for a substantial period of times.”

Speaking of the defendants he says, “They have to be compensated. We cannot ask people who have been crucified to resurrect themselves on their own. We don’t expect any of them to be Jesus.”

With this being an election year and with Robert Morgenthau not running there is a wide open race for New York District Attorney. And Maddox promises that “Whoever the next D.A. is, he’s going to have to come through the Black community. We want to know where he stands on compensation for the Central Park 6. Nobody will become the next District Attorney of this County without us.”

A Personal Tragedy
Sharon Salaam, mother of Yusef Salaam. “My son still struggles with this situation. Recently there was an article about the case in the Daily News. They went back years to find a picture of my son and over that picture it said ‘Matias Reyes, convicted rapist.’ When is justice going to happen for my son? We cannot go forward without some kind of justice. My son needs a chance to live his life as a decent human being because that’s what he is. If we are denied justice at every avenue, when will justice prevail, not only for us but for all the others?”

Mrs. Wise: “You took something dear and precious away from me. At the time I was five and a half months pregnant, and Kharey was sixteen, turning 17 and you just took him. My son went to jail at sixteen and came out at 30. How can he get an apartment to live in? You say he can’t live with me because I was receiving Section 8, so you gave him nothing. Today he has no house to live in. He’s going from place to place. You gave him no job. You wouldn’t even give him therapy. What you took from me and what you sent back is not the same.”

Raymond Santana: “I lost seven years of my life. I lost my childhood. I lost my mother, she died of cancer while I was in prison. I lost talents, I used to draw. I used to play basketball. I lost all of that. Now I’m just a man in this world trying to survive day-to-day. I don’t want this to happen to anybody else’s kid. It’s our duty to make sure others don’t go through this. To be swallowed up and pushed to the side as though we were nothing.”

Colin Moore, attorney for Kharey Wise, said, “we’re not here seeking justice, justice has already spoken. These young men are innocent. District Attorney Morgenthau had to admit he made a mistake. And he made a motion to invalidate the conviction of these young men. But what we want is a special commission appointed to look into the abuses of the District Attorney’s office in this case. This was the first case in which it became clear that you can actually force young men to convict themselves. There is overwhelming evidence if you apply the correct pressure you can get people to convict themselves. It is obvious from the transcripts that the District Attorney knew or should have known that the confessions were inconsistent with the evidence.”

Councilman Barron will shortly be making a motionto the City Council for compensation for these young men.