This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

What Happens Next?

Now that the asbestos abatement and dust clean up has begun, parents of PS 29 students are left with tough decisions. And what went wrong with the process.

This was the question I was asked last Friday night by a news reporter at the rally at PS 29. I didn’t have an answer for him and spent the weekend thinking about what exactly happened last week and where we go from here.

For the past week and a half, parents at PS 29 have had to learn quickly about asbestos and construction dust (which includes lead, PCBs, and more). But more importantly we have learned a very important lesson in how the Department of Education (DOE) and its subsidiaries, including the School Construction Authority (SCA), do business. For me, personally, this has been a very disappointing experience.

I don’t want this post to be another post about how and when the construction on PS 29 should take place but about how the parents of NYC public school children are treated by the people who are supposed to educate our kids. 

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This whole week could have gone smoothly - without two protests and an anger filled PTA meeting. Can you imagine if us parents could have concerned ourselves with the tests our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders were taking or helping our first graders to move up a reading level or all the other various things we do normally? This could have been accomplished with the SCA being more transparent. When we asked for the permits and documents regarding the asbestos abatement they could have given them to us, instead we had to file a FOIL request and had them the next day. Wouldn’t it have been easier if they could have provided the committee with a detailed and complete schedule of work instead of sitting in auditorium listening to parents yell for three hours? The level of frustration parents were experiencing was maddening. How can we make the proper decisions for our families without all the information?

The problem seems to be there is no accountability. The only person held accountable in our school system is the Mayor and that simply does not work.  The job of mayor is not a single-issue job, people will still vote for someone even if they don’t agree with one position. The job of running the nation’s largest school system should fall to people that if you don’t like the job they are doing, you could vote them out. Something similar to the School Boards the local suburban districts have.

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I am now more secure in sending my child to school for the next two months and next year because of the media spotlight we have shined on the SCA. Other parents still do not feel this is a safe option. Many are planning to homeschool for the rest of this year and the next. We each need to make our own decisions about what is best for our families and I would never dream of judging anyone’s decision.

I can only speak for myself – I will send my son to school, but will probably keep him out the days they are working on the windows of his classroom. 

My reasoning for this decision is that chances are the work will now be done properly and cleanly because the second someone gets sloppy there will be a camera on it. But this isn’t the way it should be. There are more than 300 schools the SCA is currently working on—is the work being done properly and cleanly on all of them? Not all parents are able to get as organized as we were able to get.  ALL children’s health should be the top priority – ALL parents should be able to be certain the air is safe to breathe in the child’s school. I do not think that is too much to ask for.

So I guess the answer to the original question is different for all of us. Some will become teachers and homeschool our children, some will send our children into the building – perhaps a little more nervously, some will consider their legal options and bring a suit against the city. I think I will work with a group I just met nine days ago to change the policy of how and when construction is allowed to happen on the City’s school buildings.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill