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HRR02022017

12 FEBRUARY 3 - FEBRUARY 9, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP EDITORIAL THE GOLDEN DOOR MUST REMAIN OPEN FOR ALL It’s comforting to know that the president of the United States has made bolstering national security a priority in the first few days in office, but his method of doing so flies in the face of our nation’s core principles. The executive order President Donald Trump signed on January 27 that prohibits individuals from certain Middle Eastern nations from entering the U.S. is a half-baked and dangerous scheme that has caused chaos at the nation’s airports and unnecessary harm to those being detained by customs agents. This order was challenged in the courts immediately, and U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly ruled from Brooklyn Federal Court on Saturday night that the order could not be fully enforced pending further review. Despite the judge’s ruling, there were reports nationwide that customs agents are not abiding by it, and are still A LOOK BACK 14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12,GO BACK TO THE preventing individuals from the designated nations from entering our country. At least two Brooklynites have been impacted by the executive order – a student at CUNY who has been unable to return here from visiting family in Iran and a doctor at Interfaith Medical Center who was visiting family in Sudan when the ban was announced. We have always been a nation, a state and a borough of immigrants. The vast majority of those who have emigrated to our country, regardless of how they got here, have contributed their talents to our nation in an overwhelmingly positive way, incorporating themselves into society and making a better way of life for themselves and their families. Throughout the years, immigrants have made America great. If we are to continue to be a great nation, we must stop dictating our immigration policies out of fear and instead editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by DRAWING BOARD alter immigration from a position of strength — and the branches of our government must respect the checks and balances on each other. We call on the Trump administration immediately to direct all government agencies to abide by Judge Donnelly’s ruling, to rescind fully the executive order of January 27 and to come up with a more effective way of vetting innocent persons arriving in the U.S. We must never again arbitrarily shut, as poet Emma Lazarus so eloquently described, “the golden door” that leads the world to our nation of peace and opportunity. HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS Change (Estab. 1953) to 2015 ▲ ▲ Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein (USPS 248.800) 9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209 Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein Telephone 718-238-6600 Fax 718-238-6630 E-mail [email protected] Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. Single copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay Ridge Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: Home Reporter and Sunset News 9733 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11209 Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News All letters sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available, as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to such advertisement. Photo by Gardiner Anderson And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which has provided the backdrop for many movies and television shows over the years, from “Blue Bloods” and “Saturday Night Fever” to “Mad Men” and, in 2006, to “Then She Found Me,” starring Helen Hunt and Bette Midler, seen above in a September, 2006, Home Reporter photo taken on location on Shore Road at 77th Street. Midler performed at the most recent Oscars, singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” during the awards show’s In Memoriam segment.“Then She Found Me,” which also starred Matthew Broderick, was also shot inside a historic home on 88th Street. Each day, thousands of people depend on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for emergency medical care and vital health care services. But this state-operated public hospital has been in danger of being closed or privatized for more than two years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.” Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations to operate SUNY’s public hospitals. United University Professions, the union that represents nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone. The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and Community Leaders has become an important ally. The coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility. The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith leaders and members of the community will participate to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn and call attention to the threats it faces. You can take part in the fast or find out more about it by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to [email protected]. We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital. The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s teaching hospital. Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary. We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,” a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health care throughout Brooklyn. This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn, including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. You can see the proposal online http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org. It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory care centers, and would be controlled by and with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. Downstate would be the network’s hub, educating and supplying physicians and medical staff to the care centers and working with doctors at the other hospitals. It’s a simple, effective plan and, if given a chance, will work. New York has a responsibility to provide for the health care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan—our plan and the community’s plan—viable, workable option for long-term health care Brooklyn. That’s something that Brooklyn residents desperately need. Frederick E. Kowal is president of United University Professions, the union representing 35,000 faculty and professional staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse. With the city deciding to move forward on most of the school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry. While the Department of Education under Mayor de Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others: the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach. These – like others in the borough and the city – are both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students and the local Community Education Councils, all of whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary space from students already attending the schools, and those who will be going to them in the near future. While the city has said it only considers under-utilized schools for co-locations, area education advocates say that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary school in both District 20 and District 21 move up to middle school. Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being planned, meaning that public school students in both District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze should they have to share space with students from a charter school. That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their needs should not trump the needs of existing schools with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter school is put inside a public school, the process must involve the school communities at both educational institutions, and parents must also be involved. The city must go back to the drawing board and come up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other schools where they are opposed.. The students who attend those schools deserve no less. guest op-ed Keep SUNY Downstate open and public BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL Entire contents copyright 2016 by Home Reporter and Sunset News EMBRACING PARENTS AS PARTNERS This year, for the first time, my daughter’s new teacher visited our home to welcome us to J.H.S. 50. During the visit, we set goals for our daughter and I was informed of the many programs, services and resources available to us through the school’s partnership with El Puente, an amazing community based organization that has a long history in our community. The visit was a game changer and eased my daughter’s nerves about starting middle school. For me, working full-time and being the only caregiver at home can make playing an active role in my child’s education a challenge. I know this is true for many J.H.S. 50 parents. However, the J.H.S. 50 community constantly welcomes families to participate however they can–whether it’s welcoming guests at the unveiling event of a new mural, or cheering on the debate team at a competition – and they will even come to you. J.H.S. 50 is also a Renewal School. I didn’t know what this meant – and once I learned, I realized this meant more opportunity for my daughter. This includes additional supports and services on-site to tackle attendance challenges, address mental health issues and increase academic rigor. The school has expanded learning time, which means every student has five extra hours of learning time every week. This can include homework help, robotics, writing exercises or drumline. In addition, we have a debate team, which has won several competitions. The incredibly resilient team – many English Language Learners and newly arrived immigrants – has become increasingly articulate and impressive debaters. Watching their confidence beam at competitions brings our community much joy and pride. J.H.S. 50’s holistic approach to learning and community engagement has been critical to its growing success in enrollment and student achievement. The school has been instrumental in my child’s learning as well as my own. As I became more involved at the school, I noticed that my daughter is more engaged in learning. I’m proud of her, and we’ve even grown closer. J.H.S. 50 embraces parents as partners. I recently attended the Parent Teacher Home Visits Project in Washington D.C. with a team of our school’s teachers, parents and staff. During the conference, I met with dozens of teachers and parents and shared best practices, deepening and strengthening our understanding of the practice to take back and put into practice at our own schools. I returned from the conference feeling empowered and eager to help our teachers for the next round of visits. Every parent wants their son or daughter to succeed. J.H.S. 50 is making that a reality. Maria Giron Maria Giron is a parent at J.H.S. 50 John D. Wells in Williamsburg. Published just six days after the Verrazano- Narrows Bridge opened, on November 21, 1964, this issue of The Home Reporter attracted readers at the newsstand with its gorgeous and dramatic photo of the span lit at night. At that time, the toll was 50 cents; also, it had been announced that, once the cost of building the bridge was recouped, the toll would come to an end. Fast-forward 52+ years, and the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, under whose auspices the Verrazano falls, has just voted to raise the base toll to $17 from the current $16, though E-ZPass users get a significant discount, and Staten Island residents an even more significant one. Compiled by Helen Klein SCHOOL LETTER


HRR02022017
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