We are the parents, neighbors, and residents in District 20 in Brooklyn that includes neighborhoods of Borough Park, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Fort Hamilton. We are very proud that District 20 public schools are one of the highest academic achievement school districts in New York City, despite the majority of our schools being drastically overcrowded. What our community needs is additional resources for our existing public schools and new traditional public schools that will provide the same good quality of education available currently in the district for our children to learn and grow. A charter school will not meet the needs we have in our district. We, the undersigned, together voice our opposition to the application by The Hellenic Classical Charter School – Dyker Heights in Brooklyn and urge its charter application be denied.

Ivy Tech facilities should provide a variety of spaces to encourage learning and participation in and out of the classroom and teaching lab. The TC building deserves a permanent, professional space devoted to the needs of the students.

Students who attend the Bryant Schools District should be able to dress freely at school. No one should decide whether or not they should get dress-coded at school or wear uncomfortable clothes. School faculty should not be putting duct tape or paper in students' clothes that their family paid for when some families can't afford new ones.

Because it is time that Student Loan victims have a real way to fairly pay off their loans without the constant illegal roadblocks that are put in the way to achieving freedom from these vampiric companies. Example: Borrowed $20,600 have paid back $32,800 and still owe over $50,000. There is no way to get these paid back as the servicing agency does not follow the rules and has no intention of assisting anyone get out of debt. The laws must be changed to force agencies like ECMC and Navient to really assist borrowers to pay their debt or their ability to have anything to do with these loans must be taken away from them and huge money penalties imposed that then go into a fund that will truly assist borrowers and future students.

We were just notified yesterday that D91 will be replacing D.A.R.E. with a program the school counselors will be implementing (we don't know the scope of the program but hope to learn more about it soon). We are saddened by this because no discussion was had with the D.A.R.E. board, the Bonneville Youth Development Council or anyone that has offered to continue this program at NO COST to the district. We still hope to have the conversation and hope to generate our community support to keep D.A.R.E. in the classroom. We also hope that from this petition, the district will see how strong we stand with the dare program.

After being forced private student loans by The Art Institutes I have paid 40,000 dollars of a 50,000 dollars loan and still owe 42,000 dollars. Together with your help. It is time to eliminate private students loans and bring The Art Institute and National Collegiate Student Loan Trust (NCT) to justice. Like most of you reading this I wanted to better myself and attend college to learn a degree that could help me provide a better life for my family. However, when I started school at the Art Institute I was told by the Art Institute financial aid office that the government was not offering federal loans and that if I wanted to go to school I would have to take PRIVATE STUDENT LOANS. Wanting a better life I agreed. But, was not allowed to fully read the contract which was quickly taken from me after signing National Collegiate Student Loan Trust (NCT) provided this very special type of secret loan that even I was unable to see. I borrowed 50,000 dollars and in the last 10 years, I have paid over 40,000 dollars still owing 42,000 dollars. This seems fair, right? How does NCT fit into the scam of the Art Institute? Well, I believe it was due to the financial kickbacks that NCT provided The Art Institutes and we are talking about Billions.

I pray that there will never be another school shooting like the one we lived through in Parkland, Fla. Even just earlier this year, it never occurred to me that we’d be in a situation where we might have a secretary of education consider diverting resources that are used to support poor kids in order to flood schools with more guns. However, that’s exactly what we’re up against right now, since the news broke that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is considering a plan that would allow states to use federal funds to purchase guns for teachers. As the New York Times reported, such a move would reverse a long-standing position taken by the federal government that it should not pay to outfit schools with weapons. And it would also undermine efforts by Congress to restrict the use of federal funding for guns. As recently as March, Congress passed a school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms. The $1 billion student support program, part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, is intended for academic and enrichment opportunities in the country’s poorest schools, and it calls for school districts to use the money toward meeting three goals: providing a well-rounded education, improving school conditions for learning, and improving the use of technology for digital literacy. Instead of after-school programs or counselors, which are critical for creating safe and welcoming schools and addressing the mental health needs of kids, DeVos wants to turn schools into armed fortresses and make kids and educators less safe. Educators, students and parents have made clear that they don’t want more guns in schools; teachers want to teach and students want to learn. Rather than disregard the demands and needs of the people who know what our schools require, the Department of Education should use Title IV funding to: ● Provide a well-rounded education (examples include expanding AP courses and access to such courses, arts education, civics education, more college and career counseling, environmental education, expanding foreign language options, STEM, and social-emotional learning); ● Ensure safe and healthy students (including asthma management, bullying prevention, drug and violence prevention, indoor air quality, safe schools, mental health, and suicide prevention); and ● Provide effective use of technology. Arming teachers is a bad idea. We know that states with the strongest gun laws see less gun violence. And we know that educators, students and parents want a safe, welcoming place for students to learn, with adequate resources to make this a reality. Stand with the education community now. Send a message to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos that this plan is reckless, dangerous, and will have long-lasting effects on our students and our schools.

https://fox17online.com/2018/07/25/kps-graduate-crushed-after-she-was-denied-kalamazoo-promise/ The Promise was created to help students like Zaviona. She did everything right. She excelled in school. She participated in extracurricular activities. She graduated with high honors, and she spoke at graduation. To deny her a chance at college because, after a bout of homelessness, she moved to a home within a few feet of the KPS district boundary, a home her family was led to believe was within that boundary, is the height of cruelty. We can do better.

As employees of the University, the signing members of the Gryphon society feel that paying the full fee of a parking permit on campus is unreasonable as other employees of the University are not required to pay the same fees. As this is a position that requires us to live on campus, we believe there are convincing arguments detailed in the attached letter that explain why a Gryphon should not pay the full fee to park on campus. Even without changes made, we petition for an understandable, written explanation of why there is no reduction made for Gryphons purchasing parking permits.

Cassandra Williams has served the students and faculty of Saint Leo University honorably for an excess of eight years. The student body depended on Ms. Williams as the primary resource for assistance ahead of any other staff due to her dependability and understanding of the culture of the student body. As current students and Alumni, we view her abrupt termination as unjust and a disservice to our university, current, and future students.

Donate at: https://www.gofundme.com/eraselunchdebt-nj In nearly half of America’s school districts, schools are shaming and punishing students because their parents or guardians are unable to pay for their child's lunch bills. In some cases, schools are ordered to withhold lunch. In other, more severe cases, lunch shaming is used; schools publicly single out these children by forcing them to wear wristbands, assigning them chores, or taking away their meal after it has been served to them. Children face the embarrassment of being branded by bracelets or stamps when they are denied the “good lunch” in their own school cafeterias. This horrific practice negatively disrupts a child's life, often leaving permanent scars. To begin tackling this pressing problem, I founded the Lunch Crisis Organization which operates on the basis of three main objectives: raising money towards erasing students’ lunch debt, raising awareness about lunch shaming, and bringing change to the public school lunch system. Though I was able to raise over $13,000, it proved to be merely a band-aid for this crisis -- real change, change on a legislative level, must be more permanent. To bring this permanent change to the public school lunch system, New Jersey and its legislators need to create and pass a bill that will consist of acts to outlaw the cruel practice of lunch shaming and ensure that federal meal assistance is an easier process. New Mexico’s Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights outlaws lunch shaming and directs schools to work with parents to pay their debts or to sign up for federal meal assistance. With New Mexico being one only a few states to pass a bill that has effectively impacted the lunch system, it is my hope that New Jersey will be the next.

There is a proposed rule that would suspend high school student-athletes from post-season competition if their parents legally transfer them for reasons that are NOT athletically motivated. This rule targets low-income students and African American student-athletes in particular. It would hold them hostage in certain zip codes and educational environments that their parents do not feel are best for them. There has been very little transparency about this rule. This vote should be stopped and public forums should be held throughout the Commonwealth.