Street Style: Fur!

This semester I will be working with Claire Glass, another NYU student, to produce a series of audio slide shows called Street Style for the Local East Village. The series is based on "On the Street"by Bill Cunningham of the New York Times and will be running on the blog every other Friday, so keep checking in for new styles seen around the East Village!


http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/street-style-fur-fashions/

PEP announces school closings despite public protest

Nearly 2,000 students, parents and teachers filled the auditorium of Fort Greene Technical High School in Brooklyn on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011 to protest school closings by the Panel on Education Policy. In the last week, the panel has decided to close 23 schools it has deemed "failing" based on annual progress reports and graduation rates. (Rachel Ohm/NYU).

NEW YORK- More than 1,000 people walked out after protesting school closings during the Panel on Education Policy meeting Thursday night at Fort Greene Technical High School in Brooklyn. After more than six hours of public testimony, the panel voted to close 13 schools in a decision that followed the closing of 10 schools earlier in the week.

      “Black must go,” the public chanted, expressing their disapproval of Chancellor Cathleen Black, who appeared to be grimacing from her far away seat on stage. Her appointment in November has since faced criticism and lawsuits concerned with her lack of education credentials.


     The crowd held signs and blew whistles, rang bells and crowded the aisles of the auditorium. The mascot from Jamaica High School, a beaver, showed up to lead the crowd of angry parents, teachers and students holding signs that read “Stop Racist School Closings” and “Bolder Faster Change.”


      Listen: Audio clip of protestors at Thursday's Education Policy Panel meeting

     Charm Rhoomes is PTA President and mother of an 11th grader at Jamaica High School, one of the schools that PEP decided to close. In the 2009-2010 school year, Jamaica had a four-year graduation rate of 50 percent, below the citywide average of 63 percent. Rhoomes said she is “totally amazed at the lack of resources being provided to the students at Jamaica high school.” She came to the meeting with a list of 29 classes and programs that have been canceled at Jamaica since last fall. These included the engineering program, which was the reason her son decided to apply to Jamaica, and the Gateway (honors) program. 

     She says her son has studied hard and last fall qualified to take an Advanced Placement math class. On Wednesday he went to class and was informed that the teacher had been sent to another school and the class would no longer be taught at Jamaica. 

     “These students were basically told that after working hard for the last three years, they can’t have this class anymore,” she said. “Why is this happening?”

     Earlier in the week, PEP announced plans to close Metropolitan Corporate Academy in Brooklyn, a school founded in cooperation with investors from Goldman Sachs in 1992. Devonte Escoffery, student body president at Metropolitan Corporate, explained that once a school starts to phase-out enrollment drops. Since resources are allotted based on enrollment, resources decline when a school is in the phase-out process-- even if there are still students there. 

     “The D.O.E. cut off enrollment for eighth graders, so we only have 20 ninth graders,” he said. “The less students we have, the less money. We don’t have a gym, we don’t have an auditorium and our students don’t even have enough room to eat lunch.”


 Listen: Rap performed by students from Metropolitan Corporate Academy to protest closing

     Alan Cole, Jamaica track coach and retired physical education teacher, said that in addition to a lack of resources Jamaica has seen a disproportionately high influx of troubled students in recent years. 

     “In my classes I had students who were truants and who had disciplinary problems,” he said. “Every time I asked them where they lived, it was nowhere near the school.” 


      He said that in one year the school received 36 students from Riker’s Island juvenile detention facility.

     “Stop sending kids who don’t live anywhere near the school,” he said. “We will take our share of undereducated kids but don’t send them all here.” 

     
     In 2009 the panel voted to close 19 schools, including Jamaica, but a New York State court ruled that the decisions were illegal after lawsuits were brought forth by the United Federation of Teachers and the NAACP. The decision meant that the city had to start the process over again and include more pubic input. Speakers are cut off after two minutes and yet PEP meetings now stretch long into the night as parents, teachers and students line up at microphones.  

     “It really pains me to see these schools closing,” said Dmytro Fedkowskyj, Queens representative to the Educational Policy Panel. “There will be close to 2,000 students in these schools in the next three years and we will demand success in these proposed phase-out schools.” 

Village landmark takes on new identity as a tea shop

Please check out my first post on the New York Times Local East Village Blog:
http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/an-overhaul-at-an-iconic-address/

By Rachel Ohm/ NYU.

Also got a shout out on GrubStreet at New York magazine: http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/02/will_they_call_it_physical_gra.html

Celebrity chef sells vegetables to school kids

Sophia Arnau, 9, tries tri-colored salad at P.S. 63 on Wednesday, January 26, 2011. The tri-colored salad is a new menu item at New York City public schools and comes from a recipe by celebrity chef Ellie Kreiger. By Rachel Ohm/ NYU.

By Rachel Ohm
       NEW YORK- Children at Public School 63 filled their lunch trays with spinach salad, fat free chocolate milk, whole wheat pasta and a tri-color vegetable salad on Wednesday.

  According to teachers on lunch duty, the room was unusually quiet as they sat down to try a new vegetable they had been talking and learning about in class for two weeks - cauliflower. 

The tri-color vegetable salad, which includes cauliflower as well as broccoli and roast red pepper, comes from a recipe by celebrity chef Ellie Krieger, host of the Food Network show "A Healthy Appetite.”  It is a new addition to the public school lunch menu and was introduced and prepared by Krieger at Public School (P.S.) 63 in the East Village on Wednesday.

"Childhood obesity is a real problem across the country and across the city of New York," said Kimberly Kessler, New York City Food Policy Coordinator. "We need to recognize that nutrition can make a real difference."

Ellie Krieger, registered dietician and host of the Food Network's "A Healthy Appetite," prepares tri-color salad at P.S. 63 on Wednesday, January 26, 2011. "It's really simple," she said. "The chefs in New York City schools have a lot of kids to prep for and this is doable." By Rachel Ohm/ NYU. 

 In 2010 the Department of Education teamed up with schools all over the city to sponsor wellness committees, organizations made up of parents, teachers and staff interested in improving the quality and wholesomeness of foods in school cafeterias.
      Krieger, who is a registered dietician as well as professional chef, helped Michelle Obama lead the "Healthy Kids" Fair at the White House in 2010, and has since become involved in New York City public schools as the head of a wellness committee at Public School (P.S.) 75, where her daughter is a student. 

Because children are notoriously picky eaters many schools, such as P.S. 63 and P.S.75, and their wellness committees have taken initiatives to introduce the idea of healthy eating in the classroom as well as in the cafeteria. 

Ellie Krieger's tri-color vegetable salad contains broccoli, cauliflower and roasted red pepper tossed with olive oil and fresh basil. It was introduced as part of the menu at New York City public schools on Wednesday, January 26, 2011. By Rachel Ohm/ NYU. 

 Sophia Arnau, 9, a fourth-grader at P.S.63 says she only likes carrots and salad, but always tries new vegetables “because they’re healthy.” 

Getting kids to see trying new foods as an adventure is part of what Krieger calls “vegetable marketing,” an idea that she has put into practice through a vegetable tasting program at P.S. 75. 

“So many billions of dollars are spent marketing foods to children that are bad for them, but this is our opportunity to market foods to kids that are good for them,” she said. 

About two weeks before cauliflower was introduced on the menu at P.S. 75, the Wellness Committee entered the classroom, encouraging kids to touch and feel the vegetable and starting conversations about how different families prepare cauliflower and where it is grown. 

The next week they organized a taste test, in which different colored types of cauliflower were served in tasting cups at lunch. 

“When we finally cooked the cauliflower, the kids were so excited,” said Krieger. “They were like, ‘We get to taste cauliflower!’ Some tasted it and didn’t like it, and that’s fine. They just need to try new things and it was so great to see these kids excited about it.” 

The final step in vegetable marketing is communication with parents, which Krieger says can be achieved by sending fliers home with kids and encouraging parents to cook vegetables at home. 

Annalee Sinclair, PTA secretary and a parent of a fifth-grader at P.S. 63, says healthy eating habits start at home and many children have never tasted some vegetables. 

Children at P.S.63 in the East Village section of Manhattan are served lunch on Wednesday, January 26, 2011.  The menu included Mediterranean roast chicken, whole wheat pasta and tri-color vegetable salad, a new item. By Rachel Ohm/ NYU.

 “We need to prepare kids, to give them a sense of awareness and of being involved with the food," she said. "For so long it was just food on a tray and they had no relationship to it.”
     Since P.S. 63 started a wellness committee last spring Sinclair says she has seen the amount of food wasted decrease and has also noticed that more children are eating vegetables. 
     She said her son really likes vegetables, as long as they are not "boring," and says she puts lemon and spices on them at home. 
     Juan Blasencia, a second-grader, agreed that spices make vegetables more appealing. 
     "I really like the pasta because it's good. It's salty and spicy," he said. "I'm going to try the vegetables."