Elected officials, parents ask DOE to give PS 114 'a chance'

Politicians, community leaders, parents and educators continued to fight the shutdown of embattled PS 114 in Canarsie, citing the closing as the worst case of Department of Education neglect.

At a press conference on the steps of City Hall on Feb. 24, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio said there was a complete disconnect between the DOE and the school community. He said parents and teachers pleaded with the DOE to remove the school’s former principal, Maria Penaherrera, for four years, but were ignored.

Penaherrera was finally removed in February 2009. The school has had three principals since then.

“The only thing the DOE offered is closing,” he said.

Parent Michael Off described the PS 114 staff as “excellent,” noted the school is in good standing with the state, and called for more time and resources for the Brooklyn school.

Just a month after the DOE deferred a scheduled vote to close the school for further review, it is again facing a vote for closure at a Panel for Educational Policy meeting on March 1.

UFT District Representative Richard Mantell argued that declining test scores at the school were the result of the drastic loss of student support services when the school was forced to make up for its former principal’s $180,000 misappropriation of funds.

The cash-strapped school lost all its Academic Intervention Services providers, excessed 17 teachers in two years (including an ESL teacher, staff developers and three coaches), and lost Project Read, Project Math, the chess club and the after-school drama club, Mantell said.

“All we want is a chance,” Mantell said.