As readers of this blog are aware of we broke the news that South Bronx Classical Charter School II was to be co-located in the friendly confines of PS 154. The last sentence of Monday's blog was;

What is more disturbing is what will be gracing these pages concerning Bronx Classical in the days to come. 

Little did we know here at SBSB just how much more disturbing information was to be found.

You know the old saying, "Stop the presses!"? The presses were just stopped. In researching, editing, and writing an introduction, well wishes, and hidey ho to the trustees of South Bronx Classical, The Crack Team came across some disturbing truths and untruths about South Bronx Classical Board Member William F Higgins.


Not only does Mr, or should we say, Captain Higgins biographies differ here on the South Bronx Classical page and the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs page (is there really such an organization in NYS? I mean officially?), but apparently Citizen Higgins played a game of not telling the whole truth.


On the South Bronx Classical bio for Higgins it lists him as a former FBI special agent, while the DMNA page has no mention of him as an FBI  agent. This raised the eyebrows of The Crack Team. Surely, we thought to ourselves, being an FBI special agent one would want to share it with everyone/


The reason Citizen Higgins did not wish to share it on the DMNA website is because in 1973 Citizen Higgins was terminated as an FBI agent. No wonder he did not share this on a "quasi-government" website.


Of course putting down that he is a former FBI agent lends him some much needed "panache." But it makes one wonder if he wished he were part of a union when he was with the FBI.


Another curious tall tale that Citizen Higgins shared only on his DMNA page, and not on the South Bronx Classical page nor even here,  is.... Oh, let's use the words from DMNA, OK?

...played on the 1963 NAVY football team that was ranked the #2 team in the nation, and went to the Cotton Bowl with Roger Staubach.

Wow! That was one hell of a football team back then. The 1964 Cotton Bowl was the de facto national title game. Texas trounced the Middies 28-6.

Thinking what I am thinking? Yeah, liar, liar pants on fire Citizen Higgins. Extensive research has yet to show any record of Citizen Higgins being on the 1963 Navy team that was led to the Cotton Bowl by future Cowboys great quarterback and Hall of Famer Roger Staubach.

One more thing. After Roger Staubach graduated the Naval Academy, he could have done his tour in the States, yet he volunteered to go to Viet Nam for a year. Citizen Higgins on the other hand...

....first tour of active duty was at the U. S. Naval Academy, 1966-67

We hear at SBSB smell a fish and it is really stinky. Even though all of us here at SBSB are Football Giants fans, we respect and like Roger Staubach we don't like Citizen Higgins.

We also question Lester Long's (This is such a great porno name!!!) judgement. How is it possible that Citizen Higgins fell through the vetting process at South Bronx Classical? What does this say about Lester Long's priorities? What about Citizen Higgins? Does he care about his image or the student's educations? How has he been able to bogart his way into so many prominent positions?

We here at SBSB demand answers from Lester Long and Citizen Higgins immediately. If Lester can be this careless about a trustee he can be this careless about the children of the South Bronx.

We are not done here at SBSB with Citizen Higgins inconsistencies. Stay tuned for more.

We here at SBSB pride ourselves in having integrity and honor. We hope and pray that those of the upper echelon of the NYC DOE will look to SBSB and see what we stand for and hope those people say, "Hey, let's be like SBSB." But we know it will never happen.

With that being said, we would like to correct ourselves for erroneously reporting on February 2, 2013 that Bronx Community Charter will be co-locating at PS 154 come next September. We are vetting our source as of this posting to see if the information was just a mistake or was deliberate misinformation. While we do not wish to see a school be co-located in 154, we were somewhat glad that BxC was somewhat benign and not evil.

The school community, excluding the staff of PS 154 a few weeks ago that the charter school coming in to PS 154 is South Bronx Classical Charter led by uber educator and former Lehman Brothers and Dartmouth graduate executive Lester Long (Gosh is it me or does his name seem like a porn actor's name?). Hey, wait a minute. Lester Long is a graduate of Dartmouth?? Hmmmmm. Can be some conflict of hidden interest occurring that we do not know about?? But not now, better to keep cards close at hand.

This according to what we have found out has been planned for some time. The scare, the sword being held over the heads of the 154 community that had everyone worried about the closure is still there, but this time it is real. Yeah, we got off the closure list, but as stated before on these pages a charter moving in is just a back door closure.

But the information is pretty much as stated as before. Three classes in both K and 1 to begin in 2013-2014 and each year thereafter one grade at a time until the cancer that is South Bronx Classical completely envelops and eradicates PS 154, or whatever public school is left in that building.

Curiously, we are told that 154 can accommodate up to 800 students. But according to the DOE, 154 has enough space for 634 students. With the projection of South Bronx Classical to have up to 390 students in grades K-5, that does not leave much for PS 154. What does that mean?

The students, the families, the community and the staff of PS 154 are just shit out of luck. Just as foretelling is this from the DOE; "Beginning in September 2013, P.S. 154 will admit a smaller incoming kindergarten class of 45 - 55 students, as opposed to the 70 - 80 students it has served in recent years." Can you spell excessing? ATR? What must be known is if that 45-55 student projection is under normal enrollment circumstances or does it take into account the new open enrollment  across District 7 for incoming Kindergarten students? The reduced enrollment will send reverberations throughout the school in teachers losing their positions and of course the school receiving less money.

Just as importantly is the question of what kind of students will be left for PS 154? After Bronx Classical and the  Kindergartens at the highly rated schools get first dibs on the best and the brightest what is 154 left with? That's why we here at SBSB think that 154 is doomed as a school and will soon either be shut down or just totally engulfed by South Bronx Classical.

Please do not think for one minute that South Bronx Classical is the salve that will save the education of the students in the South Bronx.

According to Gotham Schools of October 2, 2012; 

"At South Bronx Classical Charter School, for example, between 20 and 40 percent of students that originally enrolled left before they were tested, and no new students replaced them, the union pointed out." 

What does this tell the parents? We say the cream rises and stays, right?

But even more disturbing is this from the Daily News of April 30, 2012;

 .....the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating the suspension last fall of Christian Charriez, 6, a special-needs student at South Bronx Classical Charter School.

The school suspended Christian four times — and told him the last time that he had to stay out until he received a psychiatric analysis and diagnosis, which is still under way.
Principal Lester Long said the school invited Christian back to school and contacted his mother multiple times, but a letter from the family’s lawyer shows the school was contacted multiple times without response.

After a month out of class, the boy transferred to a public school, his mom said, where he was assigned a teacher’s aide to help him, and he now loves going to school instead of dreading it.

Disturbing.  What is more disturbing is what will be gracing these pages concerning South Bronx Classical in the days to come.