PARENT RESPONSES TO DR. LIVANIS's LETTER

Dear Dr Livanis, Chancellor Klein

As a founding parent of the school, I must correct your misuse of the word "seamless" as it applies to our school. By "seamless" curriculum, Celenia Chevere, who coined the term and created the educational concept, was referring to her vision of a K-12 college preparatory school where the educational groundwork established in grades K-5 allowed for a "seamless" transition to middle and upper school. One of the cornerstones of this seamless vision is (or should I say was) the advisory system, which was established in lower school as morning meeting and which continued in middle and upper school to support students with time management, homework checkin, discipline, NHS, model UN, college applications, etc... And yet you are phasing out this most critical aspect of our lower, middle and upper school.

This morning at a 5th grade informational meeting, our parents were informed that while the current fifth grade will be "grandfathered" into the sixth grade class, that no such assurances for the other, lower grades can be offered at this time. To Celenia, that was the very definition of "seamless" - the understanding that the kids who worked hard would be well prepared and able to move on up to a middle and then upper school with a shared culture and preparatory curriculum and without the kind of chaos that most 6th graders experience in middle schools where students from many different lower schools suddenly land in a middle school where a year is lost to reorienting. I sat in the dining hall last month when you pointedly insisted to us that you would do nothing to ensure that our fifth graders are given first refusal for their seats. Instead, I instituted a letter writing campaign and understand that it was parents' letters to the DOE which led to the decision to grant our fifth graders the "seamless" curriculum they've earned, and which you later announced.

I take serious issue with your coopting of the word seamless. It is yet another example of how little you understand about the culture and history of our school. (For your edification, I am attaching a document written last year to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Perhaps it will help you to understand just what our parents went through to keep hold of our seamless curriculum AND the screened admissions process that has also been jettisoned without adequate consideration to the consequences. )

As for the vision of the school that you have presented, I am sure there are many parents who, like myself, would appreciate detailed information regarding the funding and administration of such ambitious plans, when simply retaining a school nurse and a crossing guard seem to be beyond your capacity. I understand that at present our athletic programs are not being funded - that our athletes can't even buy uniforms - (supposedly "The Nest Egg" is handling this, except it's not) and yet two languages will be introduced K-8? Our science labs will be renovated? Programming will increase? And I hear a fourth AP will be added to our school? The one thing I am very certain of is that the DOE will not support these kind of funding
issues without a "critical mass" of students - say, 1400, which, as you personally assured me in the fall, is the number to which you'd "like to see our school grow", despite the assurances you've given to other parents that the school would top out at 1100.

Meanwhile, the high school is filled with "black holes" - there are students who have back to back "study halls" followed by lunch, and there's a student who disappeared for two weeks without consequence or inquiry. In the lower school, a child falls and cuts her head open and is taken to the office, because there is STILL no school nurse - and none of the office assistants so much as offers a tissue for her bleeding head.

I urge you to address the issues at our school before putting further stress on what is becoming a fragile educational institution. And please refrain from using the word "seamless" in regard to Nest+m. You clearly do not understand it.

In closing, I wish to take further issue with your two opening sentences: RE: "You have successfully fought a significant battle for your school with passion and dedication." - I assume you refer to our battle against Ross? If you perceive this as a positive act, as your opening and closing statements imply, then why was one of your first acts at our school to trigger an audit of those who spearheaded this significant battle? What was your intent in provoking such an act of harrassment?

RE: "You have been the architects of a unique learning environment that serves to educate children in their formative years." This is untrue. Celenia was the architect. We supported the vision, but we did not design it.

Sincerely, Karen Trott

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Dear Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Klein,

We write to second the eloquent letter from Karen Trott. Karen was responding to Dr. Livanis' letter to the NEST school community regarding her "vision" for the school. We have very little to add to Karen's thorough analysis of the sophistry in that letter.

It is truly remarkable that, after all the administration has gutted from the NEST culture and program, it should now come out with this fantastical statement of all the wonderful things it sees in the future. How does it propose to provide these items when it took weeks to provide a school nurse and crossing guard and when it has spent months tearing down and dismantling many of these same things it proposes to add? What happened to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

The Livanis letter, while superficially good, is another example of what we've seen in this administration's tenure: a dangerous combination of unearned confidence and total incompetence, a complete failure to acknowledge that you don't know everything, a resounding lack of modesty. A key aspect of wisdom is knowing what you don't know. This administration in its hubris seems to be missing this. Moreover, it is transparent that it has never run a school, as shown by its lack of management skills, offending teachers, students, and parents alike. It doesn't have to be anyone's friend, but it is also not respected. Moreover, while DoE and the Administration claim to want communication, it is non communicative in extremis, seemingly operating in a star chamber as it makes dramatic changes to NEST's culture without so much as an e-mail.

A couple of great examples of this confidence blended with incompetence comes just from our personal experience. It took seven weeks for the new Principal to even pay a cursory visit to our son's first grade class and when she did, because of her complete failure to reach out to the community, the kids had no idea who she was. One parent asked her child what the principal discussed with the class, and the response was, "Are you kidding? It was a hi-bye."

A second example came when she chose to have her assistant hand deliver a note to our son's teacher requesting that the teacher attend a potential disciplinary meeting. She interrupted a first grade class, midstream in a math lesson, to deliver a threatening note to the teacher. She couldn't wait until the end of the day or drop the note in the teacher's box? Instead she disrupts the class and exposes the children to an emotionally distraught teacher. The children were so upset, they decided among themselves that a friend of the teacher's must have died. Little did they know that it was the death of respect, for them and their teacher. This small thoughtless decision displayed disrespect for the students, their parents, the teacher, and the process. It serves as a stark individual example of the overall failure of this administration.

Michael Bauman and Calla Jo, parents of a first grader
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