Gowanus Pie Social: Fundraiser For Current And Future PS32 Programming

This Saturday, November 10, 2018, make sure to stop by PS 32 Samuel Mills Sprole School at 317 Hoyt Street to eat pie, drink coffee and swap cookbooks, all to help one of our local schools. Sounds fun, right?

From PS32
Do you love pie?
Join us for 2 pie-rrific contests (professional and homemade) during an afternoon of fun and community at PS32.

Enjoy a 10 pie flight of professional pumpkin pies from area businesses Betty Bakery, Blue Stove Bakery, Butter & Scotch, Buttermilk Bakshop, Kos Kaffe, Mia's Brooklyn Bakery, Miss American Pie, Petee's Pie Co., Poppy's, and Trader Joes. Vote for your favorite to crown Brooklyn's Best Professional Pumpkin Pie!

Watch the judging and awards for Best Homemade Pie. Homemade Pie slices are available for $3 each.

Coffee is pie's best friend and our friends at Abbotsford Road will be pouring hot coffee for ticket holders.

Enjoy arts and crafts, a cookbook swap, and activities by area makers from the Gowanus Souvenir Shop, Textile Art Center, Curious Jane and the PTA of PS32.

A special thanks to our sponsors Fairway, Michel et Augustin, Abbotsford Road, and Millennium Steel Rack!!

All proceeds are used to fund current and future PS32 programming.

Tickets are $7 ($10 at the door)
All further details can be found here

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PS 32 Holds Its 4th Annual Poetry Celebration Today

Today, join the students and teachers of PS 32, the lovely elementary school on Hoyt Street between Union and President Streets for their 4th annual poetry reading. Tina Chang, the poet, will be joining them. The Celebration will take place from 12:30 PM to 2:45 Pm.

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Planting A New Roof Garden At MS 442 On Hoyt Street

Samuel Mills Sprole school building on Hoyt Street

Getting the roof ready (photo courtesy of MS 442)

Dirt being lifted onto roof (photo courtesy of MS 442)

The roof garden this morning. The Center area is planted with native plants.

Students with young tomato plants.

Garden gloves for everyone

Science teachers Jason James and Maureen Anderson

giving advice as the students plant tomatoes

MS 442 Principal Deanna Sinito with students

I couldn't think of a better way of starting this sunny day than with the 7th graders at MS 442 on their brand new roof garden at the Samuel Mills Sprole school building at 317 Hoyt Street, between Union and President Streets.

This was a long awaited moment. The Middle Schoolers had started vegetable and herb seedlings in the classroom a few weeks ago, and now it was time to plant them outdoors in the raised planting beds on the second floor roof garden, which has just recently been completed with the generous help of Lowe's Corporation, Citizens Committee for New York City, Harefield Road, Architect Jean Miele and others.

The planting project involves all of the 200 students at MS442 and science teachers Maureen Anderson, Christine Bahringer, and Jason James. Under their supervision, the children had laid out their vegetable garden carefully, deciding beforehand where the tomatoes, broccoli, collards, basil, and oregano plants should be placed. The edible garden will be planted around the outer edges of the planting area for easy access. The central planting area is reserved for native, self-sustaining perennials, such as columbines, flax and coreopsis.

It was a real pleasure to see the kids so exited. MS 442 Principal Deanna Sinito looked on proudly as her charges excitedly dug in the dirt. It was clear that this rooftop and garden meant a lot to her, her teachers and staff, but most importantly, to the kids.

To everyone at MS442, thanks for allowing me to be part of this day. And please invite me back when you harvest the first crop.

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Teachers, Parents And Kids Win A Round! DoE Abandons Its Plan To House Charter School At PS32

No one messes with PS 32 and with the ASD Nest Program for autistic children, not even the NYC Department of Education, which had announced a few days ago that they intended to temporarily house a charter school in PS 32's movable classrooms. PS 32 parents and teachers feared that co-sharing the space would negatively affect the program.

It seems that the outcry from the PTA and our local politicians, who got behind the issue immediately, has worked. It was just announced that the DoE has backed down. All the media coverage probably helped as well.

Here is a press release from Borough Prez Marty Markowitz:

BP MARKOWITZ ANNOUNCES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DECISION THAT WILL SAVE “ASD NEST PROGRAM” AT PS 32 IN CARROLL GARDENS

“The Department of Education got our message loud and clear,” said BP Markowitz

Today, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz announced that the New York City Department of Education is no longer pursuing the temporary siting of Brooklyn Prospect Charter School at PS 32, a move that would have threatened the continued success of the ASD Nest program at the school.

“I am relieved to announce that the Department of Education has agreed to find an alternative to placing a charter school at PS 32—allowing their ASD Nest program to continue,” BP Markowitz said. “Parents, students and my office made it clear to the Department of Education that placing a charter school at this location would severely damage existing educational programs. The Department of Education got our message loud and clear and I am pleased that they responded to our efforts by cancelling the proposed charter school.”

If there were to be a charter school at PS 32, the ASD program would lose unique components which make them the only public school option in NYC for high functioning children with autism. The services the children receive are contingent on their regularity and frequency, and they need to be administered in a proper setting.

Speech, occupational therapy, sensory activities and social development integration need to have adequate class space to support children’s development. Removing rooms dedicated to servicing these compulsory mandates would be antithetical to the mission of the ASD program that the DOE so wisely created.

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Take A Moment To Help Neighborhood School PS 32

********UPDATE*********

Thanks For Everyone's Help. The DOE Has Just Announced It's Abandoning Its Plans!

Read the update here:

Teachers, Parents And Kids Win A Round! DoE Abandons Its Plan To House Charter School At PS32

As reported yesterday, the NYC Department of Education is intending to temporarily move the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School into the portable classrooms currently stationed in the school yard of the Samuel Mills Sprole School (PS 32) on Hoyt Street. The charter school will eventually move to a brand new school building on Douglass and Third Avenue in the Gowanus area.

The problem is that the portable classrooms are currently used by PS 32 as part of their successful and widely emulated ASD Nest Program. The program is a collaboration between New York University and DoE, which is designed to integrate autistic children into mainstream classes. If the elementary school children will have to give up these additional classrooms and squeeze into the main building, the Nest program as well as the other wonderful learning opportunities at the school will be significantly impacted.

Parents and teachers at PS 32 fear that co-sharing the school with the charter school will severely impact the education of the current students. They have asked for the community's help and have started a letter writing campaign.

My friend Lisanne has sent me the cut-and-paste letter to send to the appropriate authorities.

Please take a moment today to help PS 32.

PLEASE CUT AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING EMAIL which is tailored to fit to the word length requirements at the Mayor's office. Email addresses provided below to Kathy Black and Councilman Brad Lander:

I want to call to your attention to the plight of a special program.

In 2003, PS 32 was the first school to host the Nest program, which places autistic children in classrooms with other children. Since then, this milestone program has expanded to more than 20 schools citywide. It works.

Now that program is being threatened by city plans to embed a charter school in the building, thus disrupting the nesting plan that depends on space & special attention. What is more, the proposed change would be a major disruption for autistic kids who who can be unusually distressed by changes to routine.

Autistic children and their parents have been well served by PS 32 and they really do deserve and NEED the continued support of the Mayor's office to hold on to this program that they have counted on.

CUT & PASTE and SEND TO

Mayor Bloomberg click here

School Chancellor Black click here

Councilman Brad Lander click here

I just did it and it really only took a few minutes.

Related Reading:

Once Again, DoE Maneuvering Puts Students Last. This Time It's At PS32

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A Look Back In Time: About Principal Samuel Mills Sprole And Public School 32 On Hoyt Street

Former Public School 32 Building on Hoyt Street
at the corner of President Street

Current Samuel Mills Sproke School,
PS 32 Building at the same location.

Though I have passed Public School 32 on Hoyt Street many times and have attended my fair share of meetings in the auditorium, I never really took notice of the official name of the school. Yet it is spelled out in big silver letters right over the front entrance : Samuel Mills Sprole.

Mr. Sprole, it turns out, was the school's principal for thirty-two years, from the school's beginning in 1873 until his death in 1905.
Reader Alexandrea did notice the name, investigated and found Sprole's obituary, published in the New York Times in 1905.
According to the article, he was extremely dedicated to the school and educated "many men now prominent in various walks of life in Brooklyn."

However, Sprole's school building was a beautiful brownstone building which does not exist any more. Instead, the present building was erected in the early 1950's at the same location. ( I was told that a shovel from the 1949 ground breaking is displayed in the school.)
What a pity, really. The original building, with its cast iron fence, is so much more attractive.

Thanks, Alexandrea, for this great bit of neighborhood history.

For Home Page, click Pardon Me For Asking

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