Deborah Meier created an oasis of child-centered education at Central Park East 1?in East Harlem. Parents from out-of-district enrolled. It was different from other public schools.
Deborah Meier left, convinced that her school was in safe hands.
But the system took control. The system does not like rebellion.
Parents are now protesting a principal determined to quash Deborah Meier’s vision.
Arthur Goldstein writes about it here:
http://nyceducator.com/2017/04/unsafe-at-any-speed-at-cpe-1.html?m=1
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I saw this Happen at East Side Middle School.
In the beginning, a small school where everyone knew the child’s name.
A school where teachers met with each other to talk and plan, and support learning.
Even before the ‘reform’ movement gathered steam, a succession of principals did their thing.
Then, the district got busy taking out the tenured teachers so they could manage the novice partitioners without the voice of an experienced practitioner saying, “Wait, What? That is anti-learning, we cannot do that!”
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
Top-down authority replaced the autonomy of the teacher across the nation.
And some of these principals were utterly lawless.
ttp://endteacherabuse.org/
http://blog.ebosswatch.com/2013/05/one-womans-legal-fight-against-workplace-bullying/
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/my-montana/2016/03/18/educator-recounts-harassment-school/81896206/
Quite a few facts so Little couldn’t choose to. For example there were two principles after I left and both were good the second, Jane Andrias was exceptional and kept the school moving along the same path as well as deepening it’s work. Monica was not the first disastrous replacement. But it really doesn’t matter who was right or wrong. Given that a majority of the parents are very concerned about the schools development, as well as the original teachers who were there when Monica came it seems to me that you can either replace the principal or replace the children and their families. During her less than two years as principal Monica has also brought charges against both the union rep and the chapter waited over a year before I hearing and is still waiting for the results. It seems to me the simple responsibility of the DOE to resolve the problem. The two people they sent him to investigate both urged that The principal be removed. It’s unclear to me what in the world is keeping the DOE tradition set during the first 30 years from 1974 to 2005 the one principal who might have been compatible unfortunately left CPEI want to start a wonderful in the district superintendent from resolving this my
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Deborah Meier has been having difficulty with her vision and is now dependent on voice activated devices for reading and writing. As a result an earlierresponse to the blog was incomplete.
In early April, Deborah and I wrote a response to Kate Taylor’s article in the NY Times on the conflict at Central Park East 1 (“CPE1”). The letter was not published. Taylor’s article raised many of the right questions confronting the institution but failed to explore why there has been no constructive solution to address the continuing conflicts within the school community and restore the safe and supportive learning environment for children and adults, which had been the hallmark of the school.
CPE1 was founded in 1974 as part of an East Harlem initiative to show what could be possible in what was at that time one of the poorest and educationally deprived communities in the city. The then District Superintendent, Anthony Alvarado, invited us to start a small, progressive and democratically governed school. Over the ensuing 30 years the school developed a national and international reputation for success in educating its children while maintaining a democratic culture. Faculty, staff, families and children all felt respected and heard even in times when internal differences or external policy changes challenged the integrity of the school’s core beliefs and highly developed practice. All important decisions were made collectively. One of the most notable features was the relationships that developed among staff, families and children, many of which last to this day. This continued and flourished long after Deborah left the school in 1985 under the leadership of the two principals who succeeded her.
While many of the attributes of the school have been threatened over the last decade, a third principal, who was the choice of the school community, succeeded in supporting the school culture and mission until she left to form her new school based on the principles and practices of CPE1.
The next principal who followed was also recommended by the school community but was not a strong enough leader to sustain and build on the mission of the school and the school began to erode. Three tenured teachers left the school at the end of her last year. Monika Garg was then appointed as the principal without the input or support of the school community. During the past two years with Ms. Garg as principal, the school’s mission has been totally undermined. Three more tenured teachers and one promising new teacher left the school at the end of last year.
A community that was once built on trust, compassion, the power of ideas and democratic process of decision making has become too distracted by controversy to function as a united and safe learning community for children and adults alike. Unless the unstated intent of the recent failure to end the turmoil of these past few years has been to close CPE1 so the space could be used for other purposes, it’s clear that we now face a choice between either replacing the principal or replacing the students, families and the school’s mission. We have made efforts over the past two years to join with the DOE to identify leadership that would build on the foundation of the past and restore the school’s excellent educational and democratic principles and culture. We are disappointed by the resistance of the DOE to take the necessary steps to constructively resolve this unrelenting and destructive conflict at CPE1.
Deborah Meier-1974-85-Founding Teacher/ Director, MacCarthur Award Winner
Jane Andrias-1981-2003 Art Teacher and Principal