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Editorial Well, they have finally been heard from. The Panel for Educational Priorities, which in some sense replaced the Board of Education, has voted to stop social promotion from third grade. But, before they did, the citywide media reported that this would be "an important vote." That should have been a tip-off to us all that something was up. After all, the mayor said when the panel was formed that he didn't expect to see their names in the paper "either on the record or off the record" (sic). In other words, he seemed to be saying, don't expect them to actually do anything all by themselves. The majority of the panel is appointed by the mayor and, as its bylaws state, "All members serve at the pleasure of the official who appointed them." That means they serve as long as he wants them to serve and when he doesn't like what they do, he fires them. Lo and behold the panel was set to vote down the mayor's and chancellor's decision on "social promotion," so he fired those who would have lost him the vote and replaced them. For some reason this surprised a lot of people. The mayor has been charged with everything from being undemocratic to nepotism. One of the biggest complaints about the old Board of Education was that no one was in charge. The borough presidents nominated the majority of the board members and a lumbering consensus was the best that could be achieved. There was general agreement that the ability to make decisions that would stick was sorely needed. Our democratically elected state legislature and City Council agreed to mayoral control. If our legislators didn't know what "at the pleasure of" meant when they created the Panel, then that's their fault. The teachers union agreed to it partly in order to get a favorable contract. We elected a businessman for a mayor. It should be obvious that Bloomberg will use the power the democratic process gave him. If we didn't expect him to control things, we shouldn't have given him control. It is by no means clear that it will do any good to have thousands more 9-year-olds "left back" in third grade. We should remember, however, that by the time they get to high school, they either pass their classes and get the credits or they don't, and sometimes we wind up with 20-year-old high school sophomores. The mayor may have made a bad political decision. Even if only some of the parents of a million public school students hold a grudge against him, it will diminish his prospects for reelection in 2005. But Bloomberg wanted his tenure to be judged on education. However things turn out, he will likely get his wish. This is not the first time the question of promotion has come up. The debate will continue. We promise to keep you posted on how the change will affect students in our area. Steve Shenkman In our communities, there are many neighbors, friends and people whose names we might not even know, who work daily at improving their neighborhoods. They clean a park, paint over graffiti, report potholes, coach a baseball team, protest an injustice. For some, the work is even more important and central to who they are than what their day jobs are. And most don't do it for the recognition or the glory. They just do it because it needs to be done. Steve Shenkman, who died on March 7 at 55 after a tragic accident, definitely fit this bill. He cared about so many things in his midst -- St. James Park, neighborhood safety, the housing development where he lived, and on and on. He was known to merchants and police officers, his neighbors and his co-activists. He was a connector of people and issues, a sturdy thread stitching the fabric of a diverse and vibrant community. We know this from personal experience. At least two years before the Norwood News began to cover and distribute in University Heights, he told us he wanted to distribute the paper himself at Fordham Hill where he lived. We couldn't distribute there at the time, so he volunteered to pick up a stack of 100 papers we dropped off at St. James Church. In making a pitch for the special arrangement, he said that there was important information in the paper that his neighbors would appreciate. It was partly the interest of Shenkman and other Fordham Hill residents that led us to think seriously about expanding to University Heights. We will all miss Steve Shenkman and his contributions to our civic life. There will be a memorial service on March 25.
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