The Trellis Crew is a growing group of students of color who attend community meetings addressing and educating about various issues.The crew then provide reports sharing their perspectives and findings.

There has been a lot of conversation about the state of New York City Schools. Issues of overcrowding, under-funding and segregation are being addressed in a lot of public meetings inviting parents, educators, organizers and school administration to hear from each other about problems, plans and the way forward.

A few of our crew have been at some of these public meetings, learning about new initiatives related to restorative justice and social emotional learning, and plans for school re-zoning and here’s what they learned and heard.

Children of tomorrow’s educational future
So If you told me when I woke on this very beautiful Morning if I’d be standing 5 feet away from the mayor writing notes down And taking pictures of him and the press, I probably would have laughed and said “yeah right.” But truth is you would have been 100% correct. Now that and the fact that there was News Vans such as ABC and FOX 5 all across the block of this school isn’t the real important story here. The fact that An 18 year old graduate was gifted a full Scholarship to the college of her choosing in attendance was a prime example of Hope for children’s future in the most Diverse District of schooling in America, New York City’s Department of education.
Reporter notes / Observers notes
Trying to take paperwork out of helping children, “stop the silliness of signing paperwork to get these kids help”
“We want to help these children Reflect, take responsibility and move on with their education “ Social workers “don’t feel pressured “ and continue your hard work
This is nyc the largest most diverse school district/ system
Student gets a full scholarship and the room absolutely erupts
The mayor of NYC is here in attendance
The president of NYU is here in attendance
The truth is these speakers are truly happy and seem super excited to talk about the positivity they are spreading regarding children’s educational future
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PRACTICES
Not many sad faces
“Police presence has changed in schools in positive ways”
Their are different philosophy for how you enforce the law with nypd in different areas
Joint training with school safety and school leaders
“Arrest is one of the better tools, but that’s not true. Conversation works, restorative justice, and maybe a warnings help much more. “
Superintendent is here
First Lady -“I am troubled to hear all these forms of discipline, I feel like your stuck in the past” then everyone in the room erupts
Khalil Baxter
As I entered the DOE [Department of Education] Office Planning I was shocked to see 32s auditorium packed with parents.I was eager to stay to hear parents issues, concerns & commentary about the rezoning schools in D15. [District 15] These were active parents who were concerned about their child(ren) spot for school. The set up was the same with the two presenters and the panelsitting in the front of the auditorium. The presentation included that if they added enrollment opening in 32s it would decrease waiting list, and address demographic disparities in the community. I thought to myself if this is a problem in elementary schools what lingering issues are in public high schools? They re-iterated that they wanted to increase diversity and equity yet only 25-30% of each school would be able to apply for Free or Reduced Lunch. That’s apart of the problem that means kids that look like me wont have affordable schooling since the school they attend in their district isn’t supportive! Kids as young as the age of 4 would have to travel to go to school which causes inconvenience for families. The presenters went on to say that they investigated each school in district 15 and found out that the issue is that elementary schools were either too crowded or don’t use all the space in their building. The plan for 32s is to add 436 new seats after reconstruction is done and they will have an fun rooftop playground for all of the kids. Despite this I noticed that this is becoming an controversy where my little brother is going to be affected and that affects me too. This “rezoning” process is a scam & allows for the school system, to neglect certain children to favor those in control.

It’s 6:45 and the line is now past the ramp of PS 32. I pass the green wooden boards blocking the construction site and I was shocked of the new buildings. The buildings had no resemblance nor did they compliment each other, who agreed to this ? I signed in and entered the auditorium, which was packed with parents and school officials, I even seen my neighbors! As usual there was the same male speaker dressed in a suit, and a panel in the front facing the audience. He starts off with saying that DOE main goal for exploring rezoning is to make sure schools are utilizing the space to reduce overcrowding. My initial question was were all the schools on the list experiencing overcrowding ? Also my second question was why did the speaker keep refering to “equity” and “excellence”, as if these elementary schools shouldn’t already be accounted to these expectations. After being to a few of these rezoning meetings they become redundant the only difference this time would be more people have been exposed to what might happen in the future. Creating new zones isn’t going to guarantee integration nor excellence. There should be other approaches such as enriching curriculum with current events to expose younger kids to be open minded. Or even have a program that makes students interact with their community/neighborhood so they can gain more knowledge about the changes happening around them. My hope is that just like adults, students of all ages are knowledgeable and are able to learn from one another.
Anaya Lino-Suazo
In a Lowkey but beautiful Church on Bergen st and 3rd Ave, a Group of parents gathered together to discuss their children’s foreseeable future in the Department of Education. As a neighborhood teen who likes to attend these community meetings, I like to listen to the people and parents of this community and it’s honestly interesting to hear what they have to say. We had this one parent who works for the department of education in a school in red hook, I don’t exactly remember her name but I do remember this intelligent woman’s words, and she shared a very interesting story about the assistant principle she works with. She told about how their was this student that was a white girl that would come in to school every day high And the assistant principal would make it his business to contact this girl every morning to make sure she got up for school And made sure her work was submitted on time and that she was in a good place to graduate, and he dedicated a lot of his time to being on the student and the woman shared how she told him it’s not fair that out of all the African-American students that need help and arent in a good place to graduate soon I don’t receive their attention that you gave to is white girl. She shared another example of how this was her being accountable to her team at work and the assistant principal took it personal the first time I heard from her but as time went on I understand that that is just accountability. This space felt very welcoming as we started it off by introducing ourselves and the purpose of why we are attending this meeting and what we hope to gain from it end it was very welcoming and I felt very comfortable sharing my reasons for attending this community meeting as did other parents in the room. What’s interesting is that everyone was there for their own specific reason yet it always surrounded by those one reoccurring theme the department of education system and how the district schools are in terms of diversity and curriculum. As a high school teen who had to attend a zone school, I felt appreciated because my story was told and related to what other parents were sharing. this meeting definitely helped me open my eyes on the different treatment and diverse schooling we have in our neighborhoods.
In what feels like the most repetitive topic that I cover as a reporter, there was another meeting with more “useful” information as the Council member stated on Rezoning. As a young adult reporter, I understand that things take time. Everything is a process but when we’re talking about the Department of Education, Processes take much longer. So with that being said, The 3rd meeting about rezoning was hosted inside elementary school, P.S 32. As always when you come to these meetings, you walk in, sign in and grab a slice pizza, then you walk into the auditorium where it is blazing hot with no service in there just to hear the SAME information we’ve been hearing for months now. But being patient in meetings is something I’ve learned to practice during these meetings because It’s healthy to listen before speaking. But something that is new that the other meetings didn’t have is alot of parents. It’s very intriguing to see the parents that attended, Some brought they’re babies and they’re was carriages all over. It was amazing to see the dedication that some parents made to even bring their child and newborn babies to this meeting Just to find out what’s the next step in this long process of re-zoning. I must add that we did something this time that we’ve never done before in a rezoning meeting. We looked Add a map of the district, and parents and all that attended got a good visual of what the district zones looks like. Council members then broke out into groups with Parents in the gymnasium across the hall to discuss a specific topic. That led to some Very interesting Conversation, lots of brainstorming and a nice amount of revealing of what people’s motives were in coming to the meetings. I love the process of watching people uncover truths and detail ideas down together, and that is exactly what the breakout groups provided. Now, sitting in these groups, I noticed something very important to me at least. In all of the groups that was In this gym, they’re we’re about maybe 10 people a group, and in all of those groups, Not 1 single person was black. This meeting was dominated by white people, and it felt like gentrified. Maybe that’s a hot take of mine, but that’s my job. To give you interesting twists and turns and my thoughts all spread out and fitted into a report.
Khalil Baxter