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Friday, December 7, 2012

Lessons: From Katrina: Raising Awareness… Raising FundsSave Our Schools

Lessons: From Katrina: Raising Awareness… Raising FundsSave Our Schools:


Lessons: From Katrina: Raising Awareness… Raising Funds

Save Our Schools Webinar and Fundraiser
Lessons: From Katrina: Raising Awareness… Raising Funds
Louisiana Residents,
Educators Karran Harper Royal, Raynard Sanders
New Jersey and New York Residents,
Educators, Terry Moore and Rosalie Friend
Sunday, December 16, 2012 8:30 PM Eastern Time [ET}
Please Join Us!


Lessons: From Katrina: Raising Awareness… Raising Funds[This is Part One of a Two Part Hurricane Sandy Webinar/Fundraiser Series]
We each remember when Hurricane Katrina first struck the shores of Louisiana. However, few understood the long-term effects of the storm. Communities were changed beginning with our schools. State government used school closures as a means to turn public education learning centers into corporately managed charter schools. “Public school “choices” were minimal, and schools were not easily accessible. Teachers were fired, illegally. “Return to work” notices were sent to homes that no longer existed. The consequences are visible today.
Although the situations in New Orleans and the Northeast are somewhat different, the issues faced by communities made-up of families, students, and educators, could be similar. The potential for another tempest after the storm is one we must consider. People are warned to prepare for Hurricanes. Mostly we think to take care of our personal property and our physical needs. Katrina teaches us that there is much more to ponder.
We invite you to reflect with us. On Sunday evening, December 16th from 8:30-10:o00 PM Eastern Standard Time [EST] Raynard Sanders, Ed.D.,, Host of the New Orleans Imperative Radio Show, and Karran Harper Royal, Co-Founder of Parents Across America will share what they learned firsthand in New Orleans. New Jersey/New York Educators and Save Our Schools Information Coordinators, Terry Moore and Rosalie Friend will speak to the situation on the ground post-Sandy. Each will reflect on what they believe to be similarities in the systems, and differences in the situations. Hazards and the help needed will also be discussed.
Specific topics will include:
1) The current state of affairs in New Jersey and New York
2) Federal and State policies that are helpful or harmful to resuming classroom instruction
3) The potential for corporate reformers to take advantage of vulnerabilities within the communities; such as the state of schools and the circumstances families find themselves in.
4) The impact on teachers’ job security when students are transferred from damaged schools to neighboring schools.
[Issues related to student trauma and the need for a moratorium on testing will be the focus of the next webinar.]
This webinar is the first in a two-part fund raising event for the Hurricane Sandy Student and Teacher Support Fund We are taking donations at this time and will make the entire day of the webinar a one day push to raise funds for the children and teachers in the affected area.
Speakers
Raynard Sanders

Raynard Sanders – Louisiana
Raynard Sanders has over thirty years of experience in teaching, educational administration, and economic and community development. As a principal of a New Orleans high school, he developed the first high school DNA lab in the state of Louisiana and created the Creole Cottage Project, an innovative program for his students to build and renovate houses in the school’s community. Dr. Sanders also served as the Executive Director of The National Faculty at New Orleans, a professional development agency designed to improve the quality of teaching in poor performing schools throughout the Mississippi Delta. He also served as the Director of the Urban Education Graduate Program at Southern University at New Orleans.
Dr. Sanders presently hosts The New Orleans Imperative, the only weekly radio show that focuses on public education in New Orleans. His radio program has been critical in eliminating the information void regarding the privatization of public education post Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Sanders received his B.A. from Dillard University in New Orleans, an M. Ed. from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and his Doctorate of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City.
Karran Harper Royal

Karran Harper Royal – Parents Across America – New Orleans, Louisiana
Karran Harper Royal works as an Education Advocate in New Orleans. She is the Assistant Director ofPyramid Community Parent Resource Center. Her work at Pyramid involves providing one to one support to parents of children with disabilities and conducting workshops to help parents understand their rights under federal special education law. In addition to working with Pyramid, Mrs. Harper Royal is a founding member ofParents Across America, a contributor to Research on Reforms and is a consultant to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Mrs. Harper Royal is a tireless advocate for students with disabilities and has appeared in a number of broadcasts and publications related to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and public education reform in New Orleans and is a member of several community groups. She is married with two sons Mrs. Harper Royal blogs at Education Talk New Orleans.
 On Twitter…@KHRoyal
Terry Moore 

Terry Moore – Educator and Save Our Schools Information Coordinator – New Jersey
Terry Moore is a retired third grade teacher in NJ who taught for 35 years and lives in Verona, N.J. During his tenure, he co-founded an after school activist club that worked to research educate and take action on many issues including hunger, peace action landmine removal, Fair Trade and labor. W.I.T.S (World Improvement for Tenafly Students), in which he is an advisor emeritus, is responsible for a bill pending in the NJ Assembly that will designate November as “Children’s Product Safety Awareness Month.”
He has written for Rethinking Schools Magazine and JSD, the Leaning Forward Journal for educators. He has taught writing and reading process to teachers at Columbia University in New York City. He travels to schools and universities speaking on Social Responsibility in Our Schools and to community centers and local clubs as part of a group called V!BE on Hunger at Home: Beyond the Food Drop-Off.
Terry is the New Jersey Information Coordinator for Save Our School March and a member of the local NJ SOSM, which is also part of the Our Children/Our Schools coalition.
He is founder of Hospitality, a musical group that visits children’s and adult hospitals to sing and play for the patients.
Terry has also written The Watchers, a children’s book about a trio of kids who band together to protect the horseshoe crabs along the Jersey Shore.
His wife, Kim, is a respiratory therapist and grassroots’ activist. His daughter, Kate, is a brand new ELL teacher.
Rosalie Friend 

Rosalie Friend, Ph.D. – Save Our Schools Information Coordinator –New York
Rosalie Friend, Ph.D. is a retired educational psychologist specializing in the cognitive processes of reading. She taught assessment, educational psychology, and reading instruction to teacher candidates at City University of New York after teaching reading and study strategies to incoming freshmen.
Please Contribute
The SOS Hurricane Sandy Student and Teacher Support Fund