Dear Friends, As we begin 2017, we wanted to let you know the current status in our efforts to overturn the unfair and illegal admissions policies instituted at LaGuardia High School by principal Dr. Lisa Mars. The goal of our petition is to convince the Department of Education to return the admission requirements to those consistent with the Hecht-Calandra Law and provide effective leadership for the school. Unfortunately, the 10,828 signatures and 300 pages of supportive comments on our petition fell on deaf ears. We just learned that in spite of failing grades for effective school leadership two years in a row, principal Lisa Mars has been granted TENURE!!! It seems the DOE is uninterested in the fact that: · Dr. Mars scored a 1.00 on a scale of 1.00-4.99 on effective school leadership in the 2015-16 School Quality Guide. That's down from a 1.2 the year before! · Dr. Mars changed the admission criteria to favor academic grades over artistic talent in a school with an historical graduation rate of 98%. · Dr. Mars' policies effectively discriminate against students who come from socio-economically challenged circumstances or underperforming middle schools. · Dr. Mars' policies foster an increasingly homogeneous environment in a school that has always been a beacon of diversity. See for yourself: http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2015-16/School_Quality_Guide_2016_HS_M485.pdf http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2014-15/School_Quality_Guide_2015_HS_M485.pdf How can the Department of Education allow this? Why would they spend tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars assessing school leadership only to ignore their own findings and grant tenure to a failing principal? How can WE allow this? If you are as outraged as we are, let your voice be heard and contact those who can save our school and preserve its legacy for future generations. A list of contacts is below. Here's a template letter that you can use to voice your thoughts: http://bit.ly/2j1RUs3 Chancellor of the NY Regents Board - Regent.Rosa@nysed.gov Nan Eileen Mead (Regents Board rep) - Regent.Mead@nysed.gov Gale A. Brewer (Manhattan Borough President) - gbrewer@manhattanbp.nyc.gov Kamillah Payne-Hanks (Panel for Educational Policy) - KPayneHanks@schools.nyc.gov Michael Kraft (Panel for Educational Policy) - MKraft2@schools.nyc.gov Scott M. Stringer (NYC Comptroller) - action@comptroller.nyc.gov, (212) 669-3916, @scottmstringer Thank you for your continued support, The Save Our School Team #BringFameBack