Who’s who on New York City’s School Diversity Advisory Group

The city has rounded up parents and academics, students and advocates, teachers union and charter school representatives, and others, to flesh out the education department’s school-integration plan.

The “School Diversity Advisory Group” includes more than 30 members from a range of backgrounds handpicked by City Hall. The task given to the group, which began meeting last month, is to evaluate the city’s current proposals and recommend additional ways to promote school integration.

Integration advocates hope the group will push for more ambitious goals than those outlined in the de Blasio administration’s diversity plan, which some critics knocked as overly timid when it was released last June.

But others have faulted the panel itself for being insufficiently diverse, saying it should include more parents and representatives of different religious groups. They also have raised concerns that officials could disregard the group’s non-binding recommendations.

Shino Tanikawa, a parent-leader in Manhattan’s District 2, said the city formed a similar advisory group to suggest improvements to its method for calculating how much space is available in schools. But its proposal for smaller class-size targets in the later grades went unheeded, she said.

“My fear is a replay of the Blue Book Working Group,” she said, referring to the overcrowding group. “We developed recommendations and the most important one was rejected by the administration.”

Here are all of the group’s members.

Executive Committee

Amy Hsin, Queens College
Hazel Dukes, NAACP
Jose Calderon, Hispanic Federation
Maya Wiley, New School
Richard Kahlenberg, Century Foundation

Members

Alexa Sorden, Principal, Concourse Village Elementary School
Amy Stuart Wells, Teachers College, Columbia University
Andrew Averill, Teacher, The College Academy
Ashley Valente, Teacher, P.S. 396
Asya Johnson, Principal, Longwood Preparatory Academy
Cassandra Baptiste, Teacher, The Children’s Workshop School
Celia Green, Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee (CPAC)
David Jones, Community Service Society of NY (CSSNY)
David Kirkland, NYU Metro Center
DeKaila Wilson, Senior at Pelham Lab High School and Director of DeCriminalization at IntegrateNYC
Dennis Parker, ACLU
Diana Noriega, The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families (CHCF)
Frances Lucerna, El Puente
Frantzy Luzincourt, Alumni of Leon M. Goldstein, Sophomore at City College, and Director of Strategy at IntegrateNYC
Henry Rubio, CSA
James Merriman, NYC Charter School Center
Janella Hinds, UFT
Kim Sweet, Advocates for Children
LaShawn Robinson, Office of Equity and Access, NYC DOE
Liam Buckley, Student, NYC Lab High School; Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council (CSAC)
Lois Herrera, Office of Safety and Youth Development, NYC DOE
Marco Battistella, Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee (CPAC)
Marisol Rosales, Superintendent, Manhattan high schools
Matt Gonzales, NY Appleseed Foundation
Matthew Diaz, Junior at Bronx Academy of Letters and Director of Outreach at IntegrateNYC
Meisha Ross Porter, Superintendent, District 11
Nequan Mclean, Education Council Consortium (ECC)
Noreen Mills, Principal, Carroll Gardens School for Innovation
Rebecca Rawlins, Office of District Planning, NYC DOE
Ryan J. S. Baxter, PASSNYC (Promoting Access to Specialized Schools in New York City); REBNY
Sarah Kleinhandler, Office of Student Enrollment, NYC DOE
Shino Tanikawa, Education Council Consortium (ECC)
Sister Paulette LoMonaco, Good Shepherd Services
Sonia Park, Diverse Charter Schools Coalition
Vanessa Leung, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)
Wayne Ho, Chinese-American Planning Council
Yolanda Torres, Division of Family and Community Engagment, NYC DOE
Yousof Abdelreheem, Student, John Bowne High School; Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council (CSAC)