Nolan and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall were also joined by Congressmembers Nydia Velazquez, Carolyn Maloney, a representative from Congressmember Joseph Crowley’s office, state Senator Joe Addabbo, state Senator Michael Gianaris, state Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, Assemblymembers Jeffrion Aubry, Rory Lancman, Ed Braunstein, Aravella Simotas, William Scarborough, Mike Miller, Grace Meng, Michael DenDekker, Michael Simanowitz, Councilmembers Leroy Comrie, Elizabeth Crowley, Jimmy Van Bramer, Daniel Dromm, Karen Koslowitz, CSA President Ernie Logan, UFT VP of High Schools Leo Casey, Zakiyah Ansari of AQE and various Queens Community Education Councils and community boards. Elected officials gathered on the steps of Queens Borough Hall on March 30, to protest the Department of Education’s proposal to close 33 schools and reopen them under the Turnaround method. Assemblymember Catherine Nolan, chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee said, “It is important that Queens elected officials and civic leaders stand united to support community schools. We stand against abrupt closures of long standing Queens schools, with no real planning or parental input. Queens has a proud tradition of outstanding comprehensive high schools that help shape youngsters into good citizens and prepare them for college and careers. New York City DOE should be working to improve and enhance these schools. It is particularly inappropriate to be using state and federal programs to close these schools without even a phase out. Current high school juniors do not even know the name of the school they will be attending in September. What sport teams will be cut? What educational opportunity programs will be eliminated? What will the mission and theme of these schools be? What will happen to the current parents associations? What art and music programs will these schools offer? Will they have remedial programs? All these questions point to the unacceptable nature of this process. We urge the New York City DOE and Chancellor Walcott, himself a graduate of a Queens comprehensive high school, to immediately halt this destructive and counter productive process that will damage our communities and neighborhood and, of course, hurt our students and parents. Devote resources to improving existing schools and stop creating something that will surely bring chaos in September.”