Voting deadline for local school-council elections to be delayed for a week after parent outrage

Published: May 9, 2011 Publication: New York Daily News By Meredith Kolodner NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott acknowledged the process could have been handled better. After vocal parent protests about insufficient candidate information, Education Department officials announced Monday they would delay the voting deadline for local school-council elections by a week. The announcement came just a half an hour before a judge was set to decide whether to issue a temporary restraining order after a group of parents filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing a second round of voting until the problems were fixed. The two sides will meet Tuesday to see if a compromise can be reached, parent lawyer  Arthur Schwartz  said. “After reviewing concerns raised by parents and public officials,” said schools  Chancellor Dennis Walcott , “I have concluded that the process could and should have been handled better.” Parents had reported being excluded unfairly from the ballots and complained about difficulties finding out who was running. The councils replaced the school boards after  Mayor Bloomberg  took control of the school system. The original version of this article is published here:  http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/voting-deadline-local-school-council-elections-delayed-week-parent-outrage-article-1.143486