Education

City Councilman Ben Kallos helped promote the students' petition and has been calling on the city to build more gym facilities on the Upper East Side since the 2017 launch of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Universal Physical Education Initiative." 

"Eleanor Roosevelt High School students have not only won championships but now they've won a gym," Kallos said in a statement. "Every child must have a real gym for physical education and athletic competition. As New York City battles with childhood obesity, we need to give children every opportunity to burn off calories throughout the day."

City Councilman Ben Kallos — who says he's been in talks with the city Department of Education and School Construction Authority to get more physical education spaces in district since he's been elected — helped students facilitate their petition and included it in his monthly newsletter for constituents.

"It's amazing that Eleanor Roosevelt High School has championed athletics given that they don't actually have a gym. Hopefully this can help their sports program grow to the next level," Kallos told Patch.

Kallos noted that while of the Upper East Side's private schools are building or already have field houses for athletics, public schools are left without adequate space.

Council Member Ben Kallos introduced both bills, with Council Member Chaim Deutsch co-sponsoring Intro. 1148-2018 B. Kallos said he saw a need for the STOP Program after the recurring transportation problems that arose at the start of every new school year.

“Drivers would get lost and/or not know the routes,” explained Josh Jamieson, communications director for Kallos.

Another reason for the bill was a “freak snowstorm” in November, when special needs students were stuck on buses for over 10 hours, Jamieson added.

MANHATTAN – It was a packed room yesterday on the 16th floor of 250 Broadway when the Committee on Civil and Human Rights unanimously voted for a bill to officially recognize Holocaust Remembrance Day in NYC on January 27 and declare the week after as Holocaust Education Week.

“Parents should be able to track buses just like an Uber or an MTA bus, see when it’s coming, come downstairs with their kids, see it get their kids to school safely and know when it’s coming to drop off their child at home,” said Councilman Ben Kallos, who sits on the City Council’s Education Committee.

Now, parents will be able to locate their children’s school buses in real-time.

On Wednesday, the council approved legislation sponsored by Chaim Deutsch (D-Brighton Beach-Sheepshead Bay) and Ben Kallos (D-Upper East Side) to install GPS devices on school buses and to give parents the option of using the tracking devices via an app. Another bill would give parents the opportunity before the start of the school year to review and bus routes and request changes to those routes.

The bills have been sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio for his signature.

"Every year, the start of the school year, starts with nightmares, of children who get stuck on buses for hours, leaving parents wondering where their children are," said NYC's Councilmember Ben Kallos, on the addition of GPS trackers. "We can do it with Uber, the MTA does it with buses. None of this is new."

“I’m so proud that the City Council voted to pass my legislation and the entire STOP package, the most comprehensive oversight and reform we’ve ever seen of our student transit system,” said Treyger. “This legislation is about dragging a $1.2 billion school bus and transport industry into the 21^st century and building the accountability and transparency necessary to ensure that our city’s children and families are receiving the safe, efficient, and humane school transportation services they deserve.”

But Treyger was also quick to call himself the prime co-sponsor on Council Member Ben Kallos’ (D-Manhattan) legislation to put GPS devices on all school buses.

“Parents have enough to worry about. School bus rides to and from school should not be another cause for concern. I’m proud to join Council Members Kallos and Deutsch in sponsoring this legislation that will give parents peace of mind when it comes to their child’s daily commute,” he said.

"We now have legislation that takes lessons from cities like Boston, where parents get bus routes weeks ahead of the school year, in time to challenge routes as well as from the Chancellor's home city of Houston, where since 2015 parents have had access to GPS apps, so they know where the buses are," City Councilman Ben Kallos said.

In September, bus problems began before the first school bells rang, when many kids were not picked up for the first day of classes. Other children rode for hours, arriving late to school. By the end of the month, the city had received 130,000 complaints about the school buses, significantly up from previous years, when bus problems had also plagued the start of school.