Back in June of 2009, my colleague and I had already known of and used Google Apps (docs, calendar, gmail). We wanted to get a closer look on how a school was using it and visited IS 339 in the Bronx. Our visit only reinforced our notion that this can benefit everyone schoolwide back home at Berta Dreyfus IS 49. Upon our return we were very excited and brought up the idea to the administrators. As with most things new and unknown we were met with some hesitation from the administration. “We already have DOE email” we were told and “I don’t know if the staff will go for it.” This is proven in that we did not have a PD and introduction to the Google Apps we wanted until November 2009.
Throughout the rest of June, summerand September 2009 I subtly mentioned that I wanted to create this for our school. Again they weren’t against it, but they were not exactly big supporters giving the green light. Finally we felt we needed to actually just go ahead and do it, set it up and then present it back to the administration again on a silver platter. On the night of October 8, 2009, I, Francesco Portelos, purchased the domain www.dreyfus49.com. As you can see from the following emails I went right to work and this became a pet projectI was determined to breathe life into. I spent COUNTLESS hours after school, late nights, holidays, weekends and even snow days setting up what became the great dreyfus49.com school communication hub. It has been highlighted in JIT Reviews, Quality Reviews and admired by parents and visitors Principal Hill brought in to show it off.
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Attempts to convince the administration that Google Apps can work 11 days after I bought and began setting up domain:
From:Mr. Portelosmrportelos@gmail.com <—–Notice dreyfus accounts were still not created)
Date: Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 5:08 PM
Subject: Schools look to Google Apps for help
To: “Hill Linda (31R049)”, Martino Anne Marie
This is just another article written about the growing amount of schools using google apps:
I think the meeting was great and don’t worry, we will be there every step to help all. Here are the video tutorials to help you get started.
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SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING & MATH (S.T.E.M.) Lab Teacher
IS 49 Berta Dreyfus
http://stem.dreyfus49.com/
For more emails on how I was asked to work on the site during the summer, holidays and off hour times see here in Thank You Emails
For the next 2+ years I continued to work tirelessly in making the site great and helping all 1000+ users get the most of it. All the while I would continue paying and autorenewing it year after year. The payments and ownership status never really crossed my mind until January 25, 2012. That was the day my administrator access to the site was revoked. No one said anything to me and I only found out when Iattempted toreset the password of a student who needed access to their work.
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Revoke Admin Privileges
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Admin privileges has been revoked fromFPortelos@dreyfus49.com
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______@dreyfus49.com
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January 25, 2012 10:09:46 AM EST
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I used my admin access to reset the passwords of the students and staff. I no longer had that access and my students work was affected. Apparently that date coincided with the week all these false accusations were made about me and continue 3 months later.
On January 27, 2012 , just 2 days later, there was an attempt by the chapter leader, Richard Candia, to stop me from speaking at a union meeting composed of about 60 members. The UFT Chapter Leader not only tried to stop me , but also told 60 adults to get up and leave. He, his girlfriend andthe SLT Chairperson walked out and I continued to speak. Later that evening, Richard Candia, emailed me and administrators and asked me to resign as UFT Delegate. I responded to him and CC’d union members only and proclaimed that I will not resign.
The next morning I woke up to get ready for my Leadership in Education class at the College of Staten Island and found that my account was suspended. Immediately I thought they changed my password and were going through my account. Since I was already suspecting foul play going on behind the scenes I got back in with a back up account that was created. Since it was the weekend and I did not want to have to worry about more foul play, I went ahead and took away the admin access to several accounts who had the power to shut me out from the site I own again. Call it defense mechanism, call it a smart tactic or being irrational. An analogy I tell people is “Imagine you own a building and you give others the keys. They then go behind your back and lock you out. What would you do”
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User Suspend
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fportelos@dreyfus49.comhas been suspended
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lhill@dreyfus49.com
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January 27, 2012 10:48:40 PM EST
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Revoke Admin Privileges
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Admin privileges has been revoked fromFPortelos@dreyfus49.com
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lhill@dreyfus49.com
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January 27, 2012 10:39:43 PM EST
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Again I made a call and according to Google Inc. Principal Linda Hill fully suspended my account on dreyfus49.com after 10:48PM the night I refused to resign. Now she had no business interfering with union matters nor suspending my account and keeping me from class grades and other important documentation. How did she know about my email if she isn’t on our union list Our Chapter Leader, Richard Candia, who was elected to support and protect us,forwarded her the email with thefollowing false statement “This was sent to the entire staff”. A week and a half later I received a disciplinary letter in my personalfilefor insubordination.
The email below describes the next big event leading to the death of our beloved site.
From:Francesco Portelos<fportelos@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Subject: Dreyfus49.com Issue
To: Linda Hill <LHill2@schools.nyc.gov>
Cc: eclaudi@schools.nyc.gov, srotkowitz@uft.org, epietromonaco@uft.org, George Stavropoulos <gest@stavlaw.com>
Dear Ms. Hill,
Date: Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 2:36 PM
Subject: Close website directive
To: Linda Hill <lhill@dreyfus49.com>
Cc: srotkowitz@uft.org, eclaudi@schools.nyc.govMs. Hill,
-Francesco Portelos
Date: Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: Close website directive
To: Linda Hill <LHill2@schools.nyc.gov>,epietromonaco@uft.org
Cc:srotkowitz@uft.org,eclaudi@schools.nyc.govMs. Hill,
I still did not receive an answer to this email below. Teachers, parents and students I spoke to are not aware that the accounts will be deleted. Countless lesson plans, student work, etc will all be lost if we do this without overlapping and transferring. If I do not hear back from you about delaying this I will proceed with making the changes to the site. Even though it will go against everything I believe in and set back the staff and students.Mr. Portelos
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