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By SÍLE MOLONEY

PHYLLIS “TIZ” NASTASIO, candidate for A.D. 80, on the Keeper’s Home in Norwood on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022.
Photograph by Síle Moloney

Raised on Arthur Avenue, Pelham Parkway resident, Phyllis “Tiz” Nastasio is operating as a Democrat within the November common election in A.D. 80 to succeed Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez. She sat down with Norwood Information to debate her candidacy and what she hopes to realize in workplace whereas serving some or all the neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, Morris Park, Van Nest, Pelham Parkway, Pelham Gardens, and Allerton.

 

A instructor for 21 years, Nastasio’s primary challenge is training. “We’re not doing the job for our kids,” she mentioned. “Public faculties get $26,000 per pupil, per 12 months, and the youngsters usually are not at studying stage, they’re not in math, they’re behind so many different states. Even inside New York State’s upstate, their numbers are larger. Why? Why are we failing our kids?”

 

Nastasio teaches at a Catholic faculty. “Our tuition is slightly below $7,000 a 12 months. That’s all we’ve got to spend, and we’re educating youngsters. Our kids are profitable; they’re popping out of their faculties figuring out methods to learn, figuring out methods to do primary math. We have to see the place the cash’s going as a result of it’s not the academics which are failing, it’s the system that’s failing. There’s some huge cash there; it’s not going into the correct place. It’s not within the school rooms.”

 

Norwood Information referenced current feedback by State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) who had referred to as for the reimbursement of public funding owed to public faculties over a number of years, after a profitable lawsuit by the Marketing campaign for Fiscal Fairness discovered the State had been traditionally underfunding public faculties.

 

Rivera mentioned legislators secured a reimbursement within the State finances and subsequently questioned why, when this cash flowed again to the Metropolis, the Metropolis training finances was reduce. Norwood Information contacted the Metropolis for remark, however didn’t obtain a response. Within the meantime, town council voted to reverse the training finances, alleging they have been misled by Adams administration officers as to the rationale for the cuts. The matter is now in court docket awaiting a ultimate choice. We requested Nastasio if she had a touch upon the matter.

 

“I don’t assume we have to put more cash into it,” she mentioned. “I feel we have to know the place the cash that’s there’s going as a result of it’s not going to the youngsters. It’s not going to the school rooms. So, I feel we have to audit.” We requested if public data weren’t already out there on this regard. “Not likely,” she mentioned. “They are saying how a lot every particular person faculty is getting, however it’s not damaged down. In my view, I feel we’ve got an excessive amount of going into administration, and never sufficient going into the school rooms. I imply, we don’t want 5 assistant principals in each faculty.”

 

Nastasio mentioned she additionally felt college students have to be taught primary house economics. “They should know methods to prepare dinner,” she mentioned. “They should know methods to do staple items, methods to look after themselves. We don’t have that anymore, and I feel that’s progressively affecting the households. If you happen to train them after they’re in class, then the household unit can be stronger.”

 

Requested for her ideas on an alternate curriculum and mayoral management over faculties, Nastasio mentioned she didn’t actually assume it mattered if it was State or Metropolis-led, however it needed to be checked out, including that she wish to see each mother and father and academics concerned within the choice, as a result of they finest knew the scholars’ wants. “I feel we must always have a voucher system the place mother and father can go to a Catholic faculty in the event that they select to,” she mentioned, including that in Constitution and Catholic faculties, mother and father had this enter already, and she or he was for this method for public faculties additionally.

 

“In my faculty, we’ve got each faith. It’s not simply Catholic anymore. We registered a Jewish pupil this 12 months. We now have loads of Muslim college students, so it’s not as a result of once we train faith, we train our faith. Everyone is welcomed,” she mentioned. We talked about the six Catholic faculties that had closed throughout The Bronx in the course of the pandemic and requested how issues have been going since then by way of serving college students. “Our numbers are low; persons are transferring,” she mentioned. “We now have to cease the mass exodus out of New York Metropolis.”

 

Nastasio’s different prime precedence is crime. “The 2 of them are linked,” she mentioned. “We’d like commerce faculties [to] train our children a commerce to allow them to get a job. In the event that they’re working, they’re not committing crimes. You educate your youngsters, you decrease your crime stage.” We referenced the mayor’s August announcement at Bronx Neighborhood Faculty a few new workforce improvement initiative which matches coaching must business and development jobs.

 

“It wants to begin at the highschool stage,” Nastasio mentioned, including that the “SHOP” class, which lined plumbing and engineering coaching wanted to be introduced again into faculties, after being axed within the ’80s. She mentioned even when her personal son needed to go to commerce faculty, he needed to go so far as Queens to discover a course.

PHYLLIS “TIZ” NASTASIO, candidate for A.D. 80, with Sheila Sanchez, Northwest Bronx Democrats president, on the Keeper’s Home in Norwood on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022.
Photograph by Síle Moloney

On felony justice, the candidate mentioned some form of bail reform was wanted, however she alleged the regulation later swung too far to at least one facet. “We didn’t must let folks on the market commit crimes with out bail. What we wanted was to reform the court docket system. Kalief Browder sat in jail for 2 years, awaiting trial.”

 

She continued, “That’s insane. That’s inhumane,” referring to the Bronx teen who was arrested over an alleged backpack theft which was by no means confirmed, and who later died by suicide after his launch from Rikers Island, the place he had been held as a result of he couldn’t afford bail. He was additionally segregated from different detainees for a length. “That child’s life was ruined,” Nastasio mentioned. “So, the court docket system must be expanded, not the bail system.”

 

Nastasio’s third prime concern was NYCHA housing. “They’re a shame; folks have ceilings falling on them,” she mentioned. “The mildew in these locations…no working elevators, home equipment that don’t work. No one has to reside in these situations. They pay hire to reside there. They have to be handled as property folks. what? It blows my thoughts that somebody town is the worst landlord that we’ve got. And no one’s doing something about it.

 

If extra funding have been to repair such points, we requested if she had concepts of methods to reallocate the finances. “Proper now? No, till I see the place cash is definitely going,” she mentioned. “I don’t know the finances for NYCHA. I would love, as soon as I get into Albany, to see the place the cash’s going.”

 

A self-described “group candidate,” Nastasio mentioned she is ready to work with people of all political persuasions to maneuver issues ahead, including that it was not simply progressives who have been preventing for so-called “bread and butter” points. “We’d like our children to be off the streets. We don’t have any group facilities. We’d like a group heart the place our children can go really feel secure, study issues, basketball, swimming, tutoring. Tutoring is massive, particularly for the specialised highschool exams. We don’t provide any of that,” she mentioned.

 

She has obtained the backing of native political group, the Northwest Bronx Democrats, comprising round 1,800 members. Its president, Sheila Sanchez, described Nastasio as being centered in group and somebody who has already traveled to different components of the district to assist.

 

Requested what she would deal with on Day 1, if elected, Nastasio replied, “Increase our faculties. Our youngsters are strangling within the classroom. There’s too a lot of them in every class. We’d like extra faculties. They need to cease constructing issues that received’t profit the group, in order that’s my first issues. They’re killing us with buildings. We are able to’t even breathe. There’s no contemporary air left anymore due to all of the buildings which are going up. These buildings are bringing extra college students These college students are going into overcrowded school rooms. There’s loads of space to construct faculties, and let’s liberate a few of that area for the youngsters.”

 

Requested how she would persuade voters who may say she is inexperienced for public workplace, Nastasio mentioned she is a co-chair of Bronx Neighborhood Board 11’s public security committee, sits on the training committee, and can also be a member of the 49th Precinct Neighborhood Council. “I do know what the group wants. I’ve been energetic in the neighborhood, and I do know I’ll struggle for them in Albany.”

 

 

 

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