Monday, September 18, 2017
In Harlem, These Elders Devote Their Golden Years To Improving Local Schools
In the eve of her 92nd birthday, Lottie Raukx wasn’t going to let the aches of arthritis or numbness of neuropathy slow down her fight for Harlem’s public schools.
Armed with a petition to demand that the education department staff her neighborhood’s school with librarians — as it’s required to — she collected pages of signatures from churchgoers and neighbors.
More than 18 months after the effort began, the city and community are at loggerheads over crucial data that has been requested to help local education advocates make their case. But Raukx and the group she belongs to — the Harlem Council of Elders — have not given up. . .