To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

The first meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy since Mayor Michael Bloomberg regained control of the city schools was held in Downtown Manhattan Monday night. Even though the panel has new members, new responsibilities and a new chairman, some say the panel's goals haven't changed.

"I am concerned that everything will be passed," said panel member Patrick Sullivan. "I think there as we saw tonight there were a number of irregularities in the materials that they presented and yet all the resolutions and all of the contracts were passed overwhelmingly, so there has been no real change in the balance of power."

The majority of the panel's 13 members are still appointed by the mayor, but they did gain new oversight powers when the school governance law was revised this summer after a power struggle in the State Senate.

Yet Monday's meeting didn't go entirely smoothly. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein wasn't sure where to sit, now that he has become a non-voting member of the board. Finally, he sat in the central seat he held as the board's chairman.

Manhattan Councilman Robert Jackson, the head of the City Council Education Committee, complained he was inadvertently locked out of what should have been a public meeting.

"The building should be open as long as there is a public meeting taking place," he said. "And obviously the panel, the PEP, decided to hold the meeting here even though the building officially closes at 7:30. Totally unacceptable."

The panel's most significant new responsibility was to publicly review and approve all major Department of Education contracts. But with a $22 billion budget, that is no small task.

On Monday, the 13 members easily passed 15 different contracts, including a new contract with the same company that brought Snapple into school vending machines in 2003.

"I think it was fine. I mean, these were all necessary contracts, there is no question about it," said Klein.

"My gut feelings are that this panel is going to be a rubber stamp for the chancellor and the mayor," said Jackson. "And what we don't need, we don't need rubber stamps."

Department of Education officials said the first meeting went relatively well, a sentiment echoed by at least one parent in the room:

"I certainly think it is an improvement for them to be debating major contracts," said parent Ann Kjellberg. "I think we need more clarity and 'air is the best disinfectant,' as they say. We need to have more information, more open discussion, but it's a big step."

Other parent advocates hope for more transparency in the future.