By Adam Kramer
Beleaguered School District 29 was dealt another severe blow in its attempt to turn the district around when one of its intermediate schools was placed on the state’s Schools Under Registration Review list for failing schools.
IS 192 at 109-89 204th St. in St. Albans was the first school in the district, which stretches from Bellerose to Hollis and from Queens Village to Springfield Gardens and includes Cambria Heights, Laurelton, Rosedale and parts of Jamaica and Fresh Meadows, to be put on the SURR list. It was placed on the list a couple of weeks ago.
“I am very pleased that more schools have come off the SURR list than have gone on it this year,” said state Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village). “However, I am also very disappointed that Junior High School 192, which is in my district, has been added to the list.
“IS 192 was added to the state’s SURR list this year because a staggering [90] percent of the students who took the eighth grade math examination were unable to meet the minimum standards,” she said.
Clark said the addition of IS 192 to the list was a long time in the making because of the revolving door of principals, underpaid and inadequate staff and overcrowded classrooms. She said the school rarely keeps a principal in place for more than two years.
Schools are placed on the state’s SURR list if the students fail to meet minimum requirements on the state’s standardized tests. Of the 1,491 IS 192 eighth-graders who took the math tests in 2001, 90 percent — or 1,342 students — failed to meet the minimum requirement, while 10 percent — or 149 students — met the requirements. Of the 908 students who took the state English exam, 78.8 percent — or 716 students — failed to meet the requirements and 21.1 percent — or 192 children — met the state minimum.
School Board President Nathaniel Washington said the board is “not pleased with the school being the district’s first SURR school.”
He said the board does not want to cover up the fact the school was placed on the SURR list. He said there was a meeting scheduled for Wednesday to bring together the administration, teachers and parents to talk about what it means to be a SURR school.
Washington said the board was going to set out a plan to work toward getting IS 192 off of the list by the end of the year. There is a positive he said, that now the school will be mandated to have smaller classes and will get more funding.
Even though the school was placed onto the list, the test scores of the “sixth-graders has shown market improvement,” he said.
The district has been without a leader since Celestine Miller was fired as superintendent in February 1999. District Administrator Michael Johnson has led the district, which has 28 schools and 27,000 students, since early last year.
Johnson’s office referred all questions to the Board of Education, which did not respond to the TimesLedger by press time Tuesday.
“I think about the situation, for the amount of time, money, perks and effort put in by Michael Johnson, there is no excuse for that school failing this year,” said Ronnie Rogers, a parent in the district.
She said the fact that IS 192 is on the SURR list demonstrates the mismanagement of the district. “Now we have something we never had,” she said. “We have a failing junior high school.”
“It is appalling to have a SURR school in School District 29,” Rogers said. “People here are professionals. It is a middle-class district where parents are educated. I don’t know how this happened.”
Patricia Bernard, whose daughter goes to the elementary school that feeds into IS 192, said she was very distressed about the school being placed on the SURR list. But she said it could mean that the school might get more resources or help from the Board of Education.
“I am somewhat disappointed, but it was always a problem school,” she said. “Johnson has put a lot of resources into the school and shifted around staff. But it takes time to turn a school around.”
She said the students who failed the standardized tests were in the school when there were problems. Bernard said these students need the help earlier. The other kids in the lower grades are “doing well,” she said.
The school district has been in limbo since Miller was fired in February 1999 by then-Chancellor Rudy Crew for delaying to report that an 8-year-old boy had brought a loaded gun into a Rosedale school. Miller was recently indicted on bid-rigging charges involving computer sales to schools under her control.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
