Back To School For Comrie

While the heavy rain fell steadily outside the New Preparatory Middle School for Technology and the Arts in Jamaica last Friday, inside there was a downpour of memories for Councilman Leroy Comrie, one of the neighborhoods favorite sons.
Comrie attended the school when it was called JHS 8, and stopped in for an afternoon at the revamped school at the invitation of Principal Leon Dash, Jr.
Dash recently wrote Comrie a mini-proposal requesting funds for the schools fledgling arts programs, and the Councilman was on hand to see how Dash was making his dream come to life.
"I really want to have a true school of the arts, with dance, music, art, choirs, cooking, everything," said Dash as he led Comrie and a gaggle of students and School Board 28 members, including Board President Shirley Huntley, on a classroom-by-classroom tour of the building.
Before the tour, Comrie expounded on the perils of bad school governance and the pleasures of returning to his alma mater.
"The high school dropout rate is approaching 75 percent," said Comrie. "We cant have junior high schools as a police area where students cant move around and be expressive."
Comrie also stressed the need for curriculum choices at middle schools because city high schools are increasingly career-focused, with little curriculum alternatives.
"You have to be concerned with what high school you want to go to, because high school admissions are so difficult, or you might get on a career track youre not interested in. Thats a problem on top of another problem in Queens, which has the most overcrowded schools in the city," said Comrie.
Dash proudly led Comrie first to the computer lab, where two dozen students worked on grammar exercises on outdated Macintosh PowerPCs while their teacher, Bernqulin Hayes-Brown, expressed her frustration with her current equipment.
"We have no CD-Rom, no use of disk drives, we cant save to a floppy, and we cant add more material," said Hayes-Brown.
The troop then moved to the music room, where a young music chorus played classical favorites for the Councilman.
From there, it was on to the student kitchen, where Oretta Emanuel made pineapple-filled pastries in three simple steps.
Emanuel said she wasnt nervous despite the crowd of over 30 peers and adminstrators.
"Ive made it five times at home; my mother showed me the recipe," she said, as her teacher, Irma Pilgrim, happily looked on.
After the delectable interlude, it was back on the trail to art teacher Monisul Islams room, where the world-renowned artist taught the fundamentals of pencil drawing.
Afterward, Comrie took in the school choir and proceeded to the library, where he fielded questions for the schools student council.
Dash said he was happy Comrie, a local boy, returned to his old stomping grounds.
Dash said it is good for students to have role models from their community not just the Michael Jordans of the world.
"A lot of the time, kids cant relate to their role models. Leroy went to school here and came back. We need a lot more of that."
Dash also said that he, like Comrie, was a local kid who made it big in the neighborhood.
"It gives me a sense of accomplishment, because I grew up here," he noted modestly.
Comrie was wide-eyed during his entire stay  due partially to the fact he was seeing much of his old school for the first time.
"I dont remember a lot of this," he said. "I spent most of my time in the wood shop in the basement."