By Cynthia Koons
Robert F. Kennedy Cooperative High School, 75-40 Parsons Blvd., will send its 10th class into the world this June, an anniversary that will also be crowned with the prestigious honor of having graduated an Intel Science Award finalist.”This is without a doubt the greatest academic achievement that we have ever had,” Principal Ira Pernick said. “For Chelsea, we are enormously very proud of her. She is the prototypical RFK student.”He was talking about Chelsea Yingquiqi Lei, a Harvard-bound student whose study of geochemical analysis won her the recognition of finalist in the prestigious national Intel science competition.”Rarely have we gotten the accolades that I think we deserve for our academic work,” Pernick said. “It's nice to be recognized for our academic work, I think it's long overdue.”He said RFK, as it is commonly known, is on the chancellor's top-200 list of New York City schools.According to its most recent report card from the state Education Department, RFK's demographics as compared with similar schools show that 20 percent of its students are Asian, 23 percent Hispanic and 44 percent white. At similar schools, 14 percent of the students are Asian, 31 percent Hispanic and 23 percent white.These percentages may have something to do with its application process since the school only accepts students from District 25 in northeast Queens, an area that has a large Chinese, Korean and southeast Asian population.”What's unusual about us is there are no plans to make us any bigger,” Pernick said. “We get tons of applications, tons, from all over the city. Part of our mission is to (only accept students from) District 25 and we hold to that mission.”He said the school was created to serve the Flushing, College Point and Whitestone communities from which it draws students. Last year, according to the report card, the school had 412 students, compared with 409 the previous year and 387 the year before that.Overcrowding, a headache in most Queens schools, does not plague RFK like it does Hillcrest, Francis Lewis and Forest Hills high schools.”We're at a nice size now where our classes, some are at capacity and some are not,” he said. “It's a very small environment.”There are other unusual aspects to the school, Pernick added, including its integration of technology in the classroom, the 300-hour community service component and its lack of bells to signal the end of class.”There are no bells at RFK, it turns out to be a very quiet environment,” he said, adding teachers dismiss students every hour. “We encourage teachers, we really push to have students that are very active in the classroom.”That has resulted in 78 percent of its students receiving Regent's Examination diplomas, according to this year's report card.”I get concerned when we look at percentages because our size is so small,” Pernick said. “I love the ability and being able to interact with the kids. It sets an absolute tone for kids to know there's somebody who knows them. And our educators are serious about their jobs and passionate about the mission of the school.”Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
