By Howard Koplowitz
Citing poor performance at PS 225, the city Board of Education is closing the Rockaway Park school after June. But one school advocate criticized the agency over the planned closing, contending the move would be too costly.
Letters informing parents of the school’s closure were sent home in students’ backpacks Friday while the staff was notified Dec. 4, according to DOE spokeswoman Melody Meyer.
The school, at 1−90 Beach 110th St., received an overall D grade on its progress report from the DOE for the 2007−08 school year, which included an F for student environment and Ds in the student performance and student progress categories.
Only 42 percent of the school’s students were proficient in English last year, according to the progress report, while 62.9 percent were proficient in math.
A large majority of the school’s pupils are minorities — 54 percent are black, 29 percent Hispanic, 16 percent white and 3 percent Asian — according to a profile of the school on insideschools.org.
PS 225 operates as a pre−kindergarten to eighth−grade school and houses 583 students. Under the DOE plan, the school will close and be replaced by separate elementary and middle schools.
The middle school will start with just sixth grade and gradually add an eighth grade in two years. The elementary school will begin with pre−kindergarten through third grade and absorb up to fifth−grade classes two years after it opens.
Shalom Becker, a member of Community District Education Council 27 and a Far Rockaway resident, agreed with the DOE that there needs to be a change at the school, but maintained its method of implementing change would be expensive.
“To close a school and to reopen should cost a fortune,” he said in a phone interview. “There should be a different way of doing it.”
Becker also said closing the school “hurts everyone’s morale,” noting its performance was more than a reflection on its principal and teachers.
“There has to be other issues involved,” he said.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e−mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 173.
