Saved this time around, a local high school could be on next year’s chopping block.
Teachers, students and parents rallied on Wednesday, January 27 at Newtown High School – one of 57 schools statewide deemed in need of major intervention or face closure by a recent New York State Department of Education (DOE) report – to figure out what they could do to save the neighborhood institution.
“This is not a done deal, this is a work in progress,” said State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who hosted the gathering, to a roar of applause. “We are going to build up support to make sure we, as a community, let the state know what we would like to see happen here in our school.”
In the January 21 report, the DOE identified 57 schools that were “persistently low achieving.” Of those, 10 are located in Queens, including Newtown.
The state is required by federal government criteria to identify 27 schools as “persistently low achieving,” according to the DOE. However, an additional 30 schools were added to the list due to graduation rates of less than 60 percent.
“The schools are monitored and given grades, with student progress worth 60 percent of that grade,” said Queens High Schools Superintendent Francesca Peña. “The evaluations are based on English Language Arts (ELA), math grades and graduation rates.”
Newtown High School received a “B” on its 2008 progress report from city’s DOE, but slipped to a “C” in 2009. The graduation rate for students fell below 53 percent for both years.
Principal John Ficalora attributes the low graduation rate to the school’s diverse student body.
“The students in our school come from 100 different countries and speak 59 different languages,” said Ficalora. “Yet over the past two years, our students have increased the results in every statistical category on the progress report.”
There are four possible outcomes for the school’s identified by the state. These are the turnaround model, the restart model, the transformation model or closure.
In the turnaround model, the state allows the school to remain open, but 50 percent of the staff and the principal are replaced. The restart model allows the school to reopen, but as a charter school and any former student can attend.
The transformation model is similar to the turnaround model, however, only teachers and other staff members who increase student achievement may remain. The final option is for the school to close and enroll the students in other schools.
“Based on what was said, it seems to me that all four plans require the principal to be removed,” said Judy Smith, a former math teacher and graduate of Newtown. “I don’t think changing the staff would make a difference.”
A total of 34 city schools were on the state DOE list. In addition to Newtown, other Queens high schools in the report were Grover Cleveland, Queens Vocational, Flushing, August Martin, Richmond Hill, John Adams, Beach Channel, Jamaica and Long Island City.
Jamaica and Beach Channel, as well as Business, Computer Applications & Entrepreneurship High School, have been scheduled to be closed by the city DOE. They will not accept incoming freshmen in the fall of 2010 and the remaining students will be allowed to finish their time at the school. The fate of the other eight schools on the state list remains unknown.
“Let me make one thing clear,” said Superintendent Peña. “This school will be open in September of 2010. These proposals are not final. I have never made a decision without thinking of what’s in it for my kids.”
