Three struggling Queens schools, and 16 more throughout New York City, will remain open indefinitely after a state Appellate court ruled against the decision to close them down.
Jamaica High School, Beach Channel High School in Rockaway Park and Business Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School in Cambria Heights were slated to gradually phase out beginning this September. However, the court ruled with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) on Thursday, July 1 that the Department of Education (DOE) failed to adequately indicate the ramifications of the school closings.
The court’s decision reversed a March ruling from a lower court that deemed the closings legal. The closings were to be a part of the city’s efforts to turn around the school system by shutting down schools it deemed failing.
The schools will now be re-evaluated on a year-by-year basis.
In response, the DOE contends that in keeping these schools open, the court disregards their lack of progress and parents’ lack of interest in enrolling their children in the schools.
“These schools have not demonstrated a long-standing ability to serve the students well,” said DOE spokesperson Danny Kanner. “Parents and students voted with their feet as these schools have been in very low demand for quite some time.”
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said that the DOE will follow the court’s decision and make strides to meet its requirements in the future. He also said that this ruling will not stop the opening of new, smaller schools this fall.
The verdict is a major victory for the UFT and the New York chapter of the NAACP, who both filed lawsuits against the city for the closures.
“No one is above the law and every court that has looked at this issue has ruled decisively that the Department of Education violated the law when it tried to close these schools,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of UFT.
