DOE issues schools hit list

As sure as Santa comes every year, the Department of Education (DOE) has released another list of underperforming schools slated to be phased out.
The newest announcement brings a total of 26 schools citywide facing closure – with Beach Channel High School, Jamaica High School, P.S. 30 in Jamaica and I.S. 231 Magnetech 2000 in Laurelton being in Queens.
“After many weeks of conversations with school communities and families, and an extensive review of each school’s academic record, we’ve made the difficult decision to propose the phase out and replacement of a select number of schools,” said Marc Sternberg, deputy chancellor of the DOE. “Year after year, even as we provided extra help and support, these schools simply have not gotten the job done for children.”
The DOE will now begin proposing a replacement process that will see new schools pop up in the very same buildings as the phase-out schools. Sternberg said that the DOE will involve the community in the replacement process as much as possible, by getting their feedback about what they want to see in the new schools.
“These are tough decisions, but we cannot afford to let schools continue to fail students when we know we can do better,” he said. “We’re now hard at work creating new schools and improving our existing schools, so these communities will have more high-quality choices next year that will serve students better than the schools we’re phasing out.”
However, not everyone agrees that closing problem schools is the solution. United Federal of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew said that the DOE should focus on fixing these problems instead of just erasing them completely.
“When schools are struggling, parents want them fixed, not closed,” said Mulgrew. “The DOE should stop giving lip service to this idea and make a real effort to help schools in trouble, rather than sitting back and watching them get worse.”
Last year, the UFT sued the DOE in order to keep them from closing a number of schools they deemed as “underperforming.” Now with the newest announcement, the UFT plans to monitor the process to see if another lawsuit is necessary.
“The UFT, our lawyers and the teachers in the closing schools will be closely monitoring the process this year,” said Mulgrew. “If we find any substantial violations of the statute that covers school closings, the DOE can expect to see us in court.”
Joe Williams, executive director of Education Reform Now, a non-profit organization that pushes for higher quality education in New York City, believes that many school closures are long overdue.
“We can’t continue to ask parents to send their children to schools where they won’t learn basic skills or get a diploma,” he said. “Each of these schools should have been replaced years ago.”