School’s out for summer – school’s out forever.
The city Panel for Education Policy had a busy workload as it voted to close or phase out 22 city schools – including four in Queens – after meetings at Brooklyn Tech High School in Fort Greene on February 1 and February 3.
Jamaica High School and Beach Channel High School are once again set to be phased out by the Department of Education (DOE) after the panel voted the schools as persistently underperforming. The DOE is also proposing a phase-out of I.S. 231 Magnetech 2000 in Laurelton and P.S. 30 in Jamaica, along with 18 other schools throughout the city.
“After months of conversations with school communities and families, and an extensive review of each school’s academic record, we’ve made the difficult decision to phase out and replace a select number of schools with new options,” said DOE deputy chancellor Marc Sternberg. “Year after year, even as we provided extra help and support, these struggling schools simply have not gotten the job done for children.”
The panel voted to phase out and eventually close Jamaica and Beach Channel last year, but they were temporarily spared when the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit that claimed the city did not properly inform parents about the reason behind the closures.
Opponents of the closures see things differently and voiced their frustrations at two panel meetings last week. Thousands showed up in protest – and voiced their disapproval so loudly that schools chancellor Cathie Black could not be heard. Parents, students, teachers and other supports even got up and walked out during the last panel discussion on February 3.
Jack Jaskaran, a police captain and graduate of Jamaica High School, said the school has made significant progress since last year and should be given the chance to continue its improvement.
“With the recent increase of 10 percent in graduation rates in a single year alone, Jamaica High has shown that it has not only the ability, but a commitment towards improving the quality of education of all students,” he said. “They should be afforded the opportunity to continue to improve.”
Jamaica High School’s graduation rate last year was 50 percent, which was below the 63 percent citywide average, and this year it was awarded an overall D grade on its report card. Beach Channel received an overall F grade on its report card.
Education reform activists and parents also formed a last minute counter-rally before the second meeting in support of the school closures. They said they want better schools, including charter schools, opening in the outgoing schools’ spaces.
The DOE insists that phasing out underperforming schools will give parents better choices and will improve education throughout the city. Sternberg said the DOE’s decision to close the schools was a difficult, but necessary, action.
“These are tough decisions, but we cannot afford to let schools continue to fail students when we know we can do better,” said Sternberg. “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."
