Nine Local High Schools In Danger
The fate of the Anna Gonzalez Community School (I.S. 296) was sealed last Friday, Feb. 10, as the Panel for Educational Policy voted to phase it and 22 others out of existence at a meeting at Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene, news reports stated.
Among the schools joining I.S. 296, located at 125 Covert St. in Bushwick, in closing will be P.S. 215, at 535 Briar Place in Far Rockaway and P.S. 19, at 325 South 3rd St. in Williamsburg.
As part of the phase-out process, the schools will no longer admit new students. Instead, a new school will be created that will take in new stu- dents zoned for those schools.
In a Department of Education notice explaining the decision, the agency stated that over the past three school years, J.H.S. 296’s Progress ReportgradefellfromanAtoaCto finally an F grade.
P.S. 215 also earned an F grade on its progress report.
In a statement, City Council Member Diana Reyna claimed that “[t]he Department of Education has effectively given up on P.S. 19, revealing to the public that the Department plans on continuing its record of neglecting the south Williamsburg Community.”
The DOE intends to phase out more schools throughout the city under a “turnaround” plan, which would require the school to have half of its teachers reapply to work at the schools. According to Dmytro Fedkowskyj, the Queens Borough President’s appointee to the Panel, a meeting time and place has yet to be determined for the voting of additional school phase-outs.
Among the schools the DOE proposes to phase out are Flushing, Bryant (in Woodside), Long Island City, Newtown (in Elmhurst), Grover Cleveland (in Ridgewood), August Martin (in Jamaica), Richmond Hill, John Adams (in Ozone Park) and Bushwick Community high schools.
Teachers, students and parents rallied in an attempt to save their schools at a town hall at Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens on Monday, Feb. 13; more information on that meeting will be available in next week’s issue of the Times Newsweekly.
