At Elmhurst H.S., Defenders Say ‘Turnaround’ Has Ulterior Motive
Claiming that the Department of Education’s motives are politically based, a standing-room-only crowd at Newtown High School assembled last Tuesday, Apr. 17 to blast the city’s plan to close the school.
As previously reported by the Times Newsweekly, Newtown, located at 48-01 90th St. in Elmhurst, is one of 26 schools-including eight Queens high schools-that would be closed as part of a “turnaround,” in which a new school would open at the site of the old one.
According to Deputy Chancellor David Weiner-the DOE’s representative at the hearing-the new school, 24K366, will provide “a school environment that will prepare students for college, work and life.”
All students currently attending Newtown would have guaranteed seating at the new school; teachers, however, would have to reapply for their positions, and each application would be reviewed by a five-person panel.
The plan also has the opportunity to bring $1.8 million to the school’s coffers, according to Weiner.
The DOE’s reasons for putting Newtown through a “turnaround” plan included the school’s graduation rate, which has risen from 52 in 2008 to 62 percent in 2011 but remains in the bottom third of high schools citywide.
TheschoolalsoreceivedaCon its most recent progress report, including Ds on student progress and onstudentperformanceandaCon student environment.
The school was also labeled “un- derdeveloped” on its most recent quality review, with the DOE identifying a need to “design a more rigorous curriculum.”
Rebuttal
After Weiner’s presentation, the Newtown High School Leadership Team (SLT) made one of their own highlighting reasons why the school should be saved.
“We are not where we need to be-we accept that-but we are making steady progress,” Jessica Mc- Dermott, an English teacher at the school, pointing to the slow climb in its graduation rate, which is expected to be higher than 65 percent at the end of the 2012 school year.
Attendance at the school has also increased to 85.6 percent.
“This year, we’ve reached out to students like we’ve never been able to before,” fellow teacher Melissa Mastrangelo added, with the help of the school’s nine Small Learning Communities.
Jennifer Schneider talked of the school’s relationship with John Hopkins University, which has created a system called “early warning indicators” designed to find students who are in danger of falling behind. The university has also created a freshman seminar and strategic reading classes.
Teacher Stephen Shpak referred to the school’s support programs, such as its partnership with Queens Community House, its “Achieve 3000” program for English Language Learners, its credit recovery program that allows students to make up lost credits to graduate on time, and its guitar program, whose students participated in a protest performance prior to the meeting.
“We just need more time to show you when it’s working even better than it has,” he told Weiner. “Our graduation rate, because of these programs, is only going to go up.”
After the presentation, a YouTube video created by four students at the school-Marc Anthony Green, Chris Kopanski, Bikash Kharel and Serge Stambolyan-played, which in- cluded comments from Principal John Ficalora, teachers, students and faculty members.
After the video played, Green and Stambolyan addressed the crowd.
“As a family, we can push through,” Stambolyan said. “All we need is time.”
Call to honor commitment
In their comments to the DOE, many teachers pointed to the city’s decision to put the 115-year-old school under a “restart” model last year, a decision which included a three-year commitment.
“We’ve gathered like this before,” McDermott noted. “Instead of the three years the mayor’s agreement had promised us, we were only given six months-not because the partnership is failing.”
“We were given six months for one reason, and one reason only- Mayor Michael Bloomberg,” she continued.
Vice President Peter Vercessi of the District 24 Community Education Council (CEC 24) concurred, stating the body’s opposition to the plan.
“That three-year commitment should be honored,” he stated.
‘Playing politics’
“This auditorium is jam-packed. You don’t get the whole community coming out like this for a school,” Queens Borough President Helen Marshall told the crowd.
“I’m a teacher. I teach young children. Let me tell you: the minds of our children are precious,” she told the crowd. “I don’t like this business of closing schools; I work so hard to build schools, I have a war room on school construction.”
“It’s really unfortunate that we have to continue to fight the Department of Education on the closure of our schools,” City Council Member Daniel Dromm said.
According to the lawmaker-a former public school teacher-Newtown’s teachers and administrators were given bonuses several years ago.
“I hear that the fix is in, and this is a decision that may have already been made,” he warned.
“It’s time that the mayor and the chancellor and the deputy chancellor start listening to our communities,” he said. “This is politics at its worst. Education is not a business, Mr. Chancellor.”
He charged the mayor and the DOE with setting out to “demonize” teachers and deflecting blame from their own policies.
“They have not given resources, they have not told the truth,” he charged, adding that in the case of Newtown, “you decided as an administration to play politics with these children’s lives.”
“We are outraged,” Rona Freiser, the United Federation of Teachers’ (UFT) Queens representative, told the crowd.
“This is political. This is not about Newtown statistics. Not about the statistics of any of the eight (high) schools here in Queens,” she stated, claiming that the city made a decision to close the schools down once negotiations with the union on a teacher evaluation system broke down. “What we are seeing with this mayor is the worst case of bullying.”
“If this school was so terrible,” she asked,” why weren’t you closed a year ago?”
“We need a real plan, and we had a real plan here at Newtown, and it was taken away from you. That, folks, is unacceptable,” Dmytro Fedkowskyj, the Queens Borough President’s representative to the Panel for Educational Policy, stated. “We want our plan back, we want our teachers back, we want everything back the way it was.”
At the panel’s Apr. 26 meeting at the Prospect Heights Campus in Brooklyn, Fedkowskyj will be advancing a motion that calls for the abandonment of the turnaround program.
Teachers speak up
“I know the teachers here. I know how hard they work. I know the families in this community,” Washington Sanchez, a former teacher at the school currently working for the UFT, told the crowd. “I am one of many many success stories happening at this school. We deserve to stay open.”
Beverly Schenker, a teacher in the school since 1968, stated that many students need home intervention and “attendance follow-up.”
“Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater,” she said.
Students from Newtown High School’s robotics team, which won the US FIRST FRC NYC Regional, also spoke.
Chen Qing Tian, the team’s captain told the crowd that “people just don’t look at Newtown through the right window.”
“Here in Newtown, I learned through robotics that we, all working together, can actually achieve greatness,” said Kevin Ortiz.
Gus Macheras, one of the team’s mentors, reminded the crowd that “we have to defend our name and our title next year.”
Pat Torney, the school’s basketball coach, told Weiner that the school could have “fudged the numbers” to make themselves look better, but did not.
“We have integrity, we have pride in what we do,” he said, “yet we’re being closed.”
Ramon Canela, an English Language Learners teacher and boys’ varsity baseball coach, told the crowd that “very few people know what it is to come to a new country and go through the adjustments of a new culture and a new language and a new educational system.”
“I was enrolled in Newtown High School, a school that I knew very little about,” he said “From the moment I walked into this building, I felt support.”
“This year, 89 percent of our seniors have already applied to college,” he noted.
Several speakers urged the DOE to keep the Newtown name.
“A name is not merely a label. It is an identity. A name speaks of who you are and what you value,” said English teacher Mitchell Friedman. “To me, Newtown stands for dedication, talent and a drive to excel.”
