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Nolan on Grover Cleveland: ‘It is not a failing school’

By Gabriel Rom

Speaking at the Ridgewood Legislative Forum last Friday, state Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Ridgewood) called the decision by the city Department of Education to designate Grover Cleveland HS in Ridgewood as a struggling school “very unfair.”

Earlier this year Grover Cleveland, along with 61 other New York City schools, was identified as “struggling” by the DOE, putting the school in the bottom 5 percent in academic achievement in the city. If Grover Cleveland does not improve its student performance and graduation rates, it may fall into receivership, meaning that the school will be taken over by an outside entity and divided into several smaller schools. In October, the DOE said it was committed to keeping Grover Cleveland open.

“One of the problems with these federal captures is that it includes any school which has less than a 60 percent four-year graduation rate,” Nolan said.

“Cleveland had like 59.95 percent. It is not a failing school,” she added.

The school’s June graduation rate was 60.7 percent for the 2014-15 academic year, compared to 51 percent during the 2013-14 academic year and 53 percent in the 2012-13 academic year.

“I feel very, very comfortable that with the work we have done in recent years that Cleveland will come off any of those lists,” Nolan added. “We’re going to get more funding. I would never discount Grover Cleveland.”

Charles Ober, who moderated the forum, pushed Nolan.

“Under my understanding,” he said, “there has not been a real demonstrative improvement in academics at Grover Cleveland.”

“I would disagree with that,” Nolan responded. “I think Grover Cleveland’s scores are fine. We have a lot of new immigrants that come in not speaking English as a first language. We have kids from Poland, Bosnia, Egypt, Albania and so on, so our English language scores sometimes struggle a little.”

Nolan specifically mentioned that she believes Grover Cleveland has made significant improvements over the past two years due to the work of District 24 High School Superintendent Elaine Lindsey.

“I think if people were in the building and you saw what was happening, I think you’d be more confident in both Lindsey and the kids themselves,” she said.

Nolan then offered to take the Ridgewood Property Ownership Association on a tour of the school.

At an open forum in October, Lindsey said the school has received funding for Extended Learning Time and professional development and that most of the school’s classes are currently within the legal class-size limit.

For the 2015-2016 academic year, the school is aiming for a 63 percent graduation rate in June, a 65 percent graduation rate in August, an 85 percent attendance rate and a minimum 5 percent increase in the Regents exam pass rate for every content area, according to data presented by Denise Vittor, the school’s principal.

Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4564.