Closing of NYC PUblic Schools?

[zackary42]

The New York City Department of Education has just announced its plans to close the schools listed below:
August Martin High School
Beach Channel High School
Boys and Girls High School
Christopher Columbus High School
Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology
Grace Dodge Career and Technical Education High School
Grover Cleveland High School
High School of Graphic Communication Arts
Jamaica High School
Jane Addams High School for Academic Careers
John Adams High School
John Dewey High School
John F. Kennedy High School
Metropolitan Corporate Academy
Monroe Academy for Business/Law
Newtown High School
Norman Thomas High School
Paul Robeson High School
Public School 065 Mother Hale Academy
Richmond Hill High School
Sheepshead Bay High School
Washington Irving High School
W.H. Maxwell CTE High School
Frederick Douglass Academy III (middle school)
Global Enterprise High School
Monroe Academy for Business and Law
School for Community Research and Learning
New Day Academy
Academy of Collaborative Education
Kappa II
Academy of Environmental Science High School
Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence
Public School 332
Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School
Choir Academy of Harlem High School

Through a process called transformation the following additional schools would most likely be phased out in the beginning of the 2011-12 school year.

Automotive High School
Bread & Roses Integrated Arts High School
Brooklyn School for Global Studies
Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School
Cobble Hill School of American Studies
Flushing High School
Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School
Long Island City High School
Queens Vocational and Technical High School
Unity Center for Urban Technologies
William E. Grady Career and Technical Education High School

What are your views about closing these schools? Please also indicate your association with any of the schools listed above.

[donough]

I am a NYC public school teacher at the elementary level. My children go to NYC public schools, though none of the ones in question. I have no affiliation whatsoever with any of the above schools.

I have a few concerns about this plan:

1) Klein and Bloomberg have a plan to replace large comprehensive, high schools with smaller, more specialized schools. While I basically applaud this idea, it has been carried out in a ham fisted manner. They have not put enough small schools into place for the number of kids they have displaced by closing the schools that they have already closed.

2) The schools they initially closed in the past few years may or may not have been irretrievably awful, but by closing them without sufficient replacements, they have shunted those kids (many of whom are low performing students - the hardest to teach kids) off onto the other comprehensive schools, making THEM dysfunctional. Many of the schools they now aim to close (like Christopher Columbus High) were performing fairly well, till they got overwhelmed with the displaced kids from other closed schools. The DOE did not give them any support for all these new low performing students! And now, THESE schools are suffering the consequences of Klein's (and, by extension Bloomberg's) actions. (And I can't imagine that there will by much more help for other comprehensive schools that will take the extra kids caused by the closing of these schools, what with the current budget cuts in education. I have no faith whatsoever in this program of so called "turn around schools". That's just a way of putting the entire onus on teachers to turn the schools around with no help from the DOE!

3) While large comprehensive schools may not be good for everyone, and while the DOE has created some interesting new, smaller schools recently, there really is a place for well run, comprehensive high schools. Some kids really want to go to a big school, with all the activities that kind of school provides - sports teams, theater, orchestra, etc, etc. And there are certain special services that can only be provided by larger schools - Robeson had a program for teenaged mothers, the only one in the Borough of Brooklyn. That's the kind of program that might be essential to help a teen who is floundering to complete a high school education.

4) Bloomberg and Klein TRIED to close these very same schools this past year and were prevented from doing so by a judge! So how come the same list of schools is now in the news again, slated for closure???? What gives?

[wendlesora]

Why are they closing these schools? I have a cousin who teaches in one of these... I just dont understand why...

[barnett]

I have no association w/any of these schools but this is a large number of schools. I'm wondering where the students will be able to attend. Some of these schools may be in need of repair or have more authority to enforce rules. "I'll call 911", is a commonly used phrase by young people that are bent on having their own way. Abuse usually isn't an issue if a child isn't afraid to threaten parents. 911, is suppose to be way to report child abuse, it isn't meant to be used as an outlet to keep parents from correcting or setting boundaries. This is the same for teachers, they have to be able to have control over a class of 20-30 five to eighteen year old children. If a mother or father is cussed & treated harshly, that same child won't have any qualms about using the same tactics at school. That being said, I wonder if any of theses schools have an average of 50% or more students that threaten with violence or 911.---How this action is going to be for the good of the cities children as a whole is a big question? "There were Presidential promises for better education", this doesn't adhere to those promises. As I said, I'm not up on the NYC school system but they have to have a H*ll of a plan if they intend on educating children w/this number of school closings.

[sampson]

I live here in San Antonio,Texas,there is a School cal Sam Houston High School and the students in this school was failing but the board Of Education felted to that the students to was not learning but the student behavior toward the teacher was very much out of control,pretty much was you are saying this school too went through,but teachers are there to teacher discipline is a parent job there is more to this than told,but this school has change and parents fought to keep it open and have pass the Tass test that is require by the state but until you get the problems child out of the school this is what will happen, Education is very important but it does call for stuff decision that is hard to swallow but if it is the correct one everythings should be ok,if you feel the school is worth saving thin the family need to come together and make sure that the school get the right resources to prove education for each child.