One by one, students, parents and educators from throughout the
borough maneuvered through a standing-room-only crowd at Queens
Borough Hall Monday night, emerging from a mess of metal folding
chairs at the microphone, where they raised fists, voices and even
a brightly colored protein model, to get their message to the city
across: Plans for eight Queens high schools are a disaster.
Borough President Helen Marshall and her appointee to the city
Panel for Educational Policy, Dmytro Fedkowskyj, presided over the
forum on Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to replace at least 50 percent of
the teaching staff at eight Queens high schools, as well as change
the institutions’ names, by this summer.
“This will severely affect the dynamic of the way a school
functions,” said Marie Senat, a senior at John Adams High School
who presented Marshall with more than 1,000 student signatures
against the mayor’s plan.
“We have less than 10 bad teachers at John Adams, and you’re
willing to sacrifice 120 hard-working teachers rather than train
those 10 bad ones?” Senat continued.
Bloomberg announced the plan in his State of the City address
last month in an effort to secure about $58 million in education
aid that the state has withheld because the city and the teachers’
union have not reached a deal on new evaluations for educators.
There are 33 schools citywide that could be impacted, including
John Adams High School in Ozone Park, Richmond Hill High School,
Long Island City High School, Flushing High School, Grover
Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, Newtown High School in
Elmhurst, August Martin High School in Jamaica and Bryant High
School in Long Island City. There are about 21,000 students in
total at the eight schools.
The institutions are in a federal improvement program because of
such issues as low graduation rates and test scores, which mandated
the city to implement one of four federally required programs at
each institution.
Last spring, the city announced it would use models that would
not close the schools or replace teachers, but instead bring in
educational organizations that would work with the schools’
communities to improve graduation rates, test scores and morale.
Those who spoke at Monday’s meeting stressed that the city told
school officials they would have three years to implement
changes.
Now, however, Bloomberg said he has the legal authority to
instead use the “turnaround” model — which the city had originally
wanted to implement last year, but to which the union would not
agree.
Like his peer at John Adams, Long Island City High School
student Sebastian Zarate slammed the plan.
“The teachers know us better than anyone else,” Zarate said. “If
you take them away, you’ll have 3,300 angry students.”
Kathy Carlson, Grover Cleveland’s Parents Association president,
noted that a new principal was just placed at her school, who “is
making all kinds of improvements.”
Lydia Martinez, also a member of Grover Cleveland’s Parents
Association and a Community Board 5 member, said it seems unfair to
overhaul the school just as it has begun to implement changes.
“We started doing what they wanted us to do, and now they’re
telling us to stop everything?” Martinez asked. “It’s hurting the
teachers and students. I feel these kids shouldn’t be here fighting
for their schools; they should be home doing homework.”
Jose Ferruzola, the president of August Martin’s Parent
Association, noted that the school’s graduation rate is 70 percent
— higher than many other schools that are not being targeted in
Bloomberg’s plan.
“Think about the education of our kids,” Ferruzola said. “This
is their future, and the mayor’s going to mess it up.”
Like a number of educators who spoke, Grover Cleveland High
School Assistant Principal Michelle Robertson emphasized that the
eight schools in Queens educate large populations of students who
need extra attention, such as those speaking English as a second
language or individuals with disabilities.
“We take who we get and make them the cream of the crop,”
Robertson said, prompting a burst of applause from audience
members.
“Mayor Bloomberg, we want to turn around what it is you’re
trying to do,” Robertson continued.
Richmond Hill High School Principal Fran DeSanctis said her
school has continued to perform better, particularly because it has
implemented small learning communities, essentially small schools
within the building.
“We serve students who are diverse in many ways,” DeSanctis
said. “… They’ve fostered relationships with teachers in our
school, and for that to be pulled away would be a crime.”
Erin Flanagan, a physical education teacher at Flushing High
School, agreed with DeSanctis.
“It’s extremely abusive and disruptive to the lives of
everyone,” Flanagan said.
Bryant High School teacher Ann Balash also stressed that her
school takes in “any student that comes to our door.”
“We take in students with no English background and students
with disabilities,” Balash said. “We have a lot of students who
need a lot of extra support.”
Balash called Bloomberg’s plan “arbitrary and capricious.”
“We just got the transformation model in September, and a few
months later we’re told, ‘Sorry, new plan,’” Balash said. “That’s
bad management, bad planning.”
Marshall and Fedkowskyj were a receptive audience and also
slammed the city’s plans.
“The highest official in our city is deceiving you; that’s not
good,” Marshall said of Bloomberg and students. “We want them to
believe in our government. He’s not doing the right thing when it
comes to education.”
“A politician should not be involved with the education of our
children,” Marshall continued.
Fedkowskyj, who has routinely been a critic of the mayor’s
educational policies, noted that the implementation of the
turnaround models at the eight schools would be voted on by the
PEP. While many of the borough presidents’ appointees are often
critical of Bloomberg’s plans, the majority of the PEP’s members
are appointed by the mayor and almost never vote against his
wishes.
“There are many ways to fix the problems in our schools, but one
way is not to close the schools,” Fedkowskyj said. “We stand behind
you, we’ll do what we can, and we’ll advocate for you.”
