Millenium Expansion Approved for John Jay
Last week there was a heated public hearing about the DOE’s proposal to move Manhattan’s elite Millennium School into the John Jay High School building in Park Slope where three low-performing high schools and one middle school currently coexist. At that meeting, critics of the plan asked DOE put more money into the existing schools…
Last week there was a heated public hearing about the DOE’s proposal to move Manhattan’s elite Millennium School into the John Jay High School building in Park Slope where three low-performing high schools and one middle school currently coexist. At that meeting, critics of the plan asked DOE put more money into the existing schools rather than fund a new one. Their pleas fell on deaf ears however, because today the NY Times reports that a Millennium, which has a competitive admissions process, will in fact open its Brooklyn branch next Fall in the school that the neighborhood has “shunned…because of its poor academic performance.” According to The Times, the DOE saw this as an opportunity “to open a high school in a neighborhood where many families found they had to look elsewhere for a top-quality high school.” (77 percent of the families in the area are white while just six percent of the current student body is white.) The article does not mention if the existing schools will receive any extra funding along with the start-up costs allotted to Millennium.
Plenty of Discord Over John Jay Expansion Plan [Brownstoner]
Photo by wallyg
The fact that Millennium has so many Asian kids has absolutely nothing to do with the Chinatown Y. The fact is that the zone has a lot of Asian kids (all of Chinatown, which is large and growing, is in the zone), and the schools in the zone have a lot of Asian kids, and Asian kids tend to have high school averages higher than white, black or Latino kids so they are more likely to be admitted. Believe me, as the mother of an Asian kid who always went to schools right in the middle of the Millennium zone and who personally knows at least 30 Asian Millennium kids, all freshmen and sophomores.
As for charter schools, take a minute before you drink that Koolaid. They do not get better results than noncharters, and plenty of them are failed or failing despite big-name fundraising far beyond what public schools can do.
I admit I drank the kool-aid…
We don’t disagree on some of your other points. Re: education experts at the top, no disagreement there. Heading a company does not qualify someone to head an education system.
Re: the separate entrance, I read today that the Millennium principal has stated firmly that they will not use a separate entrance, and will come in the same as everyone else, regardless of whether or not there are metal detectors.
There’s also an issue of Millennium getting special funds for start-up equipment and the like. The city says it’s because there are inherently start-up costs, and I can understand that, but if the other schools need computers, supplies, etc., the city should find the money.
We’ll just agree to disagree on charters….
@rf and any parent who promotes cell phones in schools:
I am not sure how old your child is, but from a teacher’s point of view, it is highly possible that your child is not really keeping her/his phone in her/his bag the whole time.
In addition, cell phones/iPods, etc. have really become more of a detriment to our students’ education, rather than an innovation. Most students are still not exactly clear as to when IS an appropriate time to have electronics out and when IS NOT. Teenagers these days are constantly on their phones and as a result, are missing out on valuable instruction their teachers are giving. I often wonder about the percentage of information that is actually being heard/retained nowadays with students who bring their cell phones to school… (By the way, I am all about the wonders of 21st Century learning – but Electronics Etiquette should also be taught at home and in schools.)
Oh, and not to mention, cell phones are often the cause of “drama” and discipline problems when they go missing, are used for texting/gossiping during class, or instigating fights/hurt feelings due to miscommunication/disrespect via texts – regardless of socioeconomic background.
Brooklyn9999 is really biting that Superman propaganda.
morralkan is right. Non-profit doesn’t mean nobody is profiting. The test companies are profiting from school choice, that’s for sure. And if Bloomberg can get us all enrolled in charters then he won’t have to pay teachers pensions and he can fire all of the experienced teachers who cost more. Do you really think Bill Gates and Cathie Black are education experts? Meanwhile, schools become more and more segregated.
It bothers me to read so many people dismissing the schools in John Jay as bad schools. These schools aren’t segregated because they aren’t performing. If anything, the schools are “underperforming” because they are segregated. My guess is that the teachers in these schools are teaching their asses off. I’m sure they’re dealing with truancy, English as a second language issues, and all of the other aspects of poverty that make teaching in these schools really challenging. Jill Bloomberg, one of the principals, sounds intelligent and dedicated. I bet she hires good teachers, and I bet some of her teachers could teach circles around some folks who teach in easier settings.
My understanding is that the Millennium kids will use a separate entrance without metal detectors, and if Park Slope parents are cool with that then….
Non-profit does not mean that somebody is not profiting. Take the “queen” of charters here, Eva Moskowitz. The woman pulls down about $400,000 per year to run her “non-profit” empire of small schools which collectively do not enroll as many students as a medium sized high school. Lord knows how much she will earn as she expands her empire. Do you really think that the billionaires funding these charters are benevolently giving their money away? They see big profits in the future as they destroy the public school system. There really is no free lunch.
flatbush1 says charter schools are “privately owned, highly profitable.”
That’s wrong and inflammatory.
Charter schools are public schools, almost always run by nonprofit, charitable organizations (140 of NYC’s 150-ish charter schools), and they are chartered by a city or state public agency. They’re not “private” schools.
They are funded by per-student allocations by the state (at a lower per-student rate than general public schools), but they fundraise to provide special programs, including extra teacher training and special customized curriculum. They simply have more independence to make their own decisions, such as deciding whether to buy a textbook or a computer, or whether to have teachers’ aides, or what curriculum to use (if standards are met).
There is no tuition, and students are admitted through a lottery process, not on academic standards. And the lottery formula is designed so priority is given to students in the local district. So, compared to general zoned schools, they do have broader enrollment by geography, but it is weighted locally.
Re: race/ethnicity, in NYC, about 60% of charter school students are African American and 30% Latino. Millennium I in Manhattan has a large Asian population because the school is a collaboration with the Chinatown YMCA.
And actually, Millennium I isn’t a charter school. It’s a specially-designed alternative public school with an academically-selective application process — similar to but separate from applying for Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant or Bronx Science.
Facts.
rf: I defer to your personal experience — my son is a dozen years away from going to high school. But the thing that I’m concerned with is not so much what happens in the building (I’m assuming school officials can maintain security adequately there), but what happens on the way in and out. Everyone is walking along Seventh Avenue at some point, and the thugs (whether or not they are using the same door as the non-thugs) can figure out pretty quickly who the small and physically weak are, and exploit the situation.
ProfRobert,
I agree that the suspension school doesn’t belong in the building. But to me it would make more sense to have the suspension school have its own entrance/exit/gym/cafeteria.
I know (my daughter has friends/my friends have kids) of several public school buildings with a big variety of schools and kids, including the MLK building, the next block from La Guardia. 6 schools, 4 of which are decent, 1 of which is excellent. The only contact the kids have is on the way in and on the way out. They don’t eat lunch together. They don’t have gym together. No incidents.
Also the Seward Park H.S. building. One school per floor. The model can work. But both of these buildings were renovated nicely with a design that enables sharing the building.
If they don’t move the Suspension School from the premises, the “new Millenium” is going to fail. What idiot parents would send their nerdy ninth-grader to Thug Central? I sure as heck wouldn’t. I have the same issue with putting G&T programs in the same building as mainstream schools. You’re painting a big, fat, please-beat-me target on your child’s back.