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
Why is it parents think their kids NEED cell phones at all times? Didn’t we grow up just fine without them? Generations upon generations of NYC kids and parents survived without 24/7 communication.
Whatever hurt feelings and real issues needing to be addressed by the 3 schools currently at JHS shouldn’t stop what has been approved – a competitive school with a diverse ethnic student body is now open in Park Slope.
Yesterday – there was no such school.
Today (figuratively) – there is one – that’s a good thing.
Simple step to shut up 95% of those who oppose the new school – any kids currently at JHS who score well enough – get first crack at admittance. If you’re one of the better performing kids, congrats you’re in. If you don’t have the grades, well you weren’t getting in anyway. Study/work hard and better luck next year.
If the metal detectors are so dehumanizing – take them out, but parents have to forfeit the right to sue the DOE for damages if some idiot kid gets stabby or shoots up the joint, and any stabby/shooty kid gets tossed out of the building for life.
For at least the past two high school application cycles, DOE refusted to assign any Brooklyn students to Millenium High School in Manhattan. For many prospective students in Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Brooklyn Heights and BedStuy, lower Manhattan is a short subway ride away. Why? DOE had to appease the demands of residents in the Financial District, Tribeca and such for a quality high school in Manhattan.
Rather than admit Brooklyn students to the Millenium High School, the DOE has decided to open the satellite instead of devoting resources to the existing school.
It’s not racism. It’s bad politics.
rf – I hear you about the lesser role parents have in any high school, selective or not. In this case though, the Park Slope community is being asked to care and get involved in fixing the schools’ problems. Personally I’m willing to do something (but what?), but it would help to see some positive action, not just complaining, from parents whose kids actually attend the school.
also, can people please stop repeating misinformation?
Millennium is not a private school, you just need to have an A average to get in, 3 and 4’s on the state tests.
Millennium’s ethnic breakdown is:
35 W | 12 B | 22 H | 28 A
MS 447’s breakdown (M2 principal Lisa Gioe’s current school):
35 W | 30 B | 26 H | 8 A
The reason the schools already there are not very good is because of the students they attract. Actually, at least one seems to be doing pretty well. But it’s tough when most of the kids are just sent there because they didn’t get in anywhere else.
Trust me, the cell phone issue is HUGE. My daughter goes to Brooklyn Tech and then to a citywide chorus in Manhattan 3x/week before she gets home at 7:30. There is no way to manage this safely without her phone.
Parents play much less of a role in high school. It’s just the way it is. This is in no way a neighborhood school and parents just don’t feel like they have a stake there.
Part of the reason for the objection to co-locating schools into existing schools is that the schools already there are treated like the poor stepchild. While the new “school” gets a major makeover/renovation, the rest of the school building is left to rot, more or less. Oftentimes too, the new school gets preferential treatment in terms of lunchroom and gym access/hours and classrooms. I’m not dismissing the inherent problems of John Jay, or any similar school, but it’s hardly a surprise, given the DOE’s treatment of the poor stepchild schools. I’m sure that, if the DOE required that any school planning renovations at a site be required to improve the entire site to the same level and that there was no preferential treatment for the new school, much of the resentment would disappear.
…psssst it’s spelled “Millennium”
I think there are two bigger reasons parents don’t place their kids at John Jay schools. One is the “alternative learning center” i.e. the school for kids w/ disciplinary problems who’ve been kicked out of other schools. According to the DOE website, there are no plans to move this school out of the building, although it’s been there for years and it’s supposed to be rotated yearly. When the suspension school went in, it really damaged the outreach efforts made by the new schools to the community.
Secondly, all three schools still have a ways to go before they are competitive academically – it’s just as simple as that. As a kid, I went to middle and high schools with a majority of minority students, but I was still well prepared for college. Most parents looking at schools just want to see that challenging classes are being offered and a majority of the kids are college-bound. While the metal detectors absolutely should go, the cell phone issue is not as big of a deal, at least not for me.
What I think is important now is that the community work with the existing schools to get that funding they’ve been yelling about – if it doesn’t happen now w/ the Millennium funds, it isn’t ever going to come. The parents of the existing schools need to get involved too, though – where is the SSR’s PA?