Plenty of Discord Over John Jay Expansion Plan
Yesterday the Brooklyn Paper wrote about the proposed expansion of Park Slope’s John Jay High School to include Manhattan’s Millennium School. And last night John Jay students protested the expansion prior to a public hearing with the Department of Ed. The school, which the Brooklyn Paper notes is mainly comprised of minority students outside of…
Yesterday the Brooklyn Paper wrote about the proposed expansion of Park Slope’s John Jay High School to include Manhattan’s Millennium School. And last night John Jay students protested the expansion prior to a public hearing with the Department of Ed. The school, which the Brooklyn Paper notes is mainly comprised of minority students outside of the neighborhood, asked for more resources and funding for the three schools already at John Jay, instead of supporting a new, fourth school (which is a largely white college prep school). Before the public hearing began students were chanting, “How do you spell racist? DOE” and “Integrate don’t segregate.” Parents, faculty, and Assemblyman Jim Brennan stressed the need for more resources, with the idea that improving the existing schools will increase enrollment from within the neighborhood. Student speakers were more blunt. One student called the school’s metal detectors, which John Jay has previously asked the DOE to remove, “a racist ritual” that discourages any Park Slope kid from attending John Jay. Another student thought the consistent lack of funding was a message that “Our school isn’t good enough for Park Slope residents,” while another said, “While Park Slope may enjoy the representation of a desirable place to live and work, that representation has never been expanded to our school.” The policy vote on whether Millennium Brooklyn will move in is scheduled for Wednesday, January 19th.
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The teachers/parents/administrators are sending 30+% of their students into the world with ZERO prospects.
so the kids who’d rather be out all night, skipping school, not studying, have no responsibility in their failure? please.
*rob*
If the Manhattan school is willing to financially assist the other schools within John Jay, then it should be allowed to enter. That and the Manhattan school should willingly go out of it’s way to have students in the other schools transfer into it.
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“Our school isn’t good enough for Park Slope residents,”
THE SCHOOL ISNT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ANY RESIDENTS
….over THIRTY PERCENT of the students DONT GRADUATE…this is HIGH SCHOOL!!! It is 2011 = do you know what prospects a High School DROPOUT has – none, zero, zilch. You are (statistically) finished, you practically can kill yourself at that point cause unless you have a major life change, you will be essentially a failure (poor, ignorant unable to compete) for the rest of your life – and this is the future THIRTY PERCENT of the students face. (I’d love to know what tiny % actually gain a Regents Diploma – which barely signifies a decent education).
The teachers/parents/administrators are sending 30+% of their students into the world with ZERO prospects. That is the definition of FAILURE
I’m not a fan of creating more schools segregated by race, class, academic aptitude, test taking ability, academic interests, etc…
I’d rather see resources put into existing schools for the benefit of all students.
However, before this can be successful in neighborhoods in “Brownstone Brooklyn,” more white parents have to loose their fear of sending their kid to a school where they will be a racial minority.
True, Montrose, and then contrast that with the parents who show up to an old building on a snowy night for a parent-teacher conference to hear about their kid in school. But no one puts them on TV, just the yellers.
If the thing about the metal detectors being ‘inherited’ is true, either they are being used or they are not. Are they?
“The problem with the metal detectors is that they were never assigned to the current schools occupying the John Jay Campus, they were inherited from John Jay HS.”
This little factoid was not made clear in anything I read about this and it’s extremely important. I wonder why.
I have no answers, but I really, really dislike the whole idea of separate schools in one building, mainly because it always does seem to play out into schools of haves, and schools of have-nots.
Also, can someone please tell me how it is cost-efficient, running three schools instead of one?
“at the same time, the students need not lash out in ridiculous ways at processes that are occurring above their level of understanding. Let the adults handle this, you watch and learn.”
Unfortunately, jester, from what I see on the news, “adults handling this” usually looks worse than anything the kids could come up with. How many meetings of parents protesting whatever in our local schools, have you seen where the veins AREN’T standing out from their necks, their faces contorted in rage, whilst screaming at officials on the stage?