campus-magnet-complex-cambria-heights-queens

Image source: Times Ledger – the Campus Magnet complex in Cambria Heights, Queens

The Times Ledger reports that a handful of schools in Queens – South Jamaica’s Edward K. Ellington School/PS 140 (GMAP); two Cambria Heights Campus Magnet high schools – Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship (GMAP), and Law, Government and Community Service (GMAP); and the 8th grade at PS 156 in Laurelton (GMAP) have been asked to close. In a recent progress report, PS140 scored an F and the magnet schools scored a D. So City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and the Department of Education has decided to phase them out.

Chancellor Walcott said, “We expect success. After a rigorous review of academic performance, we’re proposing to phase out a select number of low-performing schools. We’ve listened to the community and provided comprehensive support services to these schools based on their needs. Ultimately, we know we can better serve our students and families with new options and a new start.”

On the other hand, City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), said that these schools did poorly because the Department of Ed. didn’t support them enough. In particular, he asserts that Law, Government and Community Service High School was one of the best schools in the city prior to the Department of Ed implementing current policies. He also said it has suffered because the city asked the school to take in more students without providing correlative support for an increased student population.

For those looking for more information and/or feel an urgency to voice an opinion on the proposed closings, the DOE will be holding public meetings before the March 11 meeting of the city Panel for Educational Policy (PEP). Oral and written comments will be accepted until March 8, 2013 at 6:00pm on topics pertaining to that PEP meeting. Additionally, the DOE “will issue an educational impact statement outlining the specifics of each school’s plan.”

Last year the PEP chose to close seven Queens schools, though in the end this did not happen.

City plans to close three struggling boro schools [Times Ledger]


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