Five failing high schools were slated for closure yesterday, including a Brooklyn campus boasting a principal who was a grad of Mayor Bloomberg's elite Leadership Academy.
Education officials said dismal graduation rates, consistently low test scores and lackluster demand prompted the schools' shuttering.
The soon-to-be defunct institutions are Lafayette High in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; South Shore High in Canarsie, Brooklyn; Samuel J. Tilden High in East Flatbush, Brooklyn; Urban Peace Academy in East Harlem, and the School for the Physical City in Gramercy Park.
Education brass met with teachers and principals at all of the schools yesterday to break the news.
"These are schools that we've reviewed for a long time and have a track record of low performance and difficult circumstances," said Melody Meyer, spokeswoman for the Department of Education.
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The schools will be phased out over the next three years, with the three large Brooklyn high schools likely replaced by smaller schools.
More detailed plans will be released next month, Meyer said.
The schools will not accept ninth-graders in the fall. The approximately 6,100 students already enrolled at the campuses will be allowed to graduate from them, the last classes in 2010.
Graduation rates at all of the schools have routinely been well below the citywide average of 58%.
Crime has also been an issue at several schools, especially Tilden, which in August was named among the 17 most violent public schools in the state.
This is a horrible idea. Closing failing schools is not the answer. Fire the teachers and the staff, do not close the school. Closing the schools only forces more kids into already overcrowded classrooms. Moreover, by taking the worst performing and putting them with the better performing will only bring down the better performing school's ability to teach their students. This is not a well thought out plan by Mayor Mike.
Better plan 1...Fire the TEACHERS!!! The teachers are not teaching and therefore the students are not learning. Whos fault is this? The students cannot learn if the teachers cannot/will not teach. Train a better class of teachers, get qualified teacehers, pay your teachers better, maybe these students will learn better.
Better plan 2...smaller class sizes. Maybe if class sizes were more manageable the teachers will be able to teach better.
Clossing schools is the worst scenerio. This was not well thought out and needs to be revisited.
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