City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced this Monday that the City education department will close three schools in Brooklyn. The schools in question have been troubled for some time now and the education department does not see a solution to this apart from closing the schools altogether. Foundations Academy High School, Peace Academy Middle School and The School for the Urban Environment are looking to have their doors closed forever in June.
The three schools have been struggling to meet requirements for quite some time now, especially when it comes to academic outcome. For instance, at the Peace Academy High School, only 2 percent of children could read at grade level. The situation is similar at the School for the Urban Environment where no children met state reading standards in 2014 and 2015.
Fariña added that they did not rush into this decision and that it was a difficult one to make. She also announced that the department officials and employees will work closely with students and their families to ensure they can enroll in other schools where they will have better chance of proper education. Around 2015 students from these three schools will find placement at other schools in the city. Finally, Fariña also said that around two dozen teachers and other employees from these three schools will be given employment in other city schools.
The reason why this decision is so well covered by the media is that Mayor de Blasio ran a campaign promising to put a moratorium on closing schools, which is something former Mayor Michael Bloomberg had been criticized for heavily. As a reminder, dozens of schools throughout the New York City Metro Area were closed during his term. To be perfectly honest, de Blasio always said that troubled schools might be closed by his administration. Like for instance, in June when his administration moved to close the Ethical Community Charter School, also in Brooklyn.
So far, there haven’t been any signs of any protest over closing of the three schools in June 2016. It is pretty obvious to everyone that these schools are underperforming and that the students will be better off at other schools.
Also, we should point out that the city’s Panel for Educational Policy still needs to approve this decision come February. It all points to this happening.
