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Jamaica is prime meat to be squeezed out of existence to make way for small schools and charter schools in central Queens. So don’t expect anything rational. This is all about political ideology, not education. When you top 10,000 students and are running ’till 1AM they will also declare Francis Lewis an impact school and start steering students to the 10 small schools at Jamaica. But not the ELA and special ed students as these schools will not have the resources to handle them.

Bloomberg’s mantra was that small schools would create a learning environment that would meet the needs of each child in a personalized way. I remember going to these small school iniatives town hall meetings where Eric Nadelstern would state that small schools would raise student achievement and would reduce many student-related incidents that usually lead to many fights and criminal activities. So the small schools iniatives sounded great to certain stakeholders and their evolving existence in these large phasing-out high schools is still a constant reminder that schools need resources not restructuring or dismantling in order to meet the needs of all the students. Yet, under Bloomberg’s administration every large high school that is labeled an “impact” school will eventually see their existence phase out and enter the annals of the school chronicals as a school that *used to be there*. When a large high school is labeled ‘impact’, the DoE immediately informs parents and the media that it plans to pull the plug on the school even before the school can take it’s last breath. Yet, today I learned that small schools that are located in campus high schools are also being labeled ‘impact’ schools, but shhhhhh there’s no mention of all their incidents and the resources that are being pumped into them to save them. One campus high school in the Bronx that houses 6 small schools was labeled an ‘impact’ school because of the ongoing student-related incidents that occurred this past school year. Every effort is being made to save it! So here’s my question. Since the mayor phases out large high schools when they’re labeled ‘impact’, will he enforce the same rule to small schools that are also ‘impact’ schools? Or is he going to be the education mayor and pump money/resources to save the small high schools who have the same issues as the large high schools? The dismantling and phasing out of large comprehensive high schools should not had happened. Money/resources would have enabled the large high schools to create programs and services that would have addressed the problems that permeates all high schools – even small high schools.

Last year an unknown number of schools w/ space ‘invited’ other schools, programs, etc. into their building. It has been a difficult time for all of those schools and we will not know whether this has been a successful approach until next year…after all, dust has gotta’ settle.
If there is a way to move some of the programs of an over-crowded school to another building, why not do that?
Second, lots of people have commented about this situation-the papers have run interesting articles regarding FLHS-yet there has been no comment from the principal or principals of these over-crowded schools. Haven’t they been ‘empowered’?

Typical Microsoft:
a) Shape the market you contol
b) Quality is Job 1.1

To even out is a good idea but it is not a simple matter. It needs more than incentives but perhaps it is best to get down to the basic question of why.

John,

It’s certainly true, with the national mania for do-or-die test scores, that standards are dropping faster than low-flying fowl at an NRA picnic. I’d argue, though, that the media also has a great deal to do with any national “dumbing-down.”

For example, when I turn on cable news (which I do less and less nowadays), I regularly see things that don’t merit discussion being discussed in excruciating detail, while vital issues are neglected utterly.

and the DOE strikes again! I would just like to write one message here. Jamaica high school is NOT going down without a fight!

I attend Jamaica High School & it definitely doesn’t deserve to be closed down. It’s a magnificent & excellent institution with an amazing hsitory. I’m a junior in the intensive Gateway program & I have a 98. 6 A+ average. I’m working my way to being admitted into an excellent college, like many of the previous Gateway students who attended Jamaica High. I plan to apply & get into an Ivy League, like Columbia or Cornell, maybe even NYU. Just 2 years ago, a boy from Gateway got into Harvard on a Coca-Cola scholarship. Our school has awesome potential but it seriously needs some funding in order to achieve successfully. We used to have AP Chemistry & AP Spanish but budget cuts took those away from us. We used to have 6 College Now classes, but now we only have 4 and 1 of them isn’t even properly funded. The Boys Bowling Team still exists but they had to pay in order to be able to practice from their own pockets. Our school barely has paper for us to use & the copiers don’t always work. In my art class, we only recently got new colored pencils since all along we had used short broken ones. We don’t even have a music teacher anymore. Mr. Rule, an awesome law & AP US history teacher, isn’t here anymore. Also we are going to lose Ms. Merioles, who’s an great biology teacher & our Medical Club advisor. We’ll lose Mr. Madramootoo, who’s a great English teacher & excellent photographer for the yearbook, also the senior advisor for Folio (yearbook). We may even lose Ms. Dibinis, a legendary & amazing Chemistry, Forensics, & Biology teacher. Despite all of these econmoic troubles, our school still manages to thrive. I was able to take AP Biology with Ms. McLean as an excellent teacher and pass the exam with a 3, despite the lack of funding causing us not to have any labs & a whole semster short. I am currently taking AP US History with Mr. Eterno and it’s my most favorite course, this man can teach & I know I will excel on that exam for sure. I’m also taking College Now Algebra & Trigonometry & plan to take on more college courses. I also intend to take AP Calculus & AP English if we still have them. I also plan to take Folio (yearbook) if it still exists because they, with Mr. Madramootoo, do an marvelous job at making magnificent yearbooks. There are plenty of students like myself in Jamaica High School, not only in the Gateway Program, who have the potential but not the resources. We get to apply for many scholarships, college trips, & beneifts as well. The problem is that we being gradually deprived of all of the benefits we deserve due to these LOUSY BUDGET CUTS!!! I won’t let Jamaica close down, I WILL FIGHT FOR MY SCHOOL!!!