I agree with this the most because it makes da most sense. How can u no somthing is goin 2 work when you nvr gave it a cjance 2 work. We have a lot of kids in our school rather than cut down fundings the city should give us more funding. In QC kids have laptops, smart boards and we dont even have enough money 4 paper.

Sincerly, Queen B.

Sincerly, Dr. B
May the force be with us

My neighbor currently attends Jamaica and is enrolled in the selective Gateway program. No one in her middle school had even told her that the program existed. Rather than attend Jamaica, her teachers were advising her to apply to small schools that she would have to travel nearly an hour to reach, but she chose Jamaica instead. She’s glad that she did, and doesn’t want to attend any other school. She heard all the same sorts of stories that I had heard years before, but she entered Jamaica in spite of her concern that the warnings would come true. Since starting at Jamaica, she has blossomed into a scholar, and she and her family are so impressed with the education she is receiving at Jamaica that her younger cousin and several younger friends applied to attend Jamaica beginning in September. Contrary to what the statistics and the school’s reputation suggest, she’s getting a fantastic education and loves going to school — as do her classmates.

Jamaica is a special place. The interaction between current students and alumni is one of the things that I think makes Jamaica special — how many schools really exist where alumni of all ages clearly love their school and embrace each other as family, regardless of what year they graduated? I once saw a 90+ year old nearly leap with excitement when he learned we shared Jamaica as our alma mater. Current and former students alike (along with current and past teachers) celebrated Jamaica’s new status as a historic landmark last summer, and the hundreds of attendees were there to celebrate not just the building but the school.

Would this love of school exist in a smaller school in that great building? I doubt it. Would students receive a great education in a small school? Possibly. But there are no guarantees, and students have been receiving a fantastic education at Jamaica High School for over 100 years. Students are still receiving fantastic educations at Jamaica today. Some students struggle with academics due to learning challenges, others enter the school without mastering skills at lower grades, and others simply are challenged by the need to begin learning English as high school students. Regardless, they all receive an education at Jamaica. What kind of home will these students find in smaller, more “selective” high schools? And if the city has the financial resources to launch and fund several new schools in the Jamaica building, why hasn’t it allowed Jamaica’s current students to benefit from those resources? In spite of funding cuts, graduation rates and test scores are improving, and to close the school without first dedicating the resources to support the teachers’ efforts is shameful. Instead of providing resources to a school striving to improve itself, the city has reduced the number of teachers in the school and left some classes this year without permanent teachers as of late in the fall term. The students, teachers and families most affected by the city’s decision to close the school are right to be infuriated and to feel betrayed by the city. Jamaica should be kept open to offer all students an education while also providing all the things a large school can offer with proper funding that a small “academy” can’t: a wider variety of athletic teams, varied extracurricular activities, more diversity, and a wider range of elective courses. The school needs the city’s support, not its condemnation.

There is not one iota of evidence showing these small schools have improved education for their students. And what happens is the trouble makers find their ways into other schools starting the cycled of decay in those schools. But why let the facts get in the way of the truth.

Bloomberg/Klein created these small schools and hizzoner’s mantra during the 2005 and 2009 campaign that graduation rate went up, attendance is up, safety incidents are down, and parents have more options in deciding the long list of these boutique schools. How many small schools are closing? How many small schools are getting extra resource and fundings so they don’t end up closing? How many small schools are cooking the books with these bogus credit recovery programs? How many small schools are fudging the attendance rate? Did you know that a student only has to be in the school 45 minutes and it is counted as attendance? What is the true attendance rate of these small schools? How many untenured teachers in the small schools are being forced through strong administrative suggestions to change their students’ grades? How many small schools have an in school varsity/sport programs when these small schools usually have to go to the large high school to be on a sports team? How many special needs students’ IEPs are changed to meet the needs of the small schools (PROGRAMMING ISSUE AGAIN) instead of meeting the needs of the special needs students? HOW MANY STUDENTS IN THE SMALL SCHOOLS HAVE RAMPANT SOCIAL PROMOTION AND ARE GIVEN (NOT EARNED) DIPLOMAS THAT ARE SO MEANINGLESS THAT THESE STUDENTS REPEAT HIGH SCHOOL IN 6 OF CUNY’S COMMUNITY COLLEGES?

It is time for the students of Jamaica HS to be investigative reports and go out there get some more information and get the FACTS, the TRUE FACTS and disseminate, disseminate, disseminate! Let’s call this OPERATION SHAME AND BLAME ON THE DOE! The students of Jamaica HS have the power to bring Jamaica HS back to its glory. Good Luck, I’m rooting for you and for all the teachers at Jamaica HS.