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groundbreaking

City makes way for screened Beacon High School’s expansion

Across the street from the site of the new Beacon High School, the city is building a new space for Manhattan's PS 51.

As the founding principal of Beacon High School, Ruth Lacey has some of the city’s highest-scoring students and a rare exemption from most state exams. But she lacks a full-sized gymnasium and classrooms to accommodate rabid demand for the school.

Enter 521 West 44th St., the former site of a New York Public Library warehouse that will by 2015 become the new Beacon school. The city plans to convert the gutted concrete storage facility into a school with a cafeteria, special arts and science labs, and gym on the roof, as well as space for a District 75 special education school. There, the school is slated to grow from 1150 students to close to 1500.

Beacon is one of 103 screened high schools that Department of Education officials told to step up their special education enrollment practices because many are not enrolling their fair share of students with special education needs. Department officials have  been meeting with Lacey and other principals throughout the year to strategize how to make their special education rates match those of local unscreened schools.

“As long as they meet the criteria of the screened school, we expect special ed students to be a part of those populations at those schools,” Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said at the groundbreaking for the new school.

Beacon is piloting a three week long orientation for special education students and their parents this August to give them prepare for the new school year and get to know their teachers before September. Just under 5 percent of Beacon’s students required special education services last year, compared to the citywide average of 17 percent.

“I don’t think the numbers themselves mean anything if you don’t do the right thing,” Lacey said.

Joined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Walcott this morning at the groundbreaking in Hell’s Kitchen, Lacey told reporters she is excited to have an opportunity to grow the school. She said the incoming students and families who stand to use the new space before they graduate are particularly happy to hear about the upgraded facilities.

“It’s not real yet, but all we have to say is we’re having a full [basketball] court, and that seems to be the magic words,” she said.

  • HS Biology Teacher

    1500 students… that’s, in my opinion, the perfect size for a school. Large enough to be able to offer a variety of courses and clubs, but small enough to minimize the dangers of students being lost in the crowd.

  • East Sider

    Beacon also enrolls kids of many pols and powerful and influential folk … it is the “School of Choice” in Manhattan and being on good terms with Howard Wolfson (Deputy Mayor for Graft and Corruption, oh, excuse me, Communications) is the key to admission

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002397245457 Mary Conway-Spiegel

    Correct.
    And, when I’ve spoken to teachers/ed policy watchers in other States, 1500 is on the small side…often begging the question, “why?”  ”Why close those schools?”
    The difference between a “campus” = 6 or 7 small high schools in one building vs. a perfectly sized 1500, or even 2000 sized school is the difference between keeping our youth engaged, maybe even excited vs. the bitter taste of standardized tests with crumbs on the side.

  • Tony

    In exchange for being given a new building they should be required to take zoned kids along with the screened ones. Enough with the creaming already.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Yes, supposedly Wendy Karp and her husband, KIPP Chair Richard Barh, send ther kids to Beacon, since they’d never in a million years consider sending their own kids to the Skinner Boxes they’ve created for the Worthy Poor.

  • East Sider

    Then Bloomberg’s buds would have to pay for private school … saving $30,000 x 4 buys some real loyal “friends.”

  • Really??

    why are we buildiing more segregated schools? D75 is illegal?!!!  colocation is still seperate it is NOT integrated.  this is wrong.

  • Anonymous

    Mixed academic abilities are fine in grade school, but once college looms, taxpaying parents of smart kids deserve public schools that will challenge their children. 

    High School is the wrong time for kids to have to wait for others to catch up; in three years the juniors will be competing with the country for college slots.

  • Anonymous

    You are not “smart” by reverberating what your teacher taught you. You are a parrot.

    This expansion is just another example of racial isolation, the demographics say it all. Do you think a kid living in the Bronx knows what Beacon High School is? No. This is the problem with our country’s education.

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