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The city announced plans to shutter an additional 14 schools this morning, making a total of 26 schools that may either close entirely or begin to phase out starting next fall.

Yesterday, city officials announced their plans to close 11 district schools and recommended that the state not renew the charter of Ross Global Academy, a Manhattan charter school.

The final list of planned closures includes most — but not all — of the schools the city originally proposed to close last year before it was blocked by a lawsuit brought by the city teachers union, the NAACP and other groups.

Citing improvements the schools have made over the past year, the city is sparing four of the 19 schools the city proposed closing last year: the Choir Academy of Harlem, W.H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School, the Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence and the Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School.

The city is proposing that most of the schools on its list stop admitting new classes next year and phase out over time. For two schools, KAPPA II and the Academy for Collaborative Education, the city plans to shutter all grades at once at the end of this year.

City officials culled the final list of 25 district schools to close from a larger list of 55 schools that they targeted for possible closure earlier in the fall. Of the 30 schools on that list that were spared today, 14 may still undergo one of two federally-approved strategies for school improvement.

One of those scenarios, known as the “turnaround” model, requires that the schools’ principals be replaced and its staff and teachers re-apply for their jobs; only half may be re-hired. The other model, known as “transformation,” relies on replacing the principal, bringing in outside support services and experimenting with new teacher training and school schedules.

The city and union are currently in talks over which schools might use each model.

Here is the final list of schools the city wants to close. The schools highlighted below were announced today.

City officials announced plans today to close 11 schools and said they will recommend that the state shutter a charter school for poor performance.

More school-closure notices will be handed down tomorrow when the city announces which of the remaining 44 schools on its endangered list will be phased-out. That list includes the 19 schools the city tried to close last year, but was barred by a union lawsuit, as well as others that were identified after progress reports for last year came out.

Officials said today that they will ask the state Board of Regents not to renew the charter for Ross Global Academy — the city’s lowest performing charter school. During the five years since it opened, Ross has gone through six principals.

City officials said they were already working on proposal for new schools to replace the ones they phase-out or close this year.

Of the eleven district schools named today, the city hopes to phase-out ten, meaning that next year they will keep their current students, but not enroll any more. One school, KAPPA II, will close at the end of this school year if the citywide school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy, approves this proposal. Currently, it only has 36 sixth and seventh graders enrolled. (more…)