GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

This story originally appeared in Spanish in El Diario, which supplied the translation.

Carmen Rojas (center), president of Parents Advocating for Their Children, led a protest last week against the possible closure of P.S. 132 Juan Pablo Duarte. (José Acosta/EDLP)

Dozens of parents of P.S. 132 Juan Pablo Duarte, located in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, demonstrated last week against the possible closing of the school that serves the largest population of newly arrived immigrant children.

The demonstrators, who were mostly Dominicans, also asked to maintain the name of Juan Pablo Duarte, no matter what happens with the school. Duarte was a founding father of the Dominican Republic, which is celebrating the bicentennial of his birth Jan. 26.

Carmen Rojas, president of the organization “Padres Abogando Por Sus Hijos” (Parents Advocating for Their Children), said Juan Pablo Duarte is among 36 elementary and middle schools that the city’s Department of Education could shut down at the end of the year. The school, which has a dual-language program in Spanish, has earned a D grade on its performance evaluation for the last two consecutive years. (more…)

Gregorio Luperon High School serves newcomer students, most of whom come from the Dominican Republic.

It begins in early December. Students pop into the attendance office at Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics brandishing plane tickets like doctor’s notes. Then the absences start, weeks before the winter break begins. And then comes the rolling return of students, stretching to the waning days of January.

The annual ritual that takes place at Gregorio Luperon also plays out in other pockets of the city that, like Washington Heights, have many students from the Dominican Republic.

Extended mid-year absences are by no means limited to Dominican students: The New York Times reported this week about post-vacation enrollment flux at Chinatown schools. But educators and community organizations say the phenomenon is especially pronounced at schools with many families from the Dominican Republic — and that the impact can be significant.

About 15 Luperon students missed some amount of school this December and January because they were in the Dominican Republic, according to Luperon’s attendance teacher, and two still hadn’t returned last week.

“They want to see their families back home, especially if they haven’t seen them in a long time,” said Mireya De La Rosa, an assistant principal at Gregorio Luperon who immigrated from the Dominican Republic herself. (more…)