By Anna Gustafson
Community Board 8 members threw their support behind Jamaica High School last week and unanimously passed a resolution calling on the city Department of Education to keep the school open instead of phasing out the landmark institution.
“We are 100 percent against the closure of Jamaica High School,” CB 8 Chairman Alvin Warshaviak said. “Jamaica should be a zoned school and be able to accept students next year.”
A number of people spoke out at the community board’s Jan. 13 meeting against the DOE’s plan to establish three smaller high schools at the Jamaica campus. The DOE has said it will stop admitting freshman students to Jamaica High School next fall because the graduation rate has been below 50 percent over the last few years and received a D on this year’s school report card.
“My daughter is a freshman at Jamaica High School and she’s excelling there,” said Hazel Phillip, vice president of the Jamaica High School Parent Teacher Association. “They should give the school a chance.”
Jackie Forrestal, secretary of the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association, said the civic is opposed to the DOE’s plan as well.
“We also object to the Department of Education’s decision to leave our community without a zoned school, but giving us a place at a small new school is not a good solution because our community’s students may not be interested in attending a school with a specific focus for which they have no interest,” said Jackie Forrestal, whose husband, Kevin Forrestal, is a member of CB 8.
Forrestal’s daughter, Jamaica High 1994 alumna Kathleen Forrestal, criticized the DOE for calling Jamaica a failing school.
“The parents, teachers, and community members who support Jamaica see something else,” Kathleen Forrestal said. “We see a school where teachers support students and where teachers will go to great lengths to ensure that students succeed. We see a school that is home to its students and where the students, alumni and teachers are family.”
Kathleen Forrestal said she was “confident that the school is capable of overcoming its recent struggles.”
The alumna and Jeff Gottlieb, president of the Central Queens Historical Association, said the city instead of ending current operations at Jamaica, should devote increased resources to help the school succeed.
“The DOE in recent years hasn’t given the school new faculty, aid or computers,” Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb and Jackie Forrestal said the relatively new Jamaica High Principal Walter Acham has not been given enough time to turn the school’s academics around. Acham became the school’s leader 2 1/2 years ago.
David Weprin, a former councilman and Democratic candidate for the 24th State Assembly District, attended the CB 8 meeting and urged the DOE to include community members in their plans for Jamaica.
“The centrally conceived, top-down dictate to essentially dispose of what those most involved in the school find as a working high school that delivers sound education appears ill-conceived and ill serves our community,” said Weprin, a graduate of the high school. “The Department of Education needs to reverse course, re-engage the community, forge a consensus on what the community — especially our kids — need and support that model.”
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 174.
