By Ivan Pereira
Jamaica High Schools days are officially numbered.
After a nine-hour hearing at Brooklyn Technical High School, which included numerous testimonies from angry parents and teachers,the city’s Panel for Educational Policy approved early Wednesday morning the Department of Education’s proposal to close the landmarked southeast Queens school, Beach Channel High School, the Business Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship Magnet High School and 16 other schools across the city.
The schools were targeted due to poor performance and low graduation rates, according to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
“When we know we can do better for students, we must. The vote today will pave the way for us to build on the remarkable progress we’ve made and continue to best prepare students for the next phase of their lives,” he said in a statement.
Jamaica High, which has been educating students for more than a century, will stop admitting students in the fall and two smaller schools — High School for Community Leadership and the Hillside Arts and Letters Academy — will be placed inside the building at 167-01 Gothic Drive. The Queens Collegiate High School already operates in the Jamaica High building.
The panel voted nine to four in favor of shuttering the 19 failing schools.
The four members appointed by the borough presidents of Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx opposed closing the schools. The eight members appointed by Mayor Bloomberg voted for the closings as did the representative from Staten Island. The chancellor serves is a non-voting member.
Current Jamaica High students will continue with their curriculum until they graduate. Similar plans are set for Beach Channel. But the DOE has not said what its plans are for the Business Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship Magnet High School, which is part of Campus Magnet High School in Cambria Height.
City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) expressed his displeasure with the DOE’s process and said the city should have given Jamaica High more time to improve.
“I don’t understand their philosophy to wear down and redo these schools. I think they need a better philosophy,” the councilman said.
The three Queens schools had earned a D grade in this year’s school report card in November and had graduation rates below 50 percent, according to the DOE. Since the announcement ofthe phase-out in December, teachers, parents, students and elected officials had held several protests to try to save Jamaica High School.
Nearly 300 parents spoke out against the closures at the Tuesday hearing, extending the vote into the early morning hours of 3 a.m. Their calls went on deaf ears as the panel approved the 19 school closures.
Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) said he will be working with the community and the DOE to make sure that the new schools that come in are zoned for the students who live in the area.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
