GOTHAMSCHOOLS
guest perspective - January 13, 2010

Save Jamaica High School - by James Eterno and Arthur Goldstein

Jamaica High School is a magnificent building — a beacon on a hill that stands out in a distinctly middle-class neighborhood in Queens. It is majestic and elegant — a literal landmark that exudes history.

Walk the halls and you will see black and white pictures of tweed-suited principals. You can see one of them appearing on “Open End” with David Susskind, discussing some important issue or other. When was the last time you saw a high school principal interviewed on a news show?

Walk further and you will see photos of the doughboys who died in World War I. This one died of malaria. That one perished from pneumonia. Then comes the World War II vets. They’ve all passed through these halls, and why not? Jamaica High School has been an integral part of the community for 118 years.

Alas, Chancellor Joel Klein has passed a writ of execution on Jamaica High School, threatening an abrupt halt to its rich history. The primary reason given is that Jamaica has a graduation rate of less than 50%. But the Chancellor’s statistics are wrong. This is not surprising because the school operates with a secretarial staff slashed from 13 to 5, insufficient guidance personnel and a relatively new principal. After the Chancellor issued his death sentence, a careful review of the graduation data revealed that 258 of fewer than 500 seniors graduated in 2009, which is clearly over 50%.

Jamaica’s four-year graduation rate was 38% in 2005, 42% in 2006, 52% in 2007, and 53% in 2008. This is real progress. Last month, Chancellor Klein celebrated the city’s 14% gain in math NAEP scores from 2003-2009 as a tremendous success. Why on earth, then, is Jamaica’s four-year 15% rate gain, marginally outpacing the Chancellor’s own progress, not also a tremendous success?

The Chancellor’s assertion that only one in four Jamaica students receives a Regents Diploma is also inaccurate. In 2009, Jamaica had 143 Regents Diplomas, 35 Advanced Regents Diplomas and 4 Advanced Regents Diplomas with Honors. That adds up to 182-well above 25%, and a 13% increase from the 159 in 2008.

Another reason cited for Jamaica’s closure is declining enrollment. Jamaica is just beginning to recover from the stigma created when the Department of Education labeled the school “persistently dangerous” after a previous principal insisted on reporting even the most minor of incidents. Enrollments have actually leveled off and are starting to go up. They would rise much more rapidly if Jamaica received proper support.

If Jamaica High School dies, money will be lavished on new schools that will take years to grow. These schools will likely turn away the non-traditional “over the counter” pupils that Jamaica accepts. 330 students registered “over the counter” so far this fall (well over the 273 that enrolled over the Fall 08 semester). Many came from other states and other countries. Where will these students go next year? These are precisely the students new schools tend to shun.

Queens Collegiate, a new small school started in 2008 within Jamaica’s facility, has only 6 English language learners and zero most restricted environment special education students. Jamaica High School has 170 in special education, 259 English language learners and 71 students with interrupted formal education. Similar pupils will more than likely go to neighboring comprehensive high schools in Queens next year, despite the fact there’s virtually no space for them.

On December 16th, Chancellor Klein sent Debra Kurshan, head of the DoE’s Office of Portfolio Planning, to a public meeting at Jamaica. Ms. Kurshan assured the outraged crowd that the closure of Jamaica was not a done deal. It was just a proposal that required approval from the Panel for Educational Policy before it could be finalized. Ms. Kurshan made this statement without a hint of irony.

Up to now, the PEP has never rejected any request by the Mayor or the Chancellor. We pin our hopes on the possibility that the Mayor, the Chancellor, or the panel itself will consider all the negative consequences of closing this historic school. Jamaica High School has long been a cornerstone of the community.

It would be an egregious error to close Jamaica High School, particularly since the decision relies on blatantly inaccurate data. Its demise would cause irreparable damage not only to the Jamaica community, but to surrounding neighborhoods as well. The fall of this once-proud school would cause a chain reaction, damaging other high schools in nearby neighborhoods. The closing of the school would be a failure for the Department of Education, which has no strategy to help struggling schools.
Let’s stop destroying neighborhood schools, and begin working to fix them.

James Eterno is the UFT chapter leader at Jamaica High School. Arthur Goldstein is the UFT chapter leader at Francis Lewis High School and a regular contributorto the GothamSchools community section.

James Eterno:  New Motion and Camille Eterno States the Point 

Rally: WE COUNT!  BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE, RIGHT?

Meeting: WE ARE THE THE COMMUNITY, WE ARE  - YOU!

blogs:  hundreds turn out and support is growing and growing and growing

Gotham Schools Info:  The Supporters

News Coverage:  New York One

The Story:  Hundreds Protest Proposed School Closings by Beth Fertig

Sign This Petition: Save Jamaica High School
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/6230488

Contact the following for any and all further information:

Marc Epstein: orlux@me.com
James Eterno: savejamaicahighschool@gmail.com

It would be terrible to close such a historic school. It is a landmark in the community. Surely the academic program could be improved to increase the graduation rate.

Lou Georgiades. Class of 1961

Clap those Beaver paws, friends!

Some NYC Judge has decreed that the 19 schools facing the chopping block to shut their doors, including Jamaica High, will stay open awhile longer.  Something in the NY State Constitution apparently states that the education system must follow due process.

All of which affords every single Jamaica HS alumnus to raise his or her voice and urge Mayor Mike Bloomburg to fight to keep our school open and work to save it right now.

All it takes is a simple postcard in support of this important goal.  Where to write:

HON. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

OFFICE OF THE NYC MAYOR

NEW YORK, NY 10007

As a former editor with the Civil Service Leader in NYC, I can attest to the power of collective political action to get things turned around.  Let's show our true colors.

Your fearless peer, Barry-Lee

Perhaps the Jamaica HS Alumni can do something to help the school (if it's not too late) as the Weequahic High School Alumni did in Newark, New Jersey. See this like to the documentary about it.

http://www.heartofstonethemovie.com/

I thought it was just talk. Why are they closing? Numbers? It was such a pretty school, on such a lovely site....the pond, the hill, the building itself. What's going on?

I don't think the commentators get what it means to close Jamaica HS as an insatitution.  It does not mean that the fine buildilng and campus will be closed; rather, it means that an organization that is currently failing to achieve its mission would be re-organized, much like a corporation in receivership or bankruptcy.  As with other large high schools dating to the early 20th Century, which because of problems were closed (see, for example Julia RIchman on the East SIde of Manhattan, Washington in Washington Heights on the Harlem RIver, and others), the building would probably be the home for separately administered smaller high schools with specific aims.  Perhaps not all of the programs would aim for Regents Diplomas and college, but they might usefully serve the various demographics in Southern Queens.  Since our time, Jamaica has been outstripped by Bowne and Hillcrest, neither of which existed back in the 1950s.  Of course the new mayor, beholden to the teachers' union, might undo what the Bloomberg administration did with high schools, but the right to run the education system has been taken from the old Board of Ed and given to the mayor and his appointee as head of the Department of Education.  I view this as a reform, as the old system poured billions down the drain with no improvement.  I think the courts should stay out of it.  The lawyers should stay out of it.