Late last year, the city proposed moving Innovative Diploma Plus High School, a high school for older transfer students, out of the old Brandeis High School on 84th Street, and into a building in Washington Heights. The plan would make more room for charter elementary school Upper West Success Academy, which shares the building on 84th street.
The proposal sparked outrage among parents and students at the school, as well as local school officials, who said the Washington Heights campus is a bad fit. Some local leaders are also very suspicious of the charter school, which say they say gets special treatment from the city.
But the Department of Education has just decided to scrap the proposal.
Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who led the effort to keep the school on the Upper West Side, said the DOE’s reversal is a “victory.”
“I am pleased to announce that the Department of Education has withdrawn this proposal, undoubtedly due to the scores of students, parents, community members, education advocates, and nonprofit partners who unanimously opposed the plan to break up the high school community at Brandeis. Had it gone ahead, the proposal would have dislocated hundreds of students from a first-rate facility where they are thriving, moved them to a third-rate facility with no high school amenities; wasted another sum of taxpayer dollars at both sites; and crippled the capacity of the now-flourishing high schools at Brandeis to provide athletics to their students.
When the former Brandeis High School was closed by the DOE, three new high schools were opened on campus, including Innovation. Soon afterward, the community successfully created another, the Frank McCourt High School. A major benefit of keeping Innovation at Brandeis is that these four schools can continue to share art rooms, theatres, science labs, and also athletic teams. The mental health counselors at Brandeis have told me that for many of their students the #1 determinant of staying in school and being a healthy student is participating in PSAL athletics. Competitive sports are a primary life determinant, but fielding a competitive team requires a large pool of potential players. Innovation, with their 180 or more students, will now continue to provide that critical mass at Brandeis, enabling students from each of the schools to participate in sports.
Innovation parents and students wanted to remain at Brandeis, and I am deeply gratified that they will get to do so. It is a safe and nurturing environment, the facilities are age-appropriate for high school students, and I will continue to work to keep it that way.”
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal also fought to stop the move:
“I am relieved to see that the DOE listened to the concerns of the parents and students it is bound to serve,” she said in a statement. “This is a victory for everyone who came together and spoke out against this move, but it is most of all a victory for the students who can now stay in the campus and the community which they have been a part of for over three years.”
great, yet there is a scarcity of middle and high schools in the neighborhood for kids who actually live there. perhaps the local elected officials should worry about their own constituents
Aw, c’mon — most of the denizens of the nabe with kids of middle school age aren’t going to send their princes and princesses to a (gasp!!) public school in any event. No place to park the Cash-cedes Benz out front, for one thing.
And the dwindling number of locals who *can’t* muster the moola to send Junior to Saint Nightenbaum Oxford? Well, really, who cares??
Bankers Only! All Others — Move!
Way to go, Brewer and Rosenthal!