With enrollment dropping and fewer than half of its students graduating on time, Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn reflects a tough question confronting the city's education officials: What to do about persistently failing schools.
Housed in a hulking brick building with a metal detector at the front door, the school got an "F" rating three times in a row in the final years of Mayor
Michael Bloomberg's administration because of low test scores, truancy and other problems.
Many students headed elsewhere. Although the building was overcrowded six years ago with 3,681 students, school officials say now it has 809.
Principal Bernard Gassaway said he is still waiting for the city's detailed guidance to turn around the school.
"What's the plan for Boys and Girls High School and what's the overall plan for the city?" he asked.
Some educators and advocates for change say in the rush to expand prekindergarten and after-school programs, Chancellor Carmen Fariña has been slow to tackle schools with dismal achievement.
"Action is way overdue," said David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College.
Ms. Fariña has said her plan will come out soon, and closing any school will be a last resort.
"We are taking a proactive approach to address our low-performing schools, engaging closely with each individual school to identify its needs and tailor interventions," said a spokeswoman for the chancellor.
City education officials say they have engaged with Mr. Gassaway regularly to develop a plan for Boys and Girls High School.
The Bloomberg administration shut many failing schools, including dozens of large high schools. Mr. Bloomberg opened hundreds of small ones in their place, arguing that fresh energy, new leadership and more student choices would bring better results.
Some studies suggest the changes brought progress: A 2013 report by MDRC, a nonprofit research group, found the new small high schools fostered more personal cultures and graduation rates 10% better than other public city high schools for comparable students.
Now, 91 city schools are deemed "priority" schools, sitting in the bottom 5% of academic performance statewide and need intensive remedies.
The city missed a July deadline for giving the state blueprints for improvements for many of these schools, putting in "placeholder" plans instead, as reported by Chalkbeat New York.
State officials said Ms. Fariña was granted an extension through early November to give the new administration more transition time.
Families for Excellent Schools, which helped stage a rally in Albany to support charter schools last spring, plans a protest in Manhattan's Foley Square on Oct. 2 to call for a more coherent strategy immediately to give all children quality options.
The group argues that many school buildings have empty seats and could house new charter schools or regular public schools with better prospects.
"It's critically important that underutilized space is used to expand excellent schools," said Jeremiah Kittredge, chief executive officer of Families for Excellent Schools.
City education officials say 108 school buildings have at least 300 empty seats each. A department memo from last December said some of these buildings might have room for new schools, expansions, or programs, though sites needed deeper evaluations to see whether they had suitable space configurations and families wanted such options.
Boys and Girls High School has seen such a co-location; two district schools opened on its campus since mid-2013. Even when they reach their expected enrollment, the building will be half-empty, according to the department's tally.
With its motto "The pride & joy of Bed-Stuy," the high school grew out of the merger of Boys' High and Girls' High, which were attended by luminaries such as authors Norman Mailer and Isaac Asimov, U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm and singer Lena Horne.
Its students are mostly poor and black or Hispanic, and 22% have special needs. School official said 127 deemed "long-term absent" show up rarely, if at all.
Mr. Gassaway, the principal since 2009, said that his school's performance suffered partly because the city education department sent it a disproportionate number of students in the middle of the school year who were behind in credits and in danger of not graduating on time.
He said Ms. Fariña put his school under a superintendent charged with turning around a group of ailing schools, and he expects the city's improvement plan to include more professional development, with efforts to boost attendance, parental involvement and teaching skills.
The principal had hoped to focus on his own vision built on community partnerships, including mentoring at-risk teenagers, and new courses in welding and barber shop skills. He also encourages motivated students to take classes at Long Island University.
Several students returning to campus from a college fair on a recent morning said they hoped their school wouldn't close. "The teachers here care about you," said one 17-year-old senior.
Isn't that his job?
