NEW YORKERS... Murray Bergtraum HS

[the next guy]

Murry Bergtraum HS has gone from NYC public-school gem to student “dumping ground” - NYPOST.com

They posted a photo of the massive brick school on Facebook with the comment: “Not sure if Bergtraum or jail.”

“HELL AWAITS,” blares another photo, one of many mocking their alma mater, Murry Bergtraum HS for Business Careers.

Once the pride of downtown, Bergtraum is now the shame of the city education system — a school and a student body all but abandoned by City Hall, which sits just two blocks away.

The worst part, teachers say: It’s been done on purpose.

“We think they’re consciously destroying it, so Bloomberg can close it down,” one said.

Bergtraum is a “warehouse” school, a last resort for students who have been shut out elsewhere or don’t care where they go.

Mayor Bloomberg has concentrated on opening smaller, more manageable schools, often at the expense of places like Bergtraum, critics say. Meanwhile, 1,800 teens are in a turbulent limbo, epitomized by a 2010 melee, captured in a YouTube video, in which students tussled with safety officers, and one punched a cop in the face. The fight erupted over then-Principal Andrea Lewis’ restriction on restroom visits.

“Bergtraum used to stand for high-quality education, a sought-after name on a young person’s résumé,” said John Elfrank-Dana, a teacher for 23 years. “No more. Now the Bergtraum name conjures up riots.”

Bergtraum opened in 1975 in a new $22 million triangular building that shared space with the old New York Telephone Co. Named for a former president of the city’s Board of Education, it was one of the first high schools in the country to specialize in business education.

It offered two full years of accounting, plus computer science, investment and finance, taxation, even secretarial studies. It attracted the city’s smart kids. Alumni include Department of Education Chief Operating Officer Veronica Conforme, actor John Leguizamo and rapper Q-Tip.

“I remember learning how to do employment payroll forms. It was just amazing,” said William Skody, who graduated in 1982 and now co-owns a successful accounting firm near Wall Street.

In the 1982 yearbook, founding Principal Barbara Christen said, “Our one basic goal is to make Murry Bergtraum the best high school in New York City.”

In 2002, the year Bloomberg took office, Bergtraum was still going strong. A review by watchdog group Inside Schools found that the school was so popular, it ran double sessions to accommodate an overflow of 700 students.

The school offered seven special programs, all in high demand. In 2004, 2,046 students vied for 133 spots in computer science and 2,982 sought 171 seats in finance.

But by 2010, just 538 applied for 160 seats in computer science, not enough to guarantee the slots would be filled since students apply to multiple schools. This year, students applied only to its Ninth-Grade Academy. Enrollment has dropped by 38 percent since 2006.

The problem was partly due to Bergtraum’s vocational focus, said Eric Nadelstern, the DOE’s deputy chancellor for school support and instruction from 2009 to 2011. Trade high schools have had trouble keeping up with advances in the work world, he said.

But Bergtraum's original mission was to offer a full academic education with business credits "so that all students were prepared for both the business world and college," said Barbara Esmilla, a former Bergtraum teacher, coach and principal eight years until she retired in 2010.

Black Enterprise magazine reported in 1988 that 450 Bergtraum grads found jobs at major companies in the area, and 75 to 80 percent went on to college.

Competition also increased. As the Bloomberg administration pushed for the creation of small schools of 400 to 500 kids each, students had more choices. More than 500 such schools have sprouted in the last decade.

“Those were options that didn’t exist when Bergtraum broke ground,” said Nadelstern, now a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Half of Bergtraum’s students are chosen by school administrators, and half are selected randomly. But as better students chose to go elsewhere, Bergtraum entered a brutal spiral.

“If you can’t fill your seats with kids who want to go there, either your enrollment shrinks or the DOE fills the seats with kids who didn’t want to be there,” said Clara Hemphill, a founder of Inside Schools.


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Does anyone know this place?

 

[88m3]

ny post....



I've walked past it and heard of it.

 

[Carolina Slim]

I never knew Bergtraum to be some sort of highly-regarded school or anything. It was just across the river, and a few people from my hood went there. If anything, the only claim to fame that I knew was that there were a lot of chicks at the school, and dudes was eating well.

 

[the next guy]

I never knew Bergtraum to be some sort of highly-regarded school or anything. It was just across the river, and a few people from my hood went there. If anything, the only claim to fame that I knew was that there were a lot of chicks at the school, and dudes was eating well.

Those chicks now look like they bench press 500lbs.

 

[chineebai]

Bergtraum was one of those public but really nice schools that everyone applied to when I was in junior high. Half my classmates went there. It was really nice back then. The school is in prime downtown real estate, a block from 1 police plaza, right by pace university, city hall, really nice area except the projects are also 2 blocks away. I think they want the real estate

 

[Vagina Thief]

I know a few people that went to that school and are currently in that school. shyt is a disaster considering i went to one of the worst highschools in Harlem .... I know one thing though. None of the girls in that school waitin til marriage.
Hoes upon Hoes....
​

 

[~*--------(Big Boom)]

The only thing I know they got a good female bball program

 

[the next guy]

I know a few people that went to that school and are currently in that school. shyt is a disaster considering i went to one of the worst highschools in Harlem .... I know one thing though. None of the girls in that school waitin til marriage.
Hoes upon Hoes....
​

The only thing I know they got a good female bball program

 

[Sharp]

That's my old high school. Sad how the mighty have fallen

 

[filial_piety]

Yup, it's one of the many schools that I had to recruit for from my college around 2004-2007. I've been there many times.

 

[Captain Crunch]

I was considering going to that school, it seemed live back in 06.

 

[Beer Drinker]

Damn my old school. It wasn't the BEST school but I can say it did have what I thought to be a great business program when I went and the majority of my graduating class went to college after.

Sucks

 

[RicanFury]

I never knew Bergtraum to be some sort of highly-regarded school or anything. It was just across the river, and a few people from my hood went there. If anything, the only claim to fame that I knew was that there were a lot of chicks at the school, and dudes was eating well.

yep

 

[yoyoyo1]

Bergtraum was one of those public but really nice schools that everyone applied to when I was in junior high. Half my classmates went there. It was really nice back then. The school is in prime downtown real estate, a block from 1 police plaza, right by pace university, city hall, really nice area except the projects are also 2 blocks away. I think they want the real estate

same, I applied there but went to another business hs in the area..

actually got waitlisted with a 90 avg, get the fukk outta here tho. mustve had something to do with quotas.

 

[SmoothOperator88]

Bergtraum was one of those public but really nice schools that everyone applied to when I was in junior high. Half my classmates went there. It was really nice back then. The school is in prime downtown real estate, a block from 1 police plaza, right by pace university, city hall, really nice area except the projects are also 2 blocks away. I think they want the real estate

I go to Pace and honestly had no idea this place even existed. That explains why I see all of those kids getting out of school between class and meetings.