Struggling Brownsville schools call on DOE for more support

Scores of parents, children, and school staff from District 23 packed the auditorium of Brownsville’s P.S. 156 Wednesday to tell Chancellor Dennis Walcott that their schools don’t deserve to be shut down.

The meeting comes at the start of Walcott’s first closure and co-location season as chancellor. Department of Education officials are deciding which schools to close from a shortlist released in September. Decisions are likely to be made by early next month and a public hearing on the closures will take place early in 2012.

Many people speaking out at the meeting came from three schools that are on the shortlist for closure. Community members from two low-performing schools that share a building, the General D. Chappie James Elementary and Middle School of Science, and P.S. 298 protested before the meeting began.

Brownsville’s neighborhood schools have been in the news lately for a host of problems: low test scores; gang violence, when a parent was killed and a student shot outside P.S. 298 two weeks ago; and facilities issues, when P.S. 156 and I.S. 392 were evacuated twice earlier this week after smoke and odors were detected.

But speakers kept the focus of the town hall on the potential district school closures and charter school openings that have been floated for the neighborhood.

Many parents decried a lack of supplies and resources at their schools, saying the schools need more support if they are to serve students in the high-needs neighborhood. Teachers at the Chappie schools said their facilities are run down, classrooms are crowded, and violence among students sometimes makes the teachers fear for their safety. Mavis Yon, a fifth-grade teacher and union leader at P.S. 298, said gang violence wracked the community.

“Why are we not good enough to get computers? To get wi-fi? Why are we not doing these things?” Natasha Capers, whose two sons attend P.S. 298, said during the protest before the meeting. “Because it’s easier to say these children are a failure. District 23 repeatedly gets shortchanged.”

Walcott tread a fine line between defending the DOE’s shortlist of struggling schools that could be closed and cautioning parents that no closure decisions have yet been made.

“As we look at the figures, the schools are just not performing well,” he said. “We have to find constructive ways to improve the school community. I will not put us in a position of hurting our schools in the long run for just responding to you tonight.”

Sue Hackshaw, a parent from the Chappie schools, asked Walcott if he would promise to visit the schools before deciding whether to close them. Walcott responded, “No. I’m not making that commitment,” prompting some audience members to boo and Hackshaw to leave the auditorium.

Diane Jennings, the grandmother of three chldren at P.S. 298, complained that her school is missing a librarian, and therefore should not be blamed for low reading-scores. But Walcott said that was no excuse — particularly as new curriculum standards emphasize nonfiction reading and analytical writing.

“A lot of reading should be taking place in the classroom, and a lot of reading should be taking place in the home,” he said. “What we’re talking about with Common Core is a different type of reading. A library, though important, is not the critical feature. It’s the books, it’s the teaching, the reading at home, and the use of Common Core texts.”

Several attendees also expressed concern that new charter schools would open in the neighborhood, which already has five charter schools.

“Why do you want to shut down schools and open charter schools?” Terrell Tomer, 12, asked at the beginning of the question-and-answer session with Walcott. He said Kings Collegiate Charter School has more Smartboards and computers than his school, the Middle School for Art and Philosophy, creating tensions in the building.

Walcott responded, “It’s not one versus the other. I’m a big believer in giving parents the option to choose.”