Bed-Stuy Public Schools and the Wild West

P.S. 54 Samuel C. Barnes School
This school which borders Clinton Hill actually gets relatively high marks on insideschools.org. However that was a 2004 review. The long time prinicipal who was a driving force at that school and the reason it got such a great review in the first place, retired in 2005. No new review has been done since then.

While the school we're zoned for, P.S. 81 Thaddeus Stevens School, although receiving high marks from the D.O.E. last year, was placed on a list of failing schools in 2004:

In 2004, the school was placed on the state's list of "Schools In Need of Improvement" for math, and this has put it in a bind. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, a school on the list is considered failing, so students there are allowed to transfer. But the federal government does not provide additional funding to improve the school until it fails for a second year in a row. "The option they are giving me is that my best children can go, but they don't give us any [resources to improve]," says [principal] Ault. "They want the school to fail, and then give extra help."

And then, aside from a 2007 report that indicated there are six sex offenders living within a two block radius of P.S.81, I just discovered that in 2005, the DEA and the NYPD closed down a major crack cocaine ring run from a building across from this school. Although what goes on outside of the school has nothing to do with the school itself, it really doesn't make me want to send my child on a daily basis anywhere near that area of our hood.

During my recent chat with Robert Cornegy Jr., he called the public school situation in Bed-Stuy the 'wild west.' This was in response to my dismay that the good charter schools in our neighbourhood had a focus on discipline rather than something more progressive, the arts for example. He said that the pendulum had to swing all the way to the discipline side and that had been needed in Bed-Stuy and that the stellar results of schools such as Excellence Boys Charter School, showed that a focus on discipline was working. And that given time, the pendulum could swing back to something more moderate/progressive in the future.

Anyway, we got lucky with the Manhattan charter school that Little Joe attends. Seven of the parents whose children were given kindergarten acceptance letters, declined their place at the school and the school's wonderful administration is so intent on getting all 17 of us who were shunted out due to being out of district, back in, that they're just going to increase their class sizes.

One thing I'll say about all this recent school drama, is that crisis does bring people together. I've gotten to know the parents at my kid's school much better during these weeks that we've been protesting and letter writing than I had at any other time during the school year. Kind of like when I was at the library today and this skinny young white punk guy was passed out cold against the bookshelves, expensive open laptop computer on the table in front of him, iPod earbuds stuck in his ears, mouth gaping open. Several librarians attempted to rouse him by poking his shoulder and banging books on the table to no avail, then they called 911. All of a sudden all the strangers at the library started chatting trying to figure out whether he was dead or not. Yes, nothing like unity in crisis.