A Bronx High School Protests Its Closure

UPDATE: The Panel on Educational Policy voted in favor of closing Crotona Academy with a 7-5 vote. Their decision came early on Thursday morning following a song, a poem, and more than five hours of testimony from students, teachers and administrators from Crotona Academy as well as members of other school communities under consideration for mergers.  

Before the vote, Superintendent of Transfer Schools Paul Rotondo told panel members that schools in the “surrounding region” have better 6-year graduation rates. He added that several schools have “better percentages when it comes to graduating kids that are over-aged and under-accredited, which, in fact, is the focus of our transfer schools.”

Angelica Otero of Bronx Power, a community advocacy group that helped organize against the closures, said Crotona Academy provided its own academics metrics to panel members which were not considered.

“The closing of Crotona Academy is very sad and disappointing,” she said, adding that her organization will appeal the decision to close of Crotona Academy with the state education officials, and include Crotona in a lawsuit filed against the New York City Department of Education concerning three Bronx schools that the panel voted to close earlier this year.

The panel voted to approve each of the nearly 30 measures proposed by education officials.

In February, Crotona Academy in the Bronx received notice that it was being considered for closure by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio. School administrators were shocked. The transfer high school was housed in trailers for 11 years and had just moved into a Bronx school building in 2016.

“Most schools that are proposed for closure are either on a priority or focus list with the idea that they need to improve or they will be closed,” said Nick Rivera, a secretary at the school. “At no point were we ever on any of those lists.”

Rivera said the school of more than 160 students has been in good standing with the state’s Department of Education for the last five years, and that the school exceeded its targeted graduation rate last year by 5 percent. He said administrators, parents, and students are calling on the city's Panel on Educational Policy to vote down a proposal to close the school, which they say is based on inaccurate performance metrics that Department of Education officials have refused to reconcile.

“We were totally blindsided,” said Shaunte Williams of the news that the school was being considered for closure. “There was no time to make adjustments or correct any problems that they say exist.”

Williams said she thinks there might be a reason other than academics at play. “I’m starting to wonder is it just for the building because it’s a brand new building with a lot of updated equipment.” Williams said. “Nothing else makes sense.”

Her daughter made honor roll for the first time in her life while at the school. She's planning to graduate and enroll in a culinary arts program later this year. But Williams said a school a closure could be devastating for students who were planning on returning in the fall.

“If the school closes down, I’m not gonna go to school no more,” said 17-year-old Emmanuel Perez.

Crotona Academy is the third high school Perez has attended, and he said it's the first school where he felt teachers actually cared about his academic success. He said he gets additional support for coursework at an after-school program at Crotona.

Other students at the school said they also felt supported by a school environment they characterized as caring and open. But the Department of Education said Crotona Academy’s record show that its students perform about 5 percentage points worse than students at comparable schools.

“We take the decision to close a school extremely seriously, and we only propose closure when it’s in the best interest of students and families,” said Michael Aciman, a Department of Education spokesperson. “The students at Crotona Academy can be better served by one of the stronger transfer schools in the Bronx.”

If the Panel on Educational Policy votes to close Crotona, the school will be replaced by an Alternative Learning Center for students on superintendents’ suspensions. That program is currently located in a series of trailers in the Bronx.

Angelica Ortero of the community advocacy group Bronx Power said her organization is prepared to add Crotona to a lawsuit challenging the Department of Education's closures of three other schools in the Bronx.