Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadows has a capacity of about 2,100 students, but today more than 4,000 are enrolled and many attend classes in one of the school’s eight outdoor trailers.
As Mayor Bill de Blasio tries to make good on a promise that dates back to the Bloomberg administration to rid New York City of its school trailers, Francis Lewis is one of many schools across the city left to worry about where to put those students.
“I would love to eliminate [the trailers], but if we do that, then we have nowhere to put our kids,” said Arthur Goldstein, chapter leader of the United Federation of Teachers at Francis Lewis. “That’s a big problem for us.”
In 2009, enrollment at Francis Lewis was at more than 200 percent capacity. Teachers were working from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and at one point were teaching 13 periods in one day in an attempt to serve all students, Goldstein said.
13 comments:
Put the Pre-k kids in the trailers.
Hmmm I guess we are going to see morenof this especially since DiBlasio's ten year plan of affordable housing and more ppl in NYC. What does he have planned for schools and infrastructure???
Why is there overcrowding? DeBlasio just conjured up thousands of seats for full-day pre-k (free babysitting for illegals). I guess he doesn't think high school is important.
Why don't they just start keeping these flushing kids in flushing? We all know 1/4 of these kids live nowhere near Francis Lewis high school. However, I do think that Francis Lewis high school could have another 2 floors built on the top of it.
There is almost 12000 kids between Cardozo,bayside and Francis Lewis high school combined....way too many...the dob and doe need to start doing their jobs better. If the dob just inspected these homes better for multiple family units and if the doe just stopped catering to the Asian kids in flushing, then this problem wouldn't occur.
"Hmmm I guess we are going to see morenof this especially since DiBlasio's ten year plan of affordable housing and more ppl in NYC."
If truly affordable housing is produced it will allow families who must now often spend upwards of half their incomes on rent to instead consider private/parochial schools.
Being tapped out and "rent poor" is one of the reasons why these schools are failing even neighborhoods where the predominate population would have supported them in the past.
But we need millions more people in this city.
How do schools get over "capacity" ?
The limit is let's say 2000. Once the capacity/limit is reached shouldn't they not take anymore students??????????????
That's pretty Ironic since The School Construction Authority ( the nyc entity that manages and builds schools) doesn't have a budget under this admin.
Francis Lewis High School has been unconscionably overcrowded for almost 2 decades. As soon as high school "zones" were removed, in they came, from all over the city. I don't remember which mayor that was. I know, I taught at Lewis for 23 years before I retired. I believe the trailers at Lewis are over 40 years old. They're moldy, rickety, and dangerous. When it rains or snows substantially, the trailers leak and the kids are thrown into the auditorium, losing instructional time. A friend was teaching in a trailer years ago when a man came in off the street, came into the trailer, and asked to go to the bathroom. There is absolutely no security in the trailer area near the track. Why this wasn't an issue when Bloomberg became mayor is a political mystery. That administration knew full well how unbelievably overcrowded Lewis was. The ruling oligarchy, including local media, obviously doesn't want deBlasio to change anything, even if it's for the better. It was ok for Bloomberg and his administration to be abusive to students, teachers, and the entire school system. As a matter of fact, it's still ok with the media to destroy the public schools and skim money and the best kids and give to,the already well moneyed charter schools.
With all these schools overcrowded, aren't they in violation of the fire codes? What does the fire department have to say about this?
Since the city loves Eminent Domain so much when giving away privately owned land to developers (Wilpon's) why don't they condemn and abscond with one of the adjacent office buildings to Francis Lewis to alleviate the overcrowding?
>With all these schools overcrowded, aren't they in violation of the fire codes? What does the fire department have to say about this?
Are the school overcrowded in that sense, or are they pushing students into trailers and extending school hours? How is capacity for a school determined?
BTW, making kids get to class at 7am is criminal. Let them sleep in. They're teenagers.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/11/14/is-your-teen-a-night-owl-that-could-explain-his-poor-grades/
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/should-the-school-day-start-later/comment-page-5/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
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