Grover Cleveland HS still struggling

From the Queens Courier:

Although Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood has seen improving graduation rates and student performance over the last few years, it remains vulnerable to a possible state takeover, educators said during a public hearing at the school Saturday.

Parents, students and teachers filled the Grover Cleveland auditorium on Saturday morning to talk about the performance of the struggling school and the possibility of the school’s receivership, while providing recommendations on how to improve the high school.

Earlier this year Grover Cleveland High School, along with 61 other New York City schools, was identified as struggling or persistently struggling by the New York State Education Department (DOE). If the school does not improve student performance and graduation rates, Grover Cleveland may fall into receivership, meaning that the school will be taken over by an outside entity and divided into several smaller schools.

At the public hearing, Grover Cleveland High School’s principal, Denise Vittor, acknowledged the school’s troubles, but pointed to recent improvements in graduation rates and attendance as signs of hope.

The four-year graduation rate for Grover Cleveland High School for June graduation was at 53 percent in the 2012-13 school year, and 51 percent in the 2013-14 school year. By the August graduation for those students who did not graduate in June, those numbers increased to 60.2 percent in 2012-13 and 58 percent in 2013-14.

The Grover Cleveland Athletic Field has seen better days

Several months ago, I walked past the Grover Cleveland Athletic Field at DeKalb & Seneca Aves in Ridgewood and noticed that the field had been ripped up. I figured it was in the middle of a capital project or regular maintenance. But lo and behold, all this time later, the artificial turf is still a mess and there's now real grass growing in the dirt sections of the field. I don't know what's up here, but it's a hot mess. The aerial shot of the property is hard on the eyes as well.

High schools to close and reopen

From the Daily News:

The future of eight large Queens high schools — and the hundreds of educators who work there — are in jeopardy as the city plans to overhaul the struggling institutions.

The schools could lose up to half of their staff and receive a new principal and name this fall after the city and teachers union failed to reach an agreement on teacher evaluations.

The move could help the city get up to $60 million in federal funds.

Kathy Carlson, president of the Parents Association at Grover Cleveland High School, in Ridgewood, blames the school’s poor graduation rate on its large number of students who aren’t fluent in English — and therefore take longer to finish high school.

Other Queens schools facing a turn-around include Flushing High School; Long Island City High School; William Cullen Bryant High School, in Long Island City; John Adams High School, in Ozone Park; Newtown High School, in Elmhurst; and Richmond Hill High School.

Queens: Vibrant, diverse and full of dropouts!

High schools on chopping block to stay open

From the NY Times:

There was a sense of relief at nine low-performing city high schools on Thursday as the city’s Department of Education announced they would not be closed next year. The decisions came after months of uncertainty about the schools’ future.

But with the relief came concern and confusion over what exactly would happen to the schools, which instead will go through a federal process known as the restart model, which has not been tried before in New York City.

Each of the nine schools is eligible to receive up to $6 million over three years to transform its lower-than-average graduation rate into an educational success story. But to qualify for the money, the city has to contract with outside organizations to see if they can do a better job managing the school than the city did.

That raises a host of questions about how much authority these organizations, nonprofit groups that will be called educational partnership organizations, will have to lead the schools.

The schools that were announced on Thursday for restart include Herbert H. Lehman High School in the Bronx; John Dewey High School in Brooklyn; and Richmond Hill High School, John Adams High School and Newtown High School in Queens.

Reading, writing and brawling

From the Times Newsweekly:

Several students at Grover Cleveland High School last Wednesday, Mar. 24, were arrested after a brawl erupted between two groups of pupils inside the Ridgewood campus, it was reported.

As many as 50 youths were involved in the fight that took place in the second floor hallway of the facility located at 2120 Himrod St. at around 11:30 a.m. last Wednesday morning.

Two youths were arrested by officers from the 104th Precinct on related charges, while four others involved in the melee face disciplinary action, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Education.

The DOE spokesperson told the Times Newsweekly that no major injuries were reported.