"THOSE [NEW SCHOOLS] ARE BETTER ATTENDED BECAUSE THEY HAVE MAYORAL SUPPORT"

Lights Out for Brooklyn’s Longtime Night High School?
by Mary Frost (mfrost@brooklyneagle.net), published online 03-08-2007

New ‘ Transfer School ‘ Coming By Mary FrostBrooklyn Daily EagleFLATLANDS — For more than 17 years, Brooklyn Comprehensive Night High School was the only nighttime high school in Brooklyn offering a regular high school diploma to disadvantaged older students who, for a variety of reasons, couldn’t make it through traditional high school.
Students with undiagnosed learning disabilities, students in crisis and young people carrying adult burdens make up a large percentage of the student body. The school provides small classes and supportive services to the students, many of whom work during the day.
Only 12 percent plan to go to college, compared to about 63 percent of other city high-schoolers. Statistically, the students at Brooklyn Comprehensive Night School are the least likely to graduate from any academic program, anywhere.
Now, the city is moving to close Brooklyn Comprehensive Night School because of low attendance. This year, attendance averaged 44 to 47 percent. In 2004, attendance was about 66 percent.
The students are “devastated,” says English teacher Floraine Kay. She blames the drop in attendance on the school’s move to South Shore High School at 6565 Flatlands Ave. — a dangerous nighttime neighborhood — from its previous home within the relative safety of Midwood High School on Bedford Avenue.
“We went from 69 to 47 percent attendance,” Kay told the Brooklyn Eagle Monday. She says that overall enrollment has also dropped drastically since the move to the troubled South Shore campus. “Our last year at Midwood, we had from 500 to 700 students,” she said. After the move, enrollment dropped to 500 students; this year that number is down to roughly 300 students, Kay said. “Six kids got mugged the first six months You want to have a night school, this is the last place to put it.”
Deadline Extended One YearOriginally, the city gave the school until the end of this year, which scared away potential students, Kay said. But this week, with the help of Randi Weingarten and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the deadline was extended to June 2008.
“We got an extra year,” said Stuart Marques, spokesperson for the UFT. “There are about 200 kids there — half of them are going to graduate this year. A hundred would have been dispersed. They’re letting those people who were going to graduate stay one more year. Randi was instrumental, but there were a lot of people involved.”
New Transfer School ComingMelody Meyer, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education, told the Brooklyn Eagle yesterday that “Brooklyn is getting a new transfer school, which is what Brooklyn Collaborative Night School was.”The new transfer school, Brooklyn Bridge Academy, will open at the same location as Brooklyn Comprehensive on the South Shore campus, Meyer said.
When asked why the city was closing one transfer school and replacing it with a similar school at the same location, Meyer said, “The newer model of transfer school is tied in with a mayoral initiative called ‘Learning to Work.’ The mayor dedicated money to this model, which targets students most at risk for dropping out. It’s a stronger model and it’s been incredibly successful. Brooklyn Comprehensive is under capacity. These new [transfer] schools are better attended because of mayoral support.” Meyer said that transfer schools’ criteria for enrollment requires that the student is at least two years behind his or her expected credit level. “It’s an incredibly personalized program. Some students will go to one class every day and study that subject intensively; others will need night school. The schools will have the ability to accommodate students who are overage and under-credited.”
Fix Was In?Kay feels that, regardless of attendance, the “fix was in” to close the school. The Department of Education announced in December that South Shore was being phased out, to be replaced by new, small schools.
“In September, we were assigned an attendance teacher. I know she was instructed to move people off the rolls much more quickly. I know she was in it to shut us down.”
It doesn’t make sense to close this school of last resort, says Kay. “You can’t compare us to South Brooklyn High School. They have 25 counselors — we have three. We’ve never had that kind of support, though we’ve asked for it.” She also pointed out that Brooklyn Comprehensive Night School costs the city only about $7,500 per student per year, compared to the average high school cost of $12,400 per student.
In an e-mail to the Eagle, Kay said that Brooklyn Comprehensive “had a policy of trying to work with students even if they did not immediately make significant changes.” Because of the unique nature of the student body, the school “risked having attendance records which reflected their absences.”
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So:
1) We didn't have Mayoral Support
2) No mention of the fact that the new school is being opened by the mommy of the Chair of the Office of New Schools
3) Oh and THE NEW SCHOOL IS DURING THE DAY.
4) AND OUR NAME IS BROOKLYN COMPREHENSIVE. NOT BROOKLYN COLLABORATIVE. THEY ARE CLOSING US AND THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW OUR NAME.