While his third grade promotion policy is stirring controversy, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s reform to restructure middle schools has gotten little notice. Within five years, two thirds of the city’s 228 middle schools will be closed, replaced by more primary schools and six to 12 new high schools. To date, the Department of Education (DOE) hasn’t finalized the list of 15 middle schools to be phased out this September.
It has been learned, however, that M.S. 56, one of only two middle schools in Chinatown, will stop enrolling new students in September and will be eventually eliminated.
On March 5, M.S. 56 parents gathered to express their concerns after they learned from the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that the school was closing. “We don’t speak English and don’t have many choices,” said Yuechan Liu, a Chinese immigrant from Canton province. “We trust this school.” Liu has two children in M.S. 56. Her third child, who is graduating from primary school this summer, has also applied to the same school. “My child has submitted the application form. Now we are told the school is to be closed. What should we do?” asked Liu.
Referring to his proposal to close most middle schools, Klein cited the academic record of the schools: too many are underperforming and it’s not necessary to keep them running. M.S. 56 has been on the DOE’s “failing list” for several years and the school’s direct supervising office, Region 9, has talked of phasing out it for a while.
Despite this fact, for many Chinese parents M.S. 56 is still an attractive choice for their children’s education because of its Scholars program, a tracked program for gifted students. Chinese students make up more than 80 percent of the participants in the program.
“Chinese parents love the Scholars program. They are very satisfied with its education level,” said Inmaculada Sang, president of the PTA and a school parent. According to Sang, last year 52 M.S. 56 students who took the entrance exam for the three special high schools – Bronx Science, Stuyvesant and Hunter – and 42 of them got admitted; most of the students came from the Scholars program.
The DOE confirmed that M.S. 56 will be phased out starting in September, and will be replaced by three smaller 6 th to 12th grade high schools. DOE spokesman Paul Rose said the phasing out M.S. 56 was proposed by Region 9 a long time ago. Its closing is more a regional decision than a citywide decision, although it fits neatly with the DOE’s middle school reform plan.
According to Rose,15 other schools will stop accepting new students this September and initiate the phasing out process. He said the regions are in charge of meeting with parents and communities to provide instructional information for the DOE to list the first group of 15 schools. That list will come out by June.
Middle school principals are finding it hard to learn the fate of their schools and fifth grade parents are in a quandary over how to help their children decide where to apply to middle school. “I’ve got hundreds of applications; I don’t know how to deal with them,” said Patrick Fiscina, the principal of M.S. 56.
Jane Lehrach, the principal of M.S. 131, the other middle school in Chinatown, was shocked when heard of the DOE’s plan to close the middle schools. “I don’t believe it,” said Lehrach. When asked to specify, Lehrach said: “I don’t believe they will do it. And I don’t believe my school will be closed.”
