For nearly a century, the Maria Konopnicka Polish Supplementary School in Greenpoint thrived by offering weekend classes in Polish language, literature, history and geography to students from kindergarten to high school.
But in recent years the number of students has dwindled as Polish immigrants leave enclaves like Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for other parts of the New York metro area.
“Five years ago we had 400 students, now we have 250,” said Danuta Bronchard, principal of Konopnicka Polish Supplementary School located on the premises of the St. Stanislau Parish. “While the second through fifth grades are pretty full, the first grade counts with only 28 children, half of what it was the previous year.”
The lack of students is a nightmare for Alicja Ptasznik, principal at Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski Polish School, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. The classes in her school are far from crowded because of the declining number of older students, particularly in grades fifth through eighth. In order to boost the school's finances, Ptasznik decided to open a pre-school group. With just 70 students, however, the revenue stream is rather slim and the bills are substantial.
"Bensonhurst used to be very Polish, now it is becoming Russian. Poles have been leaving the neighborhood,” Ptasznik says. “Some of them have left for Poland in the recent wave of returns to the old country. Others put some money aside and moved out to quieter places, where they could afford to buy homes. We should be happy that our community is becoming more affluent and that Poles can afford to buy houses in nice areas, but their migration threatens our school with extinction."
These schools have served as a way to keep young Poles connected to their parents’ language and culture. Some people fear that if they close down, such ties may be severed forever.
Parents say that the New York City public school system ignores Polish language education – the focus is on teaching Spanish and Chinese, they say. As a result, they have to supplement their children’s ties with Poland through private tutoring.
Ptasznik worries that if the trend continues the school will face serious problems. Every child represents more money in a school budget that has to cover rent, modest salaries for the teachers and expenses involved in organizing trips for the kids.
“This is almost voluntary work for everybody,” said Ptasznik. “The school is a non-profit institution so we do not care about profit, but we need money to operate.”
These two schools, along with similar ones outside New York City and in New Jersey, are struggling as the areas in which they are located undergo gentrification. The outflow of Poles makes them struggle for survival and forces the principals to be increasingly inventive to attract students.
"We can never be sure how many students will register in a given year and how many of the registered will stay the full semester. It’s not infrequent that students enrolled in September are taken out of school in November because the family moves to New Jersey, Long Island or even Pennsylvania," Ptasznik added.
Gentrification is not only affecting Bronchard’s school but all of Greenpoint – a well known Polish neighborhood in Brooklyn. Ten years ago, when Poles were settling down there in huge numbers, another Polish school was established in the area, the St. Cyril and Methodius School, which today has close to 360 students.
A major key factor that boosts enrollment at the St. Cyril and Methodius School is that it is one of two New York City schools to offer classes all the way through the 12th grade. “Parents are willing to drive their teenagers from other neighborhoods so that they can finish high school in the Polish school,” said Waldemar Rakowicz, Principal of the school in Maspeth, Queens, one of the schools offering classes through high school. “We get students from all over Brooklyn, and from as far as from Staten Island and Connecticut. Sometimes even if they move away when the kid is in a lower grade, they are so attached to the school and teachers that they continue sending their kids to our school.”
Aside from the negative effects of gentrification, Polish schools also struggle with a declining interest in attending a Saturday Polish class when students reach the fifth grade. Principals go to great lengths to make their programs attractive by offering art, dancing or computer classes, as well as sponsoring the boy scouts and girl scouts; some even prepare students for national math contests. Nevertheless, once a student becomes fully immersed in the American school system, it becomes more difficult for parents to talk them into attending Polish classes on a weekend.
“The parents or grandparents motivation is crucial here. It works well when kids are smaller, but past the fifth grade, students see that their American friends have off during the weekend and it is becomes harder to convince them to sit in class on Saturdays,” says Andrzej Popadiuk, principal of the Polish School in Borough Park. His school is growing each year thanks to the inflow of Poles into the area; however, while the youngest grades are crowded – this year the pre-school class is the largest ever – Popadiuk admits that by the eighth grade, 35 to 50 percent of the students give up attending the Polish classes.
Despite the difficulties of some of the schools, The Polish Supplementary School Council (PSSC) remains optimistic that their schools can thrive.
“We are taking into consideration the possibility of fewer kids signing up for classes at our institutions in the future; however, as of now we have not observed a fall in the number of kids registered in all the Polish language schools on the East Coast,” said PSSC spokesperson Barbara Szenk, who is a teacher at the Polish School in Clark, New Jersey.
Last year the number of children registered in all 60 schools under PSSC rose to 8,030 from 7,458. This academic year there are 8,851 students registered.
Szenk and others say that another demographic change plays a huge role in the prosperity of Polish schools: a reduced immigration from Poland in recent years has tipped the ratio of Polish-born and American-born students. "When we first opened our school 10 years ago, the ratio of kids born here and in Poland was 50/50. Now 70 percent of my students are American born," says Waldemar Rakowicz, from the Polish School in Maspeth, Queens.
The Poles, who decided to stay here, are more assimilated into the American society. They speak better English and often marry non-Poles. Their children are born Americans, and Polish is a second language for them.
“I was shocked one time when I told my students that they could speak only Polish in class; I got perfect silence," said Malgorzata Sulewski, who formerly taught at the Bensonhurst school.
