As students across the city celebrated the end of the school year in June, an announcement by the city's Department of Education left seven Bronx high schools with fewer reasons to rejoice.

On June 25, the department released a list of high schools that will either close or be replaced beginning in the fall of 2011, including two local schools – Grace H. Dodge Career and Technical High School and the Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology.

Both were deemed "persistently lowest achieving schools," by the State Education Department in January. The designation is part of a federally funded program to improve some of the state's worst schools.

In order to qualify for federal improvement grants, the city must perform one of four actions to each low-achieving school – they can be transformed, replaced with another, converted to a charter school, or phased out entirely.

Last month, the city chose 11 schools from the state's list for "transformation," starting this fall – meaning they'll get funding to hire better-compensated teachers and to implement a new evaluation system for school staff. Another 23 schools across the city will be closed or replaced, but not until the start of the 2011 school year.

"How can the DOE just go in and decide what to close or change without including the community in the process?" said Chauncy Young, an advocate with the United Parents of Highbridge.

An official from the city's DOE said the schools were chosen based on graduation rates and other performance data.

The process bodes well with Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's system of shuttering schools that the city judges as failing. Progress report evaluations – where schools are rated on a scale of A through F – have been used by the city since 2007 to determine which schools will be closed.

Fordham Leadership Academy, at 500 E. Fordham Rd. (the site of the former Theodore Roosevelt High School building) received a "B" evaluation on its last progress report, according to the DOE's website, but had a lower graduation rate than the city overall.

Grace Dodge, a vocational high school on Crotona Avenue, received a "D" grade for the 2008/2009 year, but parent advocates say they were surprised to hear that the school might be slated for closure.

"I was amazed to see that particular school on the list," said Carol Boyd, a parent leader with the NYC Coalition for Justice and a Bronx mother of three.

Grace Dodge had been chosen by the city last year to be part of its "Innovation Zone" project, a pilot program to implement new teaching models in select schools. The school is also one of the few vocational high schools left in the city, offering training in cosmetology and nursing.

Administrators at the school, and at Fordham Leadership Academy, could not be reached for comment. Decisions as to what will happen to each individual school will be made sometime next year, a DOE official said.

The city had tried to close 19 other schools this year based on poor performance, but were blocked by a lawsuit from a teachers' union.