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Wilvin Lopez (l.) and Elliot Vazquez (r.) present a calendar to a group of student organizers that shows when the city will vote on a plan to close Samuel Gompers High School. (DNAinfo/Patrick Wall)Samuel Gompers HS Students Fight to Save School in Face of Closure
MOTT HAVEN — A few hours after Mayor Michael Bloomberg listed his administration’s education achievements during his State of the City address at
a Bronx high school earlier this month, a group of local students
gathered a few miles away to discuss how they could save their school.
The five young men, who attend Samuel Gompers Career and Technical Education High School
on Southern Boulevard, batted around plans to disrupt, or even prevent,
a required public hearing on February 2 to discuss possibly closing the
struggling school, prior to a city panel vote the following week on the
proposal.
Sitting in the offices of a youth organizing group, a senior warned a sophomore that they could be suspended for their plans.
Students from Gompers High School who are members of the youth organizing group, Sistas and Brothas United, march in 2011 to demand federal improvement funds for their school. (DNAinfo/Patrick Wall)
He mainly
wanted a chance to address city officials, he said, so he could tell
them, “You didn’t ask us, the people in the school and the community,
what we need.”
The five students form the core of a group that has
met over the past two years to call for changes at the high school,
which earned an "F" on its most recent city evaluation. Though the
students later decided to drop their plans to interfere with the
hearing, they are still scrambling to raise awareness of the city’s proposal to phase out the 75-year-old school and replace it with two smaller ones.
Though Gompers' fortunes have fluctuated over the decades, the school has clearly declined in recent years.
In
2011, the school’s four-year graduation rate of 41 percent ranked among
the lowest 1 percent of city schools, according the Department of
Education. Its attendance rate, at 72 percent, ranked among the bottom 2
percent of schools, and student demand for the school is down 46
percent over the past four years.
Several students, well aware of
the school’s troubles, began to gather in 2010 to exchange grievances
about the school — but also to brainstorm ideas for helping fix it. Many
of the students were members of Sistas and Brothas United, a Bronx-based leadership training and organizing group for young people.
Though
typical meetings included anywhere from 10 to 20 students, a meeting in
a church in 2011 attracted nearly 50 Gompers students, according to one
group member. At the meeting, dozens of students wrote on sticky notes
their suggestions for the school, which varied from improving security
and buying more technology, to serving “Spanish food” and enrolling more
girls. (The student body is 80 percent male and 66 percent Hispanic.)
Many
suggestions focused on the school administration. When an organizer
asked students at the meeting to step forward if they had seen the
principal, Joyce Mills Kittrell, at least three times that year, only
four students moved, according to Elliot Vazquez, a Gompers senior and a
lead organizer.
“The principal needs to work on being
more of a public figure,” said Vazquez, 17. “We want to see her face. We
want to know that she’s watching the hallways.”
Other students
noted that Kittrell and various administrators have met with student
organizers more than once, and that administrators regularly hear from
students on the School Leadership Team.
In a 2011 report, a
Department of Education reviewer said Gompers administrators had
recently taken some corrective actions, including installing security
cameras, analyzing school-wide achievement data and increasing family
involvement by hosting student award nights.
Kittrell did not return calls seeking comment.
The
student organizers have also called for more counselors, more
interactive and engaging lessons, more athletic teams, student input in
some school budgeting decisions and updated learning materials.
One student even said back in 2011 that the most recent president featured in his history textbook was Ronald Reagan.
Some
students suggested that the school should receive extra support because
of the demanding student population it serves: 17 percent of students
are English language learners, about a quarter are in special education
classes and, in 2010, 92 percent of students qualified for free or
reduced-price lunch, a common measure of family poverty, according to
the Department of Education.
“They blame the school and students for us failing, when we don’t have the resources,” said Wilvin Lopez, a senior.
The
Department of Education is proposing to phase out Gompers over the next
three years, then establish in its place a smaller charter high school
and a transfer high school for so-called overage, under-credited
students.
Gompers offers some career-oriented courses in desktop
publishing and computer networking and repair, allowing students to earn
special diplomas that include industry-recognized certifications. Many
students expressed concern that they will lose these vocational classes
if Gompers is closed.
In a document that it is required to file
in advance of any school closure, the DOE acknowledged “it is possible
that the availability of certain programs and course offerings will
change” during the phase out.
But the city added that it has proposed
to open four new Bronx schools that would offer vocational classes,
leading to “a net gain of 67 new ninth-grade seats” in career classes,
if the department’s proposals are adopted.
The 13 voting members
of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, eight of whom are appointed
by the mayor, will vote on various school proposals — including the plan
to close Gompers — on Feb. 9.
In the meantime, Gompers' student organizers intend to explain to anyone who will listen why their school should remain open.
Vazquez said that as his graduation day approaches this year, one reason to save his school has taken on new urgency.
“I want to be an alumni here,” he said.
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A close-up look at NYC education policy, politics,and the people who have been, are now, or will be affected by these actions and programs. ATR CONNECT assists individuals who suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool and are the "new" rubber roomers, people who have been re-assigned from their life and career. A "Rubber Room" is not a place, but a process.
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