The city’s plan to gradually eliminate the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at a Harlem school was met with spirited and widespread opposition from local politicians, educators, and parents at a public hearing Thursday night.
If the proposal is not overturned, Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing Arts—located on 114th Street between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. boulevards—will not accept any new sixth-graders next year. And, by 2014, all three middle school grades will be phased out.
According to city Department of Education deputy chancellor Shael Suransky, the middle school presents “real concerns,” showing low numbers in enrollment, standardized text scores, and satisfaction surveys.
Suransky said that even after the DOE had provided safety improvements, leadership opportunities for students, and faculty and administrator training, it did not seem possible to make the school dramatically more successful.
The decision to close the school was not made lightly, Suransky said.
“When a school isn’t getting the job done, we have a tough decision to make,” he said.
But many people at the hearing were unconvinced that the DOE’s efforts to support the school were genuine. The audience responded to Suransky’s words with boos and yells, and many expressed concern that the DOE’s decision did not truly reflect parents’ needs or input.
Noah Gotbaum, a member of the District 3 Community Education Council, said there was a general feeling that “what’s going on here is a sham.” He added, “The decision was made a few years ago.”
Others said that the DOE claimed to offer the school more support than it actually did. Attendees accused Harlem Success Academy—a network-based charter school that shares Wadleigh’s building—of drawing resources and space away from Wadleigh. Wadleigh shares its building with both Harlem Success Academy and Frederick Douglass Academy II, a traditional public school.
“The Department of Education was wrong to approve the co-location in the first place,” City Council member Inez Dickens said.
Considering that Wadleigh has traditionally had high percentages of special-needs students and English language learners relative to the rest of the city, some speakers worried that phasing Wadleigh out and expanding Harlem Success would leave these students short of options.
Parents lamented the cuts Wadleigh has seen over the last three years, including $650,000 of its gym budget, a middle school guidance counselor, and a math coach.
“There’s a tremendous disconnect between what you are saying in theory and what you have done practically,” one attendee told Suransky, referring to the budget cuts and lack of services the school has seen. “The words that you’re saying are not bearing flesh.”
DOE representatives would not comment beyond what they said in the meeting.
Paul McIntosh, Wadleigh’s librarian, has been active in the effort to keep Wadleigh middle school open. In December, he invited public intellectual and Union Theological Seminary professor Cornel West to motivate Wadleigh students and reinforce the school’s sense of unity.
McIntosh called the DOE’s proposal unfair and dishonest—it privileges the “real estate interests” of Harlem Success Academy, he said, and thus denies students equal access to an education.
“Unequivocally, Wadleigh should not be closed,” McIntosh told Spectator. “What I find most distasteful is the dishonesty” on the DOE’s behalf.
Among those who turned out to oppose the proposal to close the school were representatives of the NAACP and the United Federation of Teachers, advocates for special-needs education, and City Council and community board members. Many raised questions about the DOE’s neglect of Wadleigh.
But attendees also drew attention to the school’s sense of community and history. Wadleigh was originally established in 1901.
The hearing opened with the testimonies of Wadleigh middle school students, many of whom emphasized the school’s sense of family and commitment to educating all types of people.
“It pains me to know that Wadleigh’s colorful past and bright future may be coming to an end,” said a Wadleigh middle school student named Geronimo.
Another student spoke about the diversity of programs Wadleigh offered—from the culinary arts to music and dance.
According to Community Board 9 member Vicky Gholson, who serves on CB9’s youth, education, and libraries committee and it arts and culture committee, the DOE’s neglect of parent, student, faculty, and administrative concerns represented a “breach of public trust” that undermined their efforts.
“The Department of Education obviously has made a decision without incorporating the parents, administration, and community leaders in their decision,” Gholson told Spectator. “It’s sending out the wrong message.”
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