SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Murrow High School (Photo: Erica Sherman)

Edward R. Murrow High School is continuing to mold an army of Garry Kasparovs with its latest victory, their eighth win at the National High School Chess Championship on Sunday, according to a report in the Daily News.

The tournament was held in Nashville, Tennessee, and had over 5,000 competitors from high schools across the nation going against one another from Friday to Sunday.

The team qualified for the tournament when they won the state championships for the 16th time in February. They also won the state championships last year, and took home the national title in 1992, 1993, 1994, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. The school’s team counts Olympic chess players and world title holders among its alumni, and an award-winning book has been written about the team’s formation.

Azeez Alade, a member of the current team who hails from Nigeria, told the Daily News that now that they have secured their victory – yet again – it’s time to declare check-and-mate on some burgers and video games.

“We’re all going to go to Dave and Busters! No more chess! We’re done with that — we’re celebrating,” said Alade.

Congrats to the Murrow team! We look forward to more victories in the future.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Panel for Educational Policy, which has the final say on closing schools in New York City, voted last night to approve plans to phase out and ultimately shutter Sheepshead Bay High School and 21 other schools at the end of this semester.

Much like the closure hearing held earlier this month at Sheepshead Bay High School, opposition at last night’s meeting was thin compared to previous years.

The New York Post notes:

While hundreds of parents and teachers came to protest the move, the meeting wasn’t nearly as volatile as in past years, when thousands packed the auditorium and raucously taunted education officials.

… Before last night’s vote, far fewer elected officials spoke out than usual, the crowd thinned within hours, and even the head of the UFT sent his No. 2.

NY 1 reports that some of that scale down in opposition is because the UFT has “given up” on challenging Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s policies, and is now looking ahead to the new mayor. NY 1 reports:

This is the fourth year since a state law was revised to require that the panel votes on school closures, but since the majority of the panel is appointed by the mayor, the panel has approved every single one of the DOE’s proposals to date.

Of all of the DOE’s controversial policies, closing schools consistently generates the most vocal push back. Even if the outcome of the final vote is almost certainly assured, thousands of people show up to the meeting every year. Most are teachers, students or parents at the schools that are being closed, but the teachers’ union has also traditionally brought in hundreds of other members to speak out against the policy.

This year, the United Federation of Teachers has not organized a large protest for the first time. The union president said that he has given up trying to work with the current mayor to get anything done and is focused on the next mayor.

As many as 142 schools have been closed of phased out since Bloomberg took office in 2002.

In addition to closing Sheepshead Bay High School, the panel voted to approve the co-location of four new schools, including two charters, on the 3000 Avenue X premises. A “phase out” period in which no new ninth graders would be accepted to the school begins immediately. Current students would be allowed to graduate or transfer out over the next three years, and, beginning this September, a new public high school, two new charter high schools, and a district transfer high school would all be co-located in the same facility.

The charter high schools will both be managed by New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit that manages more than 70 schools across the five boroughs.

From a rally to save the school when it faced closure in 2010.

The Department of Education held a required hearing to “phase out” Sheepshead Bay High School (3000 Avenue X) last week, but the event drew a smaller crowd of about 80 students and faculty, as compared to hundreds in the previous attempts to shut it down.

It’s the third year in the row the city is trying to shutter the school – this time by replacing it with two public schools and two charter schools – and some school supporters say the teachers, students and parents have simply been beaten, broken and demoralized by the process.

If the plan to close Sheepshead Bay High School is approved, a “phase out” period would begin in which no new ninth graders would be accepted to the school. Current students would be allowed to graduate or transfer out, and, beginning this September, a new public high school, two new charter high schools, and a district transfer high school would all be co-located in the same facility.

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Sheepshead Bay High School students protesting the city’s closure attempts in the last school year. (Photo: Robert Fernandez)

We reported in November that the New York Department of Education was once again looking to close Sheepshead Bay High School, including it on an “early engagement” list. This week, the school popped up on yet another list of low performing schools targeted for closure, according to an article in School Book.

The planned closing of Sheepshead Bay High has been fought for some time, and teachers and administrators have thus far been successful at keeping the school open despite mounting pressure from city officials. This time around, though, the DOE doesn’t appear to be pushing an immediate closure at the end of this school year, but “phasing out,” meaning no new students can enroll at the school.

According to School Book, the High School’s closing hasn’t shocked its staff:

Robin Kovat, a social studies and law teacher at Sheepshead Bay High School, said the announcement Monday did not surprise her.

“The D.O.E. has been trying to close us for nine years. They are finally succeeding. Even though we knew it was coming, it is still so sad,” Kovat said.

Sheepshead Bay was one of the high schools the city wanted to “turn around” this year. Despite a new principal and additional support systems, Kovat said one year was not enough time to demonstrate results.

“A lot of us put our hearts and souls into the school and into the kids and really know that we made a difference in their lives. You know, maybe the numbers aren’t reflecting that,” she said. “At the same time as our statistics are going down, we have rising stars. Seriously.”

Despite the disappointment from teachers and administrators, Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg and the DOE are taking a hard stance against struggling schools.

“We expect success,” he said in a statement. “After a rigorous review of academic performance, we’re proposing to phase out a select number of low-performing schools. We’ve listened to the community and provided comprehensive support services to these schools based on their needs. Ultimately, we know we can better serve our students and families with new options and a new start.”

UFT President Michael Mulgrew, though, called shenanigans on the idea that DOE provided comprehensive report, noting to School Book, “Large comprehensive schools like Lehman and Sheepshead Bay have been further undermined by DOE policies that led to increased concentrations of high-needs students, but with no increase in the services such students need.”

Source: Lisa Willner

In commemoration of World AIDS Day, which is held every December 1, Edward R. Murrow High School is displaying international AIDS Quilts all week to students.

The displaying of the quilts has become something of a tradition at Murrow, having now entered their 19th consecutive year of display. Three of the quilts are of the international variety, coming from the Dominican Republic, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz gave a speech to students on Monday, stressing the importance of preventing HIV infection through education. Other guest speakers came on behalf of the Gibb Mansion and the Lutheran Family Health Centers, commemorating those who have passed while providing valuable facts to students about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The event, otherwise known as the AIDS Project Foundation, is hosted by the H.E.A.R.T. Club and Global Quilts. Students are scheduled to view the quilts through their health and physical education classes.

Souce: Lisa Willner

Sheepshead Bay High School students protesting the city’s closure attempts in the last school year. (Photo: Robert Fernandez)

The third time’s the charm? New York City’s school administrators seem to hope so.

For the third time in three years, the Department of Education has again set its sights on closing Sheepshead Bay High School (3000 Avenue X), including it in a list of 24 high schools slated for closure as early as the end of this school year.

The “early engagement” list, reported on yesterday by Gotham Schools, is comprised of schools that the Department of Education says comes up short on student test results, attendance rates, graduate rates and college preparedness. In addition to high schools, it contains 36 elementary and middle schools.

Sheepshead Bay High School is one of seven high schools on the list that the city tried to close last year using the “turnaround” plan, which mandates closing the school, firing the staff, reopening under a new name and hiring a maximum of 50 percent of the teachers from the previous administration. Courts threw the brakes on the plan, though, after the teachers’ and principals’ unions successfully sued, claiming that it violated their collective bargaining agreement with the city.

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Photo by Erica Sherman

Edward R. Murrow High School’s newspaper, The Murrow Network, has been bringing scores of readers news that matters from that school’s community since 1974. Now, after 38 years in existence, the Network can officially boast that it is the “Best High School Newspaper in New York City,” according to NYC High School Journalism Collaborative and members of New York City’s press corps — an honor that would likely make the famed broadcasting journalist after whom the school (1600 Avenue L) was named pretty proud.

The Network — whose most recent stories include a feature on how the Murrow community came together for the benefit of Hurricane Sandy victims, as well as a moving remembrance of Sandy victim and Murrow alum Jessie Streich-Kest by English teacher John Faciano — earned the top honors for its “school coverage and excellent stories” during the Newsies!, an annual high school journalism conference at Baruch College, the collaborative’s sponsor.

Reporters from the Network earned individual honors as well:

Murrow senior Adelina Zhang took first place in Community News for her story on the stabbing that occurred on Ave. M last year. Graduate Sasha Williams also won first place in the National/World News category for her coverage on how the school was creating backpack care packages to give students in Indiana whose town was destroyed by a tornado. Finally Murrow graduate Zalika Cuffy-Scott finished in second place in the School News category. She wrote a story on how the cafeteria was charging for its food, which was a change from the previous year.

Reporting in and around the vicinity of your high school is as hyper-local as it gets. In these days of corporate takeovers and rampant sensationalism in the news media, we applaud The Murrow Network for keeping it real.

Leon M. Goldstein High School. Source: InsideSchools.org

If you are a reader of the New York Daily News, you might have noticed a peculiar trend emerging in their regular coverage: an unending fascination with sex and high schools.

Just last month, we covered such a story, more out of an obsessive tendency towards providing sweeping coverage of all things Sheepshead Bay than for the sort of sensationalism the Daily News is aiming for.

Today, we have a similar story from the News to report, and as it concerns Leon M. Goldstein High School, we still feel obliged to give you a heads up, despite the questionable ethics in such tawdry reportage on display.

The story revolves around a 35-year-old male security guard for Kingsborough Community College who started a relationship with a female student from Leon M. Goldstein High School, which shares the same campus grounds as the college, at 2001 Oriental Boulevard. The guard has since been fired from his post once the mother of the student complained to school officials.

Despite poor judgement on the part of the guard, both parties were of consenting age, and nothing illegal or grossly immoral took place. The guard was an employee of the college, not the high school, and he was not the girl’s teacher or supervisor.

The guard’s firing was based solely on the premise of his behavior being a “bad idea,” and not representative of expected conduct for a school employee.

The Daily News then goes on to tie this story with the one we previously mentioned, concerning  a reassigned Goldstein assistant principal who was accused of having an inappropriately close (albiet non-sexual) friendship with a student.

The dots the Daily News is ostensibly trying to connect, proclaiming Leon M. Goldstein High School as a “hotspot for illicit love affairs,” is both lazy and unfair, especially considering the swift actions taken on part of the school administers in dealing with both matters.

Congratulations are in order for Farhat Sikder, a Class of 2012 Edward R. Murrow High School student, whose painting, “Train Ride” was selected by the Department of Education in ART.WRITE.NOW.DC, a special exhibition of national award-winning work from the 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Farhat’s beautiful painting will hang in the main lobby of the DOE building along with 63 other works deemed examples of the very best creative works by the country’s young artists.

Farhat’s painting also had the honor of winning a national medal at the 2012 Scholastic Awards. Currently Farhat is starting her freshmen year at Pratt Institute.

Source: lmghs.org

Christian Del Re, an assistant principal at Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences, is facing disciplinary charges after allegedly sending nearly 3,000 text messages to an 18-year-old female student over a 90-day period. Reports also say Del Re engaged in marathon late-night phone sessions with the student, sometimes as late as 3 a.m.

Del Re’s constant texting and late night phone calls came to light when a student tipped off school officials, reports the Daily News. The Department of Education has begun the process of terminating Del Re from the school system.

“We are moving forward with disciplinary charges against Christian Del Re and will be seeking his termination. He has been reassigned and is no longer at the school,” said Connie Pankratz, a spokeswoman for the Education Department.

Del Re has been adamant in claiming that nothing in his text messages or phone calls were sexual in nature, or inappropriate in any other way. He claims that all he was doing was providing help and guidance to the teen who was having trouble with her boyfriend, getting into college, and looking for work.

Students have also come to the defense of Del Re as well.

“We miss him. Hopefully he’ll come back,” a student told NY1. Del Re also received high marks from the popular “ratemyteacher” website, receiving praise like, “He is awesome,” and “Mr. Dee is a gee.” It’s unlikely, however, that Del Re’s status as “a gee,” will save him in light of DOE Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s proclamation last February that all staffers would face immediate dismissal regarding any proven inappropriate contact with students.