When the Department of Education proposed this move, they said the new Washington Heights location would provide Innovation students with their own space and would be a shorter commute for many of them.

But the idea sparked outrage among the Brandeis community, which consists of three other high schools and a charter elementary school, and within Community Board 7. Opponents argued that moving the high school would make the already disadvantaged students lose access to facilities in and around Brandeis like internships, extracurricular activities, a gym and child care for the school’s many teenaged parents. Apparently, their arguments were heard.

“We actively engage with and respond to the needs of the community,” said Department of Education representative David Pena. “Based on additional input from students, parents and community leaders, Innovation Diploma Plus High School will remain at the Brandeis Campus.”
Noah Gotbaum, a former president of the Community Education Council district that includes the Upper West Side schools, said the Department of Education had no justification for the proposal in the first place. He had organized a rally to protest it right before the hearing on Dec. 4, attended by over half of the student body, parents, elected officials and community members.

“They were basically destroying this incredible program,” Gotbaum said. “And that’s why you had 100 students come out to the rally and hearing.”

At the hearing, students presented a video explaining why they want to stay at Brandeis. It was an educational experience for them.

“I actually spoke at the hearing, and the Department of Education people weren’t even paying attention,” said Maria Henriquez, 18, a senior at Innovation Diploma Plus, whose daughter attends the Brandeis daycare. “If we had moved to Washington Heights, everyone would have dropped out. If you take away my education, you take away my child’s future!”

Among her concerns, she said, were issues of safety. “It’s dangerous because there are gangs in that area,” Henriquez said.

Gotbaum said he thought the Department of Education probably decided to drop the proposal because of pressure from the community, not the testimony of Innovation students.

“I am still unhappy that our community and school had to take to the streets to prevent something so egregious,” he said.

IDP’s move apparently did not really suit the Washington Heights community either, said Community Board 7 Chair Mark Diller, who said the neighborhood had wanted a science and technical high school in the space.

When the proposal to relocate IDP was first floated, many members of the community assumed the program was getting the boot to make room for the Upper West Success Academy Charter School to expand from early elementary to include a middle school. Upper West Success Academy refused to comment.

But the idea did not come from nowhere. During the October Community Education Council District 3 meeting, Yael Kalban, a representative with the Department of Education, said that they were planning on making room in Brandeis for an Upper West Success Middle School after IDP moved to Washington Heights.

“I don’t think IDP is given much priority at all,” Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal said. “It’s like a sick child. I don’t think they anticipated so much community outcry.”

Rosenthal did say that it is in the Success Academy contract to expand after a certain number of years, and that the community does need another middle school. Gotbaum said that the most likely option would be to open up a middle school when Beacon High School on West on 61st Street moves in two years’ time.

On June 17, the district’s Community Education Council and Presidents’ Council approved a request asking the Department of Education to give local students priority at Beacon High School, considered one of city’s the most prestigious schools. There are 12 high schools in the district, and all of them have a citywide admissions policy. By contrast, District 2, which covers the East Side and parts of downtown, has several priority high schools for local students.

“Many parents from the district have come to us and complained about how their children were not accepted to Beacon,” said Elizabeth Shell, the parent council’s president. “Beacon has many students from District 2, and yet that district has five high schools who give them priority while we have none.”

District 3’s parent council wants Beacon High School to give area students special consideration for admissions. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Beacon, at 227 W. 61 St., gave priority to District 3 students when it was created in 1993. However, in 2005, the school introduced the admissions policy change, which was later approved by the department. Now, students from across the city can get in if they meet the admission criteria, which include test scores, a portfolio and an interview.

A change seems unlikely, though.

“We take very seriously the recommendations made by the Community Education Council, but there is no plan for Beacon to change its admission criteria, at least for this year,” said Andrew Jacob, a spokesperson for the department.

Admissions criteria for the 2009-2010 school year had already been approved and published by the time the resolution was passed, he explained.

“We try to give students more choices with high school admissions policies, and Beacon is an example,” Jacob said.

Priority for District 3 students relates to questions raised earlier this year of declining diversity at Beacon. According to department statistics, the number of Hispanic students has decreased from 24 percent in 2005 to 21.2 percent in 2008. African-American enrollment has also declined from 19.1 percent to 15 percent during the same period.

The discrepancies, according to the department, reflect the fact that until 2005, students from District 3, which has a much larger percentage of African Americans and Latinos, had priority. Now, the pool of applicants reflects the city as a whole.

“Beacon remains one of the most diverse and selective schools in the city,” Jacob said.

Still, some students, parents and other critics have been pressing the issue. On June 8, diversity was the focus of a forum convened by the group at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, on West 86th Street and West End Avenue.

“This is a question of transparency,” said Andrietta Sims, a public school teacher whose daughter graduated from Beacon two years ago. “We want to know how the students are being admitted and how they are going to correct this.”

Sims is one of the people who in May sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein expressing concern about the decrease in diversity. By the time the department answered in June, a group of prominent scholars—including New York University professors Pedro Noguera and Gary Anderson—signed on to a second letter to the chancellor.

For parent council president Shell, the diversity issue could be resolved if the school again gave priority to District 3 students. But Shell said that Beacon’s administration has not been willing to talk to them.

Meanwhile, students plan to continue their protests and approach underrepresented communities to inform them about the admissions process. This will help broaden the pool of applicants and increase diversity, no matter what group has priority.

The festival started on Nov. 17 and featured three Pulitzer Prize winners.
McCourt, a former high school English teacher and one of the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, was the guest of honor at the grand reopening breakfast.
“The kids were enthralled,” said Anne Hanin, the librarian at the West 61st Street school. “Kids who couldn’t get into the library, they were hanging by the windows and doors.”

McCourt, the guest speaker for the day, regaled students with his humorous anecdotes about teaching and his somber tales of growing up in poverty. Several of the 9th grade classes he spoke to read his award-winning book, Angela’s Ashes, last summer. Samara Zelko, a junior at Beacon, said his wit was a hit with students from all grades.

“He had a very intellectual sense of humor that is very different from his writing style,” Zelko said. “He can really capture an audience of mixed ages.”
McCourt answered students’ questions, which covered his life in Ireland and Brooklyn, as well as his writing and teaching career.

“He was a real celebrity on campus,” Hanin said. “They were asking for autographs in pages of their books and any piece of paper they could find.”

Beacon High School English teacher Barbara Solowey, Frank McCourt, librarian Ann Hanin and Beacon student Patrick O’Neill.