Almost 50 years ago, a group of parents in the Lincoln Center area of Manhattan decided they wanted greater involvement in their children’s first school experience and founded the West Side YMCA Co-op Nursery School.

The school started as a single classroom with 30 children, one teacher and a daily parent assistant. Today, it has grown to 10 classes serving 130 children between the ages of 2.5 and 5 years.

The main goal of the West Side YMCA Co-op Nursery School is for the kids attending the program to transition easily into elementary school, according to Shannon Cussen, the early-childhood director.

“We do that by creating a rich learning environment focusing on socialization and hands-on learning,” she said.

Children participate in free-choice activities, story time, group time and outdoor play, as well as special classes that include music, gym, swimming, science and art.

“The school is so fortunate to have the many resources of the YMCA, from the swimming pool to the gym to the rooftop playground and vibrant classrooms,” Cussen said. “The children are able to participate in activities both inside and outside of the building.”

Perhaps the most defining aspect of the nursery school is the direct parental involvement. Through the “Helping Parent” program, every parent participates in the classroom throughout the school year on a rotating basis.

“The ‘Helping Parent’ program provides a unique opportunity for parents to get a firsthand view of their children in a learning environment, as well as watching them form social relationships,” Cussen said.

With the teacher serving as a guide, parents volunteer for a three-hour span and get involved with activities and projects that are taking place in the classroom. They get to know all of the children very intimately, Cussen said, as they are in the classroom on a regular basis, with flexibility for working parents. In addition, all parents serve on one of eight committees, which include fundraising, communications and technology, community service, events, enrollment and alumni.

“Parents really love this hands-on approach,” Cussen said. “They get to participate in their children’s school experience both inside and outside of the classroom and watch their development take focus.”

The many recreational and educational opportunities available through the West Side YMCA Co-op Nursery School, as well as the direct parental involvement, may account for the competitiveness of admission to the program. About 20 percent of applicants are accepted into the school, according to Cussen.

The school’s popularity is a testament to the hard-working teaching staff, the very involved parents who are part of the school community, and the program’s focus on the children’s development, she said.

“We value each child’s temperament and personality,” Cussen said, “and really focus on building their self-esteem and independence through social, emotional and cognitive growth fostered in the curriculum.”

McCourt emceed all the Blackboard Award ceremonies until his death in 2009, and I have no doubt his words and wisdom still echo in the minds of many the educators—teachers and principals alike—who were there during those ceremonies. They certainly do in me. McCourt’s message was that only a teacher really knows what it’s like to stand in front of classroom full of kids and get them to learn something. He bristled about how the teaching profession was besieged by so-called experts telling teachers what to do, when many of the experts themselves were never teachers. Mostly, though, he expressed a lot of camaraderie, respect and dark-humored sympathy for his fellow educators.

Only Frank could say it like Frank, but we try to carry his message forth in our own way: hoping to express that you, our dedicated and talented local educators, are deeply appreciated by many around you, your colleagues, students and parents. Chances are it was one of them who put in the nomination for you or your school.

Originally founded by the leaders of Manhattan Media, Tom Allon and Richard Burns, the Blackboard Awards are dedicated to honoring excellence in local education wherever it exists—public, private, charter or parochial school. It humbles us to learn about the good work you do, and that, in turn, impassions us to get out the word.

Speaking for all my colleagues at Manhattan Media, I have two final words for you: Thank you.

—Eric Messinger, Editor, New York Family

2012 Blackboard Award Winners

West Side YMCA, Where Teachers and Parents Work Hand-in-Hand

Students Learn to ‘GELL’ at Village School

Nurturing the Whole Child at St. Stephen of Hungary

PS 199 Creates Lifelong Learners

Horace Mann: A Century of Quality Teaching in the Heart of the City

Character Counts at Harlem Village Academies

The Uncommon Way: Improving the Norm for Inner-City Students

Small Step From High School to College

A Blueprint for the Global School of the Future

The World Awaits at Leman School

Emphasis on Whole Child at Battery Park School

Prepping for a Bright Future at Winston Prep

Math and Sciences Under Microscope at High School

All the World’s a Stage at Performing Arts School

Opening the Doors to the Future for Students

Empowering Students and Teachers to Find their Voice

The Blackboards are selected by our advisory panel, made up of school insiders and Manhattan Media people who are focused on education. The awards are not meant in any way to be a ranking, nor are they a complete list of the best public, private, religious and charter schools in the city. They do help shine a spotlight on educational excellence, and are our way of honoring schools whose great work goes largely unnoticed by the broader public.

P.S. 40 on East 20th Street earned the outstanding public elementary school award for its focus on hands-on education. School overcrowding has led to an expansion of our “new and noteworthy” category, and we profile several new schools, including P.S. 452 and P.S. 276, which opened in neighborhoods desperate for school space.

Once again we have compiled our handy charts with important information about Manhattan public and private elementary and lower schools, and those can be viewed at www.BlackBoardAwards.com.

And don’t think we have forgotten about one of the most important factors that makes a school great—the teachers. Our annual Blackboard Awards for teachers will be in June. We have just begun to collect nominations, so please send info on an outstanding teacher you know to jrogers@manhattanmedia.com. Submissions should be 400 words or less, and don’t forget to include the teacher’s grade, subject area (if applicable), school name and address.

To read about the Blackboard Awards 2010 Elementary Schools winners, visit our special section.

—Josh Rogers
Blackboard Awards
Special Section Editor

By Gavin Aronsen

Twenty-one years ago, when Lily Woo first arrived at P.S. 130 Hernando de Soto, she was seen as an outsider and greeted with suspicion.

The previous principal had retired, and the district superintendent had just finished the search for a replacement who could bring the underperforming school up to speed. Assistant Principal Howard Epstein, a 30-year veteran of the school, was a prime candidate for the job. But the superintendent chose Woo.

“Of course, I was very disappointed in not having gotten the school,” recalled Epstein, who is now in his 51st year at the school in the same position. “We had to come to grips with the situation.”

Epstein and Woo set aside their differences and successfully rallied the school’s staff around the new principal.

Today, Woo’s peers credit her for transforming P.S. 130 into one of the city’s finest. Once complacent with a 38 percent passing rate, the Chinatown school now ranks in the 98th percentile for student performance and has been recognized by the city, state and U.S. Department of Education for its achievements.

In addition to a supportive staff, Woo gave special credit to Kaye Lawson, an education consultant who works in Australia, as well as in the U.S. Lawson has been helping the Chinatown school for the past 14 years.

Said Epstein, “If [Woo] wasn’t instrumental in trying to seek the person who could meet the needs of the staff in the building, it would never have worked the way it did. She always considers the total picture.”

Woo, 59, uses her own background to relate to her students, about 90 percent of whom are Asian and most of whom come from families that do not speak English.

The principal was born in Hong Kong and came to the states with her parents and younger brother, unable to speak English. The family settled in a Chinatown tenement house where they lived for the next 27 years.

“I lived the lives of the children who live around me,” Woo said. “I lived in a three-room railroad apartment, where the bathtub was in the kitchen and the bathroom in the hallway.”

Her father was a restaurant worker whom she barely saw because he worked seven days a week. Her mother ran a dry-cleaning business, where Woo would go after elementary school to help out.

Woo later went to middle school on the Lower East Side before graduating from the Bronx High School of Science. She studied elementary education at Queens College, got her masters at New York University in English as a Second Language and took a fellowship on leadership at Columbia.

When she came to P.S. 130, Woo brought with her an impressive resumé: elementary and alternative high school teacher, adult basic education instructor, high school staff developer, ESL project director and state education department associate.

After taking some time off when she had her children, Woo returned to what she called her “first love”: elementary school. That’s when she started at PS 130.

Today, Woo lives in Queens with her husband, who is also an educator, and two children. However, she said she spends about 15 hours each day at her school in Chinatown, where 1,020 children in pre-kindergarten through the 5th grade receive their education.

Because Woo’s school is both Title I—82 percent of its students are on the free and reduced lunch program—and high achieving—which reduces available need-based assistance—funding for its ambitious arts programs can be hard to come by. The programs, which include dance, music and visual arts, cost on average $15,000 each year, Woo said.

Last year, parents stepped up to the plate, raising nearly $100,000 through fundraising to keep the programs afloat.

“That should give you an inkling about the kind of support I have in this school,” Woo said.

That support won Woo the honor of being among a select group of New Yorkers who helped carry the Olympic torch in its around-the-world trip for the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. She passed the torch off at Ground Zero, about a mile from her school, as a representative of the city’s education system.

Said Epstein, “The personnel that she has put in place, the ideas that she has taken and that she has made herself, have made P.S. 130 what it is today.”

By Isha Dandavate

Most schools help recently immigrated students transition into an English-based education system. P.S. 75 promotes a bilingual learning environment instead. The dual language program integrates both native English-speakers and native Spanish-speakers into one classroom so both groups of students can learn from each other.

“The program is considered an additive program, because you’re adding Spanish rather than replacing the second language with English,” said Assistant Principal Tori Hunt. P.S. 75 on West End Avenue was one of the first in New York City to implement a dual language program, Hunt said. Many schools have transitional bilingual programs or ESL programs, which help non-native English speakers to transition into an English-taught curriculum, but P.S. 75’s dual language program is different in that it also encourages students who are fluent in Spanish to continue developing their native language as they learn English.

Students must opt into the dual language program—no one is required to participate. First priority is given to children who come from only Spanish-speaking families, and aren’t exposed to English at home. Extra spaces are then extended to students from English-speaking families who can support speaking Spanish at home, whether it’s because the family is already bilingual, or because they commit to learning the language.

Jennifer Friedman, 37, enrolled both her children in the dual language program. Her 9-year-old son Jack and 6-year-old daughter Celia began their bilingual experience at home—Friedman spoke to them only in Spanish, and her husband spoke to them in English. When her son entered kindergarten, Friedman considered various programs throughout the city. “P.S. 75 was in our zone and we looked at other schools, but we really felt this was the best school,” she said. Among her reasons for choosing P.S. 75, Friedman lists the dedication of the teachers, the principal’s strong leadership and the level of diversity.

Teacher Mayra Fernandez says that in dual language classrooms, not only is there ethnic diversity, but socio-economic diversity as well. “Many of our kids come from poor homes,” she says. “It’s nice that there’s a mix because they learn from each other.”

Fernandez, a teacher in the dual language program since 1991, has a class that also includes some students with learning impairments. She works with a co-teacher to help each student achieve his or her individual best. “In a general education class, you’re going to have diversity in terms of ability anyway,” she said. “In this kind of a classroom it’s just a bigger range.”

All teachers in dual language classrooms are bilingual and have dual language certification. They are committed to maintaining the balance between the languages. “If you are learning to add decimals in Spanish one day, the next day you’re learning to subtract decimals in English,” said Hunt. “We’re really deliberate—dividing the language that way, you’re not repeating what you did the day before but you’re extending it.”

Another deliberate move by the school is encouraging parent participation. Events are conducted in Spanish and English. The parent coordinator is also bilingual. “Sometimes we have workshops that focus on Spanish-speaking families,” Hunt said. “We focus on how important it is to maintain Spanish in the household, since the kids can practice English in other places.”

According to Fernandez, the school has also held Spanish classes for parents in past years. “A lot of the parents who take that class are parents of dual language kids,” she said.

The administrators at P.S. 75 have worked hard to make sure the dual language program benefits both English- and Spanish-speaking students. “You’re giving them two languages and opening up many doors in multiple ways—overall academics, a better understanding of multiculturalism,” said Hunt. “There’s research to show it helps kids to perform better academically overall, just like if you learn to play a musical instrument. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the kids.”

By Max Sarinsky

On one side of a 2nd-grade classroom hangs a collection of students’ writing assignments in English; on the other side, a world map in French. Some bathrooms are marked “Bathroom” while others are marked “Toilettes.” A copy of the minutes in the main lobby from the latest board meeting is in both French and English.

These are just a few of the most visible examples of the bilingual identity of the New York French American Charter School, which opened on West 120th Street earlier this fall. The school’s mixed identity extends to its teaching—the majority of classes are taught in French using the French curriculum, while others are taught in English with the American curriculum.

“We take the best of each one,” said Principal Katrine Watkins, who conceived of the school two years ago. “It’s neither fish nor fowl.”

Watkins said that she expects the integration of the French education systems to improve the quality of education. She noted that the French system emphasizes neatness and structure. For instance, 1st-grade students are taught to write in cursive, she said.

“We’re way down there in quality as far as the world is concerned,” she said about American education. By borrowing from the best French teaching methods, Watkins said that the charter school is “pushing kids to the top, no matter who they are.”

Watkins, who is American, is a veteran of both French and bilingual private education—she taught at the Lycée Français de New York on the Upper East Side and also co-founded the French-American School of New York in Westchester 30 years ago. She said that the French American Charter was unique among all area French schools not only through its free admission, but also its emphasis on Francophone culture. Many of its students belong to Harlem’s sizeable West African community, and Watkins said that class work will emphasize a few different French-speaking countries each year.

“It’s a type of celebration, saying we all count,” Watkins said. “My hope is that [students] will develop an identity that is much different than it would have been otherwise.”

In its inaugural year, the school serves only grades K-2, with about 150 total students. It plans to add a grade each year, until it is a K-12 school with an International Baccalaureate program.

Watkins said that all of the challenges of leading the new school—including planning for expansion, maneuvering city bureaucracy, managing expectations of parents from dozens of different countries—have been keeping her extraordinarily busy. Nonetheless, she still has time to work with the students. Upon entering a kindergarten classroom on a recent morning, many of the students flocked to the entrance.

The first student who approached her spoke in French, and she responded in French. Another student greeted her in English. Without hesitation, Watkins responded in English.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

The Brooklyn School of Inquiry held an open house in 2009 at the Brooklyn Historical Society because its own building was not ready yet.

“We moved into our building two days before school started,” said Principal Donna Taylor. “I brought a picture of the school building to show parents what it would look like.”

Since then, the Brooklyn School of Inquiry in Bensonhurst has had to cap the number of open houses because of a surplus of interested applicants. The school currently goes from kindergarten through 2nd grade but will eventually go through 8th grade. Two kindergarten classes will be added each year until the school reaches capacity.

As one of five citywide schools for children who qualify for the Gifted and Talented program, and the only one in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn School of Inquiry only accepts applic ations from students who score in the 97th percentile or higher in the Department of Education’s Gifted and Talented testing process. Even so, the interest from those qualified students exceeded expectations.

“I was surprised by the huge demand, and by how quickly we became a destination,” said Taylor.

Taylor left a 20-year career in book publishing to work in education. After teaching for several years, Taylor attended the Department of Education’s Leadership Academy, which trains principals.

At the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, emphasis is placed on incorporating art into the school day. In addition to visual arts classes, all students study violin by the Suzuki method. The school also has an optional homework policy. Students are given activities that can be done at home, but are not mandatory.

“We use the inquiry model so that students are interested in learning, rather than teacher-directed learning,” said Taylor. “There is no correlation between high academic achievement and homework.”

Interest in the school has helped make it a success, but Taylor cautions against judging the outcome too soon.

“It is such a happy occasion when the mission and vision of a school is so aligned with what parents want for their kids,” said Taylor. “Still, until we reach capacity, it remains to be seen how it all bears out.”

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

P.S. 452 opened last fall in order to alleviate overcrowding at P.S. 87 and P.S. 199. Both Upper West Side schools had waiting lists. Located in the M.S. 44 building on West 77th Street, the school currently has three kindergarten classes. Eventually, the school will go from kindergarten through 5th grade.

Principal D. Scott Parker jumped at the chance to start a school from the beginning. He was an assistant principal and, before that, a 4th-grade teacher at P.S. 199.

“The opportunity to lead a new school doesn’t happen that often and this is the first new school on the Upper West Side I can remember,” said Parker. “It was a really unique opportunity to create something brand new that is engaging for the little kids.”

Some parents were disappointed at first that their children could not attend P.S. 87 or P.S. 199, but this year has been off to a good start. Eight kindergarteners who had been waitlisted at the other schools were offered spots at the beginning of the fall. All but one stayed, according to Parker.

“We had bad press before we even started. It is not easy to be the new kid on the block, so it is especially great for us to be considered new and noteworthy,” said Parker.

P.S. 452 employs an integrated approach to the curriculum across disciplines.

“We integrate reading and writing and science and use a unit-based approach,” said Parker. “For example, during a science unit on trees, teachers will also use trees in reading and writing and art.”

The school also employs a social-emotional program with psychologists. For kindergarteners, this involves learning to empathize and to recognize their own emotions. The program will continue to grow as the school does.

“This year has been very exciting and receiving a Blackboard Award is very encouraging to the community,” said Parker.

By Patrick Wall

In their first weeks at P.S. 267, the kindergarteners learned how to sketch structures, then make them out of blocks. They found that building something new might be exciting, but it’s not easy.

Medea McEvoy, principal of P.S. 267, or the East Side Elementary, is learning the same lesson. “Opening a school, you can get a lot of support and a lot of advice,” McEvoy said, “but it’s still very challenging.”

The school opened with three kindergarten classes this year, and will add another grade level each year until it offers kindergarten through 5th grade. It currently shares a building with P.S. 158 on York Avenue, between East 77th and 78th streets, and is expected to move to its permanent home on East 63rd Street in 2012. Its students were pulled from the waiting lists of overcrowded schools in the area.

McEvoy, who taught at P.S. 6 in the Upper East Side for 10 years, said that choosing the new school’s teachers was one of her most difficult duties. “The most important people in the school are the teachers,” McEvoy said, “who are in front of the children every day.”

She spent five months sorting through over a thousand resumés to select the school’s three full-time teachers. But, McEvoy said, “It was worth the search.” The educators she found all have previous teaching experience, as well as such diverse interests as yoga, scuba diving and ballroom dancing.

Learning at P.S. 267 is project-based and tied to the real world. During their months-long study of trees, students will visit John Jay Park several times to collect acorns, leaves and twigs to be sorted out back at school. Next week, an architect will show the children real blueprints. Then they’ll go visit the actual building.

“Kids at this age really need to have hands-on experiences,” said teacher Ariel Ricciardi. “You see a huge difference in kids when you let them explore.”

Because funding is based on enrollment, P.S. 267 is starting off with limited resources. Parents have been making up the difference by planning fundraisers through the PTA and volunteering on special projects. One parent is designing the school logo, while another is building the school’s website.

Starting a new school is exhausting, but it’s thrilling too, McEvoy said. Even when the job calls for opening dozens of milk cartons and fork wrappers every day at lunch.

“That’s the joy of spending each and every day with so many four- and five-year-olds,” McEvoy said.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

Even before P.S./I.S. 276 Battery Park City School moved into a new green building this past fall, residents were excited about the school.

“Before we moved into the building, people in the neighborhood would send me pictures of the progress,” said Terri Ruyter, the school’s principal. “That’s how invested the community is. I think it is because the community wanted another school in the neighborhood for a long time.”

Heralded as the city’s most environmentally conscious school, P.S. 276 moved into a new green building in southern Battery Park City this past fall after spending its first year in “incubator” space at the Dept. of Education headquarters half a mile away.

“We have a beautiful new school,” said parent coordinator Erica Foley Weldon.

“It is all green construction with solar panels and state of the art everything.”

P.S. 276 has sweeping views of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty and New Jersey.

The school gets 50 percent of its energy from solar panels, focuses on recycling and composting, and has a weather station. With an outdoor science laboratory, P.S. 276 emphasizes early science education.

“We have a science teacher who studied early childhood science education at Bank Street and she integrates the natural world into the curriculum,” said Ruyter.

For 6th graders, there is an environmental component to the science curriculum. During a unit on the weather, the older kids viewed An Inconvenient Truth in order to add context to the curriculum.

The school also places great importance on art and music.

“We aim to educate the whole child,” said Weldon.

Small classes of 20 to 25 students ensure that students get plenty of attention. The school now runs kindergarten through 2nd grade, with a 6th grade, and will grow as the children do. By 2013, Ruyter expects the school to reach full capacity as a kindergarten through 8th grade.

The community plays an important role in the school, and the administration credits the amount of parent involvement.

“We have a great community and PTA,” said Weldon.

“The green building is lovely, but it’s mostly about the community,” said Ruyter. “We have a great parent body and even people who don’t have kids are very proactive and involved. There is really a sense of this being a neighborhood school.”