www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY June 16, 2019 8
Highly respected TN principal announces retirement
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
Joseph Nobile, principal of P.S.
304 for the past 22 years, who has
guided the school for almost all of
its existence, has decided to retire
after 44 years of working for
fi rst the NYC Board of Education
and then the NYC Department
of Education.
“It is bittersweet,” said Nobile.
“I have a great school and
if I could freeze my age, I would
stay here forever. But time
marches on and I have no regrets.”
Nobile’s successor still
hasn’t been selected as of press
time, he said, though it is his
wish that the DOE consider an
assistant principal who works
closely with him for the position,
he said.
The principal said that he
is proud of a number of initiatives,
programs and activities
he brought to the school, but
cited the school’s high level of
achievement in reading and
math scores as P.S. 304’s greatest
accomplishment.
“I am most proud of our reading
and math scores being in
the highest in the district and
sometimes the Bronx in some
years,” said the principal.
He is also proud of P.S. 304’s
holiday shows, arts programs,
being part of the teacher-training
program for CUNY Lehman
Longtime P.S. 304 principal Joe Nobile will leave the school at the end of the
school year after 44 years serving the schoolchildren of District 8 as a teacher,
coach and principal. Schneps Media / Patrick Rocchio
College, the addition of a gifted
and talented program and the
school’s Liberty Lawn where
students celebrate Americana
and American history.
He has also served as a mentor
to all of the teachers, he
said, which he hired and guided
over the years, as well as to the
students.
“I can leave knowing I made
a difference to so many teacher
and students, and the parents
have been very supportive over
the years,” said Nobile. “It has
been a good run.”
He said he is going to miss
the student graduation exercises
a lot, as well as the energy
and pace of the school year.
Nobile said he spent his entire
career in District 8, including
at P.S. 123, P.S. 131, P.S. 125
and I.S. 174.
He recalled he began teaching
math in 1974 after one year
of selling insurance shortly
after he completed his undergraduate
degree at St. John’s
University.
He was encouraged to pursue
teaching by his parents and
family members.
Even though the city was letting
go teachers at the time he
was hired due to a fi scal crisis,
math teachers were very much
in demand, he said.
When he retires at the end
of this school year, he hopes
to spend more time with his
grown children and his grandchildren.
He would also use his time to
get into better physical shape,
and pursue his favorite hobbies
like cycling and creating
stained-glass art, said Nobile.
The principal, who comes
from Pelham Parkway, added
he also plans on doing some
traveling.
Other boros join in blasting Mott Haven jail proposal
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Once again, our sister boroughs
are uniting to oppose Mayor de Blasio’s
community-based jail plan.
Advocates from the Bronx,
Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan
announced a new campaign called
Boroughs United on Thursday,
June 6.
Launching an online opposition
campaign at DeBlasiosJails.com,
the citywide coalition targets not
only the plan to put a 24 to 25 fl oor
jail in Mott Haven at 745 E. 141st
Street, but each facility in the four
boroughs that would adopt a new
incarceration center.
“As Mayor de Blasio pitches
himself on the national stage as
a progressive presidential candidate,
this campaign will point
out that the mayor’s proposal is
not progressive at all,” Boroughs
United said through a statement.
“It is a regressive plan that will
not radically impact criminal justice
reform and will instead simply
divert billions of dollars in public
funding to the creation of new jails
that will have many of the same
problems seen at other New York
City jails,” it continued.
A similar motion of protest was
executed on Sunday, March 24,
when Borough President Ruben
Diaz, Jr. joined protestors from the
Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan
on the steps of City Hall in
opposing the concept of what they
call ‘a miss’ at proper criminal justice
reform.
Boroughs United counters that
it would be far more progressive to
invest those billions of dollars in
building communities, strengthening
diversion programs, providing
alternatives to incarceration
for pre-trial detainees, supporting
mental health and drug use treatment
programs, ensuring speedy
trials, addressing the systemic issues
related to conditions on Rikers
Island, and protecting “the rights of
detained and incarcerated women,
children and men of color.”
“Mayor de Blasio should withdraw
his deeply fl awed plan and
focus on progressive reforms that
strengthen communities and protect
human rights,” said Nancy
Kong, a spokesperson for Boroughs
United.
The Bronx portion of the citywide
coalition is led by South Bronx
Unite, a volunteer organization that
serves as a watchdog for the future
of Mott Haven, Port Morris and its
neighboring areas.
South Bronx Unite’s website has
its own page dedicated to the nearly
year and a half battle over the jail
plan with an online petition against
it as well.
“We applaud the city’s plan to
close Rikers Island, but the answer
is not to expand the criminal justice
footprint not in the south Bronx,”
the petition’s description says.
“We challenge the city to further
reduce the number of people in
jail through a combination of bail
reform, decriminalization of minor
offenses, and more restorative
ways to deal with crime that would
make the construction of a new facility
unnecessary,” it continued.
The launch of Boroughs United
comes just days after the Mott Haven
Community, led by Arline
Parks and Diego Beekman Mutual
Housing sued the city over the
south Bronx jail.
That urgently marked lawsuit is
still undergoing court proceedings.
Weeks prior to that, Diaz
joined Queens Borough President
Melinda Katz in sending de Blasio
a scathing letter of opposition
and dissentient over the way he
and the city have gone about the
attempt to close Rikers Island by
2027.
An earlier, citywide protest of the jail plan at City Hall on Sunday, March 24. Schneps Media/ Alex Mitchell
Nobile, who took over the reins at P.S.
304 about six months into its founding,
left his mark on the school. Here
his face is seen in a humorous display
created by students that mirrors their
principal’s sense of humor.
Schneps Media / Patrick Rocchio
/www.BXTimes.com
/DeBlasiosJails.com