12 MARCH C R Y D E R P O I N T Rallying for Flushing High BY MELISSA CHAN Parents, teachers and students at an embattled Flushing school are fighting to keep the city out of their space. Scores of supporters gathered at Flushing High School to have their voices heard by the Department of Education (DOE) during an agencyhosted public hearing on February 28. The city plans to add a small district high school and a Chinese bilingual school inside the storied institution. The two new schools would share the building — including the gym, cafeteria and auditorium — with Flushing High School students. “Our goal is to create a system of great schools that prepare all students for college,” said DOE spokesperson Devon Puglia. “Designed to meet the needs of individual communities, our new, small schools have delivered resounding results.” Math teacher Jessica Dimech said the proposal was just another blow to the struggling school after the city unsuccessfully tried closing it less than a year ago. “You gave us another six months with a stacked deck and cut our funding,” said Dimech, also a member of the school’s leadership team. “The DOE time and time again pulls the carpet from underneath us. Please just let me do my job.” The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) is largely expected to vote in favor of the proposal on March 11, sources said. The panel supported the city’s attempt to shutter dozens of city schools last April before a court order reversed the approval. Freshman Stephanie Kouboulas cried as she vouched for Flushing High School at a recent public hearing. But the Queens representative on the panel, Dmytro Fedkowskyj, said he would vote against the plans. “Enough is enough. Flushing High School doesn’t want to be part of a chance experiment,” he said. According to Juan Mendez, superintendent of Queens high schools, the change would decrease enrollment by 850 students at the crowded school. Flushing would take in fewer incoming freshman under the plan. 12 cryder point courier courier | MARCH 2013 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM There is also a proposal to place an international school, serving English language learners, inside Newtown High School in Elmhurst. The new institution would prepare recently arrived immigrant students for college. Newtown improved from a “C” to a “B” on its last DOE progress THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan report. Flushing received a “D” in the last two years, recently failing both student progress and performance. Flushing High freshman Stephanie Kouboulas vouched for “the best teachers” at the school as she broke down in tears. “You want us just to fade out into the dust and never be here,” said Kouboulas, 14. “Flushing High School has been here a long time. It shouldn’t go anywhere.” STUDY: NOT ENOUGH PRE-K SEATS BY TERENCE M. CULLEN Not enough of the city’s school four-yearolds are going to pre-kindergarten, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio announced in a new study, especially in Queens. For Queens, this means that for every five applicants there is one Pre-K seat — effectively leaving many tots without the early education the public advocate believes they need. Two of the densest Queens school zones regarding applicants per seat are District 24, in the central and southwest parts of the borough, and District 26 in the northeast. “The shortage of high-quality, full-time pre-K seats is hurting thousands of families in every borough,” de Blasio said in a statement. “We can’t continue to be a city where only a fraction of our kids has access to early education, and where working parents have to roll the dice every year and hope they’re lucky enough to secure a seat. It’s 2013, and it’s time for truly universal pre-K in New York City.” Only 20,000 of the city’s 68,000 eligible children get to go to pre-K, according to de Blasio’s report. The public advocate has proposed a plan to allow all four-year-olds to go to pre-K. Funding would come from a proposed income tax on residents making $500,000 or more.
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