My kids deserve a school want something different for
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | FEB. 7-FEB. 13, 2020 17
I’m tired. And it’s not because
being a public school
principal is an intense job.
It certainly is that — like so
many public school principals
in America, I work around the
clock. But I love being the principal
of Success Academy Far
Rockaway. Laughing with my
kids and watching them flourish
and fulfill their potential as
readers and writers, dancers
and chess players, scientists
and artists, makes the hours of
each day fly by.
No. I’m tired because since
the start of this school year, I
have been helping my fourthgrade
scholars and their families
cope with the almost unbelievable
reality that they may
be forced to leave the school
they love because Mayor de
Blasio won’t provide them with
adequate space for a middle
school, even though there are
district buildings that could
share space because they are
under-utilized.
Parents from my school
and three other Success Academies
in Queens have been
waiting for a permanent space
for a middle school for three
years. Success made the initial
request in January 2017, and
since then parents have been
patient and cooperative, even
as the city repeatedly reneged
on its promise to provide a solution.
Now, these parents are
facing the imminent eviction
of their fourth-graders: Success
Academy middle school
starts in fifth grade, there are
less than six months left of the
school year, and their children
have nowhere to go.
Supporting my families as
they face this looming threat is
draining, particularly because
I have an acute understanding
of what’s at stake. I grew up in
Washington Heights, sharing
a one-bedroom apartment with
my mother and two siblings.
I didn’t have access to many
resources, let alone a top-tier
education. I was able to make it
through high school and on to
college thanks to my mother’s
unflagging support and the
strong value for education she
instilled in me. But it should
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have been so much easier —
and it would have been, if I had
attended a school like Success
Academy.
I have watched Far Rockaway
parents move from palpable
anxiety to deep anger. They
see the tremendous opportunities
that Success Academy
middle and high schools provide
for kids: Advanced Placement
courses and extracurriculars
in the high school, where
students are acing the SATs
and gaining acceptance — and
generous financial aid packages
— to top colleges. They see a
middle school experience just
out of reach, where their kids
would be known, loved and
supported, where they would
have access to great programs
in sports, debate, chess and art,
where they would take — and
excel in — three high-school
Regents courses by the end of
eighth grade.
And they see the possible
alternatives, reflected in the
community around them. Only
one in three adults in Queens
have completed college. They
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their kids, and that’s why they
chose Success Academy Far
Rockaway: to make sure a path
to college would be opened.
The deepest source of their
anger is the fact that this problem
has a straightforward
solution. There are six public
school buildings in this part of
Queens, each with 400 to 1,000
empty seats. They know that
Mayor de Blasio is dodging his
responsibility by hiding behind
the widespread misperception
that co-location poses a burden
on existing schools. The reality
is that two-thirds of all public
schools in New York City are
co-located — in most cases, it is
either utterly unnoticeable or
actually beneficial.
Take the co-location in my
building, for example. As participants
in the NYC DoE’s
District-Charter Partnership
initiative, we share professional
development opportunities
so that educators in all our
schools benefit. And we are a
community: We just enjoyed a
building-wide Halloween celebration.
Far from being burdened,
our co-located district
schools are thriving. Since
Success Academy opened four
years ago, both district schools
have experienced a rise in enrollment
and test scores — a
trend that research has found
to be the rule rather than the
exception for district schools
co-located with charters.
Each day, as I contemplate
the mayor’s cynical obstruction,
I think of my fourthgraders.
They are some of the
hardest-working kids I have
ever met. They truly love to
read — half the time I have to
tell them to keep their noses
out of a book! They are also
really, really funny — I regularly
find myself laughing on
the way home as I think about
what they did or said that day.
And finally, they are some of
the best singers and dancers
I’ve ever seen. I have a high bar
for singing and dancing — but
they make me feel like I have
two left feet.
These kids are amazing.
They deserve everything. But
day after day, the mayor gives
them nothing.
Wouldn’t that make you
tired?
Jose Rosario is the principal
of Success Academy Far
Rockaway.
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