I wrote the column below, which originally appeared in the Oct. 15 Queens Chronicle, together with Leslie O’ Grady, the co-president of the PTA at Francis Lewis. Because NYC parents and teachers share common interests, we felt it would make a strong statement if we showed our alliance on the issues of class sizes, overcrowding and flagrant disregard of the Contracts for Excellence.
We felt our situation at Francis Lewis had been ignored for years, so this year we became very active in getting the word out about conditions at the school. As a result, we’ve been featured in the New York Post, the Daily News, the New York Times, WABC, and most importantly, right here at GothamSchools. Naturally we wanted to share our column with the GothamSchools community, and here it is:
Overcrowded, Oversized, and Overlooked As the new school year begins, Francis Lewis High School is again challenged by severe overcrowding. Joel Klein promised the state as part of the city’s “Contract for Excellence” that our school would reduce its class sizes through “The Contract for Excellence” to 30 students per class this school year-on the way down to 25 students per class. Why, then, have we seen dozens of classrooms filled beyond the 34 allowed by the union contract, gym classes of 160 students, and a school “day” that literally doesn’t end till night? At Lewis, there are 75 classes of 35 students or more; high school classes in the rest of the state average twenty. Our state’s highest court said that because of excessive class sizes, New York City children were deprived of their constitutional right to an adequate education. In response, the city was provided with hundreds of millions of dollars in extra state funds to lower class size. Despite this, class sizes have been increasing. Rather than help us provide a quality education, the Department of Education has chosen to increase our enrollment. Francis Lewis High School was built to hold 1800 students back in 1960. Fifty years later this school houses 4600, and is growing virtually every minute. Our children attend school as early as 7:15 AM and as late as 6:47 PM. We’ve tried to alleviate the overcrowding by splitting rooms, by converting storage and work spaces, and by adding trailers, but it seems each time we make room for 100 kids, they send us 200 more. This is a tremendous strain on our resources. Our students are already forced to sacrifice extra-curricular activities, tutoring, sports, and clubs because their classes run so late. To maintain quality, to inspire and engage kids, we need them involved. Why does Tweed keep throwing obstacles in our path? Does the mayor or the chancellor eat lunch at 8:57 am? Our kids do. Do they have to push through crowds of hundreds to reach his office? Our kids do. Do they have to sit on windowsills because there’s no room in their offices for desks? Our kids do. How can we turn this around while we still can? First, the DoE needs to stop sending us so many additional kids. Extra space should accommodate our current population, not serve as yet another rationale to exacerbate the overcrowding. Next, we need to limit incoming classes to 800 students. Within four years, Lewis would enroll 3200 kids who could move around the halls without risking life and limb. Then, we might also be able to start reducing class size, as the agreement with the state dictates. To do that, we have to start building more schools in Queens and elsewhere. Though most every high school in the borough is badly overcrowded, there are only two new intermediate/high schools to be built citywide in the city’s new five year capital plan. A recent estimate shows that at least 33,000 new high school seats are needed in Queens alone. Rather than build sufficient numbers of traditional public schools, the Mayor has just announced that he will form a task force of business leaders to create 100,000 new seats in charter schools. What does that show about his priorities? It’s also about time our kids had normal school hours. It’s absurd that some of our students must travel two or more hours from the Bronx, leaving at 4 AM to arrive here by 7. It’s even worse that kids travel long distances unescorted late at night. If we’re really going to place “children first,” we need to take a serious look at their safety and welfare. We have great kids. They’re hardworking and have overcome all sorts of unfavorable conditions, and because of them, we’re one of the best schools in the city. It’s a miracle of sorts. But we can’t rely on miracles, and we can’t continue taking our kids for granted. Last week Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein stood before News 4 cameras and spoke about how great Francis Lewis is. Though we’ve recently been featured in the Post, the News, and the Times, they appeared utterly unaware there were any problems with the conditions that we have placed our students in. This is beyond remarkable. Many formerly good schools have fallen on hard times because of the policies of this administration. A recent report from the New School showed how the proliferation of small schools caused an increase in overcrowding and the flooding of high-needs students at our large high schools, leading to a sharp decline in their graduation and attendance rates. Some of the schools that suffered “collateral damage” as a result have subsequently closed. When Jennifer Medina, the reporter from the Times, visited Lewis, she kept asking people, “When is the turning point? When does a great school become a mediocre school?” No one knows for sure, but there’s one thing we can all agree on-we need to stop the overcrowding before we find out. If the mayor cares about our children, let him act now. We’ve been waiting eight long years, and are running short on patience; our kids are running short of time. This column originally appeared in the Queens Chronicle.
About our First Person series:
First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education. Read our submission guidelines here.