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Opinion: BCC Must Rethink Decision to Evict High School

February 5, 2010

By ROLAND LEGIARDI-LAURA

Rebecca Thomas’ thoughtful article requires elaboration:

1) Bronx Community College claims rapid growth in enrollment is the single cause forcing it to expel University Heights Secondary School (UHHS). This is an unstable basis for a specious argument. Several years from now, when the economy recovers, and students return to four-year institutions, BCC will become a ghost town. It’s illogical to evict a successful high school for what is only a temporary aberration.

2) BCC doesn’t use its own space efficiently. Classrooms and entire buildings sit empty because of poor planning or poor maintenance. The successful educational culture of UHHS must not be sacrificed because BCC’s administration is near-sighted and verging on incompetence. If, as one UHHS student pointed out at the recent town hall meeting, BCC claims they will have nearly 4,000 new students, how will they seat them all by capturing one building that handles 400—one tenth of their purported growth? BCC will gain marginally by commandeering this building but the impact upon the high school will be devastating and permanent. An independent entity must be mandated to survey the entire campus, and offer an alternative plan.

3) BCC Vice-President, Mary Colman, is outrageously trying to pit the students of BCC against UHHS students. To argue that BCC must choose between either their “own” students or those of the high school, is an attempt to force a wedge between people who are all in the same boat. BCC doesn’t have to sacrifice one group of deserving kids to serve another. With thought, both can be well served on this huge 56-acre campus.

4) UHHS has been successful (three consecutive A ratings from the Department of Education, putting it in the top 13 percent of high school citywide; millions of dollars in scholarships won annually by its students) for two very important reasons:

a) Studying on a college campus not only inspires youngsters to strive toward higher education: a high percentage of UHHS students take college level courses at BCC. This engenders a high graduation rate: 85 percent in 2009 compared to roughly 60 percent citywide and between 36-52 percent in the Bronx – depending upon whom you believe. The most important fact supporting this assertion: The vast majority of UHHS graduates – 81 percent – go on to college.

b) The campus is a safe haven in the most dangerous borough in New York City and the poorest urban county in the United States. Students don’t pass through metal detectors or suffer the indignities of being wanded entering their building. If you attend a school that feels like jail and treats you like a prisoner, you are more likely to behave like a prisoner than a scholar.

5) The DOE must help solve this problem. If BCC has its heart set upon full 24-hour use of Nicholls Hall (current home of UHHS), then the DOE should build a new state-of-the-art high school on the BCC campus for the University Heights community. Once it is up and running and UHHS is moved in, Nicholls Hall can be reprogrammed for BCC’s needs. UHHS must remain on this campus. It is the only high school in this council district. In the meantime, BCC and UHHS can share Nicholls Hall. The building is only used by the high School during normal school hours. What about evenings for college students? What about weekends? This is a workable interim solution while building the new school.

6) Where is the Teachers Union (UFT) in this battle? Many dedicated teachers have spent their entire careers working at UHHS. It is unconscionable to allow the city to squander the work of these successful pedagogues who have labored for decades building a strong school. Inaction by the union won’t be tolerated by its rank and file. The UFT must protect its teachers from reprisals by an ungrateful or embarrassed DOE.

7) Finally, UHHS’ school community— parents, students, alums, teachers, staff and many former students now attending BCC, spoke unequivocally at the meeting – “We will negotiate in a public forum. But we will not be moved!” As Captain John Parker said to his small band of Minutemen on Lexington Green facing the better-armed British army on April 19, 1776—“Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a way, let it begin here.” We know who won that war.

Legiardi-Laura has been a guest teaching-artist at University Heights High School for the past eight years.

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One Response to “Opinion: BCC Must Rethink Decision to Evict High School”

  1. DOE Proposes New Home For High School : Mount Hope Monitor on February 8th, 2010 9:05 pm

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