Metropolitan Avenue New Construction

 
Dear District 28 Community Member,

A new school building will be opening in September 2010 at 91-30 Metropolitan Avenue.

The building is being built to address the seat need for grades 6-12 in the community. The new building will contain a 998 seat high school (grades 9-12) and a 913 seat secondary school (grades 6-12). There will also be a 216 seat District 75 program on the campus. The schools will be separate, although there will be shared spaces, such as the auditorium.

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Wednesday, June 17th
7:30 PM
90-27 Sutphin Blvd
Metro Campus Task Force Meeting

SUMMARY:

In September 2010, the Metro Campus will be completed. The campus is made up of 2 schools. A locally zoned HS (9th – 12th grade) that will house approximately 1,000 students and will open with 9th grade only. In addition, there will be a District 28 choice ISHS (grades 6th – 12th) that will have approximately 700 seats. The ISHS will open with 6th and 7th grades. Also, there will be approximately 216 District 75 students.


Gary Hecht, Deputy Superintendent District 75

District 75 was created 35 years ago. District 75 services students throughout the city of NY. District 75 is currently serving 23,000 students who have the most significant challenges and receive education within the Department of Education. District 75 services children that are multiply handicapped, have severe cognitive delays and a secondary condition that is many times life threatening. They also serve students that are autistic, the largest population of students, and it is growing every year. D75 services students that are mentally retarded, learning disabled, emotionally challenged, hearing and visually impaired and students that are on home or hospital instruction and cannot go to school because of disabilities.

District 75 currently has 10 programs within District 28 at various schools. Mr. Hecht spoke about a new program at East Elmhurst High school in D28. East Elmhurst HS opened as a campus school with 2 other principals. The 2 principals were new to the school System. D75 has staff and administrators that stay for a long period time. They have expert knowledge and expertise in the area of disability. The Principal for East Elmhurst Campus has been an administrator for 25 years. The D75 principal had the opportunity to work with the principals with shared resources, practices and procedures. In district 75, although they serve the most challenging students in the city of NY, they also have 1800 students in inclusion. The goal of district 75 is to work with the students and help them become as independent as possible and to return back into the general education population and have total integration. There are self contained buildings in every borough for severe students that act out or have real behavior problems until they improve their social, emotional and academic skills. Students in the co-located buildings have shown great progress.

Mr. Hecht discussed that District 75 is having difficulty providing service for students turning 5 in the DOE. They currently have 225 referrals for District 75 for turning 5, out of the 225, 125 are autistic. D75 has to find spaces for those turning 5. Many of the programs in District 28 are K-6. Next year, District 75 is thinking of changing from K to 5 and starting the 6th graders in a new program which will give them the opportunity to start with other students that are starting a program. Tthere will be integration from the beginning and allow them to possibly go to the school through 12th grade.

District 28 is currently providing services for 575 students. There are 5,200 students receiving services in Queens.

Caps in classes for District 75

Autistic 6:1:1

MR (mentally retarded), learning disabled and emotionally challenged 12:1:1

Multiply handicapped 12:1:4


SURVEY RESULTS

Survey results are posted on the DOE website and were distributed at the meeting

http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/2F7FF731-19D9-4B5E-A474-CFAB3056F1ED/63855/TheMetropolitanTaskForceSurveyResults1.pdf

This information will be used by the planning teams to incorporate what the community wants in their school proposals.

Suggestions for improving the survey:

· Separate surveys for multiple schools
· Ranking versus checking various themes for priority
· Include what school their child attends to see district wide reflection
· Simplify the summary, and list themes first versus questions
· Option for parents to fill out form twice for students in different grades

POTENTIAL PROPOSALS

The timeline for the Metro Campus was distributed at the meeting. The Applicant teams will use the feedback from the surveys in their proposals. The applicant teams will submit an abstract for both the ISHS and HS. OPP will give the applicant teams feedback. The Applicant teams will share their ideas with the community. Th e teams will then submit their final proposal.

The deadline for the HS (9th – 12th grade) is October 13th. Students will be able to apply for the 9th grade during the main high school admissions round.

And the deadline for the ISHS (6th – 12th grade) November is 3rd.

The interview process is made up of a panel of experts in the education field including but not limited to DOE experts, New Schools, community partners, CEC, and District Superintendents. Recommendations will then be made to the Chancellor. Once the proposal has been chosen, In the spring, there will be implementation where the DOE will help the leaders grow their proposals into action.

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Visit to Marsh Avenue School in Staten Island

June 2009

The Marsh Avenue School is a new facility that opened this year in Staten Island.
The building is beautiful, bright, airy and spacious. It is what one would expect a school to look like. The building is a shared space and is utilized by a 6-12, a 9-12 and a D75 school.

The Principal and 6th grade students, who explained the philosophy and mission for their school, gave the members of the Task Force that visited, a tour. Marsh Ave is an “Expeditionary learning” school in partnership with Outward Bound, through funds provided by the DOE and the Gates Foundation.

Expeditionary learning is a “project- based approach to education, in which the students take ownership for their learning and the teacher acts as facilitator. The children sit at “pie-shaped desks and work cooperatively learning through themes. There are 3-month long “investigations” using interdisciplinary education. This type of learning includes reading and writing across the curriculum, a great deal of professional development, promotes high levels of student engagement, and promotes parent involvement.

This year the students studied simple and complex machines and designed a functioning roller coaster. Additionally, they studied Ancient Egypt and created everything from a life-size sarcophagus to postcards home from Egypt.

The children also use NYC as part of their classroom, taking trips to museums, etc.
They are also invited to attend an Outward Bound adventure with a crew leader.

The Principal and parent leaders have made themselves available for questions.
Please contact Emily or Kathryn for their contact information.

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