Facing enrollment drop, one Bronx middle school tries its hand at marketing
Will Frackelton held a microphone in front of dozens of his seventh and eighth graders, wriggling in their seats in the auditorium that they share with two other Bronx schools. Students and staff from Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship, where Frackelton is the principal, had gathered for a town hall last month that covered […]
NYC vows to pay pre-K providers after lengthy delays
Facing a mounting crisis of delayed payments that have left some preschool providers hurtling toward insolvency, top education department officials vowed on Thursday to clear the backlog and pay providers on time. In the next two weeks, officials said they are spinning up “rapid response” teams to individually work with the community organizations that operate […]
NYC will convert 100 fuel-burning public schools to all-electric energy by 2030
New York City will commit billions of dollars to convert 100 fuel-burning public school buildings to cleaner energy by 2030 as part of an effort to comply with emissions reductions mandated by city law, Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday. The city will spend roughly $4 billion over the next seven years on a plan that […]
Hurricane Sandy 10 years later: Educators and parents reflect on how the storm shaped them
Hurricane Sandy blew into New York City late on Oct. 29, 2012, when the city’s hundreds of school buildings were empty of students and staff. In the days that followed, the physical toll of the storm on the city’s schools became clear. Some 200 schools were damaged, from flooded auditoriums to a lack of heat […]
NYC middle schools bring back selective admissions, but to far fewer campuses
Selective admissions will return to dozens of New York City middle schools this fall after a two-year pandemic pause, but in far smaller numbers than before — dramatically reshuffling the city’s notoriously stressful and complex application process. Schools Chancellor David Banks left the decision to reinstate competitive middle school admissions up to each district’s superintendent, […]
Nearly 10% of NYC students were homeless last year, according to report
Nearly 1 in 10 students in New York City public schools were homeless last school year, a rate that has stayed largely unchanged for the past six years, even as enrollment has dropped, according to new data released Wednesday. A total 104,383 children lacked permanent housing last school year across district and charter schools, according […]
AOC, Bo Dietl, and advocates for selective schools: Here’s who David Banks met as NYC schools chief
David Banks became the leader of New York City’s school system in January at a moment of crisis, with the omicron variant fueling an explosion in coronavirus cases that sent student attendance plunging. Yet aside from a flurry of COVID briefings that tapered off after a few weeks, Banks’ first three months in office were […]
24 principals in Manhattan’s District 3 sign petition against middle school admissions screens
In a Manhattan district with a history of contentious battles over school admissions, two dozen principals have come out against the return of academic screens at district middle schools, according to a copy of a petition obtained by Chalkbeat. The message to district leader Kamar Samuels from 24 out of 30 elementary and middle school […]
