STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio cited a once-failing Stapleton elementary school Monday as an example of how such schools can successfully be turned around. The mayor, making one of the first major education policy announcements of his administration, said the city would devote $150 million to an initiative called "The School Renewal Program" to turn around...
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio cited a once-failing Stapleton elementary school Monday as an example of how such schools can successfully be turned around.
The mayor, making one of the first major education policy announcements of his administration, said the city would devote $150 million to an initiative called "The School Renewal Program" to turn around some 94 academically-struggling public schools in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, that had been previously identified by the State Education Department for closure.
Although Staten Island was the only district in the city that had no schools on the state list, the mayor cited Stapleton's PS 78 -- the former PS 14 -- as an example of how a struggling school could successfully be turned around. PS 14, in the shadow of the Stapleton Houses, was closed in 2012 during the Bloomberg administration, and the new PS 78 was phased in, using the same Tompkins Avenue building.
The mayor, however, made it clear he rejects the Bloomberg philosophy of "failing schools" that need to be closed.
"I'd like to think of it by a simpler name -- 'No Bad Schools' -- because that is what it's about -- ensuring no child in the city goes to a school that does not provide a high-quality education," de Blasio said of his initiative during a news conference Monday in Harlem.
The mayor said he intends to makeover struggling schools into "Community Schools" that "address a child's mental, physical, social and emotional well-being, in addition to their academic needs," and cited PS 78 as an example.
"PS 78, the Stapleton Lighthouse Community School in Staten Island, makes mental health a priority," he said. "It has a behavior intervention team with a guidance counselor, pyschologist and social workers, as well as staff from two nearby mental health clinics. It identifies students with challenges like ADHD or depression, and gets them help quickly, before their education suffers."
PS 78 has an enrollment of more than 500 students from kindergarten through fourth grade, with a fifth-grade to be added inSeptember 2015. The school is a Title I school that receives federal anti-poverty funds.
Borough President James Oddo and City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) visited the school earlier this year and came away impressed by the initiatives put in place by Principal Louis Bruschi.
"Clearly this building is one of the hubs of the Stapleton community. The better we can make the learning environment for these kids, the better it will be for the community," Oddo said.