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Local Elected Officials Differ Over Closing Of High Schools Elected officials representing Can-arsie spoke at the recent Community Board 18 meeting at the Kings Plaza Community Room and expressed disappointment that they were not informed about the Department of Education’s decision to close two local schools. “I first heard the news on the radio that South Shore High School and Til-den High School weren’t going to accept new students next year,” said state Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein. “None of us were consulted or involved in any part of the process. There weren’t even any discussions among the De-partment of Education, the parents and students. I am in complete dismay. Elected officials need to be included in future decisions like this about our community schools.” “The physical plans for the building haven’t been finalized, but it’s im-portant that these schools return to being institutions that are good for our children,” added Weinstein, a South Shore alumnus. “It’s also important that our children don’t have to travel outside the community to get an education.” Two weeks ago the DOE announced that, due to “dismal graduation rates, consistently low test scores and a poor history of educating low performing students,” South Shore, Tilden and Lafayette high schools will be phased out over the next three years and closed by 2010. According to DOE officials, the closed schools will likely be restructured and become a collection of smaller schools with student enrollments not expected to exceed 500. However, state Senator Carl Kruger agreed with the plan. “Let’s blow it up,” he said. “ There’s no way of fixing something that is so broken. This is the only fair thing to do because we’re sending students who are failing out into the world and there is a lot of chaos in these schools. “In addition - these schools haven’t really been serving our community and by keeping them running the way they are, things aren’t improving,” he said. “I think this is one of the best ways to try to solve an ongoing problem. This decision was a step in the right direction.” He also said that while parental in-volvement is encouraged, the smaller schools scheduled to replace those closing schools need to “avoid adding layers of bureaucracy in an attempt to fix an ailing system.” City Councilman Kendall Stewart said that closing the schools isn’t a solution. “We need to identify where the problems lie,” he said. “I want to know how these schools are going to be better after they’re broken up. We need to put more resources into the schools. We also need to examine why these students are failing and how things got to this point. “I am very disappointed that the Department of Education didn’t feel they had to discuss this decision with us,” he added. “All we ask as politicians is that we know what is happening to our schools.”
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