Apr 24, 2008 6:56 PM
Had we not run into plenty of examples of Chancellor Klein’s arrogance, we would not believe what is happening at Julia Richman. After all, isn’t the complex of six small schools, with track records of success — the graduation rate, for example, exceeds both city and state percentages — exactly the kind of school where the chancellor would hold press conferences citing it as the epitome of his and the mayor’s “reform work”? But Klein wants to demolish the school.
The Julia Richman Education Complex on Manhattan’s East 67th Street is not only an architectural gem and a model of what a complex of six small schools should be, but it is beloved by its students, faculty, parents and community. As our story on page 20 explains, it has been renovated to the tune of $30 million over the last 10 years. It has two large gyms, a state-of-the art 1,400-seat auditorium, a separate performance theater, a custom-designed library, a large swimming pool, a full-service health clinic and even a center for student-parents to drop off their young children each morning.
It is one of the few schools in the city in which the 900 students are served freshly prepared breakfast and lunch each day.
The complex functions as a bustling, lively community center.
As one parent asked incredulously, “And this is what they want to tear down? Are they out of their minds?”
But none of this seems to matter to the chancellor who, once again, seems intent on going his own way while thumbing his nose at the community.
With this colossal blunder in the making, the Julia Richman episode points out once again how necessary it is for important decisions affecting the school system to include the leavening voice of the public.
As we noted, this is hardly the first instance in which Chancellor Klein has said the public be damned and proceeded to go his own, wrong, way. There’s rather a long list, in fact, including questionable curricula, peculiar classroom arrangements, robotization of teachers, incredible micromanagement, reorganization after reorganization of the school system, overemphasizing tests to the exclusion of art and music and physical education and … well, the list goes on.
But the decision to dismantle Julia Richman is one of the most jaw-dropping. We sincerely hope that the protests by school and community members will finally penetrate the chancellor’s ego and bring about a reversal of his decision. Failing that, local Community Boards may be able to block the plan. They must.