Schools That Work
Coming up big — in more ways than one
Feb 5, 2009 2:14 PM
Chapter Leader Gail McLean high fives a successful student.
Tops in Bronx enrollment, this elementary school excels
[For more photos, go to the “Coming up big — in more ways than one” gallery]
Every morning, a steady stream of students heads in through the front doors of PS 86 in the Bronx. The 82-year-old building, with five floors and high ceilings, has more than 1,700 students and is the largest elementary school in the Bronx.
Children come in with eager faces, the little ones tagging behind older siblings or family members. Parents have been known to plead to get their kids into the school.
PS 86 received a Department of Education Progress Report grade of A two years in a row. Thirty-two percent of its students are English Language Learners, while 33 percent are in special education classes.
The school has close to 200 staff members. Over a stretch of 15 years, not one has filed a single grievance.
Related service providers were given less space this year, but there were no complaints. Lesley Gold works one-on-one with a student on phonetic awareness.
The absolute top priority for Principal Sheldon Benardo is supporting the needs of the classroom, where he started his 36-year career.
“If you haven’t walked in their (teachers’) shoes, it’s impossible to understand the pressures and how they feel,” he said.
Every classroom has a SMART Board, a state-of-the-art tool that teachers use to energize their presentations.
Mary Paranac, who teaches English to 5th-grade ELL students, said the faculty shares a special relationship with the administration, calling it “more of a peer relationship than anything.”
Paranac said she’s held accountable for her performance academically, socially and emotionally in the classroom, and she is “very well supported” in those areas by her colleagues and administrators.
“It took me the longest to understand why my students were talking so much after I gave them an assignment to work on,” said the second-year teacher, a graduate of Barnard College and one of several Teach for America recruits on staff.
An assistant principal clued her in to the fact that her students were talking to each other about their assignments, helping each other translate and understand the instructions.
On the day that the New York Teacher visited, a steady hum permeated the room as students discussed a math assignment given to them to prepare for an assessment.
Last year, Principal Benardo had to inform staff that they would lose one of their three buildings, while their exceptionally large student population would not decrease. Some teachers would have to give up space.
“It’s always my perspective that the classroom teachers are the most important people in the school, and their integrity has to be maintained at all times,” said Benardo.
He decided that speech teachers and other related service providers would have to make do with less space in order to prevent class sizes of 25-26 students from swelling to 32-36.
Principal Sheldon Bernardo collaborates with (from left) Mery Lopez, Lydia Gonzalez, Grisel Santiago, Chapter Leader McLean and Maria Vega.
“The RSPs had to know that for the good of the school, they may not have their own classroom anymore,” Benardo said.
Some RSPs are now in smaller rooms, others in out-of-the-way hallway corners.
Speech teacher Mercedes Scott told her students that, while they may not work in a room anymore, they need to stay focused. “They’ve been doing pretty well so far,” she said.
Benardo has a great working relationship with UFT Chapter Leader Gail McLean, a guidance counselor who was a teacher on staff when Benardo came in as principal 18 years ago.
McLean says she could not have met the challenges with students, staff or parents without the principal’s support.
“He understands that in order for the students to do well, the teachers have to be happy,” said McLean.
Benardo expects much from teachers and makes it his business to provide the supplies they need to be effective in the classroom, she added.
Eliva Cintron, a paraprofessional with special education students, said she feels connected to the team of professionals at the school and has a good relationship with administrators.
According to McLean, a successful school has leaders who manage relationships with and among the staff well. By that, and other measures, PS 86 is thriving.
Teacher Anjali Kulkari finds the SMART Board to be a great tool.
