Apr 24, 2008 4:15 PM
Closing large high schools and redesigning them into smaller ones has been one of the education changes that predated Schools Chancellor Joel Klein but that he has nonetheless championed. That would not explain, however, his plan to bulldoze the Julia Richman Education Complex, one of the city’s best examples of the small school movement where the graduation rate exceeds those of both the city and the state.
Just this month, JREC was named the recipient of a national design award. It has been lauded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which called it a model for urban educational reform. Parents, students and community leaders are outraged at the chancellor’s plan to demolish the school.
The Department of Education has spent $30 million re-designing the 82-year-old building so that each of its schools — four specialized high schools, a middle school for autistic children and an elementary school — can operate autonomously.
The building boasts two large gymnasiums, a swimming pool, a modern, 1,400-seat auditorium, a separate performance theater, a custom-designed library, a health clinic that provides free services to students and even a center where student-parents can drop off their young children each morning.
Nevertheless, the chancellor plans to raze the building as part of a land swap made with Hunter College. Klein and City Hall officials secretly sealed the deal with the City University of New York to turn over the Julia Richman site to Hunter, which plans to erect a new high-rise science center.
In return, Hunter agreed to sell its auxiliary campus on East 25th Street to a private developer. The college has promised to require the developer, as part of any new condominium construction, to build a replacement site for Julia Richman.
In the meantime, the six schools — Urban Academy HS, Talent Unlimited HS, Vanguard HS, Manhattan International HS, PS 226 Junior High Annex and Ella Baker Elementary School — would be relocated to a new building two miles away. But many parents say it will be impossible to recreate the success that has been achieved.
An award celebration at the school on April 14, which Klein did not attend, centered on the American Architectural Foundation’s Richard Riley Award for excellence in design and service to the community. In making the presentation to school administrators, Ronald Bogle, the foundation’s president and CEO, stated: “Julia Richman is the only school on the East Side to win — and I mean the east side of the United States of America!”
Show of defiance
The school’s auditorium was brimming with people, in a show of defiance against the chancellor’s plan to destroy the building. Parents, teachers, and community leaders were joined by concerned neighbors. The Ella Baker Elementary School drummers helped set the mood of resistance. Talented young musicians and vocalists from other schools performed.
UFT President Randi Weingarten was there to congratulate the administration and staff for making all six of the schools places where parents want to send their children and where educators want to teach.
“If we can stand together and make it clear we will not take no for an answer, we will win this one, too,” she vowed, bringing the audience to its feet.
The auditorium, with perfect acoustics put in by MTV, is unlike any other in any school in the city and is regularly used as a practice space by professional musicians in the community. The Inter-School Orchestra, which graced the stage for the celebration, also rehearses there.
“And this is what they want to tear down? Are they out of their minds?” said Jane Hirschmann, a parent leader who is working with the school to fight Klein’s plan to destroy the building.
“We don’t want them to disrupt this community,” said Sheila Maguire, whose son attends Urban Academy HS. “There’s nothing like this in terms of the sense of community, a sense of belonging.”
Others describe the campus as an “ecosystem,” a vibrant center of the community.
“The kids stay late, until all hours doing homework, being with friends who come from all over,” said another parent. “They love being here.”
Why it works
The reason JREC is a small school campus that works, said Urban Academy Chapter Leader Terry Weber, “is because all the principals and APs are part of a building council whose decisions require agreement from everyone.”
“This is our state-of-the-art building. We don’t want any other,” Louis Delgado, principal of Vanguard HS, declared in accepting the national design award.
The enthusiastic audience at the celebration included alumni from the days when Julia Richman was the premiere all girls’ school in the city.
“They had the most beautiful girls,” remarked a 1950 alum, who preferred to give only her first name, Evelyn.
She recalled that actress Lauren Bacall was a year ahead of her when she attended. “I remember the talk when she got her big break,” said Evelyn. “People were saying, ‘Oh, she’s going to Hollywood, she got a job.’”
You can tell the people at JREC care for the building like a home when you step into it. Much of the original architecture has been maintained. The high-ceilinged lobby, named for a custodian who recently retired, features towering pillars topped with gold-painted capitals, rising above a spotless, tile floor. When the building opened in 1924, it was visited by the Prince of Wales. Other historical touches include wrought iron railings in extra-wide halls and marble shower stalls by the pool.
The land deal requires the approval of Community Board 8, which will be taking up the issue at its next meeting at 310 East 67th Street, on May 12. More on the effort to save JREC is available on the school’s Web site, www.jrec.org.