The Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence (PROSE) program, which affords schools the freedom to experiment and innovate, is marking its 10th anniversary this school year. Nearly 300 teachers, chapter leaders and principals from the now 217 PROSE schools citywide gathered at union headquarters on Dec. 12 to celebrate.

Central Park East II, which has participated in PROSE for all 10 years of its existence, has used the freedom that the program affords to embrace project-based learning, change its teacher evaluation system and more.

Thanks to the PROSE program, Concord HS, a transfer high school for students ages 16 to 21 on Staten Island, has been able to revamp its school hours to meet the needs of its unique student population, who have not thrived in a traditional high school. That flexible schedule means that students don’t have to choose between school and shifts at Amazon or other work.

Miriam Krinick, who turned 100 in November, was honored on Nov. 1 at Brooklyn’s PS 108, where she taught for 18 years, at the unveiling of a Little Yellow Library, a charitable donation to the school from the Kendra Scott Foundation.

Actor Heather Simms is playing Missy Judson in the current Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious. She made her stage debut in 2nd grade at PS 243 in Crown Heights, hamming it up as the mother in “Hansel and Gretel.”

There is a room at IS 391 in the Bronx with color-changing lights, soft bean-bag chairs, a gurgling fountain, books and fidget toys.
“We needed a calming place where students could come for counseling, and students and staff could just sit and self-regulate,” said school social worker Michelle Jervis.