Highbridge parents are opposed to a new proposal by the city Department of Education to make all elementary schools teach children from kindergarten to fifth grade, starting next fall. Instead, they want the neighborhood’s only K-6 school to be converted into a K-8 school, thereby creating the neighborhood’s first middle school.

“It’s just a mess,” said Evelyn Curry, 75, a retired social worker who has lived in the neighborhood since 1971.

Agnes Johnson (left), a Highbridge resident, and Nadine Foster (right), the principal of Public School 126, have a discussion after the public hearing at P.S. 126 on Dec. 8, 2009. Photo: Delphine Reuter.

The city’s proposal is aimed at making all 10-year-olds start middle school on the same level. In Highbridge, there is no middle school and only one K-6, Public School 126, which will be truncated to a K-5 if the proposal is approved. About 125 children will be sixth-graders next September, according to the principal, Nadine Foster. She added that the pupils would have to travel outside the neighborhood for their next classes. Anxious parents say bullying and other problems are likely to occur on these long trips.

“I’m not ready for my 9-year-old granddaughter to take the bus by herself,” said Yvonne Montague, a 47–year-old nurse and Highbridge resident whose grandchildren attend P.S. 126.

Montague and Curry were among about 150 people who attended a public hearing at the school on Dec. 8. Community leaders, parents, pupils and residents asked Dolores Esposito, the community district superintendent, to convert the school into a K-8.

“This would be a wonderful opportunity for the kids,” said Foster.

It would also go against the standardization wanted by the education department.
But the Highbridge community is growing. Even though a new middle school is slated to open in 2013, it will only offer 389 seats when 2,000 are needed, said Chauncey Young, a community activist who volunteers for United Parents of Highbridge.

“Having a K-8 would give more space,” Young said. “P.S. 126, as a K-6, has always been a refuge for kids who would otherwise have to travel outside the neighborhood.”

Highbridge is bordered by the Cross Bronx Expressway to the north and the Grand Concourse on its eastern side. The pupils cannot reach their schools outside the neighborhood without taking the bus. The impact assessment made by the education department for the K-5 proposal concluded that middle schools like the Science and Technology Academy, three blocks east from the Grand Concourse, should be able to host Highbridge sixth-graders.

Some residents parallel the decision to reduce P.S. 126 activities to the general lack of resources in Highbridge: a year and a half ago, the public library was closed, and it has been years since they could walk to the post office or to a bank. Today, they need to drive there.

Agnes Johnson, a teacher and activist who used to live in Harlem, said the clock was ticking and the community had to work as one.

“You have to tell the people: ‘We cannot afford to live like this anymore,’” she said. “The community has to make their issues a priority for politicians, and not an afterthought.”

Nancy Santiago, parent coordinator at P.S. 126, said the school’s principal could be trusted to raise people’s awareness about the proposal, especially since the fight to get a new middle school has gathered a lot of interest over the past years.

“People are here even if they don’t fully understand,” said Santiago.

Ted Garcia, president of the Community Education Council of District 9, which comprises Highbridge, is confident that people will oppose the city’s proposal with their own.

“If parents don’t stand up for their kids and their rights, the city will do what they want,” he said. “And parents are organizing right now.”

The city’s decision will be made public on Dec.17.