James Hillhouse High School was one of 43 sites around New Haven that offered breakfast and lunch to kids this summer. Photo: Brian Dowling

Reported on July 10, 2010

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – When the school year ended for the city’s public school students, so did regular meal assistance through the national lunch program that provides breakfast and lunch at school to students of low-income families.

As part of a summertime extension of this program, sites around the city opened to provide free breakfast and lunches July 6 to kids who live in areas with a high enrollment in the lunch assistance program.

“Today is cereal for breakfast,” said Betty Forbes, Hillhouse High School’s summer cook, as she walked toward the breakfast and lunch calendars posted on the cafeteria wall, “and turkey, ham and cheese sandwiches with salad and fruit for lunch.” She served breakfast and lunch five days a week as part of the Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded effort started in 1968 to provide summer meals to kids who get free and reduced-price lunches during the school year.

A report, however, showed that the summer nutrition program struggled to provide food to those who needed it last year, and in response, New Haven launched an advertising campaign to increase participation. Advocates think that the number of people participating is low because many people do not know about the program and schools have had to meet a high percentage of school-year participation to open during the summer.

About 509 of Hillhouse High’s 979 students qualified for the free and reduced-price lunch program, but according to Forbes, only 160 made it to the cafeteria on Wednesday. She expected numbers to rise as the weeks pass and more people hear about the program. The majority of kids who ate at Hillhouse were at the school during the day as part of summer classes or other youth programs, and very few are walk-ins, she said.

“If you can’t afford to send your kids to class, at least let them come over and eat,” said Forbes about the few walk-ins. In New Haven, 36 sites were open to children under 18, like Hillhouse, while seven were closed to children enrolled in a summer program at that site.

Participation statewide, though higher than the national average, is still low. Last summer, less than 26 percent of Connecticut kids who participated in the national meal program during the school year continued with the meals during the summer, according to a report by the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

New Haven hopes to increase the program’s visibility with billboards, public service announcements and websites, as well as working with community groups, said Timothy Cipriano, executive director of food services for New Haven public schools. “A lot more could be done, but we lack the financial resources to do more,” Cipriano said. “Ideally we would have banners at every site advertising free meals, more billboards, utilize buses for their ad space.”

A lack of awareness, however, isn’t the only problem, according to Dawn Crayco, child nutrition and policy director of End Hunger Connecticut!, an anti-hunger advocacy group in Hartford, Conn. The other difficulty to increasing participation is making sure sites are available where they are needed. Some areas, Crayco explained, have schools with 30 or 40 percent participation in the school meals program, but because they don’t meet the 50 percent minimum, these schools cannot participate in the summer food program.

Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the program. With the reauthorization, school nutrition advocates hope to see the minimum participation level lowered from 50 percent to 40 percent, which is closer to the pre-1981 minimum of 33 percent.

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Campus of Essex County College, in Newark, N.J. While unemployment vouchers are accepted at other post-secondary institutions in Essex County, most students exercise the waivers at ECC given its two-year associate program, which serves as a bridge to a four-year education. Photo: Andaiye Taylor

NEWARK, N.J. – Cheritta Stewart knows better than to romanticize losing her job. At least, she won’t do so without qualification.

“I guess I can call it a blessing,” said the 29-year-old Newark native, who has been unemployed since 2008. “But it hasn’t been easy.”

Stewart was a case manager assistant at First Managed Care Option in Parsippany, N.J. when she was laid off; her duties there were mostly clerical. “Had this not have happened, I would have still been there dreaming about going to school,” she said.

The New Jersey Department of Labor’s tuition waiver program for people collecting unemployment benefits provides a bridge to new careers for state residents, including hundreds from Essex County, where unemployment was 11.8 percent as of July, according to preliminary U.S. Department of Labor data. Given its two-year associate degree program, which provides a smoother on-ramp to continuing education for students who are not prepared to leap into four-year programs, Essex County College in downtown Newark has enrolled many of these waiver-wielding students.

The Office of Student Affairs reports that the number of students who applied for classes with waivers has increased in the past few years: enrollment more than doubled from 393 during the 2008-2009 academic year, to 934 during the 2009-2010 year. Students can only exercise the waivers if other financial aid does not cover their tuition in full.

While students who were interviewed said unemployment presented ongoing economic challenges, they were nonetheless grateful for the opportunity to continue their education. None of them could imagine being able to afford classes without the support.

Tykyannah Fields, 28, was laid off from her job at the Irvington Board of Education. She intends to take courses in psychology at Essex County College full-time, and then use her associate degree as a first step to launching a counseling career in the school system.

The mother of three will rely on her network of family and friends to assist her with childcare while she attends classes. Even given the toughness of being unemployed, Fields said she thinks attending school right now is a worthwhile, career-boosting time investment.

The process Fields described for qualifying for the waiver aligns with the process laid out by the state Labor Department.  Unemployed applicants must first attend a series of workshops at a One-Stop Career Center. At the centers, would-be students receive career counseling to help determine a course of study. That chosen course must prepare participants for jobs in high-growth sectors as determined by the New Jersey Department of Labor.

Prospective students must also pass a qualifying exam at the center and be accepted into their chosen academic program. Waiver applicants can select courses after tuition-paying students have first reserved their seats in classes.

Waivers do not cover all costs for students, who are still responsible for books and fees. Patricia Vaden, an administrative assistant in the Essex County College student affairs office, cited the cost of books as the toughest hardship for waiver students to overcome, as those costs can approach the price of a single course.

In addition to the ailing economy, the number of students using tuition waivers has increased because of a federal policy change. According to Dean of Student Affairs Susan Mulligan, a federal policy alteration last year allowing financial aid offices to consider unemployment status when making award decisions increased enrollment by unemployed students. A March 2009 Department of Education memo advised state work force agencies to facilitate financial aid approval for the unemployed.

Despite her endorsement of the program, Stewart noted its key paradox: she had to first be laid off to receive the benefit. Describing her salary while employed as putting her “between a rock and a hard place” – she didn’t earn enough to afford school, but earned too much to qualify for substantial aid – she suggested that the program be expanded to also aid employed workers at lower income thresholds who want to advance their careers.

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A flier lies on the sidewalk outside of 242 Hoyt St. in Brooklyn, where two city-funded day cares face closure in a budget-cutting measure. Photo: Will Holloway

Reported on: July 12, 2010

Ederly Gonzalez doesn’t want to hear about alternative day care centers. She likes her 3-year-old son David’s current day care center.

David is one of 53 children enrolled at Strong Place Day Care, a city-subsidized program near the Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn. Strong Place is one of the 16 day care centers citywide scheduled for closure in less than a month by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services in a budget-cutting measure.

“They feel it’s not a necessity, but it is to this community,” Gonzalez, 38, said earlier this week. “People think it’s just a day care, but to these children, this is like a second home.”

Of the 16 programs slated for closure, 11 are in Brooklyn. Four are within Community Board 6 – one of the city’s 59 community districts – and two, Strong Place and Bethel Baptist Day Care, share the same building at 242 Hoyt St.

“We made the decision to consolidate centers with high-priced leases and where there are nearby alternative child care programs,” Laura Postiglione, press secretary for the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, wrote in an e-mail. “ACS has completed a comprehensive analysis of each of its directly leased facilities, identifying sites where we will be terminating the city’s lease agreements.”

“These closures will achieve significant cost savings,” Postiglione added. “ACS will work with parents of children in affected programs to ensure the continuity of care in their communities.”

According to Postiglione, 837 children citywide would be affected by the closures.

As children were dropped off on a recent weekday morning, parents and administrators alike noted that Strong Place and Bethel Baptist are crucial to families seeking a nurturing environment for their children.

Luvy Tavera, 22, lives in a shelter with her three children. She brings her 3-year-old daughter to Strong Place before heading off to her housekeeping job.

“This is my daughter’s second home,” she said. “She is very shy, but since coming here she is more open and likes to play. When she is here, she forgets that we are in a shelter.”

Lorraine Pennisi is the director of Strong Place, which has been operating for 40 years. “The mayor thinks we are babysitters,” she said. “But we are educators. This is about building people. We’re teaching them a sense of community and responsibility.”

At Bethel Baptist, Luz Santiago, 60, dropped off her niece, whose mother died three months ago. Marilyn Curry, 22, brought her 2-year-old daughter. Curry works two jobs and goes to school online.

“It’s like snatching a lifeline that links families to that sense of security,” said Joan Morris, director of Bethel Baptist, which currently serves 48 children. “It’s their shining star. It’s the safety zone for their kids.”

With July 1 rapidly approaching, parents’ frustration is only growing.

“How am I going to tell my son that he can’t come here anymore?” asked Gonzalez. “That he’s not going to see his friends anymore, he’s not going to see his teachers anymore – how do you explain that to a 3-year-old?”

In an effort to save the centers, Andrea Anthony, executive director of the Day Care Council of New York Inc., recently asked the affected landlords to consider rent concessions.

“The landlord of 242 Hoyt is willing to do whatever he has to do to keep these child care centers open,” she said. However, Anthony noted that in a meeting Thursday with City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn’s staff, six landlords – including a representative for the building at 242 Hoyt St. – stated that they have not had any communication with either ACS or the Department of Citywide Services.

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Touro College’s posters in English and Chinese can be seen all over the Flushing Main Street subway station. Photo: Larry Tung

Grace Lee wanted to be a public school teacher, but she spoke limited English and only had an associate degree.

Lee, a native of Korea, wanted to go back to school to get a bachelor’s degree. But she wanted to be close to home so she could take care of her two young daughters. After seeing an advertisement about Touro College’s Flushing Center, she enrolled in 2007. She said one of the primary reasons was the school’s convenient location on Roosevelt Avenue, just one block away from the Main Street subway station.

“It’s closer to my house,” said Lee, who chose Touro over Queens College, a selective four-year college in the City University of New York system, to which she gained admission. Queens College is about 20 minutes away by bus from downtown Flushing.

Lee, 37, is part of the new demographics of adult immigrants whom many colleges are trying to recruit in Flushing. At the Main Street subway station, it is hard to ignore Touro’s posters in English and Chinese because they are plastered all over the station. Pedestrians often get bombarded by fliers advertising colleges and English as a second language programs.

To attract immigrants, many schools hire multilingual admission officers and advisers. At Touro’s Flushing Center, a full-time academic adviser, Chung Pang, is available to serve more than 200 students of which half are immigrants. Pang, a Korean-born Chinese, speaks Chinese and Korean, two of the most popular languages in Flushing.

The most recent data from the city’s department of planning shows that about 24.5 percent of residents over the age of 5 in Flushing speak Chinese at home while 13.6 percent speak Korean.

In addition to language assistance, schools are offering special courses to appeal to immigrant students. Touro, a nonprofit private institution, offers the class Asian American Experience and Immigrant Experience in America as part of its general education electives.

“We were one of the first colleges that went out to neighborhoods, to reach out to under-served populations,” said Eva Spinelli-Sexter, executive administrative dean at Touro, which operates more than 10 sites in New York City.

Long Island Business Institute, with its main campus in downtown Flushing, is a for-profit two-year college that offers programs in office technology, accounting, medical billing and business. Soon the college will offer a program in homeland security and security management, an increasingly popular major among college students.

Since the college opened its Flushing campus in 2001, it has advertised heavily in local Chinese and Korean newspapers and television. The campus has outgrown its original location in Flushing Mall and moved to a two-year-old building on 39th Avenue with an enrollment of 700 students. Administrators declined to comment on the new program.

Anand Reddy Marri, an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, wrote in an e-mail that the student population at for-profit colleges is expected to grow at a very high rate.

“These for-profit colleges are very attractive to most non-traditional students and they offer convenient schedules, low barriers to entry, and ready-for-market skills in mostly technical fields,” Marri wrote.

To compete with these institutions, Queensborough Community College, located in nearby Bayside, set up a center in downtown Flushing in 2003. Its popular Port of Entry program, an ESL course that prepares students for college admission, runs eight classes in Flushing but only two on its main campus. The program is advertised in two Chinese newspapers and three Korean ones.

“There is a need there,” said Florence Tse, the program director.

While convenience plays an important factor in many students’ decisions, accreditation is another concern.

Vicky Lin, a native of Taiwan who just graduated from Touro, said she wanted to go to a school where the credits are transferable.

“The librarian at Touro told me that Touro’s degree is recognized by the Chinese government,” said Lin, referring to a list of recognized American colleges released by China’s Ministry of Education.

As for Lee, her positive experience at Touro gave her confidence to continue her education. Recently hired at a local day care center, she is going to pursue at master’s degree in educational psychology at Touro in the fall.

Evry Mann, far left, founder and director of the Center for Creative Education, teaches a percussion class. Photo: Celia Watson Seupel

KINGSTON, N.Y. — The new kid didn’t know he was supposed to hold the drumsticks backward, but he had no trouble keeping the beat.

Percussion with Evry Mann, founder of the Center for Creative Education based at 20 Thomas St., teaches essential skills for success in school. Only the kids don’t know it. They think they’re just having fun.

“Listening, cooperation, showing up, paying attention, teamwork,” said Mann. “We teach these without naming them. If I stood up in front of a blackboard talking about team work, they’d all be gone.” The center, a nonprofit founded by Mann in 1989, offers classes in dance and drumming for children aged 5 to 18 and adults. The Thomas Street location also houses a homework room, a kitchen, a computer lab and a recording studio.

“I’ve learned so much here,” said Nichole Naccarato, a 17-year-old Kingston High School student and a member of the center’s Energy Elite dance troupe. “Respect. Responsibility. We’re like a family.”

At a time when the New York State Education Department is threatening to shut down Kingston High School for failure to improve achievement for African-American students and students with disabilities, according to a state Education Department report, the district’s alliance with the Center for Creative Education may represent one encouraging avenue for change.

During the past two years, the district partnered with the center to work with eighth-graders who had attendance problems. “I believe it turned some kids around,” said Nicole Andrews, the center’s administrative director. “They still come and hang out here. They could have hit the ground running, but they come back.”

In 2011, the center will partner with the district in a broader program to offer enrichment programs to Kingston High School students in the newly renovated Carnegie library building. The city’s Board of Education building, which has been vacant for more than 30 years and is next to the high school, will house a new arts and technology center.  Renovations are slated to begin Aug. 18 and to be completed by the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.

Planning for the Carnegie building includes the center’s participation in project-based learning for high school students as well as after-school arts programs, according to Mann.

“We know a lot more about how kids learn now,” said Mann, referencing William Butler Yeats’ quotation, “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.”

“Our kids are stuck in fill-a-bucket mode,” said Mann.

Naccarato, about to enter her senior year at Kingston High School, echoes that sentiment.  “I wouldn’t say there’s much creativity,” she said about her classes. “It can be kind of boring. It’s mostly taking notes off the board.”

This model of teaching, in which the instructor lectures and students take notes, lacks a sense of relevancy or opportunity for individualized learning and is one aspect of Kingston High School’s education that was criticized by the state in its recent report.

Darrell Herry, 17, a drummer at the center who will be a Kingston High School senior this fall, talked about some of the racial tension at school. “Some of the African-American kids are too stubborn. They won’t open themselves up.” Henry, who teaches younger children at the center, talked about the good teachers at the high school.  “I may have been hardheaded at first, but now I’m open to everything.”

The multigenerational cycle of poverty, Mann insisted, can be broken. “We have this incredible resource. Young, creative, incredible kids we’re just squandering. The arts can be a lifeline.”

His students watched closely from their seats on the floor of the school’s central hall, and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein stood near the improvised stage. It was Oct. 28, three days before Halloween, and the lectern was flanked by two “Pumpkin πs” – jack-o-lanterns carved with the famous mathematical symbol.

“First of all,” began the principal, before stepping forward and thrusting the silver trophy aloft. “Yeah!”

Principal Kenneth Baum raises the trophy after being presented with the Intel Schools of Distinction Award. Photo: Sasha Chavkin

From their makeshift seats, the students responded with a burst of laughter and then cheers. The Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science had just won the Intel Schools of Distinction Award for its innovative teaching of mathematics, one of six schools in the nation selected for the prestigious prize.

The school seemed an unlikely candidate for the honor. The 6-year-old public school is located in Morrisania in the South Bronx, one of the country’s poorest neighborhoods. The area’s students got their biggest headlines recently, when a 15-year-old girl was struck by a stray gunshot fired by a 16-year-old boy. Between 81 and 90 percent of Urban Assembly’s students come from families receiving public assistance, with 94 percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, according to 2008 data from the New York City Department of Education.

Chancellor Klein called the improbable honor proof that the Bloomberg Administration’s policy of creating new small schools was working. Urban Assembly admits less than 100 students per grade, and according to a June 2009 report by the New School, it is one of 200 new small schools opened under Klein’s tenure since 2002.

“It’s so clear to me these schools are effectively creating options in places where there are very few options,” Klein said following the awards ceremony.

The chancellor’s embrace of small schools like Urban Assembly in Morrisania – one of 22 Urban Assembly schools, each with its own theme – indicated a dramatically different phase for a vision that began as a radical grassroots movement. The idea of creating small schools was first championed by leftist educators and community activists, who envisioned these schools as hubs for social change in poor communities. Mayor Bloomberg seized upon this idea in 2002, when he first took office and placed educational reform at the heart of his legacy.

As small schools have sprouted up across the city, some activists say that the movement’s original ethic of innovation and empowerment has been lost. Roughly 58,000 of the city’s 300,000 high school students now attend small schools, according to a report by the New School.

“The bureaucratic proliferation of small schools feels more like a management strategy,” said Michelle Fine, a Distinguished Professor of Urban Education at the City University of New York and longtime small schools supporter.

Advocates such as Fine doubt that a citywide decision to establish small schools can produce the sense of community that she said is essential in order for these schools to succeed.

Fine’s misgivings point to a broader concern: whether Urban Assembly represents a model of the small schools initiative, or an exceptional case trumpeted by the chancellor to mask a policy that has lost its moorings.

Bringing Math to Morrisania

In a 10th grade Alegebra II section at Urban Assembly, teacher Tim Jones taught his class about piecewise linear functions.

“As you know, I am Senator Jones,” he said. “You are my advisers and you need to tell me which is the best tax policy.”

The class was split up into two rows, preparing to face each another in debate. One group advocated a flat tax, an unchanging linear function, while the other promoted a progressive tax, a piecewise function for which the formula changed in each tax bracket. To get points in the debate, students had to back up their claims with references to graphs handed out by the teacher.

The students’ arguments were longer on social policy than on algebra. “The money from the rich can be used to help the poor,” said one student on the progressive side.

Still, Jones kept bringing them back to the graphs.

Assistant Principal David Krulwich said that the approach showed the school’s broader strategy for teaching seemingly abstract concepts such as piecewise functions.

“This is a really boring topic that no one wants to learn,” said Krulwich. “But tax policy debate is what makes it interesting too. To teach kids to think about a graph and make a logical argument based on it, we would argue, is much more important than learning to manipulate variables.”

The school has introduced a number of these types of innovations to spark students’ interest in mathematics. The key program is the school’s unique, internally developed curriculum that pairs math with a more traditional liberal arts subject such as architecture or social justice. This allows the students to think of math outside of its usual confines of equations and graphs and to see how it’s applied to real world settings.

The school has also adopted block scheduling to allow math to be taught in 102-minute periods. These longer classes provide laboratory-style lesson plans with more time for hands-on learning.

“We get to do activities to help you understand the math,” said 7th grader Iliana Lopez, 12, at the Intel award ceremony. “As you hear it, you can also visualize it.”

In addition, the school tries to build its community by sending teachers on home visits to the families of all incoming students.

Recent test scores and city assessments have shown that Urban Assembly’s approach seems to be working. Roughly 82 percent of its students scored at or above grade level in math, with 92 percent of parents attending parent-teacher nights, according to the Intel Foundation. The school’s most recent assessment from the New York City Department of Education also cited “a dynamic and talented principal,” “hard-working and fully committed” teachers, and a “challenging and stimulating” curriculum.

In Tim Jones’ algebra class, he stopped his students on several occasions as they tried to interrupt each other in the tax policy debate. The material seemed to have captured their interest – even if the enthusiasm was not devoted just to piecewise linear functions.

The Small Schools Movement

In New York City, the movement for small public schools first picked up steam in the 1990s. The campaign, said CUNY’s Michelle Fine, was a grassroots effort driven by parents, educators and community groups who wanted to promote equal opportunity and civic engagement in poor neighborhoods.

Deborah Meier, who created a network of small schools in East Harlem and was a founding figure in the movement, emphasized that school size was a means to creating communities where teachers can learn from experience and develop new practices accordingly. “Small schools give teachers the opportunity to use their minds,” said Meier.

As small progressive schools reached a critical mass in New York, the idea caught the eye of a new mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, who had pledged to apply the management acumen that earned him billions in the corporate world to improving city government. In 2002, Bloomberg won mayoral control of the schools and launched a sweeping initiative to open new small schools to replace failing high schools. The campaign was backed by outside funders, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has since contributed more than $78 million to the program.

For many of the movement’s initial backers, the victory was bittersweet. The centralized initiative seemed to undermine the spirit of local empowerment that their movement had advocated.

“Somehow Bloomberg and friends and Gates took small as though it were the point rather than a vehicle,” said Fine.

The Urban Assembly School in Morrisania was founded as part of the wave of new schools launched by Bloomberg and supported by the Gates Foundation, in a program called the New Century High School Initiative. Serving in his first job as a principal, Baum has led the school since it opened its doors in 2004.

Baum is a strong believer in the virtues of small schools. He said that the current system has not inhibited him from developing a creative curriculum.

“This award by Intel is outside recognition that not only are we doing things that are innovative, those things are working,” he said.

So far, the data has suggested that small schools have been getting results. An Oct. 2007 report prepared on behalf of New Century Initiative Schools found that the small schools graduated students 78 percent of the time, 17 percent more often than comparable larger schools. New Century schools also graduated students on time at a 20 percent higher clip than city high schools generally, at 78 percent rather than 58 percent.

But questions about their sustainability and their mission remain unresolved.

“A lot of the new small schools have been sort of splashed together without the critical elements of having educators and parents shaping and owning the school,” said Fine.

A 2006 report by the New York Immigration Coalition and Advocates for Children also found that small schools were not providing equitable access to English Language Learners or legally mandated bilingual services.

As the debate on small schools continues, the Department of Education is forging ahead. Department spokeswoman Ann Forte said that all 13 high schools that the city opened in 2009 were small schools. At the Intel award celebration, Chancellor Klein vowed to expand the program during Mayor Bloomberg’s third term.

“There is no question in my mind that it has improved graduation rates,” said Klein. “We are going to continue to create small, rigorous schools.”

“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.

Viau, 45, is a former investment banker turned math teacher, who has a knack for explaining bone-dry concepts like price ceilings by turning them into something worthy of the Facebook generation’s attention.

For the last eight years Viau has been making math easy for her students to understand, and the proof is in the percentages. Last year her advanced placement statistics class had a 91 percent passing rate, compared with the national rate of 59 percent. But the disparity in numbers is consistent with the school’s reputation.

Jane Viau explains advanced microeconomics to senior students at Frederick Douglass Academy. Photo: Stephanie Marcus

The school, located at 148th Street and Seventh Avenue, is a bright spot for the New York City public school system; a predominantly African-American student population, that boasts a 90 percent 4-year graduation rate. Compared with the 60.8 percent citywide graduation rate, Frederick Douglass seems to be doing something different with its emphasis on structure and discipline, mandated uniforms, and intense focus on college preparation.

The other part of its success comes from one of its 91 teachers like Viau, who has been raising money through grant writing to get her classes the materials they need. In the past year Viau has raised nearly $25,000 to buy textbooks and fund field trips for her classes.

This year, Viau is teaching advanced microeconomics, a new course for both her and the school. The students wanted to be able to understand what was going on in the economy and get college credit at the same time. With an M.B.A. from the Leonard N. Stern School at New York University, and a 16-year career in real estate management and investment banking, Viau was a perfect candidate to teach the class.

In the spring before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the glamour of finance had faded. Viau did what very few ever do; she left Wall Street. Leaving Merrill Lynch to fundraise for AIDS research was her first attempt at a meaningful professional life. The terrorist attacks, she said, only helped her realize that she made the right decision.

But for Viau, fundraising felt more like writing a check. Eager to feel like she was doing more, she allowed fate to intervene. That meant seeing a subway ad for the NYC Teaching Fellows, which was seeking candidates for math positions.

“I thought, oh my god, I could teach math, because I love math,” she said. “So then my goal was to go and teach where they really have a dearth of good teachers.”

Jane Viau’s Microeconomics class from Stephanie Marcus on Vimeo.

She told herself that if she were going to take an even further pay cut, then she would really make it worth it. A fitting decision since the program is aimed at training teachers to place in hard-to-staff schools. Through the program she was certified to teach high school mathematics and received her Master of Education from City University of New York.

Viau’s first placement embodied the reality of what a hard-to-staff school really meant. She requested a transfer, citing safety concerns when a student threw a desk at her, and the administration asked her what she had done to provoke the student.

“I literally didn’t know what to do. Learning was not happening there. It was complete chaos. It was babysitting and it was a bad situation.”

Initially, her request was rejected, but through sheer luck and timing a position quickly opened up at her current school.

Frederick Douglass Academy’s demographics, she said, are the same as her previous school; predominantly African-American and from low-income families. “It’s not like the kids are any different than the kids at the other school. But the difference is that they know there is a ladder of command, and they know there are consequences if they don’t behave.”

Dr. Gregory Hodge is at the top of that ladder, as the school’s principal, where he’s been for the last 14 of his 33-year long career as an educator. Hodge seems to know how to make his school function. With budget cutbacks that means he’s acting as secretary; answering his own phone calls, e-mails, and letters that are piling high in his office. This saves the school $25,000 a year. This is also the first year he is teaching two senior classes where he is focusing on how to properly write college research papers.

“We are short on funds, what can I tell you?” he said. “It has been a very interesting economic year, but this is Frederick Douglass and without struggle there is no progress, so we keep stepping.”

Hodge sees no reason why his 1600 students shouldn’t have the same education as those who attend a private school. That means the school offers students the opportunities to study Japanese, Latin, music and dance. It also means hiring dedicated teachers, 76 percent of which have a Master’s degree or doctorate, and fostering their potential.

When Viau approached him last year with requests to teach advanced placement economics, he initially refused; the school didn’t have the funding. Hodge said that she was “borderline obsessive,” in trying to get the course up and running.

“She’s like a guard dog, very tenacious, very persistent, and you are not going to get past her,” he said, adding that he has faith the class will be a success.

Viau’s grant writing achievements fits very well with Hodge’s model for funding: donations. “We are basically an inner city school but we do tremendous things with getting like-minded people; hustling, borrowing, begging, pleading. But you got to believe in what you are doing,” he said.

Viau raised nearly $5,000 for textbooks for her economics class through the online charity Donors Choose. Her background in fundraising alerted her to the wealth of donors available and she isn’t shy about asking companies to pitch in. Viau said she is also quick to acknowledge them in writing; her class is constantly writing thank you notes, since a little gratitude can go a long way.

Viau, like the school, is an anomaly; she isn’t concerned with making money and she really cares about her students. Longtime friend Matt Blank, who worked with Viau for nine years at the start of her career at MetLife Inc., classified Viau as one of the hardest working people he has ever known, and said the amount of time she spends with her students shows her dedication.

While she makes maybe a tenth of her old salary, Viau still logs late hours, staying after school until 7 p.m. so students can have a quiet place to do their homework or ask for help; something that has not gone unnoticed.

Dalifet Hernandez, 17, is one of the school’s top students, but is struggling to understand economic concepts like elasticity. Hernandez said she really appreciates how available Viau makes herself to students.

“Most other teachers aren’t willing to help as much. It’s either you come right after class or before school, and some people have things they have to do before school so they don’t get the chance to get the help they need,” she said.

Come February, Viau will be spending even more time in the classroom; leading tutorials during spring break, and every Saturday to get her advanced placement students ready to ace their exams.

“Most of this extra time is voluntary,” said Jennifer Hodge, head of the school’s math department, who stressed that Viau isn’t compensated for her long hours doing whatever is necessary to help her students.

This level of commitment seems to be Viau’s trademark according to her former boss at Fitch IBCA. Janet Price worked with Viau for five years and funded several class field trips last year. Price said that Viau’s work ethic translates into her many levels of success.

“I have a lot of respect for her. If you could find a school and fill it with her as the staff, you would have a school that works,” she said.

Price isn’t the only one who thinks that. Students, like 17-year-old Thay Brown, who spends most days after school in her classroom, also recognize Viau’s dedication.

Brown said that he has adjusted to Viau’s heavy workload, and thinks her methods like the organ transplants example, seem to be working.

“She really cares about us. You can sense it. She’s not just doing it for the money. I mean she has a business degree; she can go and do whatever. Not a lot of teachers around here are like that,” Brown said.

And Brown’s sentiments towards Viau have been recognized by a number of organizations. Last June she won the 2009 NYC Teaching Fellows Award for Classroom Excellence, where she accepted the award accompanied by her students.

Viau may have left Wall Street, but like many bankers she still takes her work home. Recently she and her husband became certified foster parents so they can legally house a former student, who is a ward of the state. Over the winter break Viau will take on this new challenge by having the student, now an 18-year-old college freshman, living in her house. An extraordinary measure, but for Viau it’s just the right thing to do.

A typical morning for 20-month-old Josie Dean includes painting, singing, baking and knitting, all done in the company of several friends. Whether it’s story time, music class or “Mommy and Me” yoga, there is no shortage of kid-friendly activities in Washington Heights.

“It’s just a great place to raise children,” said Josie’s mother, Jennie.

Parents and children gather for circle time on Oct. 20 led by Troy Schremmer at Fort Washington Collegiate Church. Photo: Yaffi Spodek

As younger families populate Washington Heights, the numbers of infants and toddlers are noticeably increasing. According to the 2000 census, there were 14,389 people under the age of 5 living in Washington Heights and Inwood, comprising 6.9 percent of the district’s population. A 2008 census analysis by the American Community Survey found that the number of children in the area under the age of 6 totaled 21,594, accounting for 9.9 percent of the population.

The baby boom is not unique to northern Manhattan. In 2006, The New York Times documented a similar increase in the rest of the borough, as the number of children under age 5 grew by more than 32 percent over the last decade, and anecdotal evidence supports these statistics.

“From my own observations, I can definitely say that the rate of births is up, and yes, there are more children,” said Ebenezer Smith, district manager for Community Board 12. “Just walking on the street, you see so many mothers pushing their baby carriages.”

Others, like social worker Jessica Shapley, have noticed the trend as well. For close to nine years, she has been leading support groups for mothers in Washington Heights. A new group starts every eight to 10 weeks, Shapley said, with more than enough new parents to attend each cycle of sessions.

“I started this group out of my own need when I first moved here because there was nothing,” she said. “Now there are definitely more children and young families than ever before.”

Shapley also moderates a “Parent and Me” Yahoo! group, which boasts over 1,000 participating families from Washington Heights and Inwood.

One local hub for kid-friendly activities is Fort Washington Collegiate Church. The church hosts an educational program called Bloomgarden, which began there in early October and meets on Mondays and Wednesdays. The program, which emphasizes artistic expression through interactive classes, now caters to a small group of eight parents and their children, with expansion plans on track for next semester.

“We wanted to create a place where parents and children can grow together, and ‘bloom,’ so to speak,” said Rachel Lederman, Bloomgarden’s co-founder. “It’s a place for creative expression.”

Abby Gordon and her daughter, Zayde, 11 months, play together at the Tuesday Toddler group at Fort Washington Collegiate Church. Photo: Yaffi Spodek

The Tuesday Toddler group, a free program funded by optional donations, features story time, guitar-led singing, and free play. Nearing the end of its fourth year, the program has expanded well beyond its original eight families, and now attracts close to 80 families each week.

“It’s a chance for both kids and parents to socialize,” said Troy Schremmer, the church’s director of education who runs the program. “It’s really about meeting a need for young parents in the community.”

What Shapley likes about Washington Heights is that “it’s a unique place with a small-town feel, where people really know the faces of their neighbors,” she said. “These different programs speak to the needs of the community, and people are moving here from other parts of Manhattan because they want that kind of kid-friendly atmosphere.”

New programs continue to spring up as more and more people opt to raise families in the city. On Nov. 1, the Jewish Community Council of Washington Heights-Inwood started a lending service for maternity clothes and baby supplies that includes pregnancy and parenting books, and items such as strollers, swings, and booster seats.

“I had been receiving phone calls asking for baby items,” explained Anat Coleman, community affairs officer for the Jewish Council, a not-for-profit organization that provides a range of free social services. “In the last five years, I have seen many young families moving into the area, and many don’t have space in their apartments or can’t afford to buy these items, so this was created in response to their needs.”

It was just before noon on Saturday and four pre-teens from Park Slope were stuffed into a small recording studio on St. Marks Avenue in nearby Prospect Heights.

Sabrina Kentis, left, Jack Ellrodt, middle, and Ian Silverstein, right, spend Saturday mornings in band practice.

They had been practicing with their instruments for about half an hour with music teacher Jason Domnarski when 12-year-old Jack Ellrodt asked, “Can we turn on the AC?”

“What are you talking about?” Domnarski replied. “We haven’t even started sweating yet.”
This was no regular music lesson.

Domnarski, 28, a professional rock musician, founded the Park Slope Rock School one year ago when he noticed a demand for a creative, musical outlet for the neighborhood’s teenagers.

The Rock School, which organizes 12 middle schoolers into four different small rock bands, is held every Saturday. Domnarski charges $450 per student per semester – 12 weeks of small group tutoring. It’s a price many parents say they are willing to pay in order to compensate for budget cuts to music education programs in their children’s schools.

“I was surprised there wasn’t a program like that already there. It’s grown quite rapidly,” he said. “You really don’t have a rock-based curriculum at the public schools. I think that’s a very big draw. It’s a form of music they don’t get to play very much. They are very interested in that kind of music.”

Stacey Ruiz’s son Brandon, 13, is a Park Slope Rock School student who attends Park Slope Community Middle School. Ruiz said one of the main reasons she enrolled her son in the rock school was because of the lack of quality music he receives programming during the week.

“My son’s school is a very small school which shares a building with another school,” Ruiz said. “Unfortunately his school does not have the budget or resources to start a music program.”

This week, the Rock School played Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.” The students hadn’t even registered as twinkles in their mother’s eyes when the song debuted in 1969. They enjoyed practicing it, all the same.

“I think working as a group allows them to feel more like performers at a jam session,” Ruiz said. “The music they play is something they can relate to and the parents as well. It kind of bridges the gap between the two. Take it from me – there is no ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ in this class.”

Jack, who had the tendency to jump up and down during his electric guitar solo, exclaimed mid-way through Saturday’s practice, “This is by far the most fun I’ve had all week.”

And having fun is a point not lost on Domnarksi. Wielding a grande coffee in one hand and two drumsticks to keep the band’s beat in the other, he tries to instill in the group solid music theory and an appreciation for giving a good performance at the same time.

“On a different level, it allows them an hour and a half every week to play in a band in a rehearsal space that sounds good,” he said. “This semester there’s a very good chance we’ll be heading into the studio to record.”

Ian Silverstein, 13, who performed vocals and a bass guitar this week, said these lessons are unlike anything he has ever done before.

“Jason is much more involved with us and the way we play music,” Ian said. “I just like to play with people who are good musicians and who are creative.”

Seth Miller said his son Asa, who plays the drums at the rock school, looks forward to coming to rehearsals every week.

“It’s just a great outlet for his talent,” said Miller, who listened to the end of Saturday’s rehearsal. “It almost brings a tear to my eye.”