Metro

School de Blasio saved is back on fail list

A Brooklyn elementary school that Bill de Blasio crowed about saving from the chopping block as public advocate in 2011 has landed once again on the city’s list of worst schools.

PS 114 in Canarsie, which has been hit with D’s and two C’s since 2010, would normally face the threat of closing after being one of 71 schools tagged this year for poor performance.

But because Mayor-elect de Blasio has said that he’ would call for a moratorium on closures when he takes over City Hall, the Department of Education isn’t shuttering any of the identified schools.

“I think closing the school should be a last resort, but I understand why they want to do it,” said Annakay Afflick, 22, whose niece is a fifth-grader at PS 114.

“This school needs an upgrade in a bad way. If de Blasio wants this school to stay open, he’s got to step on it, you know? The changes need to come a little quicker.”

Mother-of-two Lakenya Ellis pointed to a weak curriculum, too little one-on-one time between teachers and students and the quality of some staffers as issues that are bringing down the school.

“Everyone knows this is a failing school, but it’s not the school that’s the problem,” she said. “Maybe now that they have fire under their butts, we’ll see some changes.”

De Blasio’s public advocate Web site boasts of “a victory for PS 114” after the school was spared from a shutdown in February 2011.

Underneath was posted a 10-page diagnosis of why the school shouldn’t close and how to improve it, including new leadership.

But in the face of new higher standards, just 8 percent of PS 114 students met benchmarks in math earlier this year, while 18 percent met the benchmarks in reading.

That’s compared to citywide average pass rates of 30 percent in math and 26 percent in reading.

“Mayor-elect de Blasio believes we need to turn around struggling schools, not close them en masse,” spokeswoman Lis Smith said Thursday. “That’s why he has proposed a war room strategy to give struggling schools the leadership and resources they need to give every child a great education.”

DOE officials did not comment on the fate of PS 114, but said they were starting conversations with all 71 schools on the failing list to help craft plans for improvement.

“It’s our goal to get to the root causes of the performance challenges we are seeing and make the necessary adjustments so that we can prepare all our students for college and careers,” said Deputy Chancellor Saskia Levy Thompson.