The teachers union has given an acclaimed Brooklyn youth band its marching orders: Hit the bricks!
The Soul Tigers Marching Band, which led the 2009 Thanksgiving Day Parade and performed at the US Open tennis tournament, has been told there will be no space for it at JHS 292 in East New York, where the failing UFT Charter School is expanding come September.
“It’s devastating,” said band director Kenyatte Hughes, referring to the 400 kids, ages 5 to 14, who make up the band and choral group.
“Some of them are hanging on by the skin of their teeth, as far as gangs and getting into the wrong thing. The band keeps them motivated and gives them a reason to do good in school.”
The Soul Tigers — who’ve also performed in Tommy Hilfiger ads, and with Mariah Carey, the Sugar Hill Gang and MIA — have called JHS 292 home for 11 years. Its members, which include students from other public schools in the neighborhood, practice during and after school.
The Vermont Street school also houses the UFT Charter School’s kindergarten through 5th grade classes, and next year it will absorb the charter’s 6th-through-8th grade students who currently attend classes in the George Gershwin Junior High School building.
The UFT Charter School is the only charter in the city run solely by the teachers union. It got an F for progress and a D overall in the city Department of Education’s 2011-2012 progress report.
Fewer than 10 percent of eighth-graders passed the 2012 state English exams. And less than 32 percent of the entire school population was proficient in math, the report revealed.
Mike Mulgrew, the UFT president, has criticized co-location of charter and public schools in the past, describing it as unjust.
Dick Riley, a spokesman for the union, refused to comment on why the Soul Tigers were being pushed out of their practice space. “Mr. [Mike] Mulgrew [the UFT president] and our charter-school leadership will be reaching out to the principal at 292 next week to make clear that the UFT will take whatever steps are necessary to be a welcome partner to the students and staff at 292, including preserving the music program.”
But in response, Hughes noted that the nonprofit Soul Tigers are independent of the school. He was dubious the UFT will save it space.
“They’re taking our rooms. It’s in the building plan,” he said. “How are they going to do it? It’s one thing to say it, and it’s another thing to implement it.”
The Department of Education contends that the co-location is justified, that JHS 292 has been under-utilized and is at 70 percent capacity.
“[It] has the space to make the same offerings to its students while accommodating more grades of the UFT charter school,” said Education Department spokesman Devon Puglia. “How they use the space is ultimately up to the principal.”
Michelle Bodden-White, the charter’s principal, referred calls to the UFT.
Students who play in the Soul Tigers say getting rid of their one extracurricular outlet in a tough neighborhood doesn’t add up.
“It’s not fair,” said Kedisha Edmund, 14. “Half the people will be on the streets. With the band, we stay out of trouble.”
Hughes, a former Marine, makes sure of that. If a student’s grades aren’t up to snuff, he suspends them. When they do what they’re supposed to, they get the opportunity to travel — they’ve visited Senegal and Gambia, and hope to visit South Africa soon — and they have the chance to perform with big names in big-time situations, like at the Yankees’ 2009 ticker-tape parade.
Most of the performers don’t come into the band polished. But after weeks of practicing Monday through Thursday, and on their own time, they’re ready to don the black and silver caped uniforms supplied by Hilfiger himself.
The designer described the band as “awesome” on Twitter.
“We teach them from scratch,” Hughes said. “We polish them and we teach them everything they need to know.”
Alicia Keys, TI and Pharrell have also sought them out.
Rewarding their success by getting rid of their practice space makes no sense, Hughes said.
“At the end of the day, the kids lose,” he said. “They’re being set up to fail.”