At Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn, kids are expected to learn and to graduate college.
They’re well on their way.
“I won’t send my kids to a regular school anymore,” said Ruth Campos, whose son, Christian, is a seventh-grader at Collegiate. “Williamsburg Collegiate is a great school.
“The academics, the staff, the discipline. It makes a difference to have your child in a school like this,” she said.
The students have high standards, too.
“I want to go to John Hopkins University,” said sixth-grader De-Ja Roy, who, like other students, got into the school through a lottery system.
Every two weeks, parents get progress reports indicating how their students are doing academically. The school also tracks student behavior through a merit-demerit system.
Williamsburg operations director Thackston Lundy said the thriving school might not have ever opened in 2005 if it weren’t for support from Mayor Bloomberg, who allowed the high-performing charter to share space with PS 16.
“We’re able to do what we do because of mayoral control,” Lundy said.
A visitor right away realizes the serious school culture — even before classes start.
As they enter the school on a typical morning, students in blue school uniforms shake hands with Principal Julie Kennedy, Lundy and the teachers.
Students have a reading book with them at all times. They also carry around “vocabulary rings” to learn new words.
The hallways are filled with banners of different colleges — some of them attended by their teachers.
The school day runs from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. — about two hours longer than traditional public schools.
After 3:30 p.m., students participate in a variety of enrichment programs, such as the debate club, the math club, music, step dance, Brazilian drumming, photography and fashion design.
About 40 percent of the students identified as needing help get extra tutoring until 5:30 p.m. Kids also get additional instruction 30 Saturdays a year, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There’s also a three-week Writing Workshop in July.
The school has fun events and treats for kids, too — much of them tied to academics.
Williamsburg Collegiate got an “A” on its progress report card — with 100 percent of its seventh-graders last year passing the state math exam compared to 79 percent statewide and 69 percent across the city. And 92 percent of seventh-graders passed the English exam.
There’s no cherry-picking of students here — 98 percent of its students are black and Hispanic. Of that total, 84 percent are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches and 13 percent have special needs.