The city’s Panel for Educational Policy voted to approve the closure of 22 struggling schools early this morning at a meeting at Brooklyn Tech HS.
While hundreds of parents and teachers came to protest the move, the meeting wasn’t nearly as volatile as in past years, when thousands packed the auditorium and raucously taunted education officials.
Chancellor Dennis Walcott told reporters, “We are constantly working with schools to improve their outcomes. There are, unfortunately, some schools that just do not get better.”
The closures affect schools in four boroughs. They include PS 167 , PS 174 and Sheepshead Bay HS in Brooklyn; the HS of Graphic Communication Arts in Manhattan; Jonathan Levin HS for Media and Communications in The Bronx; and Law, Government and Community Service HS in Queens.
Since Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, 142 schools have been shut or approved for phase-out.
Before last night’s vote, far fewer elected officials spoke out than usual, the crowd thinned within hours, and even the head of the UFT sent his No. 2.
“It’s amazing . . . that after being in charge for 12 years, you don’t have any shame in closing schools,” UFT veep Michael Mendel told the panel. “This is a disgrace.”
List of schools slated to close:
BRONX
Jonathan Levin HS for Media and Communications
MS 142
MS 203
Performance School
PS 50
PS 64
PS 230
BROOKLYN
Freedom Academy HS
General D. Chappie James MS of Science
JHS 166
JHS 302
PS 73
PS 167
PS 174
Sheepshead Bay HS
MANHATTAN
Bread & Roses Integrated Arts HS
Choir Academy of Harlem
HS of Graphic Communication Arts
JHS 13
MS 45/S.T.A.R.S. Prep Academy
QUEENS
Business, Computer Applications & Entrepreneurship HS Law, Government and Community Service HS