Metro

Bx. principal reinvents HS

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Principal Sana Nasser has turned Harry S. Truman HS in The Bronx, one of the city’s largest public high schools, into one with a small-school feel and higher graduation rates.

“I wanted to create the personalized education that small schools can offer that they say large schools can’t,’’ said Nasser, who became principal in 1998.

When she took over, gangs were a big problem, attracting new teachers was hard, and Co-Op City parents didn’t feel comfortable sending their children there.

Nasser said the school is now “a place where you can walk anywhere and feel safe.’’ And through her partnership with PENCIL, a nonprofit that connects business leaders with principals to transform public schools, she created smaller, career-themed academies.

“We have pre-engineering, law, law enforcement, culinary arts, media-TV production and ROTC,’’ said Nasser, who is working to add an academy for computer technology.

Nasser was nominated for an Educator Liberty Medal by PENCIL partners Charles Bendit, of Taconic Investment Partners, and Paul Neuman, of Neuman’s.