Parents criticized the city DOE’s new proposal to allow Richmond Hill High School to use a portion of the annex that now houses all of the school’s freshmen, saying it will still cause overcrowding in the institution’s main building. Photo by Anna Gustafson
After months of parents, elected officials, and educational leaders slamming the city for its plan to move more than 400 Richmond Hill High School freshmen from an annex into some of the 22 trailers outside the school, as well as into the main school building, the city Department of Education announced it would allow some of the pupils to remain in the annex, as well as remove the trailers that parents have called “dangerous” and “decaying.”
But parents are critical of the new plan, saying it does not sufficiently address overcrowding at Richmond Hill High School. Cheryl Rose, co-president of the school’s Parent Teacher Association, said parents and others in the Richmond Hill HS community are expected to protest the proposal at a hearing at the school, located at 89-30 114th St., at 6 p.m. on June 12. The hearing comes five days before the city Panel for Educational Policy is slated to vote on the plan at its June 17 meeting.
“We found it insulting and inadequate,” Cheryl Rose, co-president of the school’s Parent Teacher Association, said of the DOE’s new proposal. “…We’re not happy with the proposal. We’re not going to keep quiet about that, and I think they’re finally realizing that.”
On May 23, the DOE issued its revised plan to permit Richmond Hill High School to place 200 students in the annex, located at 94-24 117th St., which has held 400 of the school’s freshmen. The rest of the annex – approximately half of it – would be used by EPIC High School North, a new public school that the city had originally proposed be allowed to use the entire annex beginning this coming September.
Last year, the city PEP voted in favor of the DOE’s proposal to open a new high school in the annex, which is located a couple blocks from the main campus and had opened to address severe overcrowding at the school. City officials contended that the plan would have resulted in smaller class sizes at Richmond Hill because the new school would draw students from Richmond Hill HS. According to the DOE, enrollment at the high school would drop from the current 2,184 students to as low as 1,580 pupils in the 2017-18 class.
This, however, was vehemently contested by everyone from parents to educators and students, who have said closing the annex would flood the trailers on the main campus – which city Public Advocate Letitia James noted during an April public hearing on the plan are made up of predominantly English Language Learners.
“We want to end housing students in trailers – it’s unacceptable,” James told a cheering crowding at the previous hearing.
As part of the new plan, the city has proposed to remove the trailers by the 2016-17 school year.
While parents said they welcome the use of the annex and the elimination of the trailers, they said the city still has not sufficiently addressed their concerns about where they plan to place those students to ensure that the high school’s main building will not once again be overwhelmed by overcrowding.
“It’s ridiculous to think they can alleviate overcrowding in the time span they’ve told us,” Rose said.
“Do something that makes more sense, that’s what we’re saying to the DOE,” Rose continued. “We’re going to continue to fight until we get what’s fair for all students.”
By Anna Gustafson
