Closing Time / A New York City High School Will Phase-Down

The NYCDoE will close Bayard Rustin High School for Humanities, a troubled large comprehensive high school on West 18th Street, in 2012, phasing-it down year-by-year until then.

InsideSchools says that many of the teachers leaving today looked depressed, and on GothamSchools, a student named Luke angrily denounces the DoE:

“ITS PRETTY EASY TO CLOSE DOWN A SCHOOL, BUT ITS PREETY HARD TO TURN IT AROUND…IT IS VERY EASY TO GIVE UP BUT IT IS VERY HARD TO TRY AND NOT GIVE UP WHEN WE HAVE PEOPLE WHO ONLY CARE ABOUT MONEY.”

The school received a report grade of F, has had high teacher turnover, and was roiled by a Regents grading scandal--all things that make the closure seem inevitable. When schools close, it is sad for students, teachers, and staff, even those who support the closure. I visited Rustin on three occasions, barely getting to know the school, yet I still feel a sense of loss.

The shuttering of Rustin reminds me of a fantastic New Yorker article on the instability that befell students left in the lurch by the closing of a low-performing Denver high school. Many of the students profiled in The New Yorker article got lost in the transition, eventually dropping out, with Denver school officials explaining the tragedy as the “collateral damage” of school improvement.