Schools are often talked about as pillars of communities. They are seen as a way to keep children and families together, and to keep people interacting with one another. This, however, is not the case with one East Harlem school.
Ms. Velasquez and the other parents of almost 200 students in the school’s[St. Francis de Sales] eight grades were abruptly told in early March that the school would close in June. But officials at the Archdiocese of New York, as well as other parents and clergy familiar with recent events, said they expected that the school would reopen in a year, possibly as a more expensive private academy or preschool.
“They just want us out to make room for the new and improved people,” Ms. Velasquez said. “There is a plan for this neighborhood. I mean, look at First Avenue. They got doormen! It’s all connected. Look at Second Avenue. Why do they want to finish the subway now? These are not different issues. It’s all connected.”(Gonzales, 4-10-07)
I find this appauling and immensely confusing at the same time. First, it is appauling that people who live in the school’s neighborhood, attend it, and are patrons of the chruch with which it is associated would be forced out for newer “better” people. This simply shoud not happen, not even in an imperfect world. People should be allowed to live in their own community and attend those schools without getting shoved around by those with more money. Schools are a place to learn, and are supposed to help prepare children for life. How can this be done if they are never allowed to stay in the same school? It can’t and it won’t unless something is done about it. If not, then the cycle of povert and inequality in our country will continue unobstructed.
However, I did say that I also found this situation confusing. That is because I’m not sure what the altenative should be. If a school is losing money something has to be done t save it, or it will be put down. Yet, I still don’t think that closing the doors to one group of people and re-opening it for another is the right way to accomplish this. The article didn’t talk much about previous attempts to save the school. The principal had been replaced and the new principal seemed to make no attempt to rectify the situation. He claims the only option he saw was to close it down. Firt, I find it odd that the school wouldn’t see this coming. There must have been some kind of warning sign. The situation does seem to point uneasily to an attempt to rid the school of its working class families for a higher economic class of people.
Is there anything that can be done to save our schools in situations like this? I think so, and I also think that if the administration of this school had given it a little more thought they could have avoided the dillemma.
“In East Harlem School Closing, Talk of Class Divide”
New York Times, Apr 10, 2007 by David Gonzalez
I too, Hannah, find this situation appalling. It’s as if the school is saying that the working class students are not worth keeping the school open for, but the upper class students are worth it. I understand their need for money – that is how private schools thrive after all – but I think that they could have tried harder to find a solution to their money troubles. I’ve personally never attended a private school, but I have cousins who do, and it seems as though they are always asking my family to buy from some fundraiser or another. Did this school even try fundraisers? It doesn’t sound like it. It seems that they just went the easy solution – bring in the kids whose parents have money! The other thing that worries me about this situation is that the children’s only alternative will be a public school which their parents did not think was a good educational setting in the first place. To tell the truth, I would rather have it that the students didn’t have to go to a private school for a good education – I wish that public schools were in better shape than they currently are – but if that’s not possible, it doesn’t seem right to take that option away for kids.
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I also agree that this situation is appalling. I could not even imagine that this would ever happen but I do think it probably happens a lot of times in a lot of places. New and “better” people come in a take over something that they think is in “bad” shape and make it “better” and “new” and “different”. I agree that schools are the pinnacle point of a town, it is the place where all the children go to learn and interact with each other. It is a place where community envents take place and it is the knot of the community that ties everything together. When a school is changed or taken away from a community than the community is at risk for falling apart. I really think this is a discrace that this is happening here and I really think that it is wrong in so many ways!!!
Well, this is one of the most appaling articles that I have read in quite some time. Good Lord (pun intended), there is so much wrong with the church deciding who should get educational opportunities. Obviously the working class needs to fall back a little for the middle class. Father Muzzin’s audacity makes me shiver a little bit. To actually cry about the stress of being middle class while knowingly harming the working class!? This type of action makes it easy for people to become cynical with religion. What about the children in his school? By closing, then re-opening with a much higher price tag is unbelievable. He literally is placing price tags on the heads of his students. Are his current children from the discount rack and need to be thrown back? Unbelievable. Kozol would have a lot to say about this article.
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Hannah, Sometimes I feel like the answers are all around us, and they are just too simple for us to recognize. For example, Fundraising events like Relay for Life, Danceathons, even selling newpapers are such a great way to raise money. Sending out a half sheet announcement the weekend before the superbowl asking for participation in a community popcan drive would even raise alot of money. My brother’s school is constantly doing fundraisers, and it seems like they just squander the money- at least the old principal did. She tore down the old playground equipment, and put in brand new play structures all over the property. True, if structures are rotten, they are not safe, and therefore are justified to be replaced, but playground equipment is incredibly expensive. Hundreds of thousands per structure! And the playground (new and improved) isn’t all that impressive! Just imagine if For one year all the schools in the surrounding area donated their funds to a school in need. (Just to help them get back on track). I’m not talking about new auditoriums, or laptop computers, but neccesities, just staying open. Then, people wouldn’t have to be kicked around by the prosperous people.
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I too think this situation is sad and confusing. Why wouldn’t the school have seen it coming? What did they try to do to stop it? What’s going to happen to the kids who are being forced to leave? I have to wonder if the school really did try fundraising, as schools constantly are, and it just wasn’t enough, or if it is as Ms. Velasquez said. I suppose it could be a conspiracy to get rid of the working class in that area, which I find to be even more distressing than getting rid of them in one school. Maybe that’s because if my family had been in that situation, we would have been the ones getting pushed out, so I can identify, but I really don’t think it’s right whatever your station, to agree with people who are trying to “improve” a neighborhood by replacing it when they should be trying to help the people who are already there and a part of it.
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Before I agree with you on this article, I would like to give the school the benefit of the doubt and hope that the reason for closing the school is not because they plan on reopening it a year later for “improved people.” The only source cited here is an angry parent who does not know all the facts about the situation.
That having been said, if that is the reason for closing down the school, then they should be completely ashamed of themselves. To think that they think of themselves as “educators” and this is the type of education that they are providing for the students in the area. What are the students suppossed to think when their school is closed only to reopen for “improved” people? Lets hope the parent has it wrong and this is not the case.
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