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back to site January 21, 2004 By Jacquie Wayans Nine thousand parents and students braved 9-degree weather and waited for hours on January 10 to apply to 31 New Century high schools in the Bronx, small schools that are designed to be safer and more intimate than the large neighborhood high schools. School officials sometimes blame parents for not being involved in their children's education, but the gridlock in the halls of Columbus High School proves that parents are concerned and eager to take advantage of better choices for their children. There are far more applicants than seats available in the new schools. Each of the 31 schools has room for 75 to 100 ninth graders -- about 3,000 seats in all, according to Peter Steinberg, director of the Office of New and Small Schools for Region 2 in the Eastern Bronx. In addition to the 9,000 who showed up at Columbus, 6,000 showed up at a similar information meeting at Walton High School in the Bronx in December. Bronx Leadership Academy II, highly sought after because of the reputation of the original Bronx Leadership Academy, obtained two rooms for the hundreds of students who were applying for 75 seats but students and parents still spilled out into the hallways. Principal Paulette Franklin was so pained by seeing parents wait for hours in the hall that she used her break to continue talking. Guidance Counselor Aixa Padillo said, "From this event alone we gathered 800 signatures. In total we have 1,400 applications that we now must sift through to fill our 75 seats." Most of the new schools are housed in larger existing complexes like Morris or Taft high schools; others lease space, but there are no plans to build new schools at this point. Some of the new small schools cater to students who have been in the United States fewer than 4 years. Bronx International has 800 applicants for 75 seats. Principal Shael Suransky said "most new immigrants don't arrive in the country until the summer before they begin the 9th grade and are left out of the selection process." To accommodate this, Bronx International reserves one-third of their seats for students that they will take during the month of August. The good news is that more New Century High Schools are in the works, and approximately another 20 are expected to open in 2004. Students will be able to apply to these new schools in the spring. Parents should contact their regional office and ask for the "new and small schools" division for more information. |