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Controversy brews over move of Richard R. Green High School from Upper East Side to Harlem

Nothing to dowith race or
class,my foot.

By Joe Kemp and Merdith Kolodner

Charge of racism surfaced over a plan to move a
mostly minority Upper East Side high school to
Harlem to make way for the children of wealthy
white local residents.

Frustrated parents say the city's proposal to
move Richard R. Green High School out of its
26-year home on East 88th Street to a building
next to the Wagner Housing projects at 120th
St. smacks of discrimination.

"I live uptown so I know certain
neighborhoods," said Tanya Batchelor, who lives
in Harlem and whose daughter Tamara Harris goes
to Richard R. Green. "That's one of the areas
that I wouldn't let her go hang out in."
"I hate to bring it to race, but what make
their kids better than our kids?" said
Batchelor, whose 9th grade granddaughter
Precious made the honor role this week.

"Why are you going to put them out of a safe
environment where they're prospering?"
The Education Department says it needs the
building for badly needed elementary school
slots.

The school's guidance counselor says parents
and students have told her they will try to
transfer if the school moves, and she worries
that the upheaval will mar the school's
progress.

"It was very different my first year, it was
like pulling teeth to get students to even
apply to college," said Gwen Altman, who has
worked at the school for four years.

"Now they see their friends going off to
college and they're more motivated."
Richard R. Green graduates about 67% of its
students and 93% of its graduates go on to
college.

In a school where three quarters of the
students qualify for free lunch, Altman said
that most of the students are the first in
their family to attend college.

The DOE says that IS 45, which occupies the
120th St and 1st Ave. building where they want
to move Green, is one of the safest in the
district.

They say the high suspension rate - 133 last
year with a student population of about 390 -
is becuase the principal is strict.

The building also houses a high school that was
branded a failure by the DOE in 2006 and is
closing.

A DOE official said Upper East elementary
schools are among the most over crowded in the
city.

"This is about ensuring that there is adequate
space within which to educate children," said
John White, the DOE official in charge of
school location. "It has absolutely to nothing
to do with race or class."

Some parents asked why the Education Department
wasn't planning on relocating Eleanor Roosevelt
High School, which is 12 blocks south and a
favorite of Upper East Side parents.

About a quarter of the students there qualify
for free lunch and only 19% of the students are
black and Latino, versus 93% at Richard R.
Green.

White said there was no elementary school in
the area immediately surrounding Richard R.
Green.

As a result, the only other option is busing
the Upper East side elementary school children
to other parts of the city.

"We have to weigh the impact of any move on any
school," White said.

"On the other hand, we have to weigh our
commitment to very young students to serve them
close to their homes."

Many Richard R. Green students also objected to
the proposal and said they would probably try
to transfer if the school moved.

"I've been around projects my whole life. I
don't want to go to school by one," said James
Vergara, a 10th grader who lives on the Lower
East side of Manhattan.

"This is a nice neighborhood, and you walk
around and it makes you feel good."

Jason Marshall lives on 117th St. in Harlem
near the proposed site for the school. "This is
a good neighborhood," the 17-year-old 11th
grader said. "People come outside here go to
lunch. It's like a dead zone over there, no one
goes out."


— Joe Kemp and Merdith Kolodner
New York Daily News
2008-12-18


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