The latest schools will add more than 3,800 seats in all boroughs but Manhattan. Top education officials say the new schools are part of a broader strategy to create more high-quality programs closer to where families live.
“These are the school choices that our families deserve,” Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said Monday at the school system’s lower Manhattan headquarters.
The most recent cohort includes two schools in Brooklyn focused on artificial intelligence and students with reading challenges, respectively.
The Middle School of Innovation in Bensonhurst has plans to use AI to help students learn, support teachers and teach ethical use, according to Principal Eileen Herusso. Virtual reality will be part of core subjects, such as math and science, engaging students through immersive, real-world scenarios.
“For example, with systems of equations, the students may be placed in an airport setting, and there’s two planes. They’re about to crash, and they have to figure out how to stop them from crashing. Really, they’re finding a point of intersection,” Herusso said.
Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy is modeled after a newly launched school in the Bronx and will feature a level of specialized services typically reserved for private schools. The school in Crown Heights will open with 72 students in the second and third grade, eventually expanding through middle school.
“When it comes to things like phonics, they’re going to get more time, more practice, more support in those areas,” said Jason Borges, the founding principal, who previously oversaw the Adams administration’s sweeping literacy overhaul.
Another school is expected to enroll newly arrived immigrant students who speak limited English, Queens International High School. Staten Island Rise Academy is the first District 75 school for students with significant challenges to open in the borough for more than three decades. In the Bronx, a new STEAM center will encompass high schools from three districts.
Some others previously covered by The News are finally opening — HBCU Early College Prep and a health care career school, backed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Northwell School of Health Sciences. The HBCU prep school has seen more than 1,000 applications for just 100 seats in its first year.
The opening of new schools comes as New York City is dealing with major enrollment declines that, though have leveled off in recent years, continue to threaten the school system. While dwindling numbers of students have forced some schools to close or merge with those nearby, city education officials insisted that is not a reason to stop launching new programs.
“Our new school strategy is designed to directly address that challenge,” said First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg. “We can use the space in less responsive ways, and that’s going to make our enrollment issue worse.”
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