New York Harbor School students are excited about their move to Governor’s Island, but local parents and teachers are worried over what will take the school’s place at the Bushwick Campus. — Photo by Aaron Short

After two years of waiting, the New York Harbor School will be making its much-celebrated move to Governor’s Island at the end of the school year and on February 9, parents and teachers from the Bushwick Campus, a collection of four smaller academies which replaced the old Bushwick High School in 2006, will discuss plans for its proposed replacement.

The 390-student high school, which has planned its curriculum around connecting students with the city’s estuaries and marine ecology, is moving to the island’s converted army barracks to be closer to the waterways they study.

The Harbor School’s graduation rates, at 63 percent in 2008, are triple what the old Bushwick High School rates were, proving that the small-school model that has prevailed on the site, which contains the Bushwick School for Social Justice, the Academy of Urban Planning, and the Academy of Environmental Leadership, is working.

“We had a great experience here, but we are the Harbor School and we need to be in New York Harbor,” said Harbor School Principal Nathan Dudley, who anticipates the move to begin in summer 2010. “It is difficult to be the Harbor School in Bushwick, but we’ve made it work.”

While many in Bushwick are applauding the unique move, the school’s departure leaves a vacancy at the Bushwick Campus. Instead of allowing the three schools to expand into the space vacated by the Harbor School, the Department of Education (DOE) is proposing to move a 115-student “Big Picture Learning” school, The Frances Perkins Academy, into the space.

The school, housed within Automotive High School on Bedford Avenue in Greenpoint, is only two years old and contains 9th and 10th graders. The intention is to expand to a full high school with about 300 students over two years.

Moving small schools into larger locations is part of the typical musical chairs-style logistical planning that the DOE administers every year in order to efficiently utilize space in public schools, yet some moves have been controversial in Bushwick. In 2008, moving an Achievement First charter school into Philippa Schuyler, a school for the gifted in Bushwick, was greeted with resistance from parents who demonstrated outside DOE headquarters.

With the threat of closures to several schools throughout East and Central Brooklyn, it seems unlikely that parents will demonstrate as Fort Greene parents did two weeks ago. Nevertheless, tonight’s public forum will focus on whether the Frances Perkins Academy or some other school would best serve the needs of the community.

The school’s principal, Javier Guzman, believes that his school is the right fit for the Bushwick Campus. His students, 53 percent black, 45 percent Latino, are from all over Brooklyn. The school is focused on project-based learning and connecting students with professional internships. Earlier descriptions on the school’s website indicated that welding and mechanic work were the primary focus, which may have lead to many of the objections.

“(Internships) depend on what students are passionate about or interested in,” said Guzman. “If several of my students are interested in law, they will intern at a law firm or nonprofit, or the NYPD. Students interested in the environment, some would work for [a company in that field]."

Early indications are that many teachers from the remaining schools do not want Frances Perkins and would prefer an "international" school that focused on educating Bushwick’s recent immigrant children, rather than preparing them for internships or trades.

“Really, our issue is, we don’t have space,” said Adam Schwartz, an Academy of Urban Planning teacher. “We have teachers who have to share rooms, move three times a day because we have a crowded building, but on paper we’re underserved, we’re undersubscribed.  It’s really unfortunate that we have to have another school there." Schwartz contends the other schools’ needs were disregarded from early on in the process.

The DOE floated several alternatives such as an overage transfer school, which were opposed by the principals, while a charter school lead by a new principal from the Bushwick School of Social Justice was also shot down. Schwartz hopes community members continue the search for "better options."

Guzman finds himself in an unusual position. Before the public hearing, he will meet with the three Bushwick Campus principals to introduce himself before meeting with parents and teachers. The 13-year veteran of parochial and public schools has never had to defend a school’s right to exist at a public forum.

“I’ve never done this before, I’m not sure what to expect. It’s a public hearing; I don’t know how it usually goes,” said Guzman.

"I think there’s fear in the unknown," he added. "The Bushwick Campus is one that has worked well and is probably a model for other small schools. Any disruption in that would cause anxiety. I want to make them aware that I am really excited about being a part of this small school community.”

A public forum regarding the future of the Bushwick Campus will be held tonight, February 9, at 6 PM in the school’s auditorium at 400 Irving Avenue (at Woodbine).