More than a hundred Queens parents crammed a meeting room on Thursday night to voice their concerns about a forthcoming plan to desegregate middle schools in District 28, a sprawling area that encompasses parts of Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Rego Park and Jamaica.
The room reached maximum capacity with dozens of parents barred by security from entering altogether, while the mood inside was tense. Crowd members shouted down presenters and parent after parent indicated they’d rather maintain the status quo than integrate the area’s schools.
“Most families in Rego Park and Forest Hills are not gonna put their kids on extensively long commutes for the pleasure of attending a sub-par school,” said John Schaefer, whose two kids attend schools in Rego Park. “You’re pitting families in Queens against each other because there’s not enough good schools.”
Parents in District 28 place their hands over their hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the meeting
Thursday’s meeting marks the start of a process in which urban planning firm WXY Studios, hired by the Department of Education with a $155,000 contract, will take feedback across District 28 in a series of four community meetings. It’s part of the next phase in better integrating the nation’s largest school system, which is also one of the country’s most segregated.
District 28 applied for a $200,000 grant from the department to come up with a diversity plan, and was one of five districts awarded a grant earlier this year.
Some 40,000 children attend schools in this Queens district. Overall, the student population is 29 percent Asian, 27 percent Latinx, 15 percent white and 21 percent black, according to state statistics. But the neighborhoods are stratified by race and class. JHS 190 in Forest Hills, for example, is 28 percent white, 33 percent Asian, 27 percent Latino and 6 percent black, while Redwood Middle School in Jamaica is 66 percent black, 9 percent Latino, 16 percent Asian and 2 percent white.
Like Schaefer, most parents expressed concerns about long commutes to lower performing schools, though as presenters insisted over and over again during the course of the evening, there was no plan yet.
“What will happen to teachers, what will happen to Title 1 funding, what will happen where students go here, what will happen to the PTA?” said Akina Younge, rattling off a list of questions she’d already fielded from worried parents. Younge is overseeing the planning process with WXY Studios. “The answer is I don’t know, because there’s no plan yet.”
Parent Lorraine Reid asks why don’t they just give more resources to schools in south
Community Education Council 28 President Vijah Ramjattan wondered about a possible dead end: “What is the plan if at the end of four months, there is no plan because our parents are saying no? What’s the plan next?”
The crowd erupted in applause when Department of Education representative Andy McClintock conceded if the working group doesn’t come up with recommendations then they won’t vote on anything.
Although that does not seem a likely outcome. WXY Studios also facilitated the diversity plan implemented this year in Brooklyn’s District 15, which includes neighborhoods of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Sunset Park and Red Hook.
There, middle schools ended a screened admission process and switched to a lottery system where English Language Learners, homeless and low-income students get priority. Early enrollment statistics show fears white families would pull kids out of public schools did not bear out. And eight of the 11 middle schools hit their "diversity targets," making progress towards reflecting the overall demographics of the school district.
District 15’s diversity plan was top of mind for some parents at the Queens meeting Thursday.
“‘It became clear to us that it was a done deal. I doubt anything you could do will be moving the needle for them,’” said parent Jason Fink, reading off a paper he said were comments from Brooklyn parents involved in District 15’s diversity plan. “The question is, do you want that plan to be serving as a model for this one, because that’s what’s on the table.”
Parents trapped outside meeting, including Council Member Liz Crowley who eventually got in
While most parents hailed from the northern and whiter parts of the district, some from the southern part also expressed skepticism about the integration plan, to the raucous applause of onlookers. Lorraine Reid, whose son attends Redwood Middle School in South Jamaica electrified the crowd with her remarks.
“If the parents from the north have an issue of the bussing... and the parents from the south obviously there is an issue with... the academics of the students in the south, why aren’t we, instead of...spreading out all the inequalities, focus on the schools in the south, build the schools up in the south with the basic necessary tools that the students need,” she said.
WXY and the working group of two dozen community members are aiming to develop a list of recommendations on how to better integrate the district by the end of this school year.
