The Bronx Ink

By: Clara Martinez Turco, Umar Muhammad, Camilo Smith, Shlomo Sprung

Amid boisterous protests, the Panel for Educational Policy voted last week to close 10 schools in the Bronx that reportedly received three consecutive low grades on their report cards.

According to the City’s Department of Education, these schools will be phased out over the next three academic years. Starting in September, they will not be enrolling new students.

The panel already started approving the opening of eleven smaller schools, including two charter high schools, that will replace the failing ones. These institutions will open their doors in September with one class. The phase in will be completed by 2014-2015.

Critics of the DOE believe closing schools is abandoning the problem rather than fixing it.  Schools Chancellor Cathie Black defended the panel’s vote by pointing to research that shows smaller schools “are particularly successful with students traditionally considered the most disadvantaged, including minorities, special education students, English Language Learners, and students entering high school with low proficiency levels.”

Confused about which schools are closing and where the new ones are located? Bronx Ink put together a map of the schools slated to close, and those that will open their doors. Those flagged in red are closing. Those in blue are opening.

All new elementary schools will be zoned, which means that priority is given to Bronx residents within a certain geographical location. As for the new high schools, all but one are “limited unscreened,” which means they will give preference to students who attend an information fair or open house. Click on the map to learn more about each school.

View Bronx School Phase-out and Replacement in a larger map

A man was found shot multiple times last night in front of 848 Hunts Point Avenue.

Emergency medical services and police responded to a 911 call shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday night reporting a shooting.

Police from the 41^st precinct identified the gunshot victim as 24-year-old Jarrett Rivera.

Rivera was transported to Lincoln Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival from several gunshot wounds, police said.

Police are still investigating the shooting. No arrests have been made at this time.

Jessica Altruz, 24, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter for the hit-and-run that killed Margaret Fisher, 67, as she was walking home with her groceries.
The prosecution argued that Altruz was speeding through an intersection when she struck Fisher.
“As you can see, she’s incredibly distraught,” defense lawyer Rebecca Kavanagh told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner. Kavanagh called it “a tragic accident, a mistake” and said her client, a working mom with a 4-year-old daughter, was “deeply sympathetic” to the victim.
Altruz is being held on $100,000 bail, she is due back in court March 22.  [Daily News]

Jamieson Prince was arrested last year in front of his daughters while trying to drive them to school. Police had seized Prince’s 2007 GMC Yukon for an investigation involving his 23-year-old son.
When Prince arrived at the 28^th Precinct police station to pick up the vehicle, police said they couldn’t find it.Prince found the vehicle parked near the station and drove it home.
“How can the NYPD just confiscate property, lose it, then arrest you for possessing it?” Prince said. “It’s totally wrong. I want an apology.” [Daily News]

Families looking to send their children to school have had limited options in the Bronx.
The Montessori school will provide a third option for parent’s who do not want to send their children to Montessori school in Yonkers, and who can not afford private school in the Bronx.
The school will open in September and already has 100 applicants. The school will only have capacity for 100 students its first year.  [Daily News]

The New York botanical garden provides visitors with a warm tropical atmosphere. It is a perfect escape from New York’s record breaking winter season.
The Caribbean garden provides a tropical escape for New Yorkers. [Daily News]

For decades, Bronx environmental and community advocates have fought to revive the borough’s stretch of the polluted river. Now, local governments – as far upstream as Valhalla – have signed on to keep sewage and dirty storm water out of the channel.

City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe called the Bronx River Watershed Management Plan an “unprecedented” example of teamwork among three county governments and 15 towns that straddle the 23-mile waterway. [Daily News]

Glenn Beck has infuriated residents of the Bronx’s Co-Op City by comparing their community to the failed socialism that once ruled the USSR.

The Mitchell-Lama legislation passed by New York lawmakers in 1955 gave developers tax breaks for building affordable housing that was sold to blue-collar, working-class people at below the market rates. The 35 high-rises that make up Bronx’s Co-Op City are a result of the legislation. [Daily News]