Samuels Weighs Campus Working Groups as NYC Schools With 90 Students Go Without Advanced Math

New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels told parent leaders this week that the Education Department is looking at creating campus working groups for high schools, according to a report published Oct. 29. City officials have not released a timeline. An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the city helps schools in the same building share resources.

The proposal follows a Chalkbeat investigation last month into Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, the city's smallest traditional high school with roughly 90 students. The school has a per-student budget nearly twice the city average but employed one math teacher last year who taught only Algebra I and II. Some students attend night school to complete graduation requirements.

Johanna Bjorken, a parent leader, wrote to city officials in September that she was shocked to learn students who play sports with her son must attend night school for basic graduation requirements. Her son attends Urban Assembly Maker Academy, which shares a Lower Manhattan building with Murry Bergtraum. Maker Academy Principal Amy Piller said shared campuses 'accidentally pits us against each other.'

Samuels said at a town hall last week that he is not crafting a citywide plan. Instead, five working groups are developing blueprints for underenrolled schools in their districts. None of those groups includes high schools. Some principals on shared campuses have pooled course offerings, while others have not.

Sharing resources carries complications. Schools on the same campus may operate on different bell schedules and follow different grading policies. Principals must split costs for teachers covering shared classrooms. At Murry Bergtraum, schools in the same building report to different superintendents, so no single leader is responsible for the building. Shael Polakow-Suransky, president of Bank Street College of Education and a former deputy chancellor under Bloomberg, said sharing courses can work for advanced classes and electives but is harder for core academic subjects.

At the Theodore Roosevelt campus in the Bronx, principals of six co-located schools opened advanced courses including calculus and statistics to the whole campus a decade ago. Six small high schools in the Lehman High School building aligned bell schedules in 2016 to share courses. Vivian Orlen, former superintendent of Manhattan high schools, said resource sharing can feel like a 'Band-Aid' because it often benefits only students who seek advanced courses.

Piller said Maker Academy is a finalist for a grant to convert an unused locker room on the Murry Bergtraum campus's top floor into shared academic space. City officials have not said when campus working groups for high schools would begin.