INTERNATIONAL HS NIXED
TRY FOR FALL 2008, CITY TELLS LOCAL ACTIVISITS
By TANYANIKA SAMUELS
March 9, 2007
Daily News

Though a popular plan for an international school Lafayette High School's campus is dead for now, city pool officials said they haven't abandoned the idea. "We will be opening new schools on [that] campus 2008," city Education Department spokeswoman Alody Meyer said. "We're looking for proposals that meet the needs of the community."

In January, city officials announced that three new small schools would be opening on Lafayette's campus in the fall. The Bensonhurst school is being phased out after the city found it to be "low-performing."

Despite strong community backing, an international school was not one of the new small-school options.  The decision not to offer an international school touched off a wave of criticism and culminated in a protest outside Education Department headquarters last week.

"They had an opportunity to help educate new immigrants and they didn't," said Lafayette junior Xiao Jing Lin, 16, after the protest.

A proposal had been submitted for an International Studies High School by a current assistant principal at Lafayette, but city school officials turned it down. Generally, the Education Department shies away from opening schools where the leadership of the new school would be affiliated with that of the school be¬ing phased out, Education officials said.

Community activists, however, were critical.

"I don't understand that concept," said Steve Chung, president of the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn. "They should be more concerned about the immediate needs of the community."

Formerly a predominantly Italian enclave, Bensonhurst is increasingly attracting Asians Russians, African-Americans and Hispanics. The omission of an international school will exacerbate overcrowding at high schools such as New Utrecht and John Dewey, community leaders said.

"This not only hurts the children at Lafayette, but creates problems for the surrounding high schools," Assemblyman William Colton said. "This is a loss of a golden opportunity."

Community activists were encouraged by hints about an international school at Lafayette in the future, but worried about students going to school in the fall. "We totally support the small-school policy; we just want them to focus on our immediate needs;" said Chung. "We just simply cannot wait any longer."

Chung and Colton are hoping for future meetings with Education Department officials to work out a compromise for the fall.

"We're going to keep on fighting," Colton said. "If you have a good proposal and children in the neighbor-hood that need it, then the time to do it is now."

  © 2007 Daily News, L.P.