A Manhattan judge saved 19 schools from the chopping block, but now several of them are facing a new threat — empty seats.
One of the schools — Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship HS in Queens — has just eight kids enrolled for the fall, according to sources.
Other Queens schools rescued by the judge — who found that the city violated rules for closure established under the mayoral-control law — that are suffering from low enrollment include Beach Channel HS, with 21 students for the fall, and Jamaica HS, with 23, sources said. These schools typically enroll 100 to 300 ninth-graders annually.
“There’s just been a whole series of ‘don’t come here’ signals” from the Department of Education, said a staffer at the business-computer school.
In a letter to prospective students, DOE told applicants it planned to phase out their choice of school because the facility was deemed as “failing.” The DOE also said the only reason seats were still offered was because it was ordered to do so by the court.
DOE officials, who are appealing the judge’s ruling, said the enrollment numbers were incomplete and were expected to grow before the start of the school year.
They claimed that more than 1,000 kids got matched to one of the high schools they tried to close.