DOE says two new schools coming to DeWitt Clinton

UPDATED 4:33 P.M.

As of next fall, the Department of Education plans to co-locate two new district high schools inside the building that currently houses DeWitt Clinton.

This winter, the DOE will announce more information about the new schools, which would eventually enroll between 420 and 460 students each and use 16 full-size classrooms. Both would begin by teaching ninth grade students and would add one grade level each year, according to the educational impact statement portion of the  proposal released Friday by the DOE.

Clinton’s enrollment would decrease from about 3,630 to 2,250 over the next four years. According to the educational impact statement, Clinton would share large spaces such as three gyms, a cafeteria, an auditorium, a library, a dance room and a pool with the new schools and gradually hand over the building’s 125 full-size classrooms until Clinton only uses 75 by the 2016-2017 school year.
Whether any of Clinton’s six academic programs will have to be scaled back or cut will be left up to the school’s administration, which will consider student demand, staffing and budgetary constraints, according to the DOE.

Clinton principal Geraldine Ambrosio was not immediately available for comment.
The new schools would use an admissions process that gives priority to students who live in or attend school in the Bronx and who demonstrate an interest in the new school by attending a related information session, going to the schools’ open houses or visiting the schools’ exhibits at a high school fair.

After Clinton received its second consecutive “F” on the annual school Progress Report in November, the Department flagged the school for “early engagement.” The DOE said it targeted Clinton because the school fell within the 5 percent of lowest performing high schools statewide.

As part of the “early engagement” process, the DOE meets with students, teachers and parents to solicit feedback on what to do with the targeted school. In Clinton’s case, hundreds of alumni, parents, students and staff showed up at a Dec. 6 meeting and spoke out against tampering with the 115-year-old institution.