Principal leaves Bronx to start up B’klyn school

The principal of Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy is leaving to found a new school.

When the details are finalized — probably in March — Rashid Davis will take leave of BETA on the John F. Kennedy campus, where he has worked since August 2006, and head to Pathways in Technology Early College High School or P-TECH.

Proposed to open at Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn in September, P-TECH is designed to help students secure entry-level jobs in the technology industry.

“I knew I wanted to have an opportunity to be a part of that so I was excited to be able to continue the work, but also deepen the work, that I started here at BETA,” Mr. Davis said in a phone interview.

While the proposal to open P-TECH in the soon-to-be-phased-out Paul Robeson has not yet been voted on, after the details are firmed up in March, Mr. Davis said the DOE will pick a new principal for BETA and he will head to Brooklyn.

A 40-year-old Kingsbridge resident, Mr. Davis worked as an English teacher at John F. Kennedy High School for seven years and was an assistant principal there for three years. As BETA’s leader, he formed partnerships with local colleges, graduated 84 percent of his students and increased the school’s Advanced Placement offerings.

“Rashid’s very successful leadership at BETA and his vision for the new school make him a good fit to lead this effort,” Ernest Logan, president of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, wrote in an e-mail.

Mr. Davis said he spent most of the day on Monday spreading the word about the new school and said the coming months would be used for working out details for the opening.

P-TECH, a small school born out of a partnership between the Department of Education, New York City College of Technology, City University of New York and IBM, will educate students in grades nine through 14, meaning students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in information technology. P-TECH is being touted as the first of its kind in the City because its graduates will be at the front of the line for job openings at IBM.

It is just this type of school that local politicians, including state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and Councilman Oliver Koppell, asked the DOE to open in place of John F. Kennedy High School. Instead, the DOE proposed two New Visions charters that could begin taking students as early as September.

Mr. Davis said schools like P-TECH are especially important because students of color and women are still underrepresented in technology fields but reflected on his years in the Bronx with nostalgia.

“Fifteen years of my life has been here,” he said. “I’m a Bronx resident … I’m going to miss it but I know that it definitely has strengthened me.”