Where will students be able to go?

Posted

Students are already facing the consequences of the Aug. 20 explosion at the John F. Kennedy Educational Campus that left the building temporarily unusable. Two New Visions Charter Schools, which called JFK home along with five public schools, relocated down the street to the IN-Tech Academy on Monday to hold a weeklong summer bridge program.

“We are grateful to the NYC Department of Education [DOE] for working with us to temporarily relocate our two charter schools’ ‘summer bridge’ programs at In-Tech Academy. Our main priority is being able to accommodate the needs of our students and staff during the ongoing response to last week’s explosion,” New Visions vice president Tim Farrell said in an e-mail.

“Everything is going well. Their coming in [to IN-Tech] went smoothly,” said IN-Tech principal Stephen Seltzer, who is in his first year at the school.

Custodians from both JFK and IN-Tech worked on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to prepare the school for the New Visions students and staff, Mr. Seltzer continued. Several assistant principals and a staff technician also came in on Monday to help make the transition as smooth as possible.

It’s not clear if the New Visions students will continue to use IN-Tech for the school year, which starts on Wednesday, Sept. 9. It is also not clear how many — if any — of the five other schools on the JFK campus will open in their regular location.

“The safety of our students is our first priority and we are working to ensure the building will be reoccupied as soon it is safe to do so. We have been communicating with families and we will keep them informed about any plans to relocate students,” a DOE spokesman said in an e-mail.

Northwest Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz urged DOE officials to work as fast as possible to reopen the JFK campus.

“I said they need to, and I hope they’re going to be, working 24/7, around the clock, until the building is restored,” he said on Monday. “They’ve told me it will take several months.”

Mr. Dinowitz said he advised the DOE officials to look into Manhattan for options to house the students as well, because many JFK students come from Upper Manhattan.

“I believe their intention is to locate whole schools at a time,” he said. “Hopefully part of the building will be able to be used and they only have to relocate two or three or four of the schools instead of all of them,” he continued.

About 3,000 students attend seven schools on the JFK campus.

Shant Shahrigian contributed reporting.

JFK campus, explosion, IN-Tech Academy, New Visions Charter Schools, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Isabel Angell

Comments