Eastern District High School
Eastern District High School | |
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Address | |
850 Grand Street Brooklyn, New York 11211 United States |
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Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Information | |
Type | Public |
Opened | 1900[1] |
Closed | 1996 (re-opened as Grand Street Campus) |
First Principal | Dr. William T. Vlymen (1900-1930) |
Last Principal | Floyd Green (1990-1996) |
Enrollment | 3,300 (1992)[2] 1,800 (2001) (As Grand Street Campus)[3] |
Team name | Knights (Eastern District)[4] Wolves (Grand Street)[5] |
Construction Cost | $46 million[6] |
Eastern District High School is a defunct high school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, originally located at 288 Berry Street, 227 Marcy Avenue, and finally 850 Grand Street.[7] It was a comprehensive high school. It remained in service from the turn of the 20th Century until the city closed the school in Spring of 1996.[5][8][9]
The third building at Grand Street reopened in the fall of 1996 as Grand Street Campus, with several smaller schools operating within the same facilities.[3][5][9]
Contents
History
As Eastern District High School
Original buildings
The school was conceived in 1894, and opened in 1900, graduating its first class in 1904.[1][10] The name "Eastern District" originates from the annexation of Williamsburg and Bushwick into the city of Brooklyn as it's Eastern District in 1855.[5] The first location was at Henry McCaddin Memorial Hall at 288 Berry Street between South 2nd and South 3rd Streets on the north side of the Williamsburg Bridge, with an annex two blocks east on Driggs Avenue. The Berry Street location is adjacent to the Saints Peter and Paul Church, and later served as a school for the Catholic parish, as well as a library and a concert hall.[11][12][13] The second building, opened in 1907, was located in western Williamsburg on Marcy Avenue between Keap Street and Rodney Street. It sat across the street from the Williamsburgh branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and near the Marcy Avenue Station of the BMT Jamaica Line (currently served by the J, M, and Z trains).[14][15][16]
Beginning in the 1960s, Eastern District High School was one of several schools plagued by overcrowding, poor academic performance, low attendance, and student unrest. Frequent demonstrations — both non-violent and violent — by students, parents, and community leaders were met with a large NYPD presence. In the spring of 1969, the school was closed several times after a student protest, an incident of vandalism in which glass partitions and windows were shattered, a series of 10 small fires set primarily in the school's cafeteria, and finally a student riot in the cafeteria. The unrest was due to demands to the principal by the school's student leadership not being met, including dismissing a school dean.[17][18][19][20]
Reflective of the large Puerto Rican population of the school at the time, Eastern District employed the first Puerto Rican high school principal in New York City when Marco Hernandez was appointed as acting principal in August of 1971.[21]
Built to serve a maximum of 1,800 students, Eastern District had an enrollment of 2,900 students by the time the Marcy Avenue building closed in April of 1981. The overcrowding had forced over 500 students to attend classes in either a schoolyard annex or the local YMCA. That same month Eastern District was moved to its current location.[21][22][23][24][25] The old building is currently used by a girl's yeshiva, Bais Ruchel d'Satmar.[26][27]
New building
Following the closure of the Marcy Avenue location, Eastern District moved into its final location in eastern Williamsburg. Known as "Northeast Brooklyn High School" during construction, the four-story building and campus was built to alleviate crowding both in EDHS and Bushwick High School.[23][24][25]
In its final years in operation in the 1980s and early 1990s, Eastern District continued to be known for poor academics and frequent violence and safety issues. The school had high dropout and truancy rates, with graduation consistently below 20%. The violence, including fights between students and attacks on faculty members, was attributed to both overcrowding and conflicts between the Black, Dominican, and Puerto Rican populations of the school. The school was also one of the first to receive weekly metal detector screenings and later permanent metal detectors.[2][3][24][28][29] The violence and poor performance led principal Sonia Rivera to be removed in 1990 by Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez. Rivera was later charged with incompetence by the New York City Board of Education. The school was moved from the state's list of failing schools to the Chancellor's District of perennially failing schools, and a two-day boycott was held by parents and students in 1992 due to the dire state of the school.[3][28][29][30] Eastern District High School was closed following the 1995-1996 academic year, in which the school had a 30% dropout rate and a 62.3% attendance rate.[3]
As Grand Street Campus
In the fall of 1996, the building was reopened as Grand Street Campus, housing several small high schools under one roof. Grand Street was one of the first former large high schools in New York City to be reopened as an "educational campus." As part of the restructuring, the campus' metal detectors were removed. The new schools were The High School for Enterprise, Business and Technology, Progress High School for Professional Careers, the High School for Legal Studies, and Eastern District Senior Academy.[3][5][9][31][32][33] Senior Academy, an alternative assessment school, only operated for two school years, closing in June of 1998 and enrolling only junior and senior students. Following a special investigation, 61 of the 227 students who graduated from the school had their diplomas revoked due to not satisfying outstanding academic requirements, and over half of the graduates' diplomas were found to be issued under questionable circumstances. The school was found to have awarded credits to students for running errands, working at certain jobs, or for taking classes with little relation to the requirements they satisfied.[31][32]
The other three schools remain in operation; each initially enrolled approximately 600 students, with current enrollment at about 1000 students per school.[3][34] The High School for Enterprise, Business, and Technology had a four year graduation rate of 80% in 2012. Progress High School and the School for Legal Studies graduated 55% and 65% of their students that year respectively.[35]
The schools share the athletics program as the Grand Street Wolves, and have won multiple PSAL championships. The baseball team in particular has produced several NCAA Division I and professional players, most notably Dellin Betances.[5] The schools also share a large performing arts department including three concert bands, two jazz ensembles, a choir and a comprehensive dance program.[34]
Current Schools
High School of Enterprise, Business, & Technology
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The High School of Enterprise, Business, & Technology, abbreviated as EBT, was founded by longtime Stuyvesant High School teacher Juan S. Mendez, occupying the fourth floor of campus. The school observes a dress code, and offers four different programs (Computer Science, Business & Finance, Gateway: Math and Science, Music). EBT was the first GSC school to be removed from the list of Schools Under Registration Review (SURR) in 2000, and has had graduation rates both higher than its sister schools and above Brooklyn average.[3][34][35][36][37][38][39]
PROGRESS High School for Professional Careers
Progress High School was founded in conjunction with the nonprofit organization PROGRESS, Inc. (Puerto Rican Organization for Growth, Research, Education and Self Sufficiency). It features four programs (Medical Professions, Gateway: Math and Science, Instrumental Music, Fine Art) and four Advanced Placement courses. It was the first GSC school to be removed from New York State's list of failing schools.[3][34][40][41][42]
High School for Legal Studies
School for Legal Studies' two programs (Legal Studies, Computer Forensics) focus in the area of Law and Government. Like EBT, Legal Studies observes a dress code. Located on the third floor of the campus, the school has the smallest student body within the campus.[34] It was the last school to come off the SURR review list in 2003.[43]
In February 1997, prominent lawyer Johnnie Cochran served as "principal for a day" at the school.[44]
Facilities
Today's Grand Street Campus, opened in 1981, is located at Grand Street and Bushwick Avenue in East Williamsburg, with direct access to the L train of the BMT Canarsie Line.[34] The suburban-style campus was constructed on former commercial and industrial land, at a cost of $46 million. The four-story school school building with a 4,000 student capacity features two cafeterias, six gymnasiums, nine computer labs, and several Industrial arts rooms including auto and woodshop. At the southern end of the three-block long campus is the athletic facility, featuring multiple tennis and handball courts, and a large multi-purpose field circumscribed by a running track, featuring dirt cutouts and a pitching mound for baseball. Initially the field was constructed of AstroTurf, and unusable until repairs were made. The field was renovated in 2003 under the city's Take the Field initiative, replacing the AstroTurf with modern artificial turf, and adding cutouts and a mound for softball as well as a field house.[3][4][6][24][28][29][45][46][47]
To update the medical care of Grand Street Campus' students, the Campus has a partnership with nearby Woodhull Hospital for an on-campus clinic.[40][48]
In popular culture
In Betty Smith's modern classic, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," one of the principal characters, Cornelius "Neeley" Nolan, attends Eastern District High.
Notable alumni
Eastern District High School
- Charles Abrams, urbanist and housing expert, founder of the New York City Housing Authority[49]
- Red Auerbach, guard, NBA coach and general manager, Hall of Fame
- Mark Breland, World Champion Boxer
- Mel Brooks, actor, writer, director
- Jack D. Foner, historian
- Moe Foner, 1199 Union activist
- Philip S. Foner, American Marxist labor historian and teacher
- Daniel Fuchs, novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.
- Vic Hershkowitz, American handball player, New York City Firefighter
- Homicide, wrestler
- Leonardo Garcia, writer,tenor
- Stan Isaacs, sportswriter
- Arthur Levitt, Sr., lawyer and politician, father of former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt, Jr.[50]
- Barry Manilow, singer, composer
- George Vincent McLaughlin, banker, public official, New York City Police Commissioner[51]
- Memphis Bleek, rapper[52]
- Henry Miller, writer[53]
- Joseph Papp, theater producer and founder of the Public Theater
- Michael E. Reiburn (1893–1982), graduate class of 1911,[54] New York assemblyman and state senator, disbarred lawyer convicted of fraud and theft
- Frank Rodriguez, major league baseball player[55]
Grand Street Campus
- Dellin Betances (PROGRESS High School), All Star pitcher for the New York Yankees[47]
Notable faculty
Eastern District High School
- Saul Rogovin, former major league pitcher, English teacher for eight years until 1990.[56]
- Eulalie Spence, a Harlem Renaissance playwright, taught English, Drama, and elocution at Eastern District High School from 1927 to 1938. Mentor to Joseph Papp.[57][58]
Grand Street Campus
- Rebecca Pawel (EBT High School), novelist and winner of the 2004 Edgar Award for "Best First Novel", teaches English and occasionally Spanish.[59]
References
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- ↑ NY Daily News Eastern District High School flunks
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- ↑ Mary V. Dearborn, The Happiest Man Alive, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991, p. 38.
- ↑ HONORS FOR REIZENBERG (sic); Brooklyn Man Chosen for Syracuse Debating Team in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on April 20, 1915
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- ↑ Excerpt from "African American Dramatists: An A to Z Guide." Edited by Emmanuel Sampath Nelson. From Google Books. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
- ↑ Perkins, Kathy A. Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays Before 1950. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990. ISBN 0253113660. Google Books. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
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