NYC Comptroller & New York Appleseed Map Out Blueprint for Inclusive, Integrated School Mergers to Help Meet Lower Class Size Mandate

 

Report highlights Arts & Letters 305 United in Fort Greene/BedStuy as example of racially integrated school merger of an overcrowded school & underfunded school 

As New York City works to comply with the State Legislature’s mandate to lower public school class sizes, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and New York Appleseed co-authored Intentional and Inclusive School Mergers, a report to showcase a viable, cost-effective solution for New York City that centers diversity, equity, and excellence through inclusive and intentional school mergers. To illustrate this approach, the report features a case study of the merger that created Arts and Letters 305 United in District 13 (Brooklyn) in 2020 with interviews of parents, students, and faculty, as well as an analysis of citywide data to identify opportunities for utilizing the merger approach.

As the country’s largest public school system, New York City has a broad spectrum that includes severely overcrowded schools with very large class sizes, and schools facing declining enrollment and losses of per pupil funding that can make it difficult to provide a full panoply of resources and services. In order to comply with the state mandate to reduce class size and re-balance the number of students in classrooms, lawmakers and policymakers will need to employ various methods, likely including building new schools and additions, shifting school zone boundaries, altering programming and enrollment, and employing more teachers. Consolidating schools should be among the proposals to reduce class sizes, where it can be rooted in equity rather than a means to perpetuate school segregation.

“As New York City works to meet the class size mandate, the Department of Education has an opportunity to promote intentional and inclusive school mergers that reduce class size, improve student outcomes, and advance the vision of a less segregated school system,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “Seventy years after Brown v. Board, New York City’s schools remain segregated due to decades of redlining, gentrification, and unequal access to schools with screened admissions. The merger that created Arts & Letters 305 United in 2020 is a model that can combat inequity, pool school resources to achieve better outcomes, and allow schools to meet the class size mandate. Inclusive and intentional school mergers are not only a cost-effective way to lower class size (given the price of land and construction), they also ensure that benefit goes to a more diverse array of students. This solution is a win-win.”

Student enrollment is on the decline in New York City Public Schools overall, but those declines are falling even more acutely in Black communities. Between 2012 and 2022, while overall student enrollment declined by 12 percent, Black student enrollment declined by 32.5 percent—and in Central and Southeastern Brooklyn and Northern Manhattan, Black student enrollment declined by 45 percent or greater. As enrollment declined, the amount of used space decreased; schools in District 16 in Central Brooklyn utilize 45 percent of their available space.

Enrollment declines reduce the funding a school receives. Every school receives $225,000 in foundational Fair Student Funding (FSF) to cover a principal and other core staff, but the number of students (and however many students who live in poverty, temporary housing, have disabilities, or are English Language Learners) determines the rest of the school funding. Schools with more students have far more funds for a wide array of specialist staff and programs (e.g. arts, music, social and emotional learning) that smaller schools cannot afford.

“As one of the most segregated school systems in the country, the New York City Public Schools should take every opportunity to advocate for and advance truly integrated schools. With the new class size mandate, there’s a timely chance to deepen school integration efforts by exploring solutions like intentional and inclusive school mergers. Our report offers the necessary depth and lens for equity to ensure all proposed future school mergers are intentional in prioritizing real integration and actively involve school communities in decision-making, feedback, and engagement,” said Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseed. 

The report does an in-depth examination of the merger that created Arts and Letters 305 United in District 13. District 13 in Brooklyn is in the middle of the pack concerning class size law compliance—61 percent of classes in the district were above the class caps in the 2021-22 school year (the same as the citywide average). The district underwent a rapid gentrification over that last decade: the number of Black students declined by 40 percent while the number of white students increased by 63 percent. In 2019, Arts & Letters operated at over 130 percent capacity while being co-located with P.S. 20, another school that was also at over 130 percent capacity. In comparison, P.S. 305 was under-enrolled, operating at only 36 percent capacity. By January 2020, the gap grew wider with Arts & Letters reporting 145 percent capacity and P.S. 305 reporting just 16 percent.

The merger decision process happened during Spring 2019 and was deliberate about framing the process through a lens of equity and integration. According to the interviews conducted for this report, school and district leaders made intentional choices to involve the community in the decision-making process for how the merger would take place and conducted engagement that did not shy away from addressing the apparent racial and socioeconomic differences and parent involvement between the two schools.

Both communities reflected on the merger process bringing much-needed resources. For students and families from Arts and Letters, those resources were often space-related—finally having slightly smaller class sizes and room for push-in and/or pull-out services. For the 305 community, every parent and staff member interviewed noted that the merger drastically expanded the offerings and extracurriculars available to students and families.

With 70 percent of New York City public schools are intensely segregated, the demographics of over- and under-utilized schools creates opportunities to utilize mergers to reduce cost, improve school financial viability, foster greater school integration, and improve student outcomes.

The report recommends the following to the Department of Education (DOE):

• Identify school merger opportunities to attain class size compliance and better school integration including reducing racial and socioeconomic dissimilarities and/or isolation within school districts, closing the opportunity gaps, and ensuring greater access for under-enrolled and under-resourced schools. The report’s analysis provides a framework for the City to conduct such analyses using real-time enrollment and demographic data.
• Create new opportunities for school consolidations by organizing grades bands into lower (PreK – 2nd grade) and upper (3rd – 5th grade) for age-appropriate programs and services, eliminating admissions methods like middle school screens and gifted & talented programs that could hinder consolidation, and coordinating DOE departments to plan and execute school mergers.
• Support school community engagement by facilitating an internal School Merger Working Group that prioritizes equity and excellence and ensuring compliance with Local Law 225 of 2019 to establish diversity working groups in every district by the end of 2024.

The report also recommends the following for individual school mergers:

• Schools must continue to follow through with investments into the 5 “Rs” of the Real Integration framework. The 5 Rs establish that truly integrated schools are those that (1) achieve Racial, ethnic, and economic diversity in composition, (2) appoint leadership Representative of this diversity, (3) facilitate Relationships across people of different backgrounds, (4) practice Restorative justice, and (5) share equitable access to Resources and opportunities.
• DOE’s Family and Community Engagement (FACE) department must provide and incentivize staff and faculty with community-building opportunities well in advance of the completed merger.

• DOE should fund and all staff and faculty should participate in culturally responsive professional development opportunities well-before and after the merger process.
• Schools must involve students and families in the merger decision-making and planning process, clearly communicating school merger objectives and prioritizing transparency.
• Students and families must receive ongoing support from school and district leadership through the provision of spaces to engage in courageous conversations across community lines.

Read the full report here.