Some students at a Rochester high school are worried that a school reconfiguration plan could upend their education.
The Rochester city school board is expected to vote on a school reconfiguration proposal this week. The district’s plan includes closing about a dozen schools, including the one Nyasia McFarland attends.
McFarland goes to Northeast College Preparatory High School. If the proposal is approved as is, she and her peers could be dispersed to other schools.
“We're not going to know some of the people there,” McFarland said. “It's gonna be different for a lot of us. We've been going here since seventh grade. It’s going to be a big change."
That shift would happen as she enters her senior year.
“That's going to be really, really different and difficult,” she said.
Current senior Omaria Curry will have already graduated by the time any changes would take effect under the school reconfiguration plan. But she’s concerned for the younger students that there could be a spike in violence if students from different gangs are placed together, she said. She worries that kind of situation could lead to more security presence at schools which she said would make school feel more like jail.
But she’s also concerned that some students’ records could slip through the cracks, something she saw happen to some of her classmates.
In 2022, the Northeast campus moved from Fernwood Park to Charlotte to merge with another school that was closing due to poor performance and low enrollment.
“It was difficult last year,” said teacher Gina Porretta-Baker. “Here we are a new school coming in, and it took a long time to create those relationships with students."
Jahcora Jenkins, a Junior at Northeast Prep, said she doesn’t know whether the school will close yet but she says she’s angry it’s even a possibility.
“It took us so long to build and create the bonds we have with each other and get into the right mindset for our goals,” she said. “We're basically being ripped apart from our second home.”
In a letter to families, Superintendent Carmine Peluso said that Northeast Prep students in ninth through 11th grades will be entered into a “special lottery” to determine which school they will attend next year.
Jacora says that’s not comforting.
“With our school, they actually care,” she said. “They take time to understand where we are. They're considerate. Other schools cannot guarantee that. And that's putting most of us in jeopardy of (interfering with) the learning capabilities that we have.”
The Rochester city school board is scheduled to vote on the proposal Thursday.
