Top performing Manhattan middle schoolers were assigned to struggling high schools next year due to controversial admissions changes aimed at increasing diversity — and now some angry parents are scrambling for the exits.
“My kid did everything she was supposed to do,” said Herbert Bauernebel, whose District 2 child didn’t get into any of the 10 campuses she applied to despite a 97 percent average. “She worked really hard. We’re dumbfounded.”
Bauernebel said roughly 20 families at IS 276 in Battery Park City didn’t get into any of their listed schools and were instead defaulted into troubled Murray Bergtraum HS, which has long grappled with shrinking enrollment and low academic metrics.
Parents at other District 2 middle schools reported similar uproars.
“People are desperate at this point,” a mom said. “Some are planning to move, some are going private if they can afford it, some are sending their kids to live with grandparents.”
Sources in districts across the city — including District 30 in Queens — said other academically advanced kids had landed in the same predicament.
While seats in top District 2 schools were already scarce, recent admissions changes have further diminished their availability for local parents.
The DOE scrapped a district priority provision this year that reserved spots for kids who lived near in the area and opened them up to all kids regardless of location.
Other top District 2 high schools — including Eleanor Roosevelt HS, Baruch HS, Lab HS and Millennium HS — recently overhauled their admissions criteria.
They now each reserve at least 50 percent of seats for low-income applicants and incorporated lotteries into their admissions format.
Administrators argued that the moves would help to increase diversity at the schools that have long skewed white and Asian.
Whereas raw academic ranking was once the prime determinant of entry, standards have grown far more elastic.
Bauernebel argued that his child’s classroom efforts should have afforded her a place in a school that meets her academic needs.
“I don’t have money for a private school,” he said. “If we can’t offer a decent public school education to middle class people in New York City then what is the path forward?”
Parents at IS 276 were so distraught by their high school placements that they held an emergency meeting with school officials last week.
But the DOE stressed Wednesday that 97 percent of all high school applicants were offered a spot at one of their chosen schools. Each family could list up to 12.
“We want all of our families to celebrate the milestone of moving onto high school, and the vast majority of students received an offer to one of the schools they applied to,” said spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon. “When possible, we always work with any family who prefers a different choice and they have a wide array of opportunities to explore high school options after offers go out.”
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