:Letter from a First Year Teacher in a Brooklyn School That Faces Closing

I wanted to touch base with you about the chaotic and seemingly fatal status of my school. Tonight, I attended a Joint Public Hearing between the DOE and the School Leadership Team, along with an opportunity for public comment. All 3 proposals that were introduced [all including charter schools] seem to lead nowhere fast. Sheepshead Bay HS has taken in the lowest performing students from across Brooklyn; students who are no longer able to go to their local community high school because the large high schools [Tilden, Canarsie, South Shore] were broken down into smaller schools that screen their students before admission and do not accept these low performers. SBHS has a huge population of ELL students, students with multiple and profound disabilities, and those who live within the traumatic world of poverty. If these students are not going to be admitted into the charter schools that are housed within the corpse-like building of former public community schools, where are they to go? *******I know that you feel as passionately about this issue as I do [we are facebook friends, hehe], so I'm sure you can accept and witness the pain of a first year teacher who is struggling to hold on to her