Protests Scheduled Over Queens School Closures
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A plan to close more than a half dozen New York City schools has students at two of the them planning protest demonstrations.
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The plan is to close eight underperforming city schools and reopen them with new names, new leadership, and smaller staffs.
Events are scheduled at two of the affected schools today in protest - Newtown High School at 48-01 90th Street and Grover Cleveland High School at 21-27 Himrod Street, both in Queens.
There will be a human chain formed around Cleveland High and a rally at Newtown High - both at 4 p.m.
One teacher who asked not to be identified called the closings wrong and disruptive.
"It'll be a huge disruption because people are going to come and now teach in a school that they have no knowledge about, the diversity and the challenges that we have faced," she told WCBS 880 reporter Mike Xirinachs.
She says officials just don't get it.
"If they came in and looked looked at the school and what we're doing and the progress we've made, rather than just say blindly, 'We're gonna close you' they would get it," she said.
The school closures are a result of failure to reach agreement on teacher evaluations.
