MS/HS 141 restructuring was a big success

To the editor:

Thank you for last week's lead story by Kate McNeil recounting the 50-year history of MS/HS 141. ("Parents recall struggle to get school started," front page)

Both the creation of the school in the 1950s and the restructuring of the school several years ago took place because of neighborhood activism, concerned parents and the leadership of a local newspaper.

Just as two junior high schools were built simultaneously in the 1950s (JHS 141 and my alma mater, JHS 143), two middle school/ high schools became a reality more recently. The restructuring of MS 141 from a six-to-eight middle school into a six-to-12 middle school/high school was the result of grassroots activism at its best. Led by Randi Martos and other parent leaders, thousands of people in our community turned out to vote for a slate of candidates for community school board committed to saving our schools, committed to giving our parents and children the option of a neighborhood high school of excellence, and committed to reversing the policies of a heartless, dictatorial and divisive school board that did everything in its power to negatively impact the Riverdale community.

Despite the dire predictions of a handful of obstructionists and naysayers we got what we wanted and more. Not only was the community successfully at restructuring 141, but we got the IN-Tech Academy, MS/ HS 368, a six-to-12 school, to serve the students of Kingsbridge Heights and Marble Hill. And the bureaucrats that fought us, as pointed out in the article, knew a good idea when they saw one and embraced this innovative idea of six-to12 schools elsewhere in the city.

I must take issue with one point in the article and the timeline. It revives, by implication, the old lie that the motivation for the restructuring the school was racist and that it was an effort on the part of Riverdale Review publisher Andrew Wolf to eliminate blacks and Hispanics from the school. Anyone who understood the demographics of the school population knew that even with the rezoning that took place that the population of 141 would be largely minority. While it's true that most students assigned to the MS/HS 368 zone were black or Hispanic, so were the large majority of those in the 141 zone. Having neighborhood schools meant creating smaller zones. Unfortunately, some people, such as former school board president Charles Williams, took the position that any rezoning that reduced 141's minority population by even one student was racist.

Andrew Wolf and I disagree on many issues, but one thing that we agree upon - and I think it's safe to say virtually everyone in the community agrees with - is that the restructuring of 141, an idea that originated with Mr. Wolf, was the most significant and positive structural change that had taken place in our local schools in decades. It helped stem the flow of families out of 141 and the community, resulted in the creation of MS/HS 368 and was an incredible victory for the entire Riverdale/Kingsbridge/ Kingsbridge Heights/Marble Hill community.

JEFFREY DINOWITZ
Assemblyman,
81st District