PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

School Briefs

By HEATHER HADDON

MS 80 Colors a la Lauren
A man famous for making elegant shirtsleeves rolled up his own last month when Ralph Lauren gave some color to MS 80. Participating in an annual service day sponsored by New York Cares, a city civic organization, Lauren brought an army of 160 volunteers to help prime, paint and decorate the walls of the Mosholu Parkway school.

"He really went above and beyond," said Assistant Principal Deirdre Amerling. 

In one day, the volunteers (which included Lauren's two adult children) painted 13 classrooms and 20 doors, along with staircases, hallways and part of the auditorium. "They were really in poor condition," said Amerling about the now sparkling surfaces.

Lauren brought a little style to the school through three murals in the hallways with MS 80's motto -- "Nothing Less than Success" -- in both English and Spanish. A large mural also now graces the library wall. "They just picked up the rollers and painted," Amerling said. "It was quite a team." 

Raised on Steuben Avenue as Ralph Lifshitz, Lauren donated curtains to the school several years ago. But he seems to have taken a renewed interested in MS 80 -- where he graduated from in the 1950s. 

"I got an e-mail from them last night about getting together a list of books we want for a holiday book drive," Amerling said. "It's going to be a wonderful relationship with them."

Advocate Highlights Overcrowding
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum recently took a stand against the growing crisis of overcrowding in high schools, and toured one of the city's worst recently -- Walton High School in Kingsbridge Heights. With over 3,000 kids, the high school was 65 percent over its capacity last year, as documented in a city report. 

"According to the Department of Education's (DOE) own findings, well over a third of all city schools are overcrowded, some of them severely," said Gotbaum in a statement. 

This year's space shortage is especially severe at the high school level. Surging ninth grade enrollment, due to demographics, is part of the problem. DeWitt Clinton High School's current enrollment is roughly 4,600 students, up by 700 from last year.

But the new theme-based high schools, which are housed within pre-existing schools, also seized space. Further contributing to the squeeze, some poorly performing schools were downsized this year.

Walton is now home to two mini-schools: the High School for Teaching and the Professions, and the Discovery High School. One New Century High School -- as they are officially called -- is at DeWitt Clinton. It's called the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music.

Gotbaum recently received a letter from one Walton teacher detailing the extensiveness of the overcrowding situation. Currently, the school's library is used as a classroom for two to four periods of the day. "Regular students and mini-school students alike have no access to the library at any point during the day," Gotbaum said. "This is a sad but vivid example of how overcrowding poisons the learning process."

Klein has acknowledged that overcrowding is an issue and at press time was on the verge of releasing a five-year capital plan for school construction. "It seems undeniable that the DOE's response to this problem has been inadequate," Gotbaum said. "The worse overcrowding gets the harder it will be to fix."

Teachers Pitch in for PS 280
A couple of dozen teachers from PS 280 in Norwood pitched in at McDonalds on East 204th St. to raise money for their school in a program known as McTeacher's Night. Organized by McDonald's branches in the tri-state area, teachers staff a local McDonald's for an evening and a portion of the proceeds is donated to the school. Rich Perna, owner of the 204th Street franchise, said his was the only McDonald's in the Bronx participating in the program. There was almost not a seat to be had, as the turnout among students and their families was tremendous. Principal Gary LaMotta was delighted with the turnout and the participation of his teaching staff.

State Math Scores Rise Sharply
Educators are celebrating what was often billed as the impossible -- sharply rising math scores on the state exams. The results for fourth and eighth graders on the 2003 tests revealed a marked improvement, with Bronx students registering some of the highest gains.

Local scores were no exception from the heartening trend (see grid). Fourth graders especially shined, with scores at PS 94 and PS 340 shooting up by 30 percentage points. Though no local middle schools pulled half of their eighth graders to the passing level, all schools significantly decreased their percentage of Level 1 (poorest performing) students.

The sudden success has some educators questioning the exam's accuracy -- and potential longevity. Former Schools Chancellor Harold Levy made math his emphasis, and parts of the former methodology were lost when current Chancellor Joel Klein implemented his uniform curriculum. Some education experts are questioning the accuracy of the state's testing methods after a recent investigation into the validity of the math Regent exams. 

But PS 33 Principal Dr. Elba Lopez isn't surprised by the results. "The math scores are great, but we worked very hard for this," said the North Fordham principal. Students got extra help on weekends and plenty of practice tests. "Now we just have to sustain [the success]."

State Education Commissioner Richard Mills also defended the test. "The bottom line is this: Students are learning more," he said in a statement..

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