Ripple Effects Seen From Planned Jamaica High School Closure

Coming two years after a previous effort by the city Department of Education stalled, the imminent closing of Jamaica High School has galvanized District 28 parents, teachers and alumni in recent days.

However, receiving far less attention was the effect the educational institution's closure, already threatening to displace hundreds of students, would have on two at-capacity high schools in northeast Queens.

"If Jamaica High School closes, more students will be going to Bayside, and probably [Benjamin N.] Cardozo," said Rob Caloras, president of the Community District Education Council.

Caloras said that though Francis Lewis High School, which overlaps Jamaica's 'feeder' school system, was likely to be the most impacted if the closure plan went through as planned — students at District 26's two educational landmarks would not be immune from a shortage of seats and increased class sizes.

According to Caloras, even with DOE's plan to open a new high school in Forest Hills, the loss of Jamaica will be hard for a growing borough to absorb.

"At best, the school would open up with around 100 seats," he said. "That's not enough seats and it's only going to get worse in the short term."

And with plans to build a third high school in the Bayside-Douglaston-Little Neck area in its infancy, the problem of increased class sizes for northeast Queens students promised to stretch far into the future. 

Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, agreed that the closure of Jamaica created problems, not just for its non-graduating students, but for others throughout Queens. 

"They just keep pushing these students to another school," Avella said. "Eventually, where are they going to go?"

Avella joined area Councilman Leroy Comrie, D-St. Albans, and around 100 Jamaica High School students at a rally Monday to convince the Panel for Education Policy, which voted to close the school, to reconsider their decision.

"We’re trying to show community-wide support against the closing of Jamaica," he said.

For Councilman Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens, the issue involved was bigger than just Jamaica — one touching on a long-cherished institution of towns large, small and in-between: the neighborhood school. 

"It all started with Joel Klein...  who if he had his way, there would be no neighborhood schools at all," said Weprin, himself a Jamaica High School graduate. "The problem is, there are a lot of people that moved into their neighborhoods just to go to those schools."

Nathan Duke contributed reporting.