NYC faces a reckoning over small schools. Can creative solutions in shared buildings help?

A recent investigation into the Murry Bergtraum Educational Campus in lower Manhattan highlights a growing crisis among New York City’s small high schools. While some students in shared buildings access Advanced Placement courses, others in the same facility are forced to attend night school due to a lack of basic math teachers. A Chalkbeat analysis found that 72 high schools with fewer than 250 students currently operate on shared campuses.

Chancellor Kamar Samuels is facing calls to move beyond district-level working groups and create specific "campus working groups" to address these inequities. Currently, the city lacks a formal policy for resource sharing, often leaving individual principals to navigate complex budget and scheduling hurdles on their own. Experts suggest that pooling classes and staff could provide a short-term solution while the city weighs the politically sensitive options of school closures or mergers.

Summary by Dispatch AI — read the full story at Chalkbeat.