De Blasio Administration Brings Essential City Resources to the Bronx

Bronx residents have the chance to take their gripes directly to senior administrators from various city agencies at a first-ever City Resource Fair on May 23, saving the cumbersome trip to downtown Manhattan where many officials are headquartered. Higher ups from city departments for transportation, parks, finance, health, education, Small Business Services, NYPD, and Economic Development Corporation are scheduled to arrive to lend their ears to Bronx residents who stop by Bronx Borough Hall that day. In some cases, as in the case of the City Resource Fair that took place in Staten Island last month to kick off the initiative, agency commissioners

By DAVID CRUZ

Bronx Community College, celebrating 60 years, is viewed as a haven for foreign-born students.

Latest Edition of Norwood News is Out!

The latest edition of the Norwood News is out, serving the Bronx community with plenty of news to use. We begin with page one and the local 52nd Precinct’s efforts to squash the heroin culture that continues to sweep the borough. It’s at the precinct, serving Norwood, Bedford Park, Kingsbridge, Fordham, and University Heights where officers are noticing an uptick that’s related to the use of fentanyl, a dangerous narcotic. We delve into just what the Police Department is doing to combat this sad epidemic. Behind the front pages you’ll find a related story on the Drug Enforcement Administration charging

Lack of Elite Screened High Schools, A Tough Call for Bronx Parents

By DAVID CRUZ

While screened high schools are widely available in the Bronx, many of the admissions standards fall below the academically ambitious.

Court Orders State to Release Critical Grants to JHS 80

By DAVID CRUZ

The New York State Appeals Court has ruled Junior High School 80 in Norwood receive a $3 million grant that was stripped away by the state last year after officials took the near century-old school off a so-called turnaround list for chronically failing schools. But the grant remains imperiled since the state has one last shot of denying the funds at a hearing in May. JHS 80, resting on a hilltop on Mosholu Parkway North, was part of a class action lawsuit filed last September claiming the state’s budget director illegally froze taxpayer grants intended to improve school performance

Hello Loyal Readers! The latest edition of the Norwood News, covering all things Norwood and its surrounding communities, is out with plenty of news you can use. We begin, of course, with page 1, and a front cover story on issues within the city Education Department’s Gifted and Talented programs. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and his counterpart in Brooklyn, Eric Adams, have a task force underway that’s examining these inequalities. Read the lengths parents are willing to make to ensure their kids are in a program that’s seen as a ticket to specialized high schools, which help pave a

Task force hears strengths and weaknesses of gifted and talented programs A task force is learning the city Department of Education’s gifted and talented program (G&T) is in high demand, short supply, poorly publicized, and poses logistical nightmares for the hundreds of parents whose children enroll in the program. They’ve also found persisting racial inequities in a city where minorities dominate. The task force, jointly led by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and his Brooklyn counterpart, Eric Adams, held its first session on March 20 at the Bronx High School of Science, a specialized high school where entry becomes

Neighborhood Notes: Free Immigration Service

By Juan Lazala

Like every dad, I want to provide my daughter with everything she needs to succeed in school and in life. But as a parent raising a child in an increasingly connected world, I’ve struggled to provide my daughter the technology she needs to stay ahead of the curve. For a long time, I couldn’t afford to buy my daughter a computer or provide her with internet access, which was incredibly frustrating. My daughter would often have to complete assignments and projects at a friend’s house or the library. Then the JHS 80 community – where my daughter is a seventh

By DAVID CRUZ

Gerri Gagliardi, a third grade teacher at St. Ann’s School, didn’t say much to convey the sense of grief over news that the Catholic school she’s taught in for a decade will close. Her hazel-green eyes did most of the talking. The same went for Tracy McGovern, Robbin Vails, and Sylvia Rini, all teachers at the parochial school and stricken with anger as they continued processing the Archdiocese of New York’s decision to close the school. The school is co-located with the Shrine Church of St. Ann, which closed its doors in August 2015 for financial reasons, according to