Despite a re-invigorated staff and the implementation of several new programs designed for improvement, the future of Junior High School 80 looked dim at the beginning of 2012.

The Mosholu Parkway school, which boasts famous alumni like director Penny Marshall and designer Calvin Klein, was in middle of year one of a Department of Education-imposed plan to improve the school’s performance, which had plummeted in recent years. The plan included additional federal funding for new programs and a partnership with an outside organization, the Abyssinian Development Corporation, a Harlem-based group.

But when the DOE couldn’t agree on a teacher evaluation system with the teachers union, funding for the new programs and partnership was threatened. The only way to maintain that funding, DOE officials said, was to place JHS 80 (more commonly known as MS 80) into the so-called “turnaround” program.

The turnaround program mandated that the school change its name and replace its administration and at least half of its faculty.

Before the Panel for Education Policy (PEP) even voted to approve the turnaround model for MS 80, the DOE made the move to replace its longtime principal, Lovey Mazique-Rivera on a Friday in March. Teachers, parents and students found out about the change on the following Monday. The move plunged the school, which was in the midst of state exams, into turmoil.

Still, a small group of parents, alumni and community members held out hope that they would at least keep the name. But after a small turnout to a DOE hearing on the matter, the PEP approved the turnaround program and soon changed the school’s name and started the process of hiring and firing teachers.

After many teachers were told they would not be coming back, a successful lawsuit by the United Federation of Teachers stopped the entire process. A judge ruled the turnaround plan to be in violation of the union’s contract with the DOE. Almost immediately, the name was changed back to JHS 80 and all of its teachers were told they could return.

Still, the school’s principal remained a casualty of the process. Parents and teachers believed Mazique-Rivera had the school on the right path and the numbers began to back up their assertions.

In 2012, MS 80 achieved a huge jump in state math exams. In 2011, only 14 percent of eighth graders passed the math exam. This past year, half of the school’s eighth graders passed. Their scores were so improved that MS 80 received a solid “B” grade on its annual progress report.

340 Parents Win Stalemate

In the middle of November, 20 parents at PS 340 in Kingsbridge Heights received letters saying their kindergarten students would be transferred immediately to PS 310, a school more than a half mile away.

They were told that their children were a victim of capping at PS 340, meaning the school was too overcrowded to keep them there.
The entire school community and local elected officials were furious and protested by refusing to go along with the DOE’s plan and enroll at PS 310. In December, following an extended stalemate, the DOE allowed all but three of students to stay at PS 340 and said it would make accommodations for them, despite the overcrowding.