Hundreds protest Lehman High School turnaround plan

By MIAWLING LAM

Former Bronx teacher and education activist Peter Lamphere
speaks during a rally to save Lehman High School.

THE odds are stacked against them, but more than 200 former and current students, teachers and parents have mounted a fight to keep Herbert H. Lehman High School open.

Clutching an array of posters and wearing black t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Lehman United,” the crowd packed into the school’s auditorium last night to rally against its closure.

Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial proposal, 33 of the city’s most troubled schools will close in June before being renamed and reopened three months later with the same students.

The radical proposal, which was announced during this month’s State of the City address, will also remove more than 1,500 teachers—up to half of the faculty—from these schools.

The aggressive strategy was developed after negotiations over teacher evaluations broke down, causing the state to withhold $30 million in federal funding from the city.

Of the 33 schools under fire, 10 are located in the Bronx including M.S. 391 in Tremont, Banana Kelly High School in Longwood and Fordham Leadership Academy in Belmont.