Grand Street Campus
850 Grand Street | East Williamsburg | built 1981
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1981
Eastern District High School moves into a new building on Grand Street
Eastern District High School left its crowded Marcy Avenue building in April 1981, when it held 2,900 students in a building meant for 1,800. The four-story replacement at 850 Grand Street, called Northeast Brooklyn High School while under construction, opened April 1, 1981. It was built to ease crowding at Eastern District and Bushwick High School and cost $46 million.
“The new building opened on April 1, 1981; at a cost of $46 million…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
Chancellor Joseph Fernandez removes principal Sonia Rivera from Eastern District High School
By its last years in the new building, Eastern District had high dropout and truancy rates, and graduation stood below 20 percent. Violence there was blamed on overcrowding and tensions among Black, Dominican and Puerto Rican students. In 1990 Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez removed principal Sonia Rivera, whom the Board of Education later charged with incompetence.
“The violence and poor performance led principal Sonia Rivera to be removed in 1990 by Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1996
Eastern District High School closes after ranking second most violent in the city
Eastern District was ranked the second most violent school in New York City in 1994-95, with 232 incidents. It closed after the 1995-96 school year, when it had a 30 percent dropout rate and a 62.3 percent attendance rate. It had been one of the first schools to get weekly, and later permanent, metal detectors.
“…ranked as the "second most violent school in the city" in the 1994-1995 academic year, with 232 incidents of violence…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1996
The building reopens as the Grand Street Campus with several small high schools
In fall 1996 the building reopened as the Grand Street Campus, a group of several small high schools sharing one building. It was among the first big New York high schools to be recast as an educational campus, and it dropped its metal detectors. Four schools moved in: Eastern District Senior Academy, the High School for Legal Studies, Progress High School and the High School for Enterprise, Business and Technology.
“In the fall of 1996, the building was reopened as Grand Street Campus, housing several small high schools under one roof.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1997
Johnnie Cochran serves as principal for a day at the campus's legal studies school
In February 1997 Johnnie Cochran, the prominent lawyer, spent a day as principal at the High School for Legal Studies, one of the small schools opened on the campus the year before. That school is now the East Williamsburg Scholars Academy, which centers on law and government, with a performing arts track.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
Eastern District Senior Academy closes after an inquiry into its diplomas
Eastern District Senior Academy, an alternative school for juniors and seniors from the old high school, operated only two years and closed in June 1998. A special investigation found that 61 of its 227 graduates had diplomas revoked for unmet requirements. Students had been given credits for running errands, holding certain jobs or taking classes with little link to the requirements they filled.
“61 of the 227 students who graduated from the school had their diplomas revoked due to not satisfying outstanding academic requirements…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Grand Street CampusWikipedia
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