The Academy for Environmental Leadership opened in the Bushwick High School building in 2006 with an ambitious plan to get kids involved in activities such as testing air and water quality to see if poor environmental conditions correlate with high asthma rates. But the school's theme foundered when its main community partner, the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, went out of business in 2009. 

Since then, the school has made an effort to forge a new relationship with Brooklyn College Community Partnerships. New York Technical College and the Summer Search program work to broaden student experiences and help them prepare for college and careers.

The school suffers from poor attendance and about one-third of the students responding to a 2011 DOE survey said they did not feel safe in the schools hallways, bathrooms or locker rooms. Nonetheless, the school has a better-than-average graduation rate.

Another positive: the school offers a few Advanced Placement courses, and a "student success center" in the building employs student mentors to encourage others to apply to college.

The school shares a building with Bushwick High School for Social Justice, Academy of Urban Planning, and Brooklyn School for Math and Research.

Founding principal Nilda Gomez-Katz refused our repeated requests to visit the school. (Clara Hemphilll, interviews September 2011)