The Academy for Conservation and the Environment (ACE), one of five small schools in the South Shore Educational Complex, opened in 2008 with plans to engage students in an array of environmental projects. While some of those opportunities remain, the school's main focus is on getting its students, many of whom have struggled with academics, to pass their Regents exams and graduate on time.

Although there is widespread agreement that ACE has improved under principal Eugene Mazzola, who came from John Adams High School in Queens in 2011, it faces academic and discipline challenges. The four-year graduation rate is below the city average, although Mazzola says it is rising, and many ACE students lack the skills they need to pass the Regents exams and avoid having to take remedial courses at college.  In response, the school has focused on what Mazzola calls "skills prep, not Regents prep" and added extra weeks to its Saturday academy.

To try to get students on track early, 9th graders take double periods of English and math. In 2012-13 the school instituted a double period of history for 9th graders to allow them to complete the two-year global history course in one year and perhaps enable more of them to pass the Regents. The overall goal is to have students pass required Regents early in their high school careers, freeing them up for other classes, particularly in environment subjects.

For now, though, Mazzola says, "It's tough to stick to the theme when you have all the standards to meet." ACE remains a science-based school, and students take chemistry in their second year. It offers anatomy and physiology, environmental science and precalculus.

Despite its small size, Mazzola says the school offers an array of opportunities to students who wish to take advantage of them. It has a school "sustainability team" that works to make ACE environmentally friendly. The school has created an on-site garden where students grow vegetables, and students also plant flowers around the campus.
Through the environment class, ACE students have organized beach and park cleanups. Mazzola says the school broadens the idea of environmentalism and conservation to include "conservation of self," such as healthy eating and exercise. A partnership with The Nature Conservancy enables student to apply for coveted internships to work on environmental projects around the country.

ACE has a full-time art teacher. While there are no regular music classes, the school has an afterschool music program. Students can participate in campus wide PSAL sports teams, as well as school intramural teams.

The South Shore building has had a bad reputation, and, although there is widespread agreement that things have improved, problems remain. In the 2011-12 Learning Environment Survey, 20 percent of ACE students indicated they did not feel safe in class. Suspension and absenteeism rates have been fairly high. On the day of our visit, when Mazzola urged some students loitering in the hall to get to class, one responded with a few expletives before complying.

Special education: ACE has discontinued its self-contained class for student with disabilities, with many of those students now in team teaching classes.

College: About three-quarters of graduates have gone on to two- or four-year college. Every grade takes a college trip, and the college adviser regularly visits classes to explain the process.

Admission: ACE is open to all New York City residents with priority given to those who attend an information session. (Gail Robinson, May 2013)