P.S. 14 Senator John Calandra

Located in a residential section of the Bronx next to a highway, PS 14 John Calandra is a well-regarded neighborhood school offering an array of services to its families.

On most measures, PS 14 scores near average for the city and for what the Department of Education considers comparable schools. The school offers visual arts but, other than that, arts offerings are very limited, owing, the school says to budget constraints. 

A Department of Education reviewer found that, in most classrooms, students are assigned appropriate yet challenging tasks. They actively participate and take responsibility for their own learning, with self-assessments, checklists and other tools. PS 14 emphasizes reading non-fiction on a range of subjects, both to improve reading and writing skills and to teach the student about the material in the text. 

PS 14 is part of the city’s community school program, where a school offers programs designed to address children’s social and emotional needs as well as those of their family. As a result, the school has been able to provide dental and vision services and some arts programming. Despite this, many parents responding to a DOE survey said they said they would like to see more enrichment programs including afterschool offerings.

After a period of turmoil, Ira Schulman became principal in 2011 and by most indications he has righted the ship. On the DOE survey, he gets high marks from teachers, and parents say the principal and faculty respect them. Virtually all teachers say they would recommend PS 14, both as a school for children and as a place to work. While the school is considered very safe and orderly, attendance has slipped recently, with a quarter of the students showing up less than 90 percent of the time

SPECIAL EDUCATION: The school has one team teaching class on each grade, with a mix of general and special education students in one class.

ADMISSIONS: This is a zoned neighborhood school. (Gail Robinson, from Department of Education materials and school website, May 2020)