Gotham Collaborative High School

Gotham Collaborative, a small, progressive school in the Adlai Stevenson Educational Campus, has an outdoor farm with 250 fruit trees, organic vegetables, rabbits and chickens. An award-winning environmental science teacher runs an internship program for students on the school farm.

“I want my students to think back on high school about crazy, instructive moments that they can carry with them and potentially use to their own betterment,” the teacher, William Lynam, told the Bronx Times after he won the 2017 Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching Math and Science.

In addition to working on the farm, students may have internships at working at a pet store, learning about automobiles, or preparing food, according the school website. Juniors and seniors have off-campus jobs several days a week, according to the school’s Comprehensive Education Plan.

Most students enter with weak academic skills; a significant number have special needs or are still learning English. Attendance is poor, and the graduation rate is below the citywide average.

Gotham Collaborative was created in 2017 when two other small schools in the building, Bronx Guild and Pablo Neruda Academy, were merged.

Admissions: In recent years, the school has had room for any student who wants to attend. (Clara Hemphill, web reports, November 2018)