Belmont Preparatory High School

Belmont Prep, a small school in the Theodore Roosevelt Educational Complex, provides personal attention to kids who might be lost in a large school. The school encourages graduates to go to college, and some students have been admitted to New York University, Fordham (across the street) and St. Johns in Queens.

A few students have gone to selective colleges outside New York City, including Vassar and Stanford, said principal Stephen Joseph Gumbs, who graduated from Dartmouth College and is ambitious for his students. He takes students to visit colleges in New England. Some students take accelerated summer classes at Fordham University, right across the street from Belmont Prep.

The school offers a traditional Regents-prep curriculum, including four-years of math and four years of science. Class trips are part of the science curriculum. Students may go to Pelham Bay Park to test the water quality, or to the American Museum of Natural History to study evolution.

The school has a “safe and inclusive environment” and teachers and students trust one another, according the city’s Quality Review, which added: “Student voice is valued through an active student government.”

Students must pass through metal detectors to enter the building. They participate in sports teams with other schools in the building and share the gym, cafeteria and auditorium.

Special education: Special needs students--neglected in most schools--are encouraged to get Regents diplomas. Gumbs, who attended an Ivy League college despite having a math-disability, believes that special needs students can excel academically. He points out that a Belmont Prep valedictorian one year had dyslexia. Students in self-contained classes change rooms for each subject and have teachers who are licensed in both their subject matter and in special education. The school offers special education teacher support services (SETSS) and self-contained classes but does not offer collaborative team teaching.

Admissions: Applicants should have good attendance and demonstrate an interest in the school by attending an open house and submitting a writing sample on site, according to the high school directory. (Clara Hemphill, May 2012, updated with web reports October 2018)