Harry S Truman High School

One of the last large high schools in the Bronx, Truman High School has an array of extras that small schools can’t match: a swimming pool, a planetarium, professional kitchens, a mock courtroom and eight gyms for basketball, volleyball, weightlifting, yoga, aerobics, and wrestling. 

It has a television production studio, a graphic arts studio, a photography lab, a 1,200 seat auditorium and its own museum called The Museum of Migrating People. Students may make pizza in a cooking class or create their own television ads in a media studies class. 

The school has specialized academies in media, law, business, computer science, pre-engineering, performing/visual arts and culinary arts. 

Attendance is good. Principal Keri Alfano, who has led the school since 2013, is well-regarded by the staff and teachers are enthusiastic, according to school surveys. While most students enter with weak academic skills, about three-quarters graduate on time.

Initially designed in the 1970s for families from Co-op City, now most students commute from other parts of the Bronx. Truman school shares an interconnected campus with Bronx Health Sciences and two middle schools, MS 180 and 181; PS 153; and a separate elementary program for autistic children. The high school has metal detectors. The campus is far from subway lines.

Admissions: Zoned school. Admission to the special programs is according to Educational Option formula designed to ensure a mix of students of different abilities. In recent years, all of the programs have had room for every student who applies. (Clara Hemphill, web reports, October 2018)