Our Insights
What’s Special
Warm, caring environment.
The Downside
Discipline is a challenge.
Foundations Academy opened in fall 2005 with funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute for Student Achievement, a philanthropic organization that promotes school reform efforts. It shares the IS 33 middle school building with the Urban Assembly School for the Urban Environment and P368, a District 75 school.
The school has a “friendly, warm and caring environment” according to the 2010 Quality Review. However, discipline remains an ongoing challenge. More than 20 percent of students responding to the Learning Environment Survey said they did not feel safe in hallways. Only half the teachers said order and discipline are maintained. Students complain of fights and gang activity in school.
The school was designed to have an enrollment of about 400 students, but had fewer than half that many in the 2011-12 school year. Attendance is poor. Many students enter Foundations Academy with poor attendance records and far-below-grade-level test scores.
The school’s founding principal, Gary Biedleman, left in 2011. The transition to the new administration, led by Jimmy Molina, has been difficult, statistics for the school suggest. While near 80 percent of techers surveyed said the old principal was an effective leader and nearly two-thirds trusted him, only about 65 percent say the new principal is effective and 50 percent say they don’t trust him, according to the Learning Environment Survey. (Clara Hemphill, compiled from DOE statistics, July 2012)
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Contact & Location
Location
70 Tompkins Avenue
Brooklyn
NY
11206
Trains: to Myrtle-Willoughby Aves; , , to Myrtle Ave
Buses: B15, B46, B47, B54
Contact
Principal: Neil Monheit
Other Details
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