All City Leadership Secondary School

All City Leadership Secondary School is a tiny 6-12 school where courtesy and respect are prized and civility is a way of life. All students become cadets. Attendance is high and nearly every student graduates on time.

Every Friday night, all students attend Leadership Cadet meetings where they participate in ceremonial drills, march, and learn courteous behavior, from addressing adults politely to treating one another with respect. During the school day they wear neat uniforms of white collared shirts and ties and gray pants and address their teachers as "sir" and "ma'am."

Col. Elvis Estevez, a trim, friendly neighborhood resident and a graduate of local schools, spent a few years in the Navy and is the school's founding principal. He gets consistently high marks from parents, students and teachers.

All City Leadership shares a modern building with a community organization, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council. The community center is light and airy and has a great, full sized gym. A new building, connected to the community center, has its own cafeteria, classrooms and science labs.

Many students stay for activities such as theater or cadet band. There are several varsity sports teams, including basketball, baseball, handball and volleyball.

Most graduates go onto college and a few have even been admitted to Ivy League schools like Yale and Cornell.

Admissions: The school admits students from Brooklyn and Queens. Interested middle school students must attend an orientation, take an exam and undergo an interview with the principal. Continuing 8th graders get preference in high school. (Pamela Wheaton, web reports, October 2017)