| Established | 1897 |
|---|---|
| Location | Bay 25 Street, Far Rockaway. borough of Queens, New York City, New York, United States |
| District | New York City Department of Education |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | Far Rockaway High School |
Far Rockaway High School, a public high school in the public school system of New York City, is located on Bay 25 Street in Far Rockaway in the borough of Queens, as part of the New York City Department of Education. The school was founded in 1897, with Sanford J. Ellsworth as principal for over 40 years. The current principal is Denise J. Hallett.[1] The school, whose alumni include three Nobel Prize laureates and Bernard Madoff, stopped accepting students in 2008 as part of a planned closure because of declining grades.[2][3]
Contents |
History
The school opened in 1897 with a total enrollment of 19 students. The first graduating class of three students received their diplomas in ceremonies held on June 21, 1899.[4]
Until the 1919-1920 school year, Far Rockaway High School had been housed within P.S. 39. As of September 1921, the school superintendents had determined that the school, and its 25 classes of students, would become an independent entity managed by its own principal.[5]
A contract to construct a new building for the high school, planned to have enough room to accommodate 4,500 students, was awarded in August 1927 to the firm of Psaty & Fuhrman, which submitted the lowest bid of $1,459,971 to the New York City Board of Education. The firm had won an earlier bid, but withdrew its offer after determining that it had underestimated its costs. The firm that had come in second in the original bidding, came in second in the rebid, and had unsuccessfully sued to have its original bid accepted after the Psaty & Furman bid was withdrawn.[6] The school was nearing completion by January 1929, with costs having risen to $2.5 million, 67% over the original bid of $1.5 million. The school would be one of the largest in the nation, ready to serve 2,500 students on a campus covering a city block, with a three-story high auditorium, two gymnasiums, a swimming pool and ample classroom and athletic space.[7]
By the 2006-07 school year, data from the National Center for Education Statistics showed that the school had an enrollment of 945 students, with 72.8 teachers (on a full-time equivalent basis), yielding a student-teacher ratio of 13.0.[8]
On December 7, 2007, the NY Daily News reported the school would be closed.[9] The Department of Education's decision cited declining marks under its school-monitoring system as the justification behind the planned closure. The school would stop accepting students as of the 2008-09 school year and would be phased out in its entirety over a four-year period.[3]
Notable alumni
- Baruch Samuel Blumberg (born 1925), winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine[10]
- Joyce Brothers (born 1928), psychologist and advice columnist; graduated in 1943[11]
- William F. Brunner (1887-1965), Congressman[12]
- Richard Cohen, columnist for The Washington Post, class of 1958[2]
- Richard Feynman (1918-1988), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work on quantum electrodynamics[13]
- Carl Icahn (born 1936), financier and billionaire[14]
- Nancy Lieberman (born 1958), basketball pioneer[15]
- Bernard Madoff (born 1938), convicted felon, founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC[16]
- Kenneth Alan Ribet, mathematician[17]
- Burton Richter (born 1931), winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics[2]
- MC Serch (born 1967 as Michael Berrin), hip hop MC and former member of 3rd Bass[18]
- Raymond Smullyan, noted mathematician/logician with expertise in Gödel's incompleteness theorems
- John Warren, former member of the New York Knicks[19]
Neil J. Schaeffer, Columbia University Graduate, Professor of English and Former Chairman of the Brooklyn College English Department. Noted Marquis De Sade Historian and Author of "Marquis De Sade: A Life"
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b c Cohen, Richard. "Goodbye, Bernie", The Washington Post, July 1, 2009. Accessed October 8, 2009. "I was in the Class of 1958, two years behind Bernie, but in the same class as his wife, Ruth."
- ^ a b Staff. "METRO BRIEFING | NEW YORK; Two More Schools To Close For Bad Performance", The New York Times, December 6, 2007. Accessed October 8, 2009.
- ^ Staff. "SCHOOL HONORS FIRST GRADUATES; 3 Women, Entire Class of '99, Reunited at Ceremonies at Far Rockaway", The New York Times, November 4, 1937. Accessed October 8, 2009.
- ^ Staff. "HIGH SCHOOL FORMED TO EDUCATE WORKERS; Five Hundred Pupils to Alternate Weekly Between Studies and Wage Earning.", The New York Times, July 11, 1920. Accessed October 8, 2009.
- ^ Staff. "$1,459,971 BID WINS SCHOOL CONTRACT; Award to Build Far Rockaway High School Goes to Psaty & Fuhrman for Second Time. FIRM WITHDREW OLD OFFER Second Lowest Bidder Suing to Get Contract - Pupil Transfer Protested.", The New York Times, August 12, 1927. Accessed October 8, 2009.
- ^ Staff. "FAR ROCKAWAY HIGH SCHOOL ONE OF COUNTRY'S LARGEST; Building Now Nearing Completion Will Seat 2,500--Its Equipment Is Varied", The New York Times, January 27, 1929. Accessed October 8, 2009.
- ^ [ http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=3600123&ID=360012301948 Far Rockaway High School], National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed October 8, 2009.
- ^ Far Rockaway High to close its doors
- ^ Shamo, Marc A.; Kyle, Robert A. "Baruch Blumberg—Work on Hepatitis B Virus", Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2003. Accessed June 22, 2007. "Blumberg, whose father was a lawyer, was born on July 28, 1925, in Brooklyn, NY, the second of 3 children. After graduating from Far Rockaway High School in Brooklyn [sic] in 1943, he joined the US Navy."
- ^ Weinberg, Sydney Stahl. Joyce Brothers, Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed August 20, 2007. "After graduating from Far Rockaway High School in 1943, she entered Cornell University, majoring in psychology."
- ^ William Frank Brunner biography, United States Congress. Accessed June 22, 2007.
- ^ Gleick, James.. "Richard Feynman Dead at 69; Leading Theoretical Physicist", The New York Times, February 17, 1988. Accessed June 22, 2007. "After graduating from Far Rockaway High School in 1935, he went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then to Princeton University, where he received his doctorate in 1942."
- ^ About Me, The Icahn Report. Accessed October 8, 2009.
- ^ "Lieberman Makes Debut", The New York Times, June 7, 1986. Accessed June 22, 2007. "Miss Lieberman, who announced last week she had signed with the two-year-old summer league, also had two assists. The 5-foot-10-inch Miss Lieberman, who is 27 years old, starred at Far Rockaway High School in Queens and played for the United States in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal."
- ^ http://www.farrockaway.com/carol/1956graduationprogram.html
- ^ Chapey, Dr. Geraldine. "Chatting with Chapey: Weber and Ribet Honored", The Wave, October 21, 2005. Accessed June 22, 2007. "Speaking of successful professionals, Kenneth Ribet is a world renowned scholar.... He is a proud graduate of P.S. 114, J.H.S. 210 and Far Rockaway High School."
- ^ Schwach, Howard. "Rockaway Rapper Hosts MTV's 'The White Rapper Show' ", Wave of Long Island, January 26, 2007.
- ^ Velez, Elio. "Nash Leads Woodmere To Victory at Crotty Classic", The Wave, February 3, 2006. Accessed June 22, 2007. "Far Rockaway High School alumni Mel Utley and John Warren, who was a member of the 1973 Knicks’ NBA championship team and recently Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Ron Artest are just a few of the names to play in the Big East court."
External links
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