The ax man cometh.
A first batch of struggling public schools were told yesterday that they would close as early as June – including one that was graded B on its school report card last year.
As many as 20 schools could be notified in the coming weeks that they’re being closed or phased out for poor performance, according to sources.
Department of Education officials delivered the grim news to principals and staff at JHS 44, a 300-student middle school in Manhattan, PS 90, a 1,200-student elementary school in The Bronx, and PS 225, a 600-student elementary/middle school in Queens.
Students and parents will be notified today, according to Education officials.
“Parents will definitely be upset,” said Abigail Freeland, co-president of the Parent Teacher Association at PS 90.
None of the three schools’ principals responded to a request for comment.
Last year, the Department of Education shuttered 14 schools just months after officials released their first citywide A-through-F rating system for its 1,500 schools.
Schools with a history of poor performance – or with successive years of C, D or F grades – were warned that they could be closed or that their principals could be removed.
While PS 225 and PS 90 scored D’s or worse on both sets of report cards, JHS 44 scored a solid B last year and a D this year.
It was also the school at which Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn last year launched a $5 million middle-school initiative that was heralded as a vital boost for struggling schools like JHS 44.
The school got a $74,000 allocation in October as part of that initiative.
Education officials said that a lot of students had requested to transfer out of the school and that it was one of the most violent in the city.
They added that it would be phased out and replaced with a new middle school, starting next September.
And PS 90 and PS 225 will be replaced with two new schools, the officials said.
Asked whether the closures were connected to the city’s financial crisis, Education officials insisted that the decisions were based solely on performance.
They said the city has shuttered more than 80 schools since 2002, including when times were not lean.