Established 1897 Phone +1 718-327-1120 | Campus Urban Founded 1897 | |
School district New York City Department of Education Website Far Rockaway High School Address 821 Bay 25th St, Far Rockaway, NY 11691, USA District New York City Public Schools | ||
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Far Rockaway High School was a public high school in New York City, at 8-21 Bay 25 Street in Far Rockaway in the borough of Queens. The school was founded in 1897, with Sanford J. Ellsworth as principal for over 40 years. The last principal was Denise J. Hallett. The school, whose alumni included three Nobel Prize laureates and Bernard Madoff, stopped accepting students in 2008 as part of a planned closure because of declining grades. The doors closed on June 27, 2011.
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After sandy and playoff loss football players and coaches from far rockaway high school
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.
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.
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in second in the rebid, and had unsuccessfully sued to have its original bid accepted after the Psaty & Furman bid was withdrawn. 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.
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.
In December 2007 the school announced that it would cease accepting new students for ninth grade and existing students would be allowed to graduate whereupon the school would end its existence as an independent school. 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.