Case Study: City College High School of Math Science and Engineering

CUNY agreed with the NYC Board of Education to place a high school for high achieving students on the campus at City College. Initially housed in temporary buildings, the high school sought a permanent location, but faculty and students at the college objected to giving up space for the school. Disagreements among different factions of the administration stymied the ability of the college to find a permanent home for the school. The school also kept increasing the amount of space it sought, while resentment grew among college students about reduced access to the cafeteria and gym. Finally, the temporary buildings used by the high school had to be demolished to allow the college to build a new building so space had to be found quickly. 

After a review of the high schools needs and classroom standards, I shifted the decision making away from the various fighting units and led a team at the college to come up with several alternatives to present to the President. The best one allowed the college to shift several units out of an older building that was not meeting their needs into better spaces in underutilized but more accessible buildings. This allowed for the high school to renovate space over the summer that, for the first time, housed most of their program in a single location with separate entrances and security. A long term plan was put in place to provide the college an option to relocate the high school to another building on campus should the need for space require reclaiming the space initially given to the high school. 

In the end, the consolidation of space was better for the high school, better for the college services that were relocated, and, after further negotiation over times for the use of the gym and cafeteria were concluded, tensions between college and high school students subsided significantly.