Community of Unity Lead Partner in New Harlem Middle School
SET TO OPEN SEPTEMBER 2011 IN HARLEM!
In 2009 CofU Founder Eric Komoroff, New Design High School Principal Dr. Scott Conti, and New Design Middle School founding Principal Dan Black, started the process of creating a NYC Department of Education middle school.
They assembled an amazing planning team of educators (including CofU staff member Dr. Josh Borkin), a parent (CofU Advisory Board member Sissy Silva), and a student (YELC Master Christian Fonseca) to work through the endless questions and challenges that face urban middle schools.
A year later this collaborative effort generated a proposal that the NYC Department of Education approved!
For the first time there will be a full-time position held at a school by a Community of Unity staff member, to enable CofU to have a dynamic presence, working with teachers and administration to ensure that the optimal culture is created and sustained so all students can thrive.
At New Design Middle School students will be supported as they develop strong relationships with learning and success.
Our five core beliefs:
- It’s not about the next three years, but the next eleven. Our students commit to designing their path to high school and college graduation and we support themalong the way.
- Students spend all their time learning. We build strong relationships with our students and provide them with a consistent school culture so that they feel safe and cared for by adults. In this environment, students have what they need so they can spend all their time learning.
- Building confident readers, writers, and speakers is every teacher’s job. For students to be successful in school and life they need to master literacy skills. All our teachers design literacy into their classrooms and curricular.
- Students apply what they are learn in their classes to meaningful real world settings. Our teachers are building the next generation of authors, mathematicians, scientists, historians, and designers. Our students build the skills to reach these roles in life when they can apply their learning outside the classroom.
- Students are empowered to design their school, neighborhood, and city with their education. Our students “explore their world” then “make their mark” with a widening focus of our design work each year. These design projects teach students how to be leaders and be the change they want to see in the world.
Founding Principal Dan Black is a former English Language Arts, Bilingual, Science and Math Teacher, Curriculum Specialist, Achievement Coach, Principal Intern and Educational Policy Analyst, and holds degrees from both Vanderbilt and Harvard Universities. Dan is committed to making sure that every single classroom at New Design Middle School is a place where students are engaged, supported, challenged to learn…and have fun!
We are so so excited to see New Design Middle School become a reality, and are looking forward to years of supporting youth and their families as they define their purpose and potential one good choice at a time!
New Design Middle School will be located at:
625 W. 133rd Street
between Broadway &12th Avenue
For more information please check out the school website
(New Design Middle School)
(New Design Middle School)
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