Julia Richman Education Complex: A Model for Urban School Reform
Navigating the vast educational landscape of New York City can often feel like a complex puzzle. With so many options, how do you find a learning environment that truly caters to diverse needs and fosters success? This guide will demystify the Julia Richman Education Complex (JREC), revealing its rich history, the distinct schools it houses, and the incredible resources available to its students.
The Julia Richman Education Complex (JREC) stands as a testament to the power of educational innovation and community focus. From its storied past as a single high school to its present as a thriving multiplex of six autonomous schools, JREC has successfully reimagined what public education can be. The Julia Richman Education Complex, often referred to as JREC, is far more than just a school building; it's a dynamic educational multiplex located on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
From Comprehensive High School to Educational Complex
The Julia Richman Education Complex is named after Julia Richman (1855-1912), the first woman district superintendent of schools in the City of New York. Her innovations, leadership, and curriculum brought an entirely new dimension to public school education at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Julia Richman opened as a comprehensive girls’ high school in the 1920s, a five-story, red-brick structure that stretches from 67th to 68th streets on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Like many New York high schools of yore, Julia Richman was designed in 1923 with grandeur in mind. It was grand in structure, taking up a full city block on the East Side. And it was grand in promise - providing a premier public education for New York City girls, an education that represented the soul of America’s democratic purpose. With classrooms for 2,200 students, two gymnasiums, a swimming pool, a theater, maple floors, and brass doorknobs inscribed with the words, “Public School, City of New York,” the school was not only a model of the comprehensive high school, but a source of great civic pride. Its first students studied “commercial skills,” such as typing and stenography.
This comprehensive system made sense for the industrial economy of the time. Future lawyers, accountants, and other professionals studied academics, while those headed into mills and assembly lines learned valuable practical skills. High schools essentially served as great sorting machines, preparing students very differently for very different roles in the workforce. The system was considered to be both egalitarian and efficient, deliberately applying the industrial principles of mass production to American secondary education by housing everything under one roof.
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In January 1925, the M.P. Möller company received a contract to build seven identical organs for high schools in the boroughs of New York City. High Schools receiving the new organs included Julia Richman (Op. 4485) and George Washington (Op. 4486) in Manhattan; and Thomas Jefferson (Op. 4487), Girls' Commercial (Op. 4488), New Utrecht (Op. 4489), and James Madison (Op. 4491) in Brooklyn; and Flushing High School (Op. 4492) in Queens. The Möller organ in the auditorium of Julia Richman High School was the first of the seven organs to be installed, and it had a three-manual stop-key console.
For decades, Julia Richman was known as the premier girls’ school - educating young women who sought a career at a time when women often didn’t go to school past their elementary years. After a lawsuit challenged single-sex education in New York, Julia Richman started accepting male students in 1968.
Decline and Transformation
But then came the decline. In 1968, all single-gender schools were required by law to mix the sexes. By the mid 1970s, the city’s fiscal crisis severely gutted every school’s budget. Buffeted by a changing student population, sharp staffing cuts, and other forces, the enormous high school had degenerated into a cauldron of violence. Graffiti covered the hallways. Students tore out water fountains, destroyed bathrooms, and smashed windows, recalls John Broderick, the school’s veteran engineer.
By 1990 the NYC Board of Education identified JRHS as having the worst statistics of student achievement in Manhattan. By the early 1990s, Richman was one of the city’s worst. The school began to decline, and by the early 1990s, only 37 percent of its students graduated in four years and fewer than three-quarters attended school every day. Discipline and violence were significant problems. The local police precinct referred to the crime-infested school as “Julia Rikers,” known for its violence and vandalism. Metal cages were constructed in the vice principal’s office to separate belligerent students, and local cops labeled the school “Julia Riker’s,” after New York City’s notorious Riker’s Island jail. The school used a mesh cage near the vice principal’s office to hold troublemaking students until the police arrived, or to separate students who were fighting, Cook reported. Newsday reported that in 1990, the police instituted a policy of stationing extra officers in the area on Halloween, after a group of students “terrorized the Upper East Side” the year before. “When we see packs of teenagers out on the street during the day, we know they’re up to no good, and we’re going to sweep those kids up and steer them to Julia Richman,” Michael Collins, a police department leader, told the newspaper. Even the decades-old building was a disaster.
In 1995, the corner of East 67th Street and Second Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side marked the intersection of privilege and pandemonium. But the high school at 67th and Second, Julia Richman, did not share in the neighborhood’s prosperity and opportunity. That changed in 1995, when the city embarked on what was, at the time, a bold, unproven experiment.
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The school closed to entering freshmen in 1993 who were given the opportunity to attend one of six new small schools located outside the school building. “There was a need to rethink the comprehensive high school,” said Toch. “These tend to be large, impersonal places.
In a visionary move to address these issues, the New York City Board of Education, with support from entities like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, initiated a transformative reorganization in 1995. With money provided in part by the entities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the single high school building was redesigned to house several small schools- four high schools, a pre K to 8 elementary school and a special program for children with autism. The building was redesigned from a single school into a multi-age, multi-service learning community with six autonomous, public, Small Schools. The new schools that formed the new Julia Richman Education Complex were "hothoused" in temporary buildings elsewhere. The $2.5 Million project took two years (1994-96) to complete, as provisions had to be made to graduate all students from the old Julia Richman High School before initiating a choice-based set of new schools. Today the complex houses an arts center, dance studios, an infant toddler center, gyms, theaters, darkrooms, ceramics studio and six autonomous schools that serve a diverse population.
The new Upper East Side complex would include young and older students, but the total enrollment at each school would not exceed 300. The complex also formed a building council to make decisions that affected all the schools, such as combining their sports teams and coordinating a schedule for common areas.
Early statistics showed a dramatic transformation. By the 1995-96 school year, the new school complex had higher attendance rates than the old Julia Richman High School, even though its students were more likely to qualify for free lunch, according to a 2002 study in the American Educational Research Journal. The percentage of juniors passing the reading portion of the state Regents English exam increased by one percentage point, while the passing rate in math rose by nearly 20 points. Writing scores declined by about four percentage points that year, according to the study. The next school year, the passing rates on the reading, math and writing tests were 93.6 percent, 79.4 percent and 85 percent, respectively - much higher than the old Julia Richman High School scores, the study said. Those results created a ripple effect across the education world. Julia Richman became the subject of newspaper stories, research and policy papers, and books. In the following years, New York City rapidly expanded its efforts to form new, smaller high schools, particularly under the Michael Bloomberg administration. Several research studies subsequently found that smaller schools were more likely to graduate students in four years, though their effect on classroom achievement is less clear. But the growth of the small-schools movement buttressed by the results of Julia Richman has led to lasting, if not permanent, changes in school districts across the country - changes that can be traced back to the Trumps’ old neighborhood, changes that may have made an impact on the girl who went on to advise her father on national policy.
The Six Autonomous Schools
The Julia Richman Education Complex houses six autonomous small schools. This strategic shift created six autonomous small schools, each with its own distinct philosophy and approach, yet all sharing a common facility. The result? The beauty of the Julia Richman Education Complex lies in its diversity. It houses six distinct schools, serving students from Pre-K through 12th grade, each designed to meet specific educational needs and interests. The six schools are autonomous, each with its own budget, teachers, schedules, curriculum, and separate spaces within the facility. Each school has a different philosophy and targets a different kind of student but all have a progressive, alternative approach to education.
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Here's a closer look at each school:
The Ella Baker School (M255): An elementary school serving students from Pre-K through 8th grade. Founded on the progressive Central Park East model, it emphasizes learning through play and discovery, encouraging children to work at their own pace. They take weekly trips. Two grades are taught together (K-1), (2-3), so students have the same teacher for two years. One of JREC's planners was educator Deborah Meier, who founded Central Park East, an alternative school for children in East Harlem. P.S. Principal Christina Fuentes has agreed to take on one J-School student this spring who expressed a particular interest in doing her lab work in a dual language school. We hope this partnership will grow in the future as well. P.S. 24 in Sunset Park Brooklyn is a successful Spanish-English elementary school for K-5 that is bucking the odds imposed by severe overcrowding and the high poverty rates of its students. Clips and data on P.S. Artist Benjamin Knotts painting a mural at the school as part of the Federal Art Project in 1936.
P226M Junior High Annex: A specialized program designed for severely autistic children, typically serving teens aged 12-15. P226M is school for children with autism. If they are able, students may join Urban Academy classes.
Urban Academy Laboratory High School (M565): Provides a supportive and personalized environment, often serving as a refuge for transfer students who may have struggled in other settings. Urban Academy is an inquiry-based, college oriented high school with a rigorous academic focus. The school's curriculum encourages empathy and respect for others through investigation of different viewpoints and making connections with their own lives. To graduate, students must complete in-depth projects in six areas: creative arts, criticism, literature, math, social studies, and science. Organized around multi-age classes, it offers a progressive, alternative approach to education, with a strong emphasis on personal attention. Urban Academy offers a refuge and personal attention to students including some high-achieving ones, who have been unsuccessful at other schools.
Talent Unlimited Performing Arts High School (M519): For students passionate about the arts, Talent Unlimited Performing Arts High School (M519) offers a unique blend of rigorous academics and specialized training. Talent Unlimited is a small school for the performing arts. Talent Unlimited combines a strong performing arts program with engaging academics, preparing students either to go to a liberal arts college or on to conservatory training in musical theater, voice, instrumental music, drama or dance.
Manhattan International High School (M459): Designed specifically for students who have been in the United States for four years or less and require English-as-a-new-language services, Manhattan International High School (M459) is a vibrant multicultural community. Manhattan International is for students who have been in the country for less than four years and require English-as-a new-language services. They learn to speak, write and read in English in regular high school classes. Teachers work in teams to create challenging interdisciplinary curricula, focusing on collaborative, hands-on projects to support both linguistic and academic growth.
Vanguard High School (M449): A college preparatory institution for students in grades 9-12. It offers a typical high school course of study with a strong emphasis on preparing students for higher education. At Vanguard High School students learn empathy for others by exploring different points of view. Juniors and seniors present portfolios of their work and oral presentations in humanities, math, science, and autobiography. Vanguard High School serves primarily low-achieving students.
Shared Facilities and Resources
JREC offers a wide array of shared facilities, including a library, cafeteria, auditorium, culinary arts room, dance studios, mini-theater, art gallery, swimming pool, and gymnasiums. Each school has its own space and in some cases its own entrance, and they share a theater, sports facilities, dance and pottery studios, a library, an auditorium and a cafeteria. A building council meets once a week to ensure that things run smoothly. Most of the high school students are allowed outside the building for lunch. The schools also share an art gallery, auditorium, cafeteria, ceramics studio, culinary arts room, dance studio, gymnasiums, library, swimming pool, and a mini-theater.
The building has been beautifully restored and represents an exciting and inviting educational environment. $30 million dollars of public money have been spent renovating the complex. The roof, the windows, the plumbing, the gym floors - all have been replaced and many new spaces created. Spaces are high, wide, and airy, and unlike many modern school buildings, allow students to feel comfortable as they pass through its halls. These are not constructed from sheet-rock and cement; rather there is beautiful marble, wood and wrought iron throughout the building. The building’s physical details matter enormously. The Julia Richman Education Complex has been uniquely redesigned to serve six schools that, while operating as autonomous units, also collaborate to serve students effectively.
A Model for Collaboration and Autonomy
The Julia Richman Education Complex is the product of bygone era that has been successfully redesigned and restored to serve contemporary educational needs. It is an educational treasure as well as an architectural gem. The building matters not only to the students, staff and families who work in it daily, but is also a valuable asset to the surrounding community. Its gyms, swimming pool, auditorium, mini theater, art gallery and other spaces serve diverse needs. The Julia Richman Education Complex has been uniquely redesigned to serve six schools that, while operating as autonomous units, also collaborate to serve students effectively.
The complex is governed by the Building Council composed of directors and principals from each school and program within the building. School-wide policies are formed by a “building council” that consists of the directors of Richman’s schools and the heads of other programs housed in the building: First Steps, a child-care center; the health clinic; and a teacher training center. The council convenes once a week to discuss everything from fire drills to food quality. It also gathers several times a year at the home of the director of one of Richman’s schools for breakfast or lunch and a half-day’s discussion.
Applying to JREC
To apply to a school within the Julia Richman Education Complex, you must follow the New York City Department of Education's high school or elementary/middle school admissions process.
Controversy and a Near Demolition
Hundreds of visitors from all over the nation, and abroad, come to the Complex to learn how a large older city school building can be effectively redesigned into a safe space that promotes academic excellence.
In an astonishing act of betrayal and arrogance, Hunter College and the Department of Education have developed plans to demolish the 80 year old restored Julia Richman Education Complex and to replace it with a high rise building housing science labs. In secret deals only recently exposed, a plan was laid out to demolish and relocate JREC’s six schools at a site that Hunter will abandon.
In 2006, the nearby Hunter College of the City University of New York proposed to take over the complex and relocate the schools to a new facility on the college's Brookdale campus approximately 40 blocks south in the Kips Bay neighborhood. Public opposition was widespread and included Governor David Paterson, city council member Jessica Lappin, and State Senator Liz Krueger.
If Hunter’s plan is realized, it will have destroyed one of NYC’s architectural treasures and one of the nation’s most successful educational communities.
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