Local Parents and Community Leaders: CWOT, OMDB
The City’s Department of Education (DOE) has officially withdrawn a controversial proposal to create a new high school in the Financial District with a curriculum focused on artificial intelligence (AI), rather than expand an existing, highly regarded middle school, as many local families want.
At the April 29 meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), a 24-member, citywide board of overseers who have the final say over major decisions by the DOE, Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced, “I want to acknowledge that some of the proposals that were intended for tonight’s agenda have been pulled down—specifically the Next Generation High School proposal.”
This was a reference to the DOE’s plan to create a new high school at 26 Broadway that would offer “ethical technological literacy.” While the PEP had formal authority to approve or veto this plan, DOE had already begun accepting applications for the new school, starting next September.
But soon after DOE acknowledged this plan in late March, at the last possible moment before a deadline for legally required notice, it catalyzed a wave of pushback from parents at the Lower Manhattan Community Middle School (serving grades six through eight and known as LMC, located at 26 Broadway), who want to expand their school through grade 12 into the space that would have been occupied by the Next Generation Technology High School. This opposition was soon joined by Community Board 1 (CB1), which enacted a resolution at its March meeting, urging the DOE “to reconsider the proposed co-location of the Next Generation Technology High School with Lower Manhattan Community Middle School due to concerns regarding shared facilities, space constraints, and operational challenges that could affect student safety,” and asking the agency to, “approve the expansion of Lower Manhattan Community Middle School into a six-through-12 school within the existing facility.”
At the April 29 meeting, Chancellor Kamar Samuels continued, “I want to be clear. This decision reflects one of the core values of my leadership: engagement. We engaged deeply on these proposals, and the common thread in what we heard from our families and communities was that more time was needed to discuss and deliberate. We heard you loud and clear, and we are listening.”
This announcement effectively killed the proposal, at least for the time being. Afterward, PEP chair Gregory Faulkner said, “the decision to withdraw this proposal underscores the critical importance of early and authentic engagement with parents and community stakeholders before major educational shifts are finalized.”
Mr. Faulkner added, “while the school was promoted as an innovative AI-focused institution, significant concerns remained regarding the lack of community input and the potential impact of a screened admission process on local accessibility. Moving forward, it is essential that the DOE prioritizes transparency and partners with the community to ensure new projects align with the needs of neighborhood families.”
Anne Hager (left), an LMC parent who led the opposition to the Next Generation Technology High School, said, “this is a huge relief. It was a vestige of the Adams/Banks administration [a reference to former Mayor Eric Adams and his Schools Chancellor, David Banks], and how they managed major decisions about our schools.”
Ms. Hager continued, “by pulling this proposal, the PEP and the Chancellor made a statement about the importance of meaningful engagement and community buy-in. I hope that the next step will be for the DOE to now consider our long-standing wish to expand LMC to a sixth-through-12th grade school.”
At the April 29 PEP meeting, Chancellor Samuels appeared to leave the door open to either possibility: resurrecting the Next Generation plan or expanding LMC. He said, “withdrawing these proposals is not an end to the process or goals, nor is it an end to these conversations. And over the coming months, we will continue to partner with school communities to explore how we can address the needs our students and families face. We remain committed to strengthening parent and community participation in the engagement process surrounding school utilization changes.”
A DOE spokesman added, “creating excellent high school options and outcomes for our City’s students is our priority. We take family and community feedback seriously and, after careful consideration, decided to withdraw the proposal for Next Generation High School. We look forward to our continued collaboration with our communities to create academically rigorous, safe, and truly integrated learning environments, while continuing the conversation with our school communities on responsibly addressing the technologies of our time, aligned to the New York City Public School’s forthcoming AI playbook.”
Tricia Joyce, who chairs CB1’s Youth and Education Committee, said, “we are greatly relieved. The proposal was rushed. The Environmental Impact Statement was incomplete and the curriculum still in development, despite a Fall 2026 target opening date. Beyond the timeline concerns, we felt that there had been far too little community engagement, and consideration of what co-locating a 450-student school would actually look like in a space that currently serves only 83 students. (This was a reference to the Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women, which is slated to close at the end of this school year, and the space for which LMC leaders hope to use for their planned expansion.)
“With this behind us,” Ms. Joyce continued, “we are hopeful we can now focus on helping LMCMS expand—something they have advocated for over the past decade and that has broad support from local families. Demand for sixth-through-12th schools is high, because not every student thrives with two transitions across their kindergarten-through-high school education. In addition to being a diverse school with strong academics and highly regarded arts programming, LMC also runs a robust and successful IEP/CTT program.” (This was a reference to Individualized Education Programs for students with learning disabilities and Collaborative Team Teaching, an approach in which two teachers lead a classroom that is 60 percent general education students and 40 percent students with special needs.) “Expanding that through high school would provide a meaningful opportunity for students,” Ms. Joyce said.