New Intermediate School to Accept Students from Anywhere on Island
Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School to open in New Springville in September 

Staten Island Advance - Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The intermediate school slated to open in September in New Springville will accept students who live anywhere on Staten Island, the city Department of Education has announced.

Enrollment applications for the Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School are available in elementary schools and at the borough enrollment office on the grounds of the Michael J. Petrides Educational Complex in Sunnyside.

Only the sixth-grade seats will be available in the fall. The upper grades will be seated each year as the students in the first class are promoted.

If more students apply than there are seats, the enrollment will be decided randomly with preference given to students who attend an open house or information session, a DOE spokeswoman said.

Dates for those are still being planned.

The Marsh Avenue School will open along with the McCown Expeditionary Learning School for high school students.

The two schools, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and operated in a partnership between the not-for-profit NYC Outward Bound and the DOE, are part of the mayor's initiative to increase retention, graduation and college-going rates by creating 200 smaller and more intimate secondary schools throughout the city this year.

They will share a campus at 100 Essex Drive -- behind the Staten Island Mall -- with the College of Staten Island's High School for International Studies, and a District 75 special education program for autistic intermediate school students.

At Outward Bound schools, classes are typically 90 minutes and are often multi-disciplinary, with in-depth studies tailored to meet the core academic requirements. Field work, where students use their community as the classroom, is the norm.

Students and a faculty adviser are also members of a "crew" that meets on a regular basis and includes a five-day backpacking adventure.

Enrollment for the high school began in January. The school will have 108 seats per grade and will only fill the ninth grade this fall. Interested eighth-graders can speak to their guidance counselors about applying as the second round of the high school matching process continues.  

By Stephanie Slepian
Reprinted here with permission from the