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With no middle schools in Highbridge, children make exhausting commute

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Trainspotter

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With no middle schools in Highbridge, children make exhausting commute

BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

November 28th 2007

 

[float=right]amd_bx_garcia.jpg

Highbridge middler-schooler Matthew Garcia,

10, has to take three buses to get to class at

Frederick Douglass Academy III on Third Ave.

[/float]Matthew Garcia gets up at 6 a.m. to ready himself for his hour-long commute - to middle school.

 

The 10-year-old Highbridge boy has to take three buses from his home on Anderson Ave. to Frederick Douglass Academy III on Third Ave.

 

"Matthew comes home super-tired," said his mother, Marisol Burgos, 33. "He comes home and goes to sleep. It's hard for him."

 

With no middle schools in Highbridge, students such as Matthew have complicated and lengthy commutes to school. Community organizers say enough is enough.

 

"It's an issue of safety. It's very clear there is an imbalance here," said Jesse Mojica, director of education and youth in Borough President Adolfo Carrión's office.

 

Highbridge is a rapidly growing community of 40,000 residents with five public elementary schools, one public elementary charter school and two private schools. "The population is growing so much. We need a middle school," said Ocynthia Williams of United Parents of Highbridge.

 

The city Department of Education sees things differently.

 

"We do not see a seat need in the neighborhood," said DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg. "There are plans for four new PS/IS schools in District 9, which includes Highbridge. Two already are in construction."

 

The new schools will create 1,890 seats in the district, she said.

 

But concerned parents said it will not help current middle schoolers who have to venture beyond the Grand Concourse and Cross Bronx Expressway to get to school.

 

"We have buildings coming up all over the place. The children will come with these families. With more children here, we need a school, no question," said Yolanda Romero, of the Highbridge Community Life Center.

 

With the DOE's next five-year capital plan on the horizon, community organizers said the time is right to push for a new program.

 

"Highbridge is a big community," said PS 11 PTA President Llunorkys Veras. "Why shouldn't we have a middle school?"

 

Community groups have already rallied support from local politicians, clergy and parent groups to push the DOE and the School Construction Authority to agree to a middle school.

 

"We don't want a situation to arise where - God forbid - a child is hurt or some tragedy happens before there's a response," Mojica said. "It's clear that there needs to be a middle school in Highbridge."

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error46146

error46146

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hey, at least he gets to take a bus!!

 

i have to WALK a mile and a half to school!

 

and when i don't feel like walking i have to pay $2 to take the Q60 because i don't get a free metrocard (i get some "half-fare" crap that i have no clue how to use it anyway)

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DOB2RTO

DOB2RTO

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hey, at least he gets to take a bus!!

 

i have to WALK a mile and a half to school!

 

and when i don't feel like walking i have to pay $2 to take the Q60 because i don't get a free metrocard (i get some "half-fare" crap that i have no clue how to use it anyway)

 

Dip your half fare card and put in $1. Thats how it works.

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DOB2RTO

DOB2RTO

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Yes but you always get that 1 ignorant person behind that is pissed off cause you make them stand for those 3 extra seconds.

 

They be the main ones to take 12 minutes, just to get up three steps. Beseides 3 seconds are for the slow school kids. The quicker ones, 2 seconds.

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DOB2RTO

DOB2RTO

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You've got it. I go to F.U.

 

That is the only good thing working the Bx19 in the morning time. Get some college female cuties get on in the morning. One who I picked up at 180st last month, seemed to young to be in college and I thought she was a H.S. girl. She got off and went in there. I prayed she would get on the next day, which she did. I asked her out (she was a true young black woman, uncommon theses days), but she said she wasn't looking for a boyfriend right now, and that men are too much work. :(. My goal now is to land one like that, so I can make some babies. Don't need the comfortable in their environment ghetto chicks. D needs a smart, ambitious young woman.:D

 

Again Harry, you need a crying avatar.

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sebbieprops

sebbieprops

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That is the only good thing working the Bx19 in the morning time. Get some college female cuties get on in the morning. One who I picked up at 180st last month, seemed to young to be in college and I thought she was a H.S. girl. She got off and went in there. I prayed she would get on the next day, which she did. I asked her out (she was a true young black woman, uncommon theses days), but she said she wasn't looking for a boyfriend right now, and that men are too much work. :(. My goal now is to land one like that, so I can make some babies. Don't need the comfortable in their environment ghetto chicks. D needs a smart, ambitious young woman.:D

 

I'm almost entirely sure I know who you mean. There was a girl in one of my classes last year who fit that very description precisely. I got to know her well enough to have had some conversation here and there, but nothing more than that. She's in her third year at Fordham, and she's a very classy, sophisticated-looking young black woman, who looks about 16 although she's actually either 20 or 21. I know she takes the Bx19, and I know she lives on 180th. I know that description is quite vague, but I'm almost completely sure I know her.

 

If you happen to run into me by any chance when you're on your route, I should be easy to spot. I'm Albanian, and I come from a neighborhood that's almost entirely black and Hispanic, so I stand out. If you see a 20-year-old Albanian male with a full-grown beard, getting on at 167th and getting off to head towards Fordham, you can be certain who it is.

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DOB2RTO

DOB2RTO

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And also, the few times I've spoken with her, she's seemed rather quiet and introverted, so I'm not surprised that she's not looking for romance. That is, if it's the same girl I'm thinking of.

 

Must be a different girl. This one was light skinned, but she actually said high with a huge smile on her face, as if she seen me before. She possibly did, as my face isn't hard to forget.

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sebbieprops

sebbieprops

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Must be a different girl. This one was light skinned, but she actually said high with a huge smile on her face, as if she seen me before. She possibly did, as my face isn't hard to forget.

 

It wouldn't surprise me very much if she were to do that, but yes, now I do doubt it's the same girl I'm thinking of.

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