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EDITION 136 • JANUARY 11 - 21, 2009 | WWW.ARAMICA.COM

EDUCATION

What happened to the

KGIA?

Controversial Arabic-themed NYC public school settling at new premises; few Arab American students BY: RACHEL MILLARD

When the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) opened its doors two years ago, the Arabic themed school seemed as if it wouldn’t make it beyond its first year. The principal, Debbie Almontaser, was asked to resign after making controversial comments and parents complained that there was inadequate funding, very little communications between them and teachers, and that the school was beset with discipline problems. Now well into its second year, the school appears to be moving past its difficulties and is setting on achieving its mission: to teach a segment of New York City students a slice of Arabic life and culture, in addition to the socalled three Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic. School officials declined to comment for this article, despite repeated requests for an interview. Melody Mayer, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said they would not comment because it would “open the floodgates to more media attention.” Furthermore, an impending lawsuit from Almontaser, who is suing the DOE after she left the school, impeded Mayer from making comment. Almontaser stepped down as the school’s principal in a firestorm of controversy in August 2007 after an article in The New York Post stated that she had “downplayed the significance” of T-shirts bearing the slogan “Intifada NYC.” Almontaser said that The Post had distorted her words and that she had been forced to resign by the mayor’s office. Recently, Aramica met with Danielle Jefferis, KGIA program manager for the Arab American Family Support Center – KGIA’s lead community partner – who works at the school full time and closely with its students and families. Jefferis talked about how the school has settled down since last year and how it is adjusting to its new location on Navy Street, where the school shares the premises with P.S. 287.

The school, which was criticized for not having enough Arabic language classes, now employs two full-time native Arabic speakers and students have one full period of Modern Standard Arabic language first thing every morning, with one lesson in Arabic culture per week. KGIA is the only dual-language public school in New York City to offer Arabic-language instruction. In other respects, it follows the DOE curriculum.

As the school expands to high school level and needs more facilities, its location will be reassessed and might be moved, yet again. And while last year the school was beset by a lack of facilities, a donation made early this semester from one of the school’s support organizations has equipped the school with a computer lab designed for language learners with voice-recording software and word processing software, which can manage Arabic fonts. One widely circulated rumor about the school was that the DOE was no longer committed to supporting it beyond the 8th grade. But Mayer, the DOE spokeswoman, denied the rumors and said that the school plans to add one grade every year. As the school expands to high school level and needs more facilities, its location will be reassessed and might be moved, yet again. The continued uncertainty is frustrating many parents who question

DOE’s support for the school. “The DOE is making life very difficult for parents and students at both KGIA and P.S. 287,” said Saba Mansour, an Arab-American mother of two kids attending another Brooklyn public school, “There’s no way all of this disruption can ever be in the best interests of students.” For some educators, the early problems the school faced are much more meaningful than just the symptoms of a challenging system. Edwin Mayorga, a member of the New York Collective of Radical Educators, a social justice teachers’ organization which has worked closely with the KGIA, said he viewed the DOE’s actions towards the KGIA as an indication of the poor acceptance of Arab and Muslim communities in NYC public life. “This represents a concrete example of Arab and Muslims trying to create space and being denied,” he told Aramica, linking this case to what he sees as other examples of discrimination in civic life against Arab and Muslim Americans and other immigrant groups, such as in policing and immigrants’ rights. “There is a question here,” he said, “over which communities have power and legitimacy, are addressed and supported, and which communities are marginalized.” So far the KGIA has notably few native Arabic students. Of a student body of about 60 – it is under-enrolled by 50 percent – only four of these are native Arabic speakers, according to Jefferies. Why are so few children from Arabic-speaking families enrolled at a school which was envisioned as a place for Arabic students to be the best representatives of their culture to their non-Arab peers? And why are so few Arabic children at a school that many ArabAmerican parents would have called for, as a place where the teachers spoke their language and their culture was recognized? Some members of the community fear that the original, negative publicity tying the school to terrorism and Islamic madrassahs

discouraged Arab-American parents from sending their kids there at all, sabotaging the school’s success among the Arab-American community from the outset. “I definitely think the controversy of the school was an obstacle to parents sending their kids there,” says Linda Sarsour, acting director of the Arab American Association of New York and the mother of four young children. “I think the school has been under so much scrutiny that they have to put together some kind of marketing strategy to entice parents and prove to them why they

so that second or third generation immigrants can learn about their heritage,” said Marie Eleham, a mother of two who moved from Syria 10 years ago, before her children were born. “But I would not send my daughter there; it’s as if we are enlarging the gap between her and her home, making her feel an immigrant as her parents have felt since they came to this country. She should feel at home here: this is, after all, where she was born and raised.” She also highlighted a misconception about the school that might prevent other mothers

There is a belief among Arab-American Christians that this school teaches the Islamic faith in addition to Arabic. should send their students there,” she said, adding that the school’s remote location made it very difficult for students to get there. In an effort to encourage greater attendance from the Arab-American community, the school has recently started advertising a potential special bus service to bring students from the densely ArabAmerican populated neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to the school’s premises in the Navy Yard. “Any sensible parent would be concerned about enrolling their child in a school facing the vigorous opposition that KGIA did on its opening day,” said Dave Hall, a musician and active member of the Downtown Brooklyn ArabAmerican community, who has been invited to serve on a forthcoming community advisory board at the school. Others suggested that the school’s Arabic theme could in fact be a disadvantage, with parents not wanting their kids to be isolated from an U.S. upbringing. “I agree that an Arabic-language school can be a good bridge between the generations,

from sending their kids there. “There is a belief among ArabAmerican Christians that this school teaches the Islamic faith in addition to Arabic,” said Eleham, who is a Christian. “I don’t know the detail of the story of the school, but I heard that its previous principal was a fanatic,” she added. As a NYC public school, there is no religious education on the curriculum at KGIA. If Islam is mentioned by name, it is only in the context of teaching about Arabic culture and history. “I imagine that many immigrant Arab parents want their children to assimilate and be among American kids,” agreed Mr. Hall, “but I'd like to suggest to Arab parents that the education their children will get at KGIA is equal to that of the best American public schools, with the added bonus of a strong Arabic-language program, which will serve them and their adopted country for their whole professional lives.” This article was written as part of an education reporting fellowship granted by New York Community Media Alliance.