(2 of 2)
Sensitive Spirit. After the announcement that the school could take no new applicants, students set out with tin cans to seek donations from the neighborhood. It was a futile gesture (previous drives have raised merely 5% of the school's expenses). The only solution, apparently, lies in the public school system to which Harlem Prep was supposed to provide an alternative.
The school board has agreed to take over the school—provided that it obeys the rules. Meanwhile, unpaid teachers are continuing classes for the 180 seniors who hope to graduate this year.
If Harlem Prep survives, after negotiations with the board, there will undoubtedly be changes. Only three of the school's 19 teachers have New York City certification, for example. Carpenter himself lacks the administrative credentials required for principals. If the standard public school rules are applied to Harlem Prep, security guards will patrol the halls, absent students will be considered delinquent, and anyone over 21 can be barred (Harlem Prep has taken students as old as 28). While board spokesmen have said that they are sensitive to the spirit of Harlem Prep, one official has already suggested that it might be moved from the brightly lit supermarket to a drab, vacant public school near by.
To some, these changes seem hardly tragic. If the city guarantees the basic financing, some former donors like Exxon and the Ford Foundation indicate that they would again provide special help. Says Exxon's Neblett: "It is important that alternative techniques of education be part of the public schools. The system should adapt and incorporate change." Others are less sanguine. "All you need to do is to look at the problems in other schools to know what's going to happen here," says Math Teacher Keary. "The public schools just don't work for these kids."