Big lessons from a little school

Bridgehampton is receiving long-deserved statewide attention as the little school district that could. The high school within the Bridgehampton School and the failed attempt to close it earlier this year are highlighted in a two-page spread in the most recent issue of New York Teacher, the publication of New York State United Teachers.


“Committed to What Works,” is the headline, and the sub-head: “Teachers, parents, students stand up for a small, effective school.” The article begins by reporting on how these constituencies “came together … last spring in a shared crusade to preserve educational quality.”


It tells of there being on one side a group “determined to close the small, historic high school and parcel out its 60 students to three neighboring districts.” On the other side was a “grassroots coalition of educators, parents and students committed to preserve a community asset that —despite its size — was cost-effective, making academic gains and celebrating diversity.”


Diversity and race play a role in what had almost happened earlier in the year. As the article, by Bernie Mulligan, notes: “The school’s mix of approximately equal portions of African-American, Latino and white students reflects the broad spectrum of people who call the beach town home.” 


This kind of diversity is extraordinary for Long Island. The organization ERASE Racism has been investigating what it flatly calls “segregation” of Long Island schools. This is intimately tied to housing patterns here — of virtually all-white communities and then ghettoes for minorities. It’s a pattern ERASE Racism has documented through “testing” — sending blacks and whites out to look for homes — racism still encouraged, illegally, by real estate interests.


As ERASE Racism says on its website, “public school segregation on Long Island [is] the intentional result of residential segregation” with the 127 school districts in Nassau and Suffolk constituting a “mirror” of the “residential segregation.” 


There were some whites in Bridgehampton who did not want their children going to a school in which two-thirds of the students are black and Latino. In fact, being in such a mix at school is an important educational experience, preparing a student for the real world. 


For 30 years, I have taught at a Long Island college which is a higher-education equivalent of Bridgehampton in its diversity, and was designed that way. It is amazing every semester at SUNY/College at Old Westbury to see students who nearly all come from high schools that are racially imbalanced meeting, getting to know and working with students of other races and backgrounds and rather quickly becoming completely comfortable with each other. It’s amazing how integration can work.


Importantly, at Bridgehampton, as at Old Westbury, there is an emphasis on academic success. As the New York Teacher piece notes: “Academic success for every Bridgehampton student has become a priority … Student achievement is continually increasing.” … small class sizes means no one gets lost.”


The piece tells how three of the candidates for the school board had “vowed to work together to close the high school with one saying students should be relocated ‘to be with kids who are smarter than you, different from you.’”


The coalition supporting the high school staying open “began wearing buttons that proclaimed, ‘We love our school: Ask us why.’”


“Some school supporters felt closure was being pushed to dismantle a diverse student body,” notes the article. And supporters, meanwhile, “essentially created a community discussion about the strengths of their small, multi-cultural school … By the time the polls closed, the slate that wanted to keep a small, cost-effective and high-quality high school open had swept the top spots.”


“Our students got to witness a life lesson,” David Holmes, the school librarian, is quoted as saying in the piece. “They got to see their parents fight for them and make a difference.”


I’ve had the opportunity to be invited to Bridgehampton High School. What’s going on there is inspiring. It’s good that now people around the state can learn about the support of Bridgehampton High.