College Board Academy to Open in September

More Information for Prospective Students

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in collaboration with the College Board Association, the Yonkers Public Schools will open a grades 6-12 College Board School in September.  The College Board Academy is the first such school in Westchester and will provide exciting and creative initiatives that prepare students for college success, with a commitment to low-income and minority equity and access. 

Smaller Learning Communities
Small, personalized environments of eighty students per grade as well as extended day instructional support, and advisory counseling that addresses student academic, social, and emotional growth and development are hallmarks of College Board Schools. 

Respect, Excellence, Rigor, Leadership, Technology
Five core elements are the basis of College Board Schools:

1. Alliance of mutual respect
2. Organization for student excellence
3. College Board-level academic rigor
4. Outstanding professional leadership
5. Integrated, cutting-edge technology

Expectations
There is an emphasis on high expectations, hard work, and fairness with a mission to connect students to college success and opportunity. 

College Board School expectations also include a strict adherence to a student dress code aligned with business and professional attire.

Unique to College Board Schools is the rigorous national search for the school principal undertaken by the College Board in collaboration with the school district.  Yonkers is in the final stages of the interview process, seeking to announce the principal in March. 

No Admissions Requirement
The new College Board Academy, incorporating the seventh Yonkers high school, will admit students from throughout the district who wish to attend. 

Through the district’s School Choice Process, which begins March 1st, students and parents may apply for available sixth and ninth grade seats.  The new school will expand over a period of four years, annually accepting only sixth and ninth grade students from September 2008 to September 2011, when the school will have its full complement of grades six through twelve and its first graduating Class of 2012. 

The College Board Academy is one of three citywide instructional magnet schools along with Saunders Trades and Technical High School and Yonkers International Baccalaureate High School.  At the College Board Academy, twenty-five percent of incoming students will be accepted from each of the four attendance zone high schools – Gorton, Lincoln, Riverside and Roosevelt – providing equitable access for students across the City of Yonkers.  Yonkers teachers will staff the school.  The selection of teachers will align with the recruitment process developed collaboratively with the Yonkers Federation of Teachers.

The College Board Academy will be housed at 201 Palisades Avenue.  Commerce Middle School will be closed at the conclusion of this school year. 

Early Choice Process for Current Commerce 6th & 7th Grade Students
The District has determined the need to take a different approach to provide students with the opportunity to achieve their academic potential. 

• Commerce sixth and seventh grade students, who will be seventh and eighth graders in September 2008, will participate in an early School Choice Process. 

These students will be reassigned, on a priority basis, to schools throughout the district that have available seventh and eighth grade seats for the 2008-2009 academic year. 

Current Commerce Middle School eighth grade students, who will be ninth graders in September 2008, will not be affected by this process, but will progress with high school School Choice Process on March 1.