Earlier this year, we posted here and here about the possibility that the New York City Board of Education might choose to displace the schools that made history in the Julia Richman Education Complex (JREC) so that nearby Hunter College could expand. The Julia Richman Complex houses six schools, including CES affiliates Urban Academy, Vanguard High School, and Manhattan International High School.

That possibility is turning into an ugly likelihood per JREC's Save JREC campaign and "City's bad lesson on a revitalized school," by Juan Gonzalez in the New York Daily News.

The JREC community, educators and families from the six schools housed at JREC and many in the neighborhood upset by the Hunter takeover are letting NYC know how deeply wrong this ouster would be. Yesterday, JREC students led a march to deliver a letter of protest to Hunter College's president. They're contacting city officials, their state and U.S. congressional representatives, everyone they can, to let it be known that, in the words of the Daily News' Gonzalez, "You don't break things you've already fixed."

Now we, the CES network, need to let NYC know that JREC must be saved from a hostile takeover and relocation. The work that went into transforming JREC from a symbol of urban educational blight to the polestar of the small schools movement can't be replicated. And it's impossible to ignore the fact that the success of the JREC schools is central to NYC's current small schools strategies. That success depends on neighborhood connections, on the functionality of its current space, on the generosity of funders who have helped make the current facility work, and much more that's inseparable from the location.

If you're passionate about small, personalized, equitable, intellectually challenging schools but don't know the JREC story, go to to the Save JREC website or just Google "Julia Richman" + "small schools" (I'm a helper and did it already, saved you the bother. Here it is. Click down the list and be inspired by this amazing place.)

So speak out, even if you're not from New York. If you can understand why JREC has made a difference in the transformative work in which you're engaged in now, take a moment to tell that story. Click here for a list of state and local officials and their contact info. And do JREC a favor and send them a copy of your correspondence (SAVEJREC@jrec.org). And post your protest here too, in the comments below. We can't know what difference this will make, but we also can't miss the chance to do what we can to alter the course of this destructive proposal.