NEW ROCHELLE, NY — New Rochelle public schools have experienced a massive drop in enrollment since the murder of Valaree Schwab and stabbing of Ethan Jordan in January 2018, based on data presented to the New Rochelle Board of Education last night.
In 2018, total enrollment in the City School District of New Rochelle stood at 10,672 pupils according data submitted by the District to the New York State Education Department.
In 2020, that figure stood at 10,192 pupils, a drop of 480 pupils or -4.5%.
The new aggregate data was buried in the last line of page 16 of a Superintendent’s Report on the District response to COVID-19 outbreaks in the schools.
Talk of the Sound has previously reported on “Black Flight” from the New Rochelle public school system.
Framing a Discussion about Equity in the New Rochelle Public Schools
Population adjusted data for New Rochelle from 2000 to 2018 shows our White cohort is down 13% in the City and down 17% in the District, our Hispanic cohort is up 58% in the City and up 46% in the District. Our Black cohort is up 9% in the City but down 25% in the District. We lost 680 White students and gained 1,123 Hispanic students as you might expect but shockingly lost 650 black students.
Preliminary analysis suggests there may be a disproportionate impact from declines at Albert Leonard Middle School and Barnard Early Childhood Center.
Developing…
There’s no coincidence that the decline in NRED student enrollment followed the horrific beating and murder of Valaree Schwab on January 10, 2018. The perception of New Rochelle and the New Rochelle School System forever changed on that fateful day. New Rochelle crossed a line and became just another “inner city” type of school system where children attack and kill other children. Emblazoned in my memory is the sight of a hundred or more supporters for the perpetrator packing the halls of the City Court House in stark contrast with Valaree’s mother and father who had to endure the gauntlet alone while immersed in their deep sorrow. That “court house” memory for me has become a metaphor for the fractured and divided state of our our city in which many support the wrong cause and only a few, such as Robert Cox, fight the good fight.