User:Plannedit

I am just getting started with this format. I would like to do a wiki page on the history of my school.

My school is named Philip Livingston Magnet Academy. It is located in Albany, New York. It is part of the City school district of Albany, one of three middle schools. The school's site is very historic. It is named after Philip Livingston, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was built in 1924 and is located on a large campus. It is located on the second largest urban preserve in the state (Tivoli Park), the first being Central Park, NYC. The school has been designated a "magnet" school due to its involvement with the arts. PLMA offers classes in dance, theater, pottery, music, chorus, as well as art. We employ the use of "Full Service Community" room, which is a resource center for students. This includes social workers, attendance officers, as well as a member of the Albany Police Department. Livingston has been through many changes in the past seven years that I have been employed there. The enrollment has gone from approximately 850, to about 250. We have had a decrease in enrollment due to the opening of another middle school within the district, as well as the opening of numerous charter schools (most per area in New York State). This is a sixth/seventh/eighth grade model, with the numbers being lowest in the sizth grade. The school has about 36 teachers of different content areas. We employ a shift from the self-contained model of special education to a collaborative "push-in" integrated format. We have implemented the use of double blocks in the schedule; 108 minutes for math and ELA. Our school has suffered from instabily as far as leadership is concerned. We are on our sixth building principal in 7 years (the most recent being promoted from assistant principal on 2/15/08). We are located in a community known as "Arbor Hill". The school has a high poverty rate, with about 85 percent of students receiving free or reduced lunch.