BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — The principal selected by the city to help turn around Brooklyn's struggling Boys and Girls High School is set to leave at the end of the month, education officials said.
Michael Wiltshire, principal of Boys and Girls in Bedford-Stuyvesant, will return to work full-time at Crown Heights’ Medgar Evers College Preparatory School, as first reported by Chalkbeat.
He served as ‘master principal,’ leading both the Bed-Stuy school and the high-performing Medgar Evers Prep simultaneously.
The master principal contract is for a one-year period, officials said, and can be renewed annually.
The choice to leave Boys and Girls was a mutual decision by the Department of Education and Wiltshire, according to officials.
The move comes nearly two years after the city tapped Wiltshire to overhaul Fulton Street’s Boys and Girls, which is designated as a Renewal School for its recent under performance.
The historic high school has been under the community spotlight in past months, following reports that the principal failed to properly report an alleged sexual harassment incident and criticisms from stakeholders over a proposed co-location of Wiltshire’s two schools.
Wiltshire also recently applied for a position at a Long Island school.
Local residents have been meeting to discuss concerns over Boys and Girls’ future, with parents and students expressing worries over lack of resources.
Enrollment fell from 940 students to 648 between 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, according to DOE data.
Still, there have been improvements at Boys and Girls, DOE officials said, with fewer teacher absences and a decrease in chronic student absenteeism from 2013-14 to 2014-15.
“Dr. Wiltshire’s appointment as master principal was a strategy that helped to stabilize Boys and Girls and put it on a path to improved outcomes, and this school has made significant progress,” said DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye, adding that there was an 8 percent increase in the graduation rate under Wiltshire.
Wiltshire will leave Boys and Girls on July 1, and assigned principal Angelo Marra will lead the school temporarily until a new principal is chosen, officials said.
“The superintendent will continue to support and work closely with the Boys and Girls community to ensure a smooth transition and the appointment of a new, high-quality principal who will build on Dr. Wiltshire’s work,” Kaye said.
