Riverdale’s ONLY Locally Owned Newspaper!
Volume XVIII • Number 35 • August 11 - 17, 2011 •
FREE!
Mixed bag for local schools in state test results By MIAWLING LAM Local schools posted mixed results on this year’s statewide standardized tests. Data from the English Language Arts and math exams, released by the state Education Department on Monday, reveals Riverdale’s three schools recorded modest gains in some grades. P.S. 24 scores rose across the board; P.S. 81 recorded some gains in ELA and some dips in math, while the situation was reversed at the Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy. However, fewer children scored at the top level 4 and “exceeded proficiency standards.” For the second straight year, state officials upped test standards. This year’s exams included more multiplechoice questions, and all students were required to write
at least one full essay. P.S. 24 emerged as the winner in the battle of the two local elementary schools, with more students passing the reading and math exams administered in May. More than four in five students at the Spuyten Duyvil school were deemed proficient in math, up from 74 percent last year, while 71 percent passed the English exam, compared with 63 percent in 2010. Students are deemed proficient if they score at level 3 or 4. Of concern was the precipitous decline in the number of P.S. 24 students scoring at level 4. The percentage of fifth-graders scoring in the top ELA band nearly halved compared to last year, while the proportion of third-graders recording top marks plunged 16 percent.
At P.S. 81, slightly fewer students in grades 3 and 4 met the state’s bar for math proficiency, contributing to the school’s overall 64 percent pass rate for the standardized exam. Last year, it was 65 percent. The school recorded gains in English, with 64 percent of children performing at grade level, but an ethnicity breakdown paints another picture. Nearly three-quarters of Caucasian students scored at levels 3 or 4 for the ELA test but only 55 percent of African-Americans and 59 percent of Hispanics performed at the same standard. Meanwhile, results at Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy were less rosy. Just 45 percent of students from the school passed the English exam this year, slightly down from 46 perContinued on Page 3
Woman throws herself in front of oncoming subway train
By MIAWLING LAM and BRENDAN McHUGH A woman jumped to her death last week, deliberately falling in front of a subway pulling into the West 231st Street station. Just after 9:30 a.m., a 74-yearold German woman jumped onto the tracks last Thursday as an eight-car southbound No. 1 train pulled into the station. It is understood she recently emigrated from Germany and lived alone in Kingsbridge. Police identified the woman but will not release her name until her next of kin are notified. Commanding officer of the 50th Precinct Captain Kevin Burke said accounts from two independent witnesses confirmed the tragic circumstances. “They said she got up and purposely and intentionally jumped onto the tracks,” he said. Captain Burke said the woman, who was struck and killed instantly, had been carrying “psychological medicine” with her. Following the incident, hundreds of onlookers gathered below the elevated tracks on Broadway as parts of the woman’s body dangled perilously from the structure. Limbs protruded from the crossties of the tracks, prompting several teenagers to snap photos of the gruesome sight with their cellphones. A puddle of blood had also formed on the street directly below where the woman was found. Medical examiners and ambulance officers worked frantically
for more than an hour to extract the woman’s body while police interviewed witnesses and preserved conditions at the site. Steven Banks, 27, told the Riverdale Review that he was on his way to work when he witnessed the grisly scene. “I was on the platform and saw a [woman] jump,” he said, adding that she “just toppled forward, face first, a split second before the train hit. She knew the train was coming.” “The police and everybody was looking for the body, and I saw a broken cellphone piece and I looked under and I was like, ‘oh my God, the [woman] is stuck under the train.” An MTA spokeswoman said subway services were suspended in both directions between the Van Cortlandt 242nd Street and 215th Street stations for two hours after the incident. The BX9 bus service was also rerouted onto Bailey Avenue. The macabre death has sparked renewed interest in ways to increase straphanger safety. According to the MTA, in 2009, subway trains killed 40 people. The transit agency had previously announced they are considering installing sliding mechanical doors on all platforms to prevent people from jumping or falling onto the tracks. Earlier this year, Bronx Assemblyman Marcos Crespo proposed that all subways come to a complete stop before entering each and every station.
Under his plan, trains would be permitted to roll forward and pick up passengers only after the required pause. He also suggested cars be limited to a speed of 5 miles per hour as they enter the station. His bill drew heavy criticism, with opponents saying travel time from The Bronx to downtown Manhattan would increase
by 50 percent. But Crespo says safety and money are more important at this time. “The money they’re spending—$60 to $80 million in civil payouts to people hit by trains every year even though it’s illegal to go on the tracks for any reason,” he said. “So many of the incidents that occur could be avoided if
trains come in at slower speeds,” he said, citing the idea that if trains enter stations at a slow speed, a conductor would have time to stop if someone is on the platform. “One of the things I was open to is the train doesn’t come to a full stop—they just lower their speed before pulling into the station.”
Bystanders gather around the elevated track at 231st Street after a woman jumps in the path of an oncoming southbound train. Emergency service workers labored for more than hour to extract the woman’s mangled body from the track. The woman was a recent immigrant from Germany.