The Eagle Academy Foundation is set to open a new all boys’ school in Harlem, The Eagle Academy for Young Men, which is slated to open in September. The school will take its residents at the Bread and Roses Integrated Arts High School, a school which is being phased out along with its graduating class of 2016, building on Edgecombe Avenue.
“Harlem was really where we wanted to be,” said David Banks, president and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, in a media report. “Harlem is the epicenter of the Black Community,” he added. “We knew we weren’t going to leave Harlem off the table. The need is so great.”
The first Eagle Academy School was opened in the South Bronx, in 2004 and became the first boys-only school to open in the city in nearly 30 years. The foundation now has four different schools; Eagle Bronx, Eagle Ocean Hill/ Brownsville, Eagle Southeast, Queens and Eagle Newark. The foundation is also planning the opening of a location in Staten Island.
In a city where only 25% of African-American young men graduate high school; 47% nationally and nationally only 44% of Latino boys, Eagle Academy aims to brighten the future of inner city boys. According to their website; The Eagle Academy Foundation, the schools’ high school graduation rate was 87% in 2010, which is double the citywide rate for Black and Latino male students. 95% of their graduates also go on to college.
“We’re committed to trying to transform the lives of young men,” reported Banks. “We wanted to make a difference.”
The Harlem school will start next year with about 85 sixth graders. Administers for the school plan to start with a summer bridge program in July, to get the kids ready for the fall. After its inaugural year, the school will add one grade a year until it is a grades 6-12 school.
They are currently accepting applications, for more information on applying the individual school websites at: http://eagleacademyfoundation.com/schools.htm