Michael Wiltshire is the new principal of the Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, after Bernard Gassaway’s abrupt resignation from the position last month.

The popular principal explained his resignation by saying, “First, I do not believe in the co-location model. Second, I was being micromanaged by DOE [Department of Education] officials who lacked the skills to support my efforts. Third, DOE officials intentionally placed some of the most challenged students at Boys and Girls to ensure its failure. Then they questioned why the student outcomes were poor. Ultimately, they would blame the failure on me.

“My resignation pressured the DOE to explain why they do not have a comprehensive plan for struggling schools. Unfortunately, they still do not have a comprehensive plan to address the over 500 struggling schools.”

Boys and Girls High School—a Bedford-Stuyvesant landmark—made its name under the legendary Principal Frank Mickens. However, in 2013 it had a 35 percent graduation rate and received an F for three years straight. Gassaway stated repeatedly that the city was sending struggling children to the school without the resources to give them what they needed to improve.

Interestingly, Wiltshire is currently the principal of Medgar Evers College Preparatory School and also took on the responsibility of the Boys and Girls High School with hopes of bringing it success.

Giving voice to a community-spoken fear that students not currently making the grade might be pushed out to another school, parent Chris Skeete stated, “Since [Wiltshire] came in, I heard that there were juniors and seniors that because they weren’t going to make graduation, that they would have to be transferred out to alternative schools. I feel like they should have been given a chance to make up the classes. If they don’t want to, then they should have to go to an alternative school. The ones who were already transferred out should have been given a chance, but I can definitely say that my son [Kevon Forde] was given a chance. But it is a change for the school, and hopefully it will bring the graduation rate up. That’s the purpose of doing this.”

When asked how he feels about the school having a new principal, Skeete simply stated, “I have to wait and see.” He added, “I feel like [Gassaway] should have waited until the end [of the school year]. You don’t leave in the middle of something. You wait until the end.”

The new principal has ideas of merging the struggling Boys and Girls High School and the thriving Medgar Evers High School, implementing new programs to help the students succeed and bringing more kids in the community to be part of the programs.

Michelle Greene, whose son Latrell is a ninth-grader at Boys and Girls High School, said, “There hasn’t been any changes yet that I have seen. It’s still the same as before the last principal left.”

Michelle Greene still has confidence in Wiltshire in regards to building a better school for her son Latrell. She continued, “Give the principal a chance, because they said before that the school was going down, but this is a new principal. Just give him a chance. Let him work with the teachers, the parents like myself and the students. Give him a chance. We can’t go back to even worse than it was, so just give him a chance.”

It is still too early in Wiltshire’s time as principal to determine if he will bring the school success, but Gassaway believes it is larger than just one school.

“The current DOE policies and practices place the most challenged students in selected schools. These schools fail in large part because the odds are stacked against them. That is the case with BGHS. Frankly, it is a racist policy because African-American children are disproportionately impacted,” said Gassaway

Gassaway concluded by stating, “The mayor should stop focusing on struggling schools. Focus, instead, on a struggling school system.”