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The Syracuse public schools facing overhaul or closure, mapped

There are more than a dozen Syracuse public schools that are staring down major changes or closure in the near future, much like what three city schools are going through this year.

Once a school makes a state education department list of poor-performing schools, the school district has three years to turn the school around -- with the help of extra state funding -- or face changes.

Overall, the Syracuse City School District is listed as a "focus district" by the state because it has at least one priority school.

In 2012, the New York State Department of Education placed 20 Syracuse schools on its "priority schools" list, meaning they're well below state and federal education standards. That's out of 30 schools in the district. The other 10 are "focus schools," a level in between priority and at state standards.

Map key: Orange pins are Syracuse schools on track for closure or change; blue pins indicate the three schools currently undergoing changes; yellow pins show schools that made improvements; and a red pin means the school has been closed since making the list.

Once known as "persistently low achieving," a school makes the priority schools list for having four-year graduation rates below 60 percent at the high school level, or test scores that place an elementary or middle school in the bottom five percent of all state schools.

This year, three schools in Syracuse made that list long enough -- three years -- for the state to force the district to make dramatic changes or close to schools.

Fowler High School and Hughes Elementary will be phased into new magnet schools. The fate of Delaware Elementary is more murky, but the district is exploring converting it into an in-district charter school

Of the 17 other schools that made the list in 2012, two showed improvements in their first year - Corcoran and Henninger high schools - and Elmwood Elementary was closed.

That leaves 14 priority schools that could be shuttered or overhauled in the next few years:

  • Seymour Dual Language Academy
  • Grant Middle School
  • Westside Academy at Blodgett
  • Danforth Middle School
  • Dr. Weeks Elementary School
  • Franklin Elementary School
  • Van Duyn Elementary School
  • Dr. King Elementary School
  • Lincoln Middle School
  • Porter Elementary School
  • H.W. Smith K-8 School
  • Frazer K-8 School
  • Bellevue Elementary School
  • Nottingham High School

We've mapped Syracuse's priority schools above.