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New York Times - January 9, 2008
New Principal for New York English-Arabic School
By Elissa Gootman
On Tuesday, the New York City Education Department named an educator who has a “working knowledge” of Arabic as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the embattled Brooklyn school whose founding principal resigned under pressure after being quoted as defending the word “intifada” as a T-shirt slogan.
The new principal, Holly Anne Reichert, 42, has worked in the city public schools for more than nine years, first as an English as a Second Language teacher and, later, as a teacher mentor.
She has also spent much time in the Arab world, including stints as a Peace Corps volunteer in Yemen, as a teaching fellow at the American University in Cairo, and as head of the English department at an English-Arabic dual language school in Bahrain.
She has a bachelor’s degree in Arabic Language and Social Anthropology from the University of London, and master’s degrees from the American University in Cairo, Teachers College at Columbia University and Baruch College.
The Khalil Gibran school, which opened in September with about 60 sixth graders, is the city’s first school based on the theme of Arabic language and culture. It will eventually grow into a 6th-through-12th-grade, dual-language school, in which many classes will be taught in Arabic.
The school has generated controversy since it was announced February (2007), with some critics calling it a “madrassa” that did not belong in a public school system.
The founding principal, Debbie Almontaser, was forced out in August after she defended the T-shirt slogan.
When she was asked by The New York Post about the phrase “Intifada NYC,” which had been printed on T-shirts sold by a Brooklyn organization, she said, “The word basically means ‘shaking off.’” Of the T-shirts, she said, “I think it’s pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society” and “shaking off oppression.”
Since August, the school has had an interim acting principal, Danielle Salzberg…..
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/nyregion/09school.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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