State Senator Jose Peralta is urging Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott not to co-locate programs within Newtown and Flushing High Schools, arguing that the Department of Education's plans for these schools fail to recognize the strides they have made in the face of challenging circumstances, including "overcrowding and the continuous instability that the years-long threat of closure has created."

In a letter to Schools Chancellor Walcott, Peralta says that, "More than anything else, what the communities I represent and the entire borough of Queens need from the Department of Education is more schools, more classrooms and more seats for our children and youth.

"Dismantling neighborhood high schools, and co-locating within them programs that accept students from far and wide, makes the idea of families being able to send their children to a good school in their own community an increasingly nostalgic notion.

"I urge you not to co-locate programs within Newtown and Flushing High Schools."

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