Alumni Planning Benefit Concert For Sheepshead Bay High’s Last Graduating Class

As tribute to their alma matter’s final year, alumni from Sheepshead Bay’s Gospel Choir are planning a benefit concert to help pay for some the senior expenses for the last graduating class.

“Learning that the school was closing, I was shell shocked,” said alumni Chaya Kennedy-Burnett, one of the event’s organizers. “We’re not just losing the school, but what the school represented. Our time in Sheepshead Bay was one of the most pivotal times in our lives.”

Kennedy-Burnett is part of a group of former gospel choir members who reunite every year for a special dinner, despite graduating more than 20 years ago. She said they only learned Sheepshead Bay High School was closing when they met in December, and immediately began putting together a benefit concert as a send off.

Right now, the organizers are trying to raise $20,000 for the show, which will take place on May 21. Half the money will go towards buying equipment for the show, while the rest will pay for the senior prom, yearbooks, and cap & gowns.

“I can remember how expensive senior dues were,” said Nailah Dawson, another former choir member and event organizer. “There was a friend of mine who didn’t have the money for our graduation and we all chipped in to help her out.”

In 2013, the Panel for Education voted to close Sheepshead Bay High School — citing low performance and graduation rates. The school stopped accepting incoming freshman and moved two charter schools into the location.

Dawson said the choir members originally wanted their benefit concert to go towards scholarships for students who excelled academically while participating in music programs. However, when they approached school administrators, they were informed Sheepshead Bay High School had shed its music program. The best way to help students, was to pay for senior expenses, the organizers were told.

“It was really heartbreaking to learn the music program was gone because I know what kept me going was the music,” Dawson explained. “You have to have something that gets students motivated. For me that was music.”

Dawson said the gospel choir opened up many opportunities for her — including a trip to Italy her senior year in which the choir sang for the Pope. It also got her a college scholarship.

When the Department of Education chose to close it down, some argued the school had been set up to fail. A study by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform concluded the DOE had been dumping high-needs students at Sheepshead Bay High School, which undermined efforts to improve the school’s performance.

Furthermore, scrapping the music program falls in line with troubling DOE figures about arts programs at schools where the majority of students are minorities. A 2014 study by Comptroller Scott Stringer found that school districts with the least access to art education were concentrated in low-income, minority neighborhoods.

During the 2014 – 2015 academic year, only 13 percent of Sheepshead Bay High School’s students were white, according to the DOE.

Dawson said that even though they only announced the benefit concert this week, they’ve already sold almost a quarter of the 500 tickets available. The tickets go for $11.24 and can be purchased here.

They also have a GoFundMe page set up that has already raised more than $2,700 and are hosting a Zumba class fundraiser this Saturday, March 26, at 7pm  Tickets for the Zumba class can be purchased here.

Organizers are also reaching out to some of the high school’s notable alumni — Larry David’s name came up — to see if they would be willing to come down for the benefit concert in May. More details are expected to follow.

“We want to say: ‘here’s a big send off for Sheepshead Bay,'” said Alexis Russell, another concert organizer. “We want to thank the community and faculty for everything they’ve done for the school and to go out with a bang.”