Hope for Humanities H.S.

On Jan. 20, 1983, The Villager reported on high hopes for High School for the Humanities, due to open in the former Charles Evans Hughes High School space, on 17th St. between Eighth and Ninth Aves. Carol Reichman, active on the issue, objected to a proposed admission test, stating, “We’ve fought long and hard for a school where all the neighborhood children — the very bright, the average, and the not so bright — can go.” Hughes had a “checkered history,” noted Ed Gold, a member of the startup school’s Advisory Commission. In 2009, after a Regents Test scandal and persistent low graduation rate, the Department of Education decided to close Humanities and replace it with smaller schools. Last July, in his final column for The Villager (“Humanities H.S.: How a dream quickly turned into a nightmare”), Gold blamed the failure on a weakened admission process that no longer required applicants to list Humanities among their top choices.