City-As-School (CAS) is a public high school located at 16 Clarkson Street between Hudson Street and Seventh Avenue South in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to t ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

, New York City which was established in 1972. It is one of America's oldest alternative public high schools.

History

CAS was founded by Frederick J. Koury and Rick Safran in 1972. They chose New York City for the “schoolhouse” and their proposal was approved by the

Board of Education of the City of New York The Panel for Educational Policy of the Department of Education of the City School District of the City of New York, abbreviated as the Panel for Educational Policy and also known as the New York City Board of Education, is the governing body of ...

. CAS received funding from the Board of Education and additional grants from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the dea ...

, and opened with ten seniors in 1973. To attract students, CAS advertised on WABC radio, targeting students who were considering

dropping out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...

. Their first class eventually grew to 61 students.

Administration and organization

City As School is led by Rachel Seher. Past principals are: *Fred Koury 1972–1989 *Rick Safran (

acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a bro ...

interim An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities. Interim may also refer to: Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept) *Provis ...

) 1989–1990 *Marsha Brevot 1990–1992 *Paul Forestieri (acting interim) 1992–1993 *Bob Lubetsky 1993–2006 *Michael Edwards (acting interim) 2006–2007 *Toni Scarpinato 2007–2010 *Alan Cheng 2010–2018 *Rachel Seher 2018–current

Admissions

Students are required to register for an internship each cycle; a cycle is half the time of a regular semester. Currently, CAS has over 500 open internship relationships. Graduation from CAS requires a

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

presentation before a panel of adults and peers. To apply to CAS, a student must be at least 16 years old and have a minimum of 16 high school credits; thus, new students have usually completed about two years of high school elsewhere. Additionally, a personal interview is conducted.

Academics

Although guided by an advisor, students are responsible for registering for classes and internships four times a year. CAS does not use letter grades; students receive either credit (C) or no credit (NC).

Campuses

CAS’s main campus is located at 16 Clarkson Street in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

in New York City. There are also two satellite locations: in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

at Tremont Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard, and in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

Flatbush Avenue Flatbush Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. It runs from the Manhattan Bridge south-southeastward to Jamaica Bay, where it joins the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to the ...

next to the

Manhattan Bridge The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension. The main span is long, with the suspension cables ...

. City-As-School

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

opened in 1995 and closed in 2002. The original school was in a

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

on Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn. The first class was held in September 1973.

Notable alumni

* Decora (rapper) (born 1984) – hip hop artist, producer, performance poet and social activist *

Asa Akira Asa Akira (born January 3, 1985) is an American pornographic actress and adult film director. Akira has appeared in over 505 adult films as of May 2016. In 2013, she became the third Asian performer (after Asia Carrera and Stephanie Swift) to ...

– pornographic actress * Sunny Bak (born 1958) – commercial photographer and celebrity * Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) –

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

artist, film director * Michael Dominic (born 1970) – award-winning documentary filmmaker and photojournalist *

Julia Fox Julia Fox (born February 2, 1990) is an Italian-American actress and model. As an actress, she is known for her debut performance in the 2019 film ''Uncut Gems'', for which she was nominated for the Breakthrough Actor Award at the 2019 Gotham ...

(born 1990) – actress and model * Adam Horovitz (Ad-rock) of the Beastie Boys (born 1966) – musician/

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

, son of playwright

Israel Horovitz Israel Horovitz (March 31, 1939 – November 9, 2020) was an American playwright, director, actor and co-founder of the Gloucester Stage Company in 1979. He served as artistic director until 2006 and later served on the board, ex officio an ...

* Destiny Frasqueri (Princess Nokia) (born 1992) – rapper, actress * Ephrem Lopez (DJ Enuff) (born 1969) – DJ and

radio personality A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a rad ...

* Ayodele Maakheru – musician, composer, and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues o ...

, winner of the

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

songwriter award (2004) * Franck de Las Mercedes (born 1972) – visual artist *

Zoe Leonard Zoe Leonard (born 1961) is an American artist who works primarily with photography and sculpture. She has exhibited widely since the late 1980s and her work has been included in a number of seminal exhibitions including Documenta IX and Documenta ...

(born 1961) – artist *

Mekhi Phifer Mekhi Phifer (; born December 29, 1974) is an American actor. He portrayed Dr. Greg Pratt on NBC's long-running medical drama '' ER'' until 2008 and had a co-starring role opposite actor/rapper Eminem in the 2002 feature film '' 8 Mile''. He was ...

(born 1974) – film actor * Victor Rasuk: (born 1984) – actor; winner,

Independent Spirit Award The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass ...

(2002) * Ryder Ripps (born 1986) – conceptual artist * Seth Zvi Rosenfeld (born 1961) – playwright and screenwriter * Dante Terrell Smith (Mos Def) (born 1973) – musician and actor *

Patty Smyth Patricia Smyth (born June 26, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She first came into national attention with the rock band Scandal and went on to record and perform as a solo artist. Her distinctive voice and new wave image gained br ...

(born 1957) –

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and ...

ian; married to

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

star

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...

Vincent Spano Vincent M. Spano Jr. (born October 18, 1962) is an American film, stage and television actor; he is also a film director and producer. Early life Spano was born in Brooklyn, New York to Italian-American parents Vincent Sr. and Theresa. Career ...

(born 1962) – television and film actor * Mia Tyler (born 1978) –

Plus-size model A plus-size model is an individual size 12 and above who is engaged primarily in Model (person), modeling plus-size clothing. Plus-size clothing worn by plus-size models is typically catering for and marketed to either Big & Tall or Tall or Overw ...

, daughter of Aerosmith lead singer

Steven Tyler Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, piano, and percussion. ...

and actress

Cyrinda Foxe Cyrinda Foxe (born Kathleen Victoria Hetzekian; February 22, 1952 – September 7, 2002) was an American actress, model and publicist, best known for her role in ''Andy Warhol's Bad'' (1977). She was married to both David Johansen of the proto- ...

Charles Malik Whitfield Charles Malik Whitfield (born August 1, 1972) is an American actor. He is best known for his performance as Otis Williams in the television miniseries, ''The Temptations'' (1998), for which he was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstand ...

(born 1970) – film and television actor * Bob Woodruff (singer) (born 1961) – singer, songwriter, musician *

Malik Yoba Abdul-Malik Kashie Yoba (born September 17, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for his starring role as NYPD Detective J. C. Williams on the Fox police drama ''New York Undercover'' and as Yul Brenner in the film ''Cool Runnings''. ...

(born 1967) – film and television actor

References

External links

{{authority control Public high schools in Manhattan Internship programs