Safety and School Culture

We believe that students are successful when they are in safe, supportive environments that make them feel known. To this end, safety begins with close relationships fostered in Crew and across classrooms and grows with a shared commitment to the larger community. This commitment to something larger than ourselves is the foundation on which we build emergency preparedness and our COVID responses.

Expectations across our PreK-12 evolve to be developmentally appropriate, but in common are the ideas that students are held to high expectations and families and staff work together to consistently raise those expectations and support students that fail to meet them. Our Habits of Work and Learning and Community Values are at the foundation of our expectations, along with our belief that 

We maintain consistency in our high expectations through a Cabinet structure at each level, composed of team leaders, as well as our Administrative Leadership Team (APs and Principal) and Instructional Leadership Team (ALT and Department Chairs 6-12). We solicit student and family input into policies. For example, our Upper Grades uniform, cell phone, and transition policies were all significantly revamped with students sitting at the table to provide input into the policy. We also offer family workshops on issues like adolescent mental health, social media, and more. If you have an idea or need for a workshop, please contact our Parent Coordinator: Jacquie Medina (j.medina@wheelsnyc.org).

In the event of an emergency, we follow the New York City Department of Education regulations for school safety.  We regularly practice emergency preparedness drills, including evacuation and sheltering drills.  Our Building Response Team (BRT) is trained to handle school and student-related emergency incidents and conditions. Similarly, our responses to COVID are continually informed by NYC DOE, and we continue to follow the recommended protocols and procedures to maintain the safety of our school community.