The leader of one of New York’s most elite private schools has left his post after an academic year marked by infighting among parents, students, faculty and alumni over the war in Gaza.
Joe Algrant stepped down on Thursday as the head of school at Ethical Culture Fieldston School after a two-year tenure, “to pursue other personal and professional goals and opportunities,” according to an email sent to the school community by the Fieldston board of trustees. Mr. Algrant, who said in the email that the school “has the strongest and most vital mission, purpose, and values of any school I have known,” declined to comment.
This spring, Fieldston was torn apart by pro-Palestinian student activism, including graffiti on the high school that drew widespread public attention. Parents complained that school administrators did not do enough to bring factions together or to articulate and enforce rules around activism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The friction at Fieldston was mirrored at private schools across the city. Mr. Algrant’s departure comes less that two months after the board of the Collegiate School, another elite private school in New York, announced that its head of school would depart, after an internal report found “disquieting problems of religious and cultural bias” at the school.
Fieldston was founded in the late 19th century on principles of social justice. Today, it serves a diverse student body of 1,700 on campuses on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and in Riverdale in the Bronx. A focus on personal identity is baked into the school experience. In the fourth and fifth grades, students are enrolled in a program in which they opt into groups, with choices that include “African-American, Black & African diaspora, Asian & Pacific Islander, Latino/a/x/e, Multiracial, Jewish, White or General Discussion Group,” according to an email from a school spokeswoman.
Annual tuition is more than $65,000.
Fieldston will now be run by Kyle Wilkie-Glass, the chief executive officer, with the lower, middle and upper school principals, along with other administrators, reporting to him.
Mr. Wilkie-Glass previously reported to Mr. Algrant, who had been a teacher and an assistant principal at the school for 17 years before taking the top job.
“We are confident that this is the right structure with the right people to bring ECFS into an even stronger future of academic excellence,” the letter from the board said.
Tension at Fieldston came to a head this spring when a student created a sign at school that said “From the river to the sea,” the Palestinian liberation slogan that some Jews consider a call for violence against Israelis and the elimination of the state of Israel. When she posted a photo of it on social media, classmates responded with language that the school characterized as threatening — and everyone involved was disciplined.
Days later, a student was photographed scrawling “Free Palestine” in chalk on the high school’s main building in the Bronx.
The episodes spurred a clash of angry letters from hundreds of Fieldston students, parents, faculty and alumni. One letter denounced antisemitism and expressed anguish over the post. Another insisted that the school not silence critics of Israel. Yet another, from students, characterized Fieldston’s attempts to address the war in the Middle East as inappropriately pro-Israel.
And after commencement, a Fieldston graduate posted a photograph of herself on social media. “Now that I got my diploma: from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” she wrote, using coarse language to chide former classmates who, she said, had tried to get her expelled for similar statements. Boosted by social media channels that call out antisemitism, it too went viral.
In a statement this spring, the school said it stood “against anti-Jewish hate, anti-Arab hate, and all forms of bigotry. We are committed to ensuring all students feel dignity and belonging at our school.”
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