Meringoff Family Foundation

Melissa Silberman, the principal of Broome Street, started thinking about how to protect her students and their families weeks before schools were shuttered.

“We have young people who have a high degree of trauma; even the very act of shutting abruptly is traumatic for them since they see Broome Street as a home,” she said. Many of Broome Street’s students came from some of the worst-performing middle schools in the city.