Bx. Science principal out

City’s latest elite-HS blow

Another top city specialized high school is losing its leader.

Bronx Science HS Principal Jean Donahue announced her retirement in a letter to parents and staff Tuesday, weeks before the new academic year.

“I will be retiring at the end of August,” Donahue wrote. “It has been my great pleasure and privilege to be principal at Bronx Science for the last seven years and to have been an assistant principal and teacher here for many years before that.”

She added, “I will always treasure the many friendships I have made here, and Bronx Science will always have a special place in my heart.

“I will continue to work on planning for the most unusual upcoming year and will share any updates with you as we go along.”

Her departure comes about a month after Eric Contreras, the longtime principal of another top city institution, Stuyvesant HS, left for North Shore HS in Glen Head, LI.

Contreras had held the position since 2016 and served with the DOE since 1996.

“The decision is deeply personal and one that I’ve made in consideration of the needs of my family and my own reflection as a husband, father and educator,” Contreras wrote in a letter to school staffers announcing the move.

Contreras was replaced at Stuyvesant by Seung Yu, the DOE’s senior executive director of the Office of Postsecondary Readiness.

Along with Brooklyn Technical HS, Stuyvesant and Bronx Science are considered the crown jewels of the city Department of Education system.

The Big Apple’s specialized high schools have been in the throes of controversy in recent years over their single-test admissions system.

Critics have objected to the approach for gaining entry to the schools, arguing that the exam is a narrow measure of student talent and has resulted in low African-American and Latino enrollment.

Backers of the system counter that the test is an inherently objective metric and has helped cultivate some of the most prestigious public schools in the nation.

Founded in 1938, Bronx Science has produced eight Nobel Prize winners and six Pulitzer Prize recipients.