Port in the storm

The 11th-grader, a recent immigrant from Central America living in a city shelter, arrived some two hours late for the start of classes at John Adams HS in Ozone Park, Queens. He had his head down on his desk and could barely be roused when called on by his teacher.

The concerned teacher — one of about 25 in the high school’s World Cultures and Languages Academy — sent him to the offices of the academy, where its teachers, director and two bilingual school counselors labor daily to support the often delicate and specialized needs of the small learning community’s predominantly immigrant and English language learner students.

With 450 students, the World Cultures and Languages Academy is the largest of the eight small…