BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | The Department of Education tried to call off the hearing at the 11th hour, but that didn’t stop 300 people from turning out at P.S. 20 last Thursday night to voice their opposition to a proposed new Success Academy charter school co-location in School District 1.
Councilmember Rosie Mendez forged ahead with the hearing, which D.O.E. had canceled with less than 24 hours notice. Success Academy is deferring opening a new charter elementary school in the East Side district until 2016, but apparently still plans to move ahead with the school. Whether the plan is that the charter would be co-located with one or more existing district schools in a school building, or would be sited in another location was not immediately clear. What is known is that no location for the proposed charter has been publicly identified yet.
Joining Mendez at last Thursday’s hearing were Assemblymember Deborah Glick, as well as Lisa Donlan, president of Community Education Council District 1, and scores of parents and community members who came to share their frustration over the cancellation of the long-awaited hearing to discuss the charter school’s request to open in School District 1.
In fact, last October, the SUNY Charter School Institute board of trustees had voted to approve a charter school for School District 2. Without notification to the community or local politicians, Success Academy send a letter to the SUNY charter board requesting a change of location from School District 1 to Districts 2 or 6. Last Thursday’s hearing had been scheduled after Mendez and Councilmember Margaret Chin protested that a hearing for that change should be required, even though the bureaucrats dubbed it a “nonmaterial change.”
D.O.E. cancelled last Thursday’s hearing, saying, “In light of the fact that D.O.E. is not planning to site a school in District 1, tomorrow’s hearing has been cancelled.”
Yet, to date, Success Academy has not rescinded its request to change its application to School District 1. Plus, last week, a Success Academy spokesperson told The Villager that the new school’s opening is simply being “deferred” until next year.
“It is very frustrating that the Department of Education would cancel a meeting with less than 24 hours’ notice to the community and elected officials,” said Mendez. “D.O.E. states that Success Academy Charter School gave notice that they will not open a site in School District 1. However, Success Academy hasn’t withdrawn its application nor provided said notice in writing. The parents of School District 1 deserve an opportunity to be heard, and D.O.E. has taken that opportunity away from them.”
Glick said, “I find it incredibly concerning that this proposed public hearing on Success Academy has been cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice, especially in light of the fact that Success Academy has not made any formal commitment to remain out of District 1 in the future. Success Academy and D.O.E. need to publicly state their intentions for the record.”
Donlan said it’s time to put a hold on new charters.
“The lack of transparency, clarity and community input for this charter school proposal,” she declared, “calls into question the entire chartering process at the very moment when the state Legislature is discussing raising the charter cap in New York City and New York State. There can not be any more charters issued or co-locations considered until the chartering and siting process have been clarified and we can put the public back in public education.”
Orna Silver, a School District 1 teacher and parent, said the charter operators are wrong if they think they can pull a fast one on District 1, which encompasses the East Village and most of the Lower East Side.
“‘They’ think that the parents of District 1 won’t fight back,” Silver said. “ ‘They’ think that because many of us speak Spanish or Chinese that we are an easy target. ‘They’ think that we don’t have great schools and great choices. ‘They’ think that it will be easy to sneak in a Success Academy and we will run to send our children there. Let me tell you, ‘they’ are wrong. We have voices, we have rights and we will protect our children and our schools.”
