Hearing Tuesday for Success Charter School - Where Do You Stand?
A public hearing will be held tomorrow for the proposed Success Academy charter school, to be located at 284 Baltic Street.
The Department of Education will hold a public hearing tomorrow evening on the proposed Success Academy Cobble Hill charter school at 284 Baltic Street, and both supporters and opponents are making sure their voices are heard.
In October, it was announced that charter school network Success Academy, led by former Councilmember Eva Moskowitz, set its sights on a new Cobble Hill location for grades K through 8. Success Academy Cobble Hill planned to move into the Baltic Street building, which already houses Brooklyn School for Global Studies and the School for International Studies, but was met with resistance from parents who believe the location will be overcrowded.
According to DOE standards, the building at 284 Baltic Street is underutilized. The capacity is listed as 1,615 and there are currently 924 students enrolled there, according to the DOE. Success Academy plans to enroll 190 kindergarten and first-grade students, with 600 students across all grade levels.
Moskowitz published an op-ed in the New York Post today, stressing that Brooklyn parents need more public education choices for their children, lest they enroll their children in expensive private schools, or move to the suburbs. According to Moskowitz, the United Federation of Teacher’s alternative plan, which is a pre-K and kindergarten program, will leave parents with the same lack of options when their children reach first grade.
Addressing fears of overcrowding with co-location, Moskowitz only says there is “plenty of space in several of the district’s school buildings.”
An information session about Success Academy, held last month at the Cobble Hill library, drew heated opposition from parents and public school teachers, and was abruptly shut down.
"[Charter schools] do not accept as many English as second language students and often don't participate in free lunch programs,” said Mollie Bruhn, a public school teacher in Bushwick, who was opposed to co-location and public funding for charter schools.
Earlier this month, District 15 residents held a PTA meeting to voice concerns about the Baltic Street co-location.
“This particular proposal for the charter co-location…is not going to work out in this building without really damaging what we have here already," said building librarian Judy O’Brien at the meeting. "We don’t want any charter school in public school space in District 15.”
And the latest development was the news that Assemblywoman Joan Millman and former Deputy Schools Chancellor and President of District 15 Carmen Farina were proposing another option: a pre-K and Kindergarten program for the district.
The public hearing is scheduled for tomorrow (November 29) at 5:30 p.m., at 284 Baltic Street.
Kray
10:14 am on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
FALSE, Success schools DO give free breakfast, lunch, and snacks to ALL students.
PSmom
10:23 am on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Former Dep Chancellor John White once told the D3 CEC that the city should open pre-Ks to meet demand whenever it had the space and funds to do so. Seems like the new proposal for Baltic can help honor that. A charter co-location we don't need. That space would be forever lost to a private organization that is required to do only minimal reporting to the state.
Ariane Ben Eli
12:32 pm on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
I have mixed feelings about charter schools, but I am entirely put off by school co-location and also by the proposal to create a pre-k inside a high school. While both programs may take minimal space inside the building at 284 Baltic Street, they propose to place very young children in a school environment that is, presently, configured to meet the needs of adolescents.
Tweens and teens have different needs, goals, concerns, focus and energy, and a different way of engaging and interacting than kindergarteners and first graders. I am not speaking solely of the students who presently attend the schools located at 284 Baltic Street. This is true of children in general as they enter adolescence.
My gut instinct on charter schools is that they're a backdoor mechanism to privatize the dispensation of public education, that they result in racial, ethnic and socioeconomic segregation and that their seemingly positive outcomes are the result of being able to dismiss students who won't perform effectively on mandatory tests. And yet they constitute an ever increasing portion of the public school landscape and can't simply be shrugged off or ruled out because they are charters. I am highly skeptical of the Success Academies in particular, but families are as eager for more middle school options as they are for more early childhood options. I'm just not sure that either option belongs at 284 Baltic Street.
KWood
12:35 pm on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
PSmom, you should look at the facts on success of this particular Charter school in terms of education of its students before reprimanding about reporting requirements. To quote other sources, "The test scores
(not the most important measure but they do provide
accountability) of these sister schools are in the top 5% of the state, top 1%
in the city". A Charter School would bring a much needed additional "public" K-8 option for children in this community.
Celia Boyd
5:50 pm on Wednesday, November 30, 2011
It seems the DOE has its head up its butt. All of this no child left behind and smaller classroom to boost learning is crap. This will result in overcrowded classrooms, disruption in learning and less teacher control over. Read between the lines. It's been said over and over again the affluent in the neighborhood have been trying for years to get BSGS and International out of the building so their kids can go to a school amongst "their" peers. There is no reason their kids cannot attend the same school as the students that are there now. It is there choice. Slowly but surely they will oust these two schools. This is segregation and discrimination under the blanket of charterism. They've already stated that the charter school would meet the needs of that community. The building is run down with holes in the wall and plumbing that doesn't work and you can bet your bottom dollar that as this charter school is moved in the school will get a much needed overhaul.