Bus, truck hit car, injuring 15 in B’klyn
HEAVENS, NO!
The Brooklyn Diocese has ordered a high-performing Queens charter school to leave the church building where it’s quartered because it is not a Catholic high school.
A lawyer for the Brooklyn Diocese, Cynthia Boyer Okrent, wrote Middle Village Preparatory Charter School reps on May 2 to tell them they must vacate the space they sublease when the current school year ends in June.
Okrent cited an agreement between the diocese and tenant Christ the King, specifying the space can only be used by a Catholic high school. Christ the King operates a high school on the grounds and leases space to Middle Village for its school.
After the matter landed in court, a judge sided late last year with the diocese.
Use “of the premises for a charter school is a breach of the agreement between CTK and the diocese limiting the use of the premises to the operation of a Catholic high school,” the letter states, citing Queens Supreme Court Judge Marguerite Grays’ order upholding the agreement.
The charter school was not a party in the lawsuit and was not at fault. But since it is a secular middle school and the diocese wants to hold Christ the King to the agreement it made, the charter must go.
Middle Village officials said their school, which was founded in 2013 and enrolls 374 students, will fold without a facility.
“If the diocese forces us out, we’re not going to find the space or the time to have the school going again,” said Middle Village Prep’s director of operations, Christian Quezada. “MVP will cease to exist.”
Charter school families were informed of the conflict in a letter sent home with students on Thursday.
Claudia Valdes, who has two daughters enrolled the sixth and eighth grades at Middle Village Prep, said she doesnot understand why the school has to go.
“Children should not be pawns in this nonsensical game. Parents are outraged,” said Valdes, a full-time mom who lives in Rego Park.
The school won recognition from the state Education Department in 2016 with a special designation as a Reward School for high test scores and for boosting the academic outcomes of needy kids.
A Christ the King spokesman said the legal fight over the charter school’s right to share space is ongoing.
The diocese understands the need to generate revenue by renting classroom space, said spokeswoman Carolyn Erstad, noting there are multiple charter schools using Catholic buildings in the diocese.
“Christ the King is the only Catholic school that operates without the consultation and consent of the diocese,” Erstad said. “The Diocese of Brooklyn was left with no other option but to initiate a lawsuit.” A CITY Department of Sanitation truck and a MTA bus smashed into a car at a Brooklyn intersection Thursday, injuring 15 people, officials said.
Two people suffered serious injuries in the 6:30 a.m. crash at Avenue D and E. 40th St. in East Flatbush, officials said. The others suffered minor injuries.
Medics took all the victims to Brookdale University Hospital for treatment, officials said.
They explained that the garbage hauler and an occupied B8 bus were traveling down opposite sides of Avenue D when they both hit a four-door sedan that tried to slip between the two vehicles, officials said.
Cops were investigating the incident. No arrests were immediately made.
The crash comes as fatal accidents across the city have dropped by 13%.
As of Wednesday, this year has seen 65 fatal accidents in the five boroughs. That’s 10 fewer than the 75 reported in the same time frame in 2016.