SCHOOL OUT OF SPACE
Charter blasts city
The Department of Education is illegally denying a Downtown Brooklyn charter-school operator space in nearby district buildings — even though they’re filled with hundreds of unused seats, according to the school. The International Charter School of New York sought an additional 100 seats for next year in District 13 to accommodate the growing demand for its fledgling network. But school officials said the DOE rejected their requests for proximate accommodations, and instead offered them space in distant Flatbush. ICS stressed that city data show 10 school buildings in its vicinity with at least 300 vacancies. Half of them, ICS said, have maintained that level of disuse since 2012. “It’s befuddling,” said ICS Executive Director Matthew Levey. “You can argue about the specific numbers, but there are a lot of vacancies. We just need 100.” Levey cited state law requiring the city’s DOE to place charters within a reasonable distance of their host community. Shipping students off to Flatbush, he said, would fracture the school’s cohesiveness. “For a school that has worked very hard to get started and recruit families and build relationships — to be told to go all the way to Flatbush is really disappointing,” he said.
The DOE countered that ICS made its placement request after an application deadline and that the agency is trying to accommodate ICS for next year.
“We have been in constant communication with ICS, and while the school’s latest request for additional space was made last month, well past the March deadline for a co-location proposal, we are working to ensure students have access to a suitable learning environment this fall,” said DOE spokesman Michael Aciman.
Levey said that the DOE and Mayor de Blasio justify space-request rejections by claiming to have plans for non-charter enrollment growth at buildings with vacancies.
“If someone is saving these schools, it’s not happening in a time frame that’s acceptable to parents and students,” he said. “This is a school where parents and students are happy. This doesn’t seem progressive.”
The DOE has stressed in past co-location tussles that vacancy rates are in constant flux and that empty seats are just one of many factors it considers when weighing placement.