REMOTE CONTROLL
⬤ Success Academy charters raise ire over stringent rules ⬤ Uniforms, strict log-on times — even for 5-year-olds
Success Academy Charter network’s all-remote September-through-December schedule is so strict and demanding, some parents and teachers worry the kids won’t last that long.
The hard-charging charter, which split with the city’s public schools last week by declaring it’ll remain virtual through 2020, has a new remote learning plan that’s a tall order even adults might find challenging, the Daily News has learned.
Under the plan, kids as young as 5 have to log on by 8:50 a.m. wearing their checkered orange-and-blue uniforms, and sit still with their hands clasped for nearly seven hours of live video instruction.
They also have to ask permission to use the bathroom — and can get a virtual boot and be suspended if they act up, which would turn off their cameras and microphones for a day or more.
“I don’t think it’s righ for a 6-year-old … they have to sit there like a robot with their hands folded,” said one mom of a Success first-grader in Far Rockaway, Queens, who asked to remain anonymous because she fears retaliation from the school.
“Every day she cries and says she doesn’t want to go to school,” the frustrated mom told The News.
It’s not just a problem at Success. Schools across the city and nation offering remote learning this fall are scrambling to strike the right balance between “live” instruction and independent work, between rigid expectations and flexibility.
Success, the city’s largest charter network with 20,000 students, has carved out a distinct approach, replicating its in-person school day almost to a T, preserving its trademark mix of exacting discipline and relentless academics.
Classes run from 8:50 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day, broken up by an hour lunch period and five-minute “wiggle” breaks. Homework usually lasts another several hours, parents told The News.
If a student has trouble logging on because of technical issues, a parent or guardian must immediately notify the teacher by phone or computer to avoid a penalty.
For some families, the highly regimented virtual school day has provided much-needed stability during an otherwise chaotic time.
Nancy Genoves, a Bronx city school bus driver who’s the mother of a new Success kindergarten student, says her daughter “needed more of a structure and schedule. Now she’s in a scheduled environment. She’s enjoying it.”
For other educators and parents, however, Success’s approach feels heavy-handed and inflexible at a time when many families need the opposite.
“It’s inhumane,” said Fabiola St. Hilaire, who resigned as a first-grade teacher at the network’s Flatbush, Brooklyn, elementary school — lasting just one week under the new remote rules.
“Just seeing how difficult it was for the kids to stay focused and still as they want them to be, it was like, wow,” she said. “You see the fidgety bodies, you see the blank stares.”
Just months ago, St. Hilaire helped spark a racial reckoning at the charter network, which mostly serves Black and Hispanic students, when she publicly challenged CEO Eva Moskowitz’s response to the police killing of George Floyd. That prompted a flood of social media posts from current and former students, parents and teachers decrying entrenched
racism in the charter network.
Officials promised to redouble their efforts on anti-bias training and hiring staffers of color, but St. Hilaire said she saw few changes.
The revamped remote learning regimen was the last straw, she said.
“Working for this organization has truly showed me that as long as I stand with the inaction and blatant disregard for child morality and healthy development it in turn will make me complicit, which I will never be,” she wrote in her resignation letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The News.
Another Success teacher, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said she resigned in part over misgivings about penalizing students struggling with tech issues or being out of uniform.
“I want to work at a place that I can defend and stand behind,” the teacher told The News. “And I didn’t feel I could stand behind the policies they were asking us to carry out.”
A Success spokeswoman didn’t specify how many teachers left the network this year, but said the teacher retention rate is higher than normal.
Success’ approach to remote learning stands in sharp contrast to the city’s public schools, which required no live instruction last spring. This fall, public school students at home for remote instruction will start with between one and two hours of live online teaching, delivered in 15-30 minute bursts throughout the day, and gradually build up to between two and three hours a day.
Brooklyn dad Andrew Hunter watched his kids struggle with little live instruction in their public school last year, and transferred them to Success.
“The difference … could not be more stark,” he wrote in an email. After in-person classes, Success’s approach is “the next best thing … I’m thrilled that they’re learning to enjoy the hard work required for success,” he said.
The busy virtual school day also frees up Hunter to work without having to keep his kids occupied. “For me, the more time my kid gets to spend with their actual teacher, the math points toward a better outcome for everyone,” he said.
But for other parents whose kids have trouble adjusting to the remote schedule, virtual classes provide little relief.
Kimberly, the parent of three Harlem Success students, who asked to use her first name to protect her family’s privacy, said weekdays often feel like an extended game of whack-a-mole — rushing from one kid’s crisis to the next.
“Sometimes I’m focused on one kid, and the other kid has turned off their device and is somewhere running around. By the time I notice it’s too late,” she said. Since kids are graded each day on their participation, those momentary lapses could have lasting consequences.
A Success spokeswoman said the network is “seeking feedback” from parents, especially of younger students, and is considering “modest adjustments.”
A spokesman said late Monday that Success would make an announcement Tuesday about changes to its remote schedule, but declined to provide details.
The Far Rockaway mom whose little girl spends her mornings in tears urged the network to rethink its approach.
“I think it’s unrealistic expectations for a 6-year-old,” she said. “I don’t know how this is going to work every day until 4:30.”